One of the first headlines I saw this morning –

Private Prison Stocks Are Surging After Trump’s Win

Oh, of course they are. Obviously our massive prison population should be an opportunity for somebody to make a yuuuge amount of money by giving prisoners bad food and worse medical care. What could possibly go wrong?

Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential elections helped shares of Corrections Corp. rise as much as 60 percent before paring their surge to 34 percent by 10:14 a.m. in New York, while GEO Group Inc. was trading 18 percent higher by the same time.

Those moves mean the stocks have recouped some of the losses they’ve registered since August, when the Department of Justice said it would start phasing out privately run jails. Analysts say President Trump would be likely to reverse that policy, and see an added windfall to the companies stemming from the difficulty of implementing his deportation agenda.

Isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t the US a glorious country? We throw millions of people, most of them black and brown, into prison for drug offences, and thus provide an opportunity for corporations to gouge profits out of their misery and maltreatment.

“Private prisons would likely be a clear winner under Trump, as his administration will likely rescind the DOJ’s contract phase-out and ICE capacity to house detainees will come under further stress.” analysts at Height Securities LLC wrote in a note published this morning, referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement body by its acronym. Mass deportation of illegal immigrants would be likely to run into legal obstacles, “further necessitating a sizable contract detention population,” the analysts said.

Maybe by this time next year a third of the population will be in prison, clocking up the dollar bills for the stockholders.