SAR #11274

Ever larger helpings of the wrong solution don't make a cure.

Are You Descent? The S&P 500 since May: -1.35%, -1.83%, -2.15%, -5.68%, -7.18%. And October's close will be?

Takes One to Know Kill One:Syrian President Assad, who has killed over 3600 of his own citizens this year, gave Obama help in assassinating murdering Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen who had never been tried, much less been found guilty of any crime. Even if Awlaki had been arrested, it would have been illegal for any US lawyer to defend him under Treasury Department regulations that apparently supersede the US Constitution.

Play it as it Lays: Maybe the economy has recovered and this is normal. Maybe normal is so far below the consumer madness of the bubble years that it feels like depression.

Line in the Sand: German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble says the $283 billion the Germans are putting into the EFSF is all there is and all there will be. “That's it. Finished.” Better hope Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy get the memo.

We Don't Need No Sinking Warrants: Google, Yahoo, Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft and others routinely 'co-operate' with cops who want to know what they know about you. $20 or $25 is all the paperwork required, and both Facebook and Microsoft will give 'em everything they've got – and it's a lot – for free. They're just being good citizens, so you'd better be one, too.

They Made Me Do It: BofA says that the federal financial reforms have eaten into their profits to the point where they must openly rob debit card users of $5 a month just to carry the card around.

It's Just Business: Koch Industries has been successfully committing crimes for thirty years or more – how did you think they got all that money? Trading with the enemy, price-fixing, ignoring environmental laws, disregard for employee safety, political bribery,outright theft, fraud and so on. The company acknowledged 'mistakes' but insisted it had changed its practices to better hide their criminal actions.

Pay to Play: Verizon is wants to overturn the government's new net neutrality regulations so it can charge content providers more to put their traffic ahead of those who don't pay as much. Yes, it is a form of blackmail – that's essence of the business.

A Drachmatization: When a government lays off workers, those workers have no income to put into the economy. When a government cuts workers' pay, those workers have less income to put into the economy. When a government raises taxes and sends the money to foreign investors, there is less money to spur the economy. When a government sells its public assets to foreign investors, the money those assets generate leaves the country. When a country does all these things, it is called an austerity program and its GDP falls. But the GOP, among others, says (never mind the evidence) it will perk up the country's GDP. “The inevitable outcome of one-sided austerity polices in the Anglo-sphere and Club Med is a self-feeding downward slide for the whole global system “

Domaination: Come January, for $185,000 you can apply to join those trying to get their very own gTLD (that's a generic top level domain name – the thing that comes after the dot in “dot.com”). Buy “.car” and sell access to “Hybrid.car” or “Ford.car”. Or “.bank”. Be the first on your block to get rich selling ephemera.

Relax, Breathe Out: A new study reports that the ability of forest and plants to remove CO2 from the air has been underestimated by more than 25%. But the difference will not impact climate change calculations because the amount sequestered remains unchanged - the extra uptake is quickly respired back into the environment.