Wednesday, April 28, 2010

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.

8 comments:

Dink said...

Good stuff!

BTW, I'm an American who has been a good at saving. But if I can never withdraw it or its value deflates to be worth diddly-squat I'm going to feel like a complete sucker.

Anonymous said...

Morning Line:...

I wish some Humble Blogger would explain why a Country that defaults would not default COMPLETELY, that is pay nothing (as is done in personal Jingle Mail) rather than pay PART of what it owes. I believe it is possible that we may be approaching NATIONAL JINGLE MAIL, that is where there are so many countries that are victims of this vicious, corrupt sytem that one of them may decide to pay NOTHING. Such a country would be able to live off its tax and other revenues if it defaulted completely. Go Iceland or Ireland or Greece or Spain or Argentina, etc. break the neocon economic slavery mode., stick it to the IMF/WTO Rackets.

K Ackermann said...

The American Prospect had this observation: "Ben Bernanke, Who Missed an $8 Trillion Housing Bubble, Warns About the Deficit"

Anonymous said...

Another View: ...

Could that be the same WHO that is implicated in H1N1 Flu Pandemic Fraud?:

"So we can see that the WHO undertook an incomprehensible action, which up to now was never justified by any scientific evidence. WHO ‘gambled away’ public confidence. It does therefore seem right that we investigate this matter within the Council of Europe to find out how the WHO could undertake such risky action in spite of lots of warning and protesting voices from scientists and national Governments. It did so in the case of the avian flu and again for the swine flu. The main questions to investigate are: Why has this been done, who is behind this, what is the core of this public-private-partnership which was introduced ten years ago, what is the role of the enterprises, who participates in relevant decision-making processes and who takes the overall responsibility?""

http://www.wodarg.de/english/3069477.html

Like Markopoulos, the SEC and Madoff, Americans don't listen. The French, Polish and other Europeans did not fall for the WHO Fraud.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Thanks, Dink. It's nice to be appreciated.

Anony 2.12 Asks a fine question. Although the circumstances are not quite the same, I can see the people of Iceland refusing to pay the commercial debts of some banks. I can also see (in tomorrow's SAR) those who hold Greek debt taking a good sized haircut. But I've never understood why a new governing structure has to pay the old governing structure's debts (post-invasion Iraq for example is strapped with Saddam's debts...)

HT to KA for the ref.

Lastly, Anony 2.29 - I was in Mexico a year ago and got the H1N1 and if taking the shot would have prevented it, I'd vote for the shot. In fact I did, last fall when it became available. It may or may not have been the pandemic they expected and it may or may not have been deadly enough to amuse onlookers, but I can assure you it was no damned fun for about three weeks.

ckm

Anonymous said...

"over 1,000 people camped out overnight in NYC in order to apply for a single job."

The sad thing is that the job was probably already delegated to some friend or associate of the management.

Many posted jobs are put into the public view purely to appear to be fair and balanced for racial quotas(particularly when the job involves taking public money).

This is almost always the case when it comes to University Jobs. I can testify that 95% of all the posted jobs at the big ten university I work at go to friends, relatives, or students of insiders (which often includes foreigners).

sigh...

kwark said...

Thanks for the excellent faire CK!

Re: Daily Petard: Careful CK, I've been labeled anti-Semitic for far more veiled references to our destructive relationship with Israel! And. . .

RE: It's All Greek to US: Ever see any mention of cutting the $multi-billions we shell-out to maintain the 700+ military bases around the world? I thought not. Talk about entitlement programs.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

kwark - Maybe we'll get adjoining cells.

- ckm