19 CENT CHEESEBURGERS, Ted Cruz and a Dow Mystery

We have a bad monetary system. A shaky one at the very least, but, probably just plain bad.

McDonald's menu, circa 1965

It would take a tome longer than Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations to explain why. However, in today's world, we have technology, which is, by most accounts, an improvement to the general welfare and happiness of the people of the world, or so we think.

This technology allows us to share images such as the one shown in this simple blog posting.

The point, or points, as there are many diverse levels to this discussion, is that our monetary system is based upon, in no particular order, debt currency, inflation and death.

Ponder, if you will, the fact that the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell roughly 50 points in the final minutes of trading today, and the price of a cheeseburger, roughly 50 years ago, was 19 cents. The question is why did the Dow fall so precipitously at the close and what does that have to do with the price of cheeseburgers?

Yes, 19 cents. Your editor ate many of them, as there was a McDonald's and competing burger joints near his high school.

19 cents, people. Grow up.

Dow 18,116.04, -11.61 (-0.06%)
S&P 500 2,104.42, -3.68 (-0.17%)
NASDAQ 5,010.97, -15.44 (-0.31%)

Sub-note: Consider this: today Ted Cruz, a first term senator from Texas, announced his candidacy for president, officially kicking off the campaign season for the 2016 presidential election. This election is, as of today, 19 months away. In't it time we put limits on when politicians can campaign? Isn't 19 months prior to an election just a tad too early to start thinking about who will be the next president? Mind you, a presidential term lasts four years. Must we spend half of one president's term deciding who should be his or her replacement?

Today, sadly, we have more questions than answers. If we had the answers, assumably, we would probably not be spending time asking questions on a blog.