SAR #12139

Ozymandias was not the last.

I'm spending the weekend listening to my granddaughters' jazz ensemble. It beats thinking about the collapse of the euro. Or peak oil. Or – most especially – the climate changed world they will inherit.

SAR  #12138

Most of our problems began as solutions.

Pride Goeth Before A Fall: Do you think JPMorgan's $2 billion $3 billion $5 billion in losses are an exception? Or the canary in the coal mine? Mitt says we should just get over it, “That's the way America works.”

Abandon All Hope... The best way to raise people from poverty is educating the women. The second best way is to reduce family size. Naturally the Republicans are against helping the poor, that's why they've dredged up the “global gag rulel” again, eliminating all funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). They don't understand that poor kids in the global slums are never, ever going to vote Republican.

Update: Canadian students are still turning out in the tens of thousands to protest the government's plans to shut down the schools to shut up their protests.

Co-Dependents Co-Existing: “When future historians write about the fall of the American Republic, they will of course lay primary blame on the extremists of the right, who set out deliberately to destroy it. But they will also lay heavy blame on all the “centrists” and Serious People who not only refused to admit what was happening, but ostracized and silenced anyone who tried to point it out.”

Other Foot: Secretary Clinton wants Myanmar to release its remaining political prisoners. I can remember an America that could have made this demand with a straight face.

Big Miss: The Philadelphia Fed's business activity index fell to -5.8 from a positive 8.5 a month earlier. New orders, prices received, and delivery time all fell into negative territory, while the employment data fell from 17.9 to a -1.3. The market didn't like it at all.

Tail, Dog: JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon has 'accepted' an 'invitation' from the Senate to testify before the Senate Banking Committee.

Man The Barriers: The US is putting a 31.22% duty on Chinese solar imports in an attempt to prop up the non-competitive US solar industry. Too bad we can't protect the working folks.

Points of View: The headlines said “Unchanged” - but this weeks report actually was a 3,000 increase in initial unemployment claims. So we're edging up again. No wonder it was downplayed.

Whether Forecast: If Greece asking for a do-over on its bailout is not acceptable, and Greece leaving the eurozone would cost a trillion euro or so and becomes contagious for Portugal and Spain (and that funny-shaped country we're not going to talk about), then what's a central banker to do? Well, getting ready seems like a possibility.

Spanish Banking Summary: Once they start, bank runs don't stop. With that in mind, the €1.3 billion Bankia customers have pulled out of the newly nationalized bank is just the beginning. The beginning of the end.

Heads Will Roll: Tom Fitzpatrick, a Citibank technical analyst, says that the markets will continue to move lower, tumbling by as much as 28 %. It has something to do with heads and shoulders, knees and toes, and the VIX, and the phase of the moon and the height of the tides.  He also expects new highs in gold.

Can You Hear Me Now? It appears that DHS will black out portions of “private wireless networks” in Chicago during the NATO meetings – even though the government admits “there is no credible terrorist threat”. Do you get a rebate for the missed calls?