SAR #11302

Increasing the food supply lets the population increase.

The Growing Chorus: "We remain very doubtful that the relative optimism that has followed the EU summit will last.” If (contrary to reality-based calculations) Greece and European banks are somehow actually bailed out using the current fantasy involving theft and ever more more debt, what happens next February when Italy has to repay €61 billion that it doesn't have and cannot raise?

Pearl Diving: Japan now estimates that the decommissioning of the failed Fukushima No. 1 reactor will take at least until the 30th anniversary of the disaster.

Decisions, Decisions:Faced with a 50% loss on its Greek bond holdings, Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund sold all of its.... US MBS holdings. Why? Because of 'prepayment risk' – The fact that when a borrower refinances at a lower interest rate, it devalues the MBS based on the previous loan.

Who's We? They say we've regained the lost ground in GDP, that we are back to where we started. Right. So how come we're making all this stuff with about 8 million fewer jobs...

It's Not Over Over There: Having been forced to abandon its huge stay-behind bases in Iraq, the US is now looking to station more combat troops in Kuwait and offshore in the Persian Gulf, in preparation for either a war with Iran or having to go straighten out another mess in Iraq. And to keep friendly oil dictators in power in the region.

G'way, Y'r Bothering Me: Syria's Assad says that he is not killing any more of the citizenry than absolutely necessary, and that if other nations keep bitching about it, he'll kill even more he'll “burn the whole region.”

Briefly: Data Quick reports that median house prices last week were down 5.3% y/y, at $180,000, while total sales were up 4.5%. The FHFA's monthly report showed prices down 4.0% y/y in August.

Pacesetter: Gov. Brown has proposed that California's public employees pay at least half the cost of their pensions, put a third of their retirement money in a 401-k type plan instead of having a guaranteed pension and wait 12 more years to retire. Remember, as goes Maine California, so goes the nation.

Homiletics Text: “The 400 wealthiest Americans now own more than the "lower" 150 million Americans put together.” An outline of your sermon is due by Wednesday.

Thoughtful Experiment: Get a pencil and some paper, sit at the kitchen table, and figure out what you and yours are going to do when if your income dropped 50%. The odds of you or your SO losing your job isn't getting smaller, there is a real possibility you'll lose your health insurance and see your pension evaporate. Food and energy are not getting any cheaper – despite the government's massaging the data. So, figure out what you would do. For added points, figure out how likely it is that you will have to do these things.

Keepers Of The Flame:A Russian cargo ship is on its way to the International Space Station, preparing the way for the next manned mission and easing concerns about the station's future after a previous failed launch and the end of US manned space missions.

Self-Hoisting Petard: If defense spending creates jobs – and the Republicans agree it does – then any government spending creates jobs and Keynesianism works. A quick look at the effects of changes in defense spending on employment and demand shows that in creating aggregate demand, spending is spending – public spending is as good as private spending; spending on bombs is as good as spending on new schools. But spending on socially useful projects is far more difficult to get through Congress than unnecessary defense projects. Why? Because socially useful projects smack of 'socialism', plus there is an ingrained conservative fear that social spending will diminish their ability to pretend that cutting taxes is the most efficient way to create wealth disparity jobs.

Porn O'Graph: Geographic sub-division.