Far from Wall Street, in a suburb of Green Bay, investment adviser Max Frost gave some bold advice on this day a year ago.

In a column for his local newspaper, Frost took note of September’s cursed history. Given the unwillingness of banks to lend money, he warned at the time, “Houses won’t be built, businesses won’t expand, consumer goods will not be purchased.”

His conclusion: Sell. “If you’re not shorting this market, at least put some of it in cash. You can always buy it back.”

Today, Frost remains pessimistic, especially after stock prices kept climbing over the past few months.

“This market has gone up like a bad moonshot, without enough money to get to the moon,” he said in an interview last week. “Everything’s gotten too highly valued.”

It is, after all, almost September, Frost observed: Look out below.

Crocs footwear: The decline in stock price from $72 per share in late 2007 to $2 today, ongoing financing issues, consumer belt-tightening and the end of a fad, leads to to 24/7 Wall Street’s declaration that Crocs won’t make it through the year.

Read these, and go call your congresspeople.

open letter from Etsy.com

Endangered Whimsy
Gallery of soon-to-be illegal toys from Etsy crafters

Fashion Incubator

http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/:

• A toymaker, for example, who makes wooden cars in his garage in Maine to supplement his income cannot afford the $4,000 fee per toy that testing labs are charging to assure compliance with the CPSIA.
• A work-at-home mom in Minnesota who makes dolls to sell at craft fairs must choose either to violate the law or cease operations.
• A small toy retailer in Vermont who imports wooden toys from Europe, which has long had stringent toy safety standards, must now pay for testing on every toy they import.

Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.

…and apparently I’m not the only one smelling a classic rat fink bait-and-switch.

Then again—with such a thin résumé… I’d call it more than commensurate with experience. Lucky for her the Deocrats finally got the minimum wage raised a little bit.

The editorial cartoon artwork pokes fun not at the Obamas but the people *cough Fox news* who painted this false picture. And to all the hand-wringing pundits who worry aloud saying, “well, I got it, but will Middle America get it? How will this play in the midwest?” Hey, pal, the average IQ doesn’t drop 50 points once you cross the New York or D.C. city limits; on the contrary, most data swings it the other way.*

* disclaimer re: IQ testing controversial, data inconclusive, blah blah blah.