SAR #12253

What happens in the Arctic, doesn’t stay in the Arctic.

On balance:  Corporate profits have hit yet another new record, wages as a percentage of the economy hit a new low, and the number of people working is as low as it was in the 1980s.

We Shall Overturn:  The Republicans, faced with lower court rulings that would let the poor and the black vote, are trying to get their complaints before the Supremes in hopes of overturning both the Voting Rights Act and the calendar and going back to Jim Crow vote suppression days.

Clarification:  If you are a bit confused about the current plan to save the Euro by starving Europeans, it goes like this:  You can get a bailout if you agree to scourge yourself to the level of debasement already inflicted on the Greeks.  The bankers and bondholders and other believers in the Austerity Fairy are happy, having forgotten that to actually bring down debt levels and replay the existing debts will require an actual economic recovery.

2¢ Plain:  Political choices (even though dictated by Wall Street, deregulation was a political choice) got us into this mess.  Only a new set of political choices can get us out.  Neither legacy party candidate appears to have made those choices.  “we are not using the knowledge we have, because too many people who matter—politicians, public officials, and the broader class of writers and talkers who define the conventional wisdom—have, for a variety of reasons, chosen to forget the lessons of history.”

Sleep On It:  The US Director of National Intelligence says that “,”water demand . . . set to outstrip sustainable current supplies by 40% by 2030.”  Water wars are inevitable “as thirsty people, opportunistic politicians and powerful corporations battle for dwindling resources.”

Liquidity:  The total corporate bond holdings of US broker-dealers at the end of August was $58.5 billion.  The all-time high back in October 2007 was $268 billion.  The broker-dealers no longer have the wherewithal to broker deals.

The Goal:  “to become more competitive globally and preserve the welfare state “without taking up more and more debt.” Angela Merkel

Gobbleization:  The world's tuna stocks have reached, and passed, their sustainability limits.  While 5 of the 8 species are threatened with extinction,  there are no comprehensive science-based limits, nor global agreements to stop before they are all gone.  Current  “partial quotas” are a cosmetic joke behind which fishery industries continue their assaults. 

Free Markets:   The refrigerant HCFC-22, has been outlawed because it use damages the earth's ozone layer irreparably. Without the ozone layer, UV rays will fry us all.  So naturally there is a booming and profitable business in illegal sales of the gas.  It is still produced in enormous volumes and sold cheaply in China, India and Mexico.  The manufacturers are unnamed to protect their profits.

Here's The Test: Can America trust Romney to decide which citizens get extrajudicially assassinated?   And more importantly, should Americans be faced with such a choice?

Poverty, here and there, before and after:  On average, the OECD countries (less the US) have the same general poverty rate as the US, before government social safety-net transfers.  After the social program transfers, the US poverty rate is 17.1%, and the rest of the OECD reduce their poverty rate to an average 9.8%.  We're number one!

On Average:  Since 1948, on average 78.3% of American men are in the labor force.  Today, as the Recovery^TM gains steam, it has fallen to just 69.8%.  It's a good thing mom's got a job.  Or two.

The Parting Shot: