5 Things To Ponder: “Spooky” Things

I love this time of year, in particular it is the festivities surrounding one of the biggest commercial shopping days of the year – Halloween. According to Wikipedia:
“Halloween, or Hallowe’en, is a contraction of “All Hallows’ Evening”, also known as Allhalloween, All Hallows’ Eve, or All Saints’ Eve, and is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows’ Day.
Halloween initiates the triduum of Allhallowtide, the time in the liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed believers. Within Allhallowtide, the traditional focus of All Hallows’ Eve revolves around the theme of using “humor and ridicule to confront the power of death.”
According to many scholars, All Hallows’ Eve is a Christianized feast initially influenced by Celtic harvest festivals, with possible pagan roots, particularly the Gaelic Samhain. Other scholars maintain that it originated independently of Samhain and has solely Christian roots.”
However, most importantly, it is a great time to spend with family and friends, dress up in costumes and over indulge in the many “treats” that come along with the celebration.
I thoughts this weekend’s reading list should maintain the focus of “scary” ponderances now that the Federal Reserve has ended their latest monetary iterations. So with that said, grab a Reese’s or two from your kids treat bucket and enjoy this weekends “5 Things To Ponder.”
1) Zombie Land, USA by Elizabeth MacDonald via Fox Business
“Historic bailouts have increased the number of corporate zombies living off of easy money, hindering restructurings and holding back the expansion of healthier companies, restructuring experts here and in the U. K. warn.
“Capital is not being recycled and reinvested, impeding the ‘creative destruction’ process Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter says is vital for any healthy economy. Executives at big accounting firms like Ernst & Young have also warned zombie companies are grabbing market share from healthy companies.”
2) The Fed’s Lack Of Conviction Is Warranted by Mohamed El-Erian via Bloomberg
“Fed officials welcomed the continued improvement in the economy, particularly signs that the underutilization of labor resources is gradually ‘diminishing,’ though only ‘gradually’ despite ‘solid gains and a lower unemployment rate.’ On the second element of its dual mandate — stable inflation — the central bankers acknowledged the fall in market measures of forward inflation but played down the risk of damaging deflation by also pointing to other metrics of inflationary expectations.
This apparent lack of conviction, while frustrating to many, is understandable and warranted.

This post was published at StreetTalkLive on 31 October 2014.