SAR #12027

The human race is desperately in need of new management. Yves Smith.

Revisionism: Pick a week, any week, in unemployment: 402,000, 352,000, 377,000. Then pretend you can see a trend.

Dominoes: If you were the leader of a country - say Ireland, Spain, Portugal, or Italy, pick one - and you saw that Greece was sloughing off 50-60-70% of its debt, wouldn't you be remiss if you didn't open a barber shop?

About that Housing Recovery: New home sales – 21,000 total - in December were down 2.2% m/m and 7.3% y/y. Pending sales are also down and the median new house price is back to October 2010 levels.

Dear Victim Google User: We all got Google emails saying that starting March 1 Google will gather all of your personal data and browsing history and sell it to anyone (Homeland Security?) who wants it. PS: You can't do anything about it.

Emperor/Clothes: While California rather politely claims that the $25-billion mortgage settlement is 'inadequate', Arizona is complaining that the Bank of America settlement will let the crooks get away Scott free impede, if not prevent, investigation of BofA for fraud.

Down To The Sea In Slips: The Baltic Dry Index has fallen 42% below its seasonal norm and is now down 50% since the first of the year. The causation seems split between a decrease in demand for commodities and an excess of capacity having recently been built. Either way, European banks are looking at repossessing a lot of empty ships and writing off $100 billion in shipping loans.

Policy Intricacies: Bernanke has decided to buy another round of crappy bonds from the top five bankers, so they can pretend to have adequate capital. No, you are mistaken. We are assured this is not QU 3.5, nor is it a bailout. It's three card Monte.

Foot Shooting: If the EU goes through with an embargo on Iranian oil, refinery shut-downs in Europe are likely to seriously harm the European economy – never mind what it does or doesn't do to Iran.

Essentials: The essence of the Obama mortgage refinancing program is to get the government to refinance not only GSE held mortgages, but also all those loans backed by the private sector, and to have the government guarantee them all. This would encourage the banks to stop working with homeowners on mortgage defaults and go straight to Evict & collect $200. Or $200,000. Whatever. It is a way of guaranteeing the banks get their money and the taxpayers get evicted.

No Win Situation: God's reported forgiveness of Newt for this and that is wholly beside the point. He is not going to become president because "nobody's third wife is going to be First Lady". America is full of divorced first wives and insecure current wives and they will not stand for some bleach-blond=Monica Lewinsky-Trophy Wife taking up residence in the White House.

Want Fries With That? A remarkably poor investigation reports that eating fried food poses no threat to your health as long as you eat it in Spain, where the frying is done in olive oil. Before you Supersize the next bunch of French fries, pause to reflect that those eating fried foods in Spain are eating moderate portions of the Mediterranean diet - which has long been known to be good for your health - and are likely getting more exercise than you.