SAR #10118

Why do we follow such people?

Morning Line:   Some folks are going to be surprised when Greece defaults.  Most won't be.  Some advice from the 1950's, “Duck and cover.”

Daily Petard:  “Iran doesn't directly threaten the United States,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.  Then she added, “but it directly threatens a lot of our friends,” by which she meant Israel and that cleared things right up.

Stopped Clock:  The Party of No assures us that it will do all it can to block financial reform in the name of financial reform.

Scratch & Sniff:  In Arizona the police can stop anyone they want and demand to see their papers.  Never mind that US citizens are not required to carry identification, we're talking spicks and Mescans and towelheads and y'know, undesirables.  Republicans in Ohio think this is a good idea.

Rocket Science:  A Cornell study documents the obvious:  Good looking defendants are found innocent.  Attractive plaintiffs get larger settlements.

Teeter-Totter:  The headline was that the Case-Shiller report showed a y/y increase in house prices.  The 10-city index was up 1.4% and the 20 city index was up 0.6%.   But: 11 of the 20 cities showed declines, 6 cities were at four-year lows.    Nationally, February house prices were up 0.3% y/y and down 2% m/m, which was larger than the 1.6% decline from Dec to Jan.

Boilerplate:  The accused conspired with rating agencies, mortgage originators and hedge funds in a concerted effort to defraud investors.  Feel free to substitute actual names for the italicized items when preparing your indictment and/or lawsuit.

Apples?  Over 1,000 people camped out overnight in NYC in order to apply for a single job.  Elsewhere in lower Manhattan the recession is over and bonuses are back.

It's All Greek to US:  Sounding like the IMF lecturing Greece, Bernanke warns that “the American people will have to choose among making modifications to entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security, restraining federal spending on everything else, accepting higher taxes,” or all of the above.  Get out your magic decoder ring and translate “modifications” and “restraining”.

Better Mouse: In response to the US Missile Shield, Russia has developed a cruise missile that fits in a standard shipping container and can be put on a truck, a train and a ship .  Better defenses make better offenses – it's nature's way.  Be the first in your hemisphere to own one.

Paint By Numbers:  During the Current Whatever, those making over $150,000 have an unemployment rate of 3.2%, those in the $100,000 range are at about 4%, while over 30% of those who make less than $20,000 when they can find work cannot find work.  Gives new meaning to the term “The Great Divide.”

Twilight Zone:   The unknown is not as far away as you think.

Vision Test:  America does not have a real economy.  America has a phony stimulus-driven "free money" economy.  Public debt has replaced private debt in a futile attempt to keep credit-based consumption going long enough to start another bubble.  The real problem is that the consumer needs to save. But Americans cant save, they're living paycheck-to-unemployment check.  If you trace this back to the globalized dispatch of jobs abroad in exchange for Walmart's low prices, you're with me.

Another View:  A new book from the New York Academy of Sciences, based on over 5,000 published articles – most not available in English - claims that nearly a million people around the world have died as a result of the Chernobyl disaster.  This contradicts the WHO story, beloved of the nuclear crowd, that only those directly involved in the disaster were seriously impacted.  Don't tell Lovelock.