Thursday, May 24, 2012

SAR #12144

Wars keep children out of school.

Vigilantes: I thought I'd beat Krugman and point out that Wednesday, Uncle was able to borrow $35 billion for five years for a record low yield of 0.748%. The market is really punishing the US for its debt. Not.

Reality Check: If you think the financial crisis in the Eurozone/Greece (&Spain &Italy &Ireland &Portugal) is going to be resolved with no significant losses, no political realignments and no impact on the US of A, raise you hand. Now look around, you with your hand up; don't you feel silly?

Draining The Swamp: In an effort to abolish street demonstrations, the governments of Quebec and Montreal have passed some draconian 'anti-protest' laws, which have resulted in emboldening the protesters, who are ignoring the law in their hundreds of thousands, and have rallied the residents to their side of the student protesters. At 8 pm every evening, whole neighborhoods turn out on the streets and on their balconies and defiantly bang pots and pans to emphasize their displeasure with the law. Oh, you saw it on the evening TV news? In the US?

Great Expectations: April new home sales, up 3.3%, beat expectations. The FHFA's Quarterly House Price Index showed the first y/y increase since 2007 and the largest m/m increase since 2006. Maybe, just maybe...

Revenge Of The Weeds: Worldwide, 23 species of weeds have developed resistance to glyphosate (Roundup), and at least 10 of these have also developed resistance to other herbicides. In Alabama, 61% of the soybean crop and 80% of the cotton crop are infested with these new and improved weeds. Darwin knew it would happen.

Print Screen: As part of what HP calls "a multi-year restructuring", but is really their first step in abandoning the PC, it has announced cutting 8% of its workforce - 28,000 people - in an attempt to save $3.5 billion a year. Trying to manage your way to a profit is often the first step in going out of business. HP says the cuts came as it lost business to "smartphones, iPads and othe mobile devices."

More Of The Same: The Senate Intelligence (sic) Committee has endorsed an extension of the government's authority to continue the warrantless wiretapping started under the Bush Administration.

Yes, But: The Green River Basin, which spans parts of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, is said to contain a trillion barrels of oil, locked up in oil shale formations. That's three times as much oil as Saudi Arabia pretends to have in reserve. Too bad we don't know how to mine it, and it'll really too bad – in terms of climate warming – if we figure out how.

Priorities: All most of us know about Yemen is that it's small, somewhere in the Middle East and doesn't have oil. It does have rebel al-Qaida elements that the US attacks regularly with drones. That the country is on the brink of a hunger crisis of catastrophic proportions, with 10 million - 44% of the population - lacking adequate nutrition. A quarter of the population has fallen into debt trying to feed their families. As soon as the US is done pacifying killing the extremists, it'll turn to feeding the survivors and then focus its attention to Somalia. Is there still a Peace Corps?

Getting Even: Some now suggest that the “Bridgeport terrorists” were singled out because they had released a video taken when CPD officers stopped them and searched their car as they entered Chicago.

The Parting Shot:

120524

Breakfast of Champions.

 

5 comments:

rjs said...

it's already to the point where i'm checking the parting shot before the rest...

Anonymous said...

Entry two contradicts entry number one. After europe disintegrates and the debt crisis hits here what happens to US interest rates?

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

rjs - a case of honey/flies.

Anony 9.32 - I'm not sure that Eurozone dissolution and economic travails - even with significant financial turmoil on Wall Street - will make some other asset more attractive than dollars as a "safe" place. And certainly in the uproar on The Street, our economy will not be that much impacted - only about 2% of our GDP is exports to Europe and they won't all stop.

And if they did it would slow the economy even more and lead to more QE and strengthen the Fed's resolve to keep interest rates low.

None of this leads to a wage-price inflationary spiral.

ckm

mistah charley, ph.d. said...

Thanks for informing me about the Canadian street protests, which as you know, are for some reason NOT being featured in the U.S. corporate media.

And I appreciate your new photo feature. Whatever happens in human history, life will go on, one way or another. Here's a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.






































The tide rises, the tide falls,
The twilight darkens, the curlew calls;
Along the sea-sands damp and brown
The traveler hastens toward the town,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
Darkness settles on roofs and walls,
But the sea, the sea in darkness calls;
The little waves, with their soft, white hands
Efface the footprints in the sands,
And the tide rises, the tide falls.
The morning breaks; the steeds in their stalls
Stamp and neigh, as the hostler calls;
The day returns, but nevermore
Returns the traveler to the shore.
And the tide rises, the tide falls.

Namke von Federlein said...

Hi ckm;

The photos at the end are a very nice addition to your blog!

And - as always - many thanks for the excellent daily news summary and great comments.

Namke