NYTIMES: GLOBAL ECONOMY LOOKS BAD, AND IT'S GETTING WORSE - AND STOCK MARKETS ARE OVERPRICED

NYTIMES: ... the week’s zigs and zags were a reminder that, after several years of strong gains, the prices for stocks and a wide range of other assets, like junk bonds and commercial real estate, are at the high end of their historical levels, relative to fundamentals. Those valuations will prove justified only as long as the global economy continues to improve steadily. And the week was filled with suggestions that such may not be the case, especially outside the United States. 

The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index showed a loss of 3.1 percent for the week, though it is still up for the year. Oil prices closed at a four-year low. 

Evidence that the global economy may be unexpectedly stalling has jarred prominent economists and policy makers gathered in Washington for the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. At a conference on Thursday, Lawrence H. Summers, the former United States Treasury secretary who now teaches at Harvard, highlighted this concern. 

“The defining challenge of our time, economically, is secular stagnation,” he said. “It is the risk of inadequate growth, leading to inadequate potential, leading to inadequate growth.” ... 

... thanks to the efforts of the global central banks, prices for stocks and other financial assets have been on an upward tear for more than five years, with the S.&P. 500 index up 182 percent since March 2009. But valuations of many assets are now relatively high, even as the global economy remains somewhat shaky.

Further economic weakening could prompt more slides in the stock and bond markets, which in turn could undermine economic confidence at a fragile time. And investors may be all the more jittery after riding the markets to giddy heights. Some financial experts have long argued that aggressive monetary stimulus has done a lot to drive securities markets higher but that its has not induced robust growth in the real economy.

A pressing question is whether the American stock market and its economy can remain insulated if other parts of the world stall badly. 

WE WILL NOT GROW BY TAXING AND REGULATING MORE.

WE WILL GROW IF WE TAX AND REGULATE LESS.

IF WE CUT ENERGY TAXES AND REGULATIONS AND ELIMINATE CO2 TAXES, THEN WE WILL START GROWING - IMMEDIATELY.

THE ONLY THINGS PREVENTING THIS IS LEFTIST IDEOLOGY.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.