Interesting times

Even as the S&P 500 touches new highs, the Commerce Department has just reported that the economy shrank 1% in the first quarter.

How can stock market prices grow so much faster than the economy?  In the long run, they can't.

Bad winter weather has been identified as the culprit behind the contraction, the first in three years. Unusual cold through most of the country was attributed to global warming.  Inventory adjustments were also fingered as a contributing factor.

Another quarter like the first, and we're back in a recession—which many Americans believe we never left.