U.S. is 244 years old and over one-third of the national debt has been created in just the past three years

said David Rosenberg in one of his Breakfast with Dave musings: “The Fed has allowed its balance sheet to explode even further to obscene levels of $2.43 trillion or triple what it was before the financial crisis took hold. In the past three years, the Fed’s balance sheet has expanded by $1.5 trillion and nominal GDP has only managed to rise over $500 billion. Fascinating. And we had the U.S. public debt explode by $5 trillion over that same time frame — the country is 244 years old and over one-third of the national debt has been created in just the past three years. Incredible. The U.S. government now spends $1.60 in goods and services for every dollar it is taking in with respect to revenues which is unheard of — this ratio never got much above $1.20, not even during the previous severe economic setbacks in the early 1980s and early 1990s.”

This is one of those record numbers that probably wont make it to the Guinness Book, but certainly worth posting.

Statin Use Tied to Eye, Kidney, Liver Troubles

A prospective study by Julia Hippisley-Cox, MD, and Carol Coupland, MD, of the University of Nottingham in England reported online in BMJ.was unable to confirm the benefit of statins in any but cardiovascular conditions, except perhaps in the case of esophageal cancer.
However, statins did increase the risk of renal failure, liver dysfunction, myopathy, and cataracts.

While the drugs have long been linked with a raised risk for muscle problems, the new study involving over 2 million patients found other “potential adverse effects of statins, namely myopathy [muscle problems], acute renal [kidney] failure, liver dysfunction and cataract, and shown that two of these have a dose-response effect,” said lead researcher Dr. Julia Hippisley-Cox, professor of clinical epidemiology and general practice at the University of Nottingham.

Please see also link : Niacin more effective