What's the future? Who's got the map? Where are we going?
Short Take: The fact that the Mario Brothers (Italian PM Mario Monti and ECB President Mario Draghi) are working on a permanent European rescue fund should tell you all you need to know about the future of Greece and the euro. They want the €500 million European Stability Mechanism (doesn't that sound really, really technical?) doubled. Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaüble politely said no, that “We are sticking to what was agreed in December.” [Program note: A weak euro bolsters Germany's exports.]
Because I'm Bigger: The US used an unmanned drone to kill a British citizen of Lebanese origin in Somalia. The US is not at war with Great Britain, Lebanon, or Somalia.
Slippery Slope: If Greece gets to knock off about half of what it owes to “public” holders of its debt and get a very low interest rate on the rescheduled balance, why should anyone else – Hungary, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy – even pretend to try to make their payments?
Keystone Kop: John Boehner says he may hold millions of dollars in tax breaks for American workers hostage in order to play mind games with Obama over the Keystone XL pipeline, insisting the pipeline construction be approved before an extension of the payroll tax holiday is considered.
Q&A: Should the West intervene in Syria? Depends, how much oil do they have?
Moral Deficit Reduction: Instead of simply reforming taxes so they revert back to the progressive taxation of say the 1950's, why not retroactively reform them to that level, making those in the top 10% - who have gained almost all the increase in income in the last 30 years – start paying back what they really owe the country?
Know Snow: The big story isn't the mildness of the winter, it's the lack of snow – the dryness. Those who drink the snow melt come summer best be doing the snow dance.
Precisely: Studies suggest that students drop out of engineering coursework because they don't want to do the homework. Which is fine with me, I want my engineering done by someone who did the extra credit homework. That attitude towards working at some goal also explains a lot of other things.
2 comments:
Mario "brothers". Could they be engaged in plumbing, of a sort?
Re: engineering homework - I was in engineering graduate school a few years ago (yeah, the geezer goes back to school) and was amused with one of my partners on a project who quit the group with me because I was "working too hard". I did work hard on that project and had a ball with it, guess I'm still too much of a geek...
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