SAR #12274

There is a difference between 'expedient' and 'inevitable'.

Whack-A-Mole: Spanish police spent the weekend beating up the citizenry, who don't want to become serfs to the austerity troika, while Catalonians insist on not being Spanish any longer. The cops in France beat up on French protestors, while a large Portuguese protest went fairly quietly. Greece was Greece, but no one cares.

Rocket Science: Paul Ryan says his tax program is too complex to explain, so let me give him a hand: He and The Mitten intend to cut taxes on the rich by a bunch and increase taxes on the poor by a bigger bunch and make up the difference by cutting spending on the social plans that help the poor survive. Any questions?

Blowing Smoke: The head of DOJ’s Criminal Division, Lanny Breuer, explaining why corporate criminals are not sent to jail, claims "Our prosecutors are sophisticated. They know the difference between a real compliance program and a make-believe one." How they know is unclear, they have certainly never seen a 'real compliance program' in action at Justice. Maybe they read about a real one in a sophomore text book, many years ago.

Forest/Trees: Yes, all over Europe they are protesting the poorly conceived and poorly implemented austerity measures, but more they are rejecting their political elite, decrying the loss of basic democratic rights, objecting to the privatization of public spaces and public life. Rejecting the planners and the plans. They know, you see, that taxing the rich, taxing the finance industry, taxing the rentiers could easily solve the supposed budgetary problems. Then they could turn their efforts to building a united Europe, instead of following the leadership into division, suspicion, repression and eventually war.

Fat Of The Land: In the discussion over the effectiveness of the BC/BS anti-obesity ads no one suggests that the ads are not hostile enough towards fat parents who fatten their children. It is a form of child abuse and should be treated as such.

Revival Meeting: Yale's Robert Shiller says there is no “unambiguous” sign of a strong recovery in the housing market, based on research that shows that while perceptions of short-term price direction have turned positive, long-term expectations continue to weaken.

All For One: If there is no political unity in Europe, the euro will die. There is little appetite for unity Europe, so the euro will die. And with it, expect the EU to wither away, too. This is not an hysterical, vague fear. It is a certainty. A single currency cannot long exist without common economies, resources, and common taxation. Without the surrender of competencies by nation states and an outright defeat of the "sovereigntists" who are pushing peoples towards isolation and disaster, the euro will fall apart. While this cites French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, you've read similar on SAR for months.

Motivation: As long as it is profitable for for big pharma to defraud Medicaid, big pharma will continue to defraud Medicaid. Just ask the CEO's of GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Abbott. Theft will put you in jail, but it earns bonuses for CEOs.

Rabbit/Hat: Spain plans to borrow 207.2 billion euros next year - from whom was left unclear - but will be able to keep its budget deficit to the targeted 6.3% through the simple expedient of not counting the cost of rescuing the banks.

Porn O'Graph: The tide comes in, the tide goes out...

The Parting Shot:

 

Rosy, everthing's just rosy.