SAR #10303

Our Motto: nobody cares.

Grossly Distorted by Politics:  The government announced  Q3 GDP grew at a 2 percent annual rate,.  What, you expected an honest number just before the elections? G et me re-write.

Saving the Savages:  British austerity plans, aimed at lowering the nation's budget deficit from 10% to 2% of GDP over the next 3 years, “will soon be needed in the US,” according to Citigroup.  The British cuts are “very savage but no more savage than what the U.S. will have to endure.”  Just imagine how cheerful the US  economy will be with a $1 trillion reduction in government spending at a time when consumers have no money to spend and companies no incentive.

Head 'em off a the Pass:  The big banks want to sit down, preferably behind closed doors, with the 50-state task force investigating U.S. foreclosure practices – and it's not to help the investigation.

Less To Come:  Next year US mortgage lending – combined new purchases and refinancings – will drop below $1 trillion for the first time in 15 years.

Say No Evil: In the last 5 or 6 years the price of a barrel of oil has risen from $10 - $20 to $75 - $80, while the production of crude oil has stuck at about 75  million barrels a day and the demand for oil by China, India, and the economies of the producing nations themselves has increased greatly. No wonder the economy stumbled and is having trouble getting back up – its energy habit costs about 5 times what it used to.  This suggests there will be little or no growth for a long time for most of the world's economies.  But don't tell, it's a secret.

Ah, There's The Rub:  Health insurance companies are beginning to reduce both their sales staff and the commissions paid to them in anticipation of sharply lower income as the health reform act phases in over the next few years.

Timber! Researchers have shown that while a shot of CO2 may briefly accelerate the growth of trees, a lack of a corresponding increase in available soil nutrients quickly puts a halt to the increased growth and its uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere. Another carbon sink sunk.

Protecting Democracy:  A federal court has ruled that the US military can continue to pretend that the secret prison at Bagram air base (Parwan) doesn't exist, even though the 800 prisoners incarcerated there are routinely subjected to “advanced interrogation techniques”. The military admits that 80% of the (unacknowledged) captives “are not hardened terrorists”.

The Big Lie:   “No one was wrongly thrown out of their home” as a result of the various frauds in the foreclosure process.  This big-bank spread nonsense is demonstrably false.  Why do they keep getting away with it?

Porridge: The US workplace consists of an increasing number of high skill, high income jobs, an increasing number of low skill, low pay service jobs, and a rapidly disappearing middle class.  Many middle-class jobs are being off-shored and/or automated – globalization and increasing technology have made the middle class obsolete.

Avalanche Ahead:  Nearly 7 million more houses – the nation's shadow inventory – are poised to come onto the market in the near future, driving prices down even further.  Drive carefully.

Porn O'Graph:  Where's Monty Python when we need them?