SAR #12295

Unemployment, poverty, homelessness and such are not unique to market capitalism.

The First Step Is The Hardest: Germany, among others, is suggesting that the EU/ECB/ESM/Somebody's Aunt loan Greece a bunch of money – say 10 billion euro – with which Greece could buy up about 40 billion euro of its outstanding but greatly devalued sovereign bonds. Of course this would require finding folks holding 40 billion in Greek bonds they want to realize 75% losses on.

Nothing Succeeds Like Success: The CIA wants more drones, so it can expand its winning strategy from Pakistan and Yemen to any number of "North African or other trouble spots..."

The Shadow Knows: Friday's existing home sales - down 1.7% - was boring, but the accompany 'collapse' in available housing inventory was remarkable, even as prices for existing houses crept upward 0.5%. Don't be fooled, the "available housing supply" (purportedly 2.32 million homes) doesn't count the millions of houses the banks refuse to list as REO (holding them off their books to avoid taking the loss and driving house prices down) nor does it count the millions of houses that your neighbors would sell if they weren't still way underwater - somewhere around 11 million of 'em.

Tea Leaves: JPMorgan says (1) the payroll tax holiday will not be extended, (2) that will reduce disposable income by $125 billion, which (3) will lower US GDP at least 0.5% in 1Q13 and 0.75% in 2Q13.

Confession Is Good For The Soul:Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admits that “Today, energy cuts across the entirety of U.S. foreign policy.” How this is different from yesterday and the day before was unclear.

Clarification: Netanyahu insists that Israel will continue to build in Jerusalem, including in the eastern part of the city that was taken as spoils to the victor after the 1967 War. The settlements are illegal under international law, and make a two-state solution impossible - which is the whole point.

Tinker-Evans-Chance: While you are standing in line waiting to vote, consider this: Hart Intercivic owns the (notoriously faulty) voting machines used in Ohio and elsewhere around the county. HIG Capital is the majority owner of Hart. The Mitten, and Mrs. Mitten and family, are major investors in HIG Capital. Oy, count the ways...

Anticlimax: Last week the Supreme Court squashed what little doubt there was about the 'legality' of retroactive immunity for aiding and abetting the government in its massive and massively illegal warrantless wiretaps (and other communications intercept invasions of privacy). Like the rest of the extra-juridical things the US government does, doing them makes them legal.

Bank On It: A survey found that 40% of Americans have “ready access” to less than $500 in savings. What's in your wallet?

Perspective: Munich Re, the giant re-insurance firm, says it regards the increase in weather related disasters, especially in North America, “as an initial climate-change footprint.” The increase in drought, heat, floods and such that have been experienced to date are just the beginning, they say, because the atmosphere has “only” warmed 1.4° F in the past century, a drop in the bucket compared the damage that will be done as the earth warms 5 times than during the rest of the century.

The Parting Shot:

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A little light on the subject.