It’s been a rough week and a half since President Barack Obama reclaimed the White House:

The Dow lost more than 500 points;

The nation’s CIA chief was sacked for sacking down with his biographer;

Widespread talk of state secession is in the news for the first time in 150 years (while a new Lincoln movie opens in theaters);

And on top of all that, we may have lost Twinkies, those quintessentially American heart-cloggers, with the liquidation of Hostess Brands over a union dispute.

The one high point in the stock market this week was the meteoric rise of a company called Medbox. Its value shot up 3,000 percent between Monday and Thursday, from $4 to $250 per share, before settling at around $100 on Friday.

What does this great new American company make?

Marijuana dispensing machines.

Those Hostess executives must be kicking themselves.

http://yesand.co.uk/author/john-brooker/page/2/ The rest of this column is available at Newsday and Newsday Westchester.  Thanks for reading!