SAR #10300

Self-interest, like self-evaluation, breeds self-deception.

Accounting:  600 NATO troops, mostly American, have now died in the Afghan war, at the same time that Karzai admits regularly receiving 'bags of money' from Iran.  Wonder what the ratio is...

The Objective:  What does Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell say the most important GOP goal is ?   a) reducing unemployment,  b) resolving the foreclosure crisis and finding ways to keep Americans in their homes,  c) lowering the deficit,  d) obstructing governance to insure that Obama does not get re-elected.  Right,  “d” it is.

Y'all Come:  In Iowa they all go to church on Wednesday night for choir practice, kids groups, couples workshops, and family dinners.  Well, they will, once the GOP get in power and outlaw all non-church activities on Wednesday evenings.

Steel Yourselves:  Worldwide steel demand is weak, especially in China. Can't build bricks without straw.

Define "Spending":  A lot of folks are convinced that no country has ever spent its way out of a depression.  When it is pointed out that the US deficit spending on WWII ended the Great Depression, these folks claim that going into debt to destroy stuff and kill people works but that building infrastructure and improving people's lives through deficit spending would not.  Don't know, might be nice to try it and see.

Just Sayin':  10,000 tons of garbage piled up in Marseille during a week-long strike.  How are we going to get rid of the garbage once petrol is too expensive?

Educated Guess:  The Pell Grant program, which provides higher-education grants to lower and middle-income students, faces a $5.7 billion shortfall which will result in the 9 million recipients receiving 15% less next year.   Republicans already were planning to cut $9 billion from the program.  Wouldn't want the unemployed to be overqualified.

Make an Offer:  The S&P/Case-Shiller1 Home Price Index reflects a slowing in the rate at which house prices are increasing, now at 2.6% annually, down from the annualized 4.3% reported 3 months ago (all non-seasonally adjusted).

Count Your Fingers:  There are at least 5 US agencies working to regulate privacy so as to remove any trace of it from the American landscape.  Meanwhile the Pentagon (well, Fort Meade's NSA, actually) is going to protect your computer from attacks by Chinese hackers by monitoring what you do and reporting it to Homeland Security.

Economic Difficulties:  Macro-economists regularly fail at the impossible – predicting the future behavior of a bunch of humans. Extrapolating from the past is fair but doomed, for things keep on keeping on until they don't.  But the future is not causally determined only by what happened, but also by what we think might happen.  What we do because of what we think changes everything, including both what happens and what we think will happen next

A DIY Guide to Mortgage Based Fraud:  Everything you need to know so you, too, can sell the same mortgage multiple times without anyone catching on until it all comes tumbling down.  (Hint, a supply of the gullible is required.)

Tick, Tick, Tick:  For nearly 18 months, more than 30 states have been borrowing money from Washington in order to pay extended unemployment benefits.  By law they must start paying that money back. But they have fewer payroll taxes coming in and ever more unemployed, and there is no way to cut the cloth to fit.  The GOP is not about to let this slide, much less lend them even more.  Happy days.

Subversives:  The worlds top-ranked prosperous nations are: Norway, Denmark, and Finland.  Damned socialists must have cheated – we're in tenth place.