Tuesday, November 13, 2012

SAR #12317

Facts are for little people. - Nick Hanauer

Attention: You are going to hear a lot of talk about compromise as the 'fiscal cliff' approaches. Don't believe any of it. In Washington, 'compromise' has come to mean 'giving in to the other side' and they're not going to do that. Passively letting things happen, now that's another story. The CBO says that that's not a bad idea, either.

Shills Is Shills: The International Energy Agency, in a bid to become totally irrelevant, predicts that the US will overtake Saudi Arabia in oil production by 2017 and would "soon achieve self-sufficiency in oil and gas." Really, the US can double its oil output from 5 to 10 mbd in 5 years? It also sees OPEC production increasing by more than 10 million barrels a day by 2035, which presumes (a) a lot of happy Kurds and (b) that the US and Israel do not completely destroy Iran's oilfields in the next week or two.

Observation: Doctors Without Borders opened its first American clinic, in post-Sandy Queens. Any questions?

Carrot On A Stick: Every time the Greek parliament passes “the final austerity program” as dictated by Merkel and the three Stooges, something else comes along. This time, after cutting another 9.4bn euros in spending, they learn that the 31.5bn euros they need (and were promised) isn't on the way. Without that, they won't have the cash to meet Friday's bond payout date. Greek GDP, which fell 7% this year, is expected to fall another 5% net year, assuming there is a Greece next year. Now the

It's All My Fault: The president of the NY Fed says that “Spending decisions of the older age cohorts are less likely to be easily stimulated by monetary policy." by which he means that us old folks have been so impoverished by Wall Street's looting that we don't want to go into debt nearly as fast as the Fed wants us to.

Another Damned Ambush: You might have guessed that little good could come from a Senate committee dedicated to Homeland Security, but would you have expected them to be the entity Wall Street has chosen to strip regulatory independence from the SEC, CFTC, OSHA, FCC and, of course, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau? Homeland Security? Or just Joe Lieberman's parting gift?

Asked & Answered: Is the Bakken oil shale rival Saudi Arabia's Ghawar oil field in production? No, not until Ghawar runs out.

Self-Imposed Stupidity: The 'fiscal cliff' isn’t a crisis and it isn't about The Deficit. It is a political crisis brought on by the GOP's hissy fit when they didn't get their way on the budget last year and decided to take the economy hostage. The danger we face next year and perhaps the next few years is not that the deficit will be too large but that it will be too small - plunging America back into recession. That deficits are a good thing when the economy is deeply depressed has been repeatedly demonstrated to work, and austerity has been repeatedly shown to make things worse during economic downturns. It's not Greek. But we've had this discussion before and they – Boehner, Ryan, the GOP and the Tea Partiers – weren't listening then and they're not listening now.

Suspension of Disbelief:The American Petroleum Institute, which has spent millions fighting the Obama administration on regulations and given millions to Republicans in hopes of getting a better deal from Washington, has surveyed the election's results and declared themselves the winners. Works for me.

Porn O'Graph: Impactfulness.

The Parting Shot:

121113

Last Hurrah.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...


Thank you for this blog. I've regularly followed it for years. I'm astounded that the NY Fed chief sees us geezers as being responsible for the bad economy because we're not spending enough. A retiree isn't likely to spend money on a house once he's paid off the one he's living in. He certainly wouldn't get into debt once he was free from it. The ZIRP has not worked and will not work. We are in a Keynesian liquidity trap. Methinks the NY Fed chief will have to look for another fall guy for the bad economy.