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Have you ever heard those words before? No, me either

One of my "must read" newsletters is written by John Mauldin and it's called – appropriately – John Mauldin's Weekly E-Letter. I get it each week in my inbox; I suggest you do the same.

I will caution you, however, that it may scare the pants off of you! Lately (the last few years), his commentary has been rather harsh. But, hey, look at the economy!

All that said, I encourage you to read this week's letter. One astonishing number came out this week: GDP growth of 5.7 percent! Yay, roll out the marching band and dancing monkeys, the recession is over!

But wait.

The Statistical Recovery Has Arrived

Before we get into the main discussion point, let me briefly comment on today's GDP numbers, which came in at an amazingly strong 5.7% growth rate. While that is stronger than I thought it would be (I said 4-5%), there are reasons to be cautious before we sound the "all clear" bell.

First, over 60% (3.7%) of the growth came from inventory rebuilding, as opposed to just 0.7% in the third quarter. If you examine the numbers, you find that inventories had dropped below sales, so a buildup was needed. Increasing inventories add to GDP, while, counterintuitively, sales from inventory decrease GDP. Businesses are just adjusting to the New Normal level of sales. I expect further inventory build-up in the next two quarters, although not at this level, and then we level off the latter half of the year.

Did you catch that? If not for the build up of inventory, our economy grew by only 2 percent. And we know these things ALWAYS revise DOWN.

Read the rest of the letter here. I think you'll learn a lot; I always do.

Wall Street’s Stranglehold on the Economy Is Choking Americans

America’s Founding Fathers were afraid of any concentration of power in the republic. They were particularly afraid that banking interests could hijack our fledgling democracy.

And yet today, 234 years later, our Founding Fathers’ worst fears have come true. Wall Street’s stranglehold on the economy threatens our very prosperity, and the future of a truly democratic republic.

It’s high time we address the truth about Wall Street’s tyranny and set a course for a more secure economic future – one that’s anchored by a safe banking system, not a system rigged by banks.

This is a good article that delves into the banking and financial system crisis a little deeper than most I’ve seen. It’s a bitingly sarcastic look at what has happened over the past decade (or so).

This one hits close to home. I was a WaMu employee for a total of 5 years, finally losing my job as fallout from the WaMu "bank failure" that occurred in late 2008.

This video points out that, quite possibly, WaMu could have survived on its own and implies that perhaps the FDIC wanted JPMorgan Chase to take over WaMu.

I've had similar suspicions myself, thinking that there was some sort of grudge between Sheila C. Bair of the FDIC and somebody at WaMu. Was it Killinger? Rotella? Who? Anybody?

Who knows? When will the tell-all book come out? After all, this was the biggest bank failure in US history. Somebody smart should have something to say about it.

Is this stupid or what? It's like we have to pay more because we can afford more. Kinda like California pays more for gas just because we can. After all, a lot of the gas is refined here and shipped elsewhere, where the gas costs less!

Same with drugs.

Here's a picture that depicts the ridiculousness of our healthcare system –

The price of pills: Drug money | The Economist