SAR #10218

Implausible does not mean impossible.

Herd Instinct:  The big news, everywhere it seemed, was that the government was going to forgive $789 billion in underwater mortgages and refinance all underwater mortgages and...  Ah, might as well have been April 1.  None of it is true, so the feds say.  Just a bunch of trial balloons?

Ounce of Prevention:  Initial unemployment claims climbed 19,000 to 479,000 last week (a 3 month high) and the 4-week moving average rose 5,250 to 458,500.  Of the 15+ million unemployed, 4,537,000 were counted by the government.  All the rest is spin.

Mission Impossible: Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes warns that an effort to increase bike riding in Denver will convert the city into a United nations community.  For the usual prize, please explain what this could possibly mean.

Breakfast of Champions:  Russia, the worlds #3 wheat producer, has banned grain exports because of the extended drought.  This will keep prices down in Russia while forcing them much higher elsewhere – so far up 80% in a month.  Other grains, barley, rye, and corn will follow.

Majority Vote:  After a couple of years of zero interest rates, $3 trillion in Wall Street bailouts plus a billion or so in deficit spending stimulus efforts, the American public is convinced the worst is yet to come.  They will act on this belief.  When consumers in a debt-based consumer economy do not consume more and more and go ever more in debt to do so, bad things happen.

Silver Lining:  Government actuaries say that one unintended consequence of the health-care reform act is extending Medicare's fiscal viability to 2029, not the doomish 2020 or before that its opponents (read Republicans) had predicted.

Can We Sue?  Studies show that cancer cells prefer high fructose corn syrup, which is nearly ubiquitous in the US diet.  And we worried about getting fat.

For Example:  One of the hallmarks of a deflationary economy is that workers pay is cut - through involuntary days off or straightforward pay cuts.  These are last ditch efforts to raise corporate profits just before things crash.  You didn't by the guff about trying to save jobs, did you?

Dumb and Dumber:  The question was “Can the US manufacture employment through exports?” And the answer is “No, the US doesn't manufacture anything anymore.”

Ouch:   The US intends to slap sanctions on Iran in response to everything it's doing that we don't like.  But no rush, they're not due until October.  And they won't include oil exports, which are Iran's most lucrative exports.

Another Brick In The Wall:  To go along with the two huge trash patches in the Pacific and the one known in the Atlantic, the Indian Ocean has come up with its own floating trash patch.  We don't have oceans anymore, just giant bowls of plastic soup.

More GOP Posturing:  The Democrats attempt to help the states with funding problems – things like $10 billion to save school teachers' jobs and $16.1 billion in state Medicaid funding – is running into the usual inscrutable Republican spoil-sportism.

They Claim  “The American people don't want more Washington 'stimulus' spending -- especially in the form of a pay-off to union bosses and liberal special interests...” Last time I checked, teachers were the keystone of the GOP's No Child Left Behind wet dream. How can these folks be “special interests” when GOP donors from Wall Street, Big Pharma, the Energy Industry and the perpetrators of health insurance scams are not?

Fill in the Blank:  Tightening offshore drilling regulations (to include safeguards to prevent another disaster like BP's Deepwater Horizon) is opposed by the __________ .

Porn O'Graph:  Going, Going, Gone, Goner, Gonest.