When it comes to economic issues, I think the real indicators are trends like the the uptick in gray market goods:

Amish-run salvage stores, a thriving discount industry tucked away in America's farmlands, sell expired food and medicine dirt-cheap. This shadow economy, run by people who typically shun modern methods of commerce, is drawing a steady stream of non-Amish customers seeking relief from the country's financial ills.

. I found this article especially interesting because it told me something that I did not know. Except for baby formula, the Food and Drug Administration doesn't prohibit sale of expired foods or medicines.. How about them apples? Not selling food past the expiration date is a self-imposed behavior by retailers in the US.

Elsewhere in Ohio news, a A young turk is taking on house minority leader Boehner. Thus far this soon-to-be graduate of a local college has raised 13k to Boehner's two and half million. There's some interesting commentary in there about how the Democratic party generally doesn't support those without good odds. Stein is having large donors in Boehner's district cherry-picked by people running in other districts with better odds.

George Soros makes a bit of sense that tends to get overlooked by Randroids, Libertarians and Will Wilkinson. Speaking of deregulation Soros said: 

The idea was that regulators always make mistakes, state interference in the markets just messes things up. And that was a false idea .... Regulators are human and bound to make mistakes, but markets are also human and they are also bound to make mistakes.

NPR also had a funny piece on the political put down.

I can't find a link, but I also heard a bit of a speech Clinton gave to some audience predominantly filled with woman in which she thanked them for being the backbone of her campaign responsible for wins in virtually every primary contest. It's been a while since I heard such an openly sexist appeal in US politics. She isn't even trying to code it like she does her race baiting.

Late on Friday, I found out that one of my closest friends had been admitted to a hospital earlier in the week on death's door. The last report I've suggests that he's beginning to recover but they've found a very serious problem, an unidentified mass on his heart. If it's an infection, the same course of strong anti-biotics that seems to have helped thus far should eventually take care of the problem. On the other hand it could also be a tumor. Or even worse, he could be carrying around a parasitic alien embryo.

Saturday was the usual day of housework, yardwork and studying. Saturday night a few people came over after Vespers and we shared of my favorite oh, so wrong recipes Beef Stroganoff Coca-Cola. After arguing far too late into the night over how early `persons' was used as the plural for `person' rather than `people', I ended up getting some sleep.

On Sunday, plans to get a posse together to make the two hour drive to visit my friend in the hospital fizzled. I couldn't get hold of him by telephone and, not knowing whether or not he was really up for visitors, didn't want to make the trip down. Perhaps, if visiting hours extend late enough, we can make the trip after dinner this week.

Sunday morning was exceedingly fun. My youngest daughter and I walked to Church in the rain. Both of us were soaked from the waist down by the time we covered the half mile from home to Church. It was warm enough out to not be uncomfortable and we sloshed around in the puddles, mostly by accident, a bit.

Also last week, I got good news and bad news on the grad school front. I'm out of the running for a stipend at the one school I was accepted by. But I'm `positioned well' to receive tuition remission. I'm not exactly holding my breath, but after considering all my options and talking with my wife, I think tuition expenses being covered alone will be sufficient. I'm also still on the waiting list for one other school that doesn't accept candidates at all unless they can provide full funding but I'm not very optimistic about hearing further on that.

I clocked in on the scale at 185, same as last weekend and the weekend before that. On Good Friday, I was down to 179. By Bright Monday I was back up to 185.