SAR #13053

Too bad we didn't know that "knowledge work" wouldn't work.

Receding Horizon: The European Commission says record joblessness will delay Europe's economic recovery until 2014, after shrinking by 0.3% this year after a 0.6% decline in 2012. They were mystified as to why there would be record joblessness, but blamed banks for not lending more funds in a stagnant economy.

Secrets of the Confessional: Reports in Italy allege that the Pope decided to resign  after learning that among the correspondence leaked by the papal butler were nearly 600 pages of a secret dossier documenting the the blackmail by outsiders of members of gay network within the Vatican. The Vatican “will neither confirm nor deny” the allegations.

Magic Act: While existing home sales are “edging higher”, the housing inventory is “at 13-year lows.” So where did the 10 or 11 million houses that were in the 'shadow inventory' go? The banks are still solvent, so they didn't write them down and sell them, and the bottom feeding investors who were buying up all the houses didn't have a business plan that included paying top dollar. So, where's Waldo?

Report Card: Goldman Sachs thinks the Spanish, Italians and French haven't suffered enough. Yet. They need “further consolidation” by which Goldman means greater austerity “will be required...” France, at least, is paying attention, imposing a spending freeze on defense, higher education and all the rest. That this will be hard on the little people and won't solve the problem is immaterial.

Apostasy: The reasons that Likudian Republican Senators are aghast at the idea of confirming Chuck Hagel isn't just that he said the unthinkable – that Israel should stop colonizing the West Bank – but that he simply isn't enthusiastic enough about the whole Israeli neocon-inspired American adventurism in the Middle East.

Cogent Argument: Louie Gohmert (R-TX) says that high-capacity magazines are essential because it will take “at least 50 rounds” to bring down government drones. Apparently he doesn't think a Biden shotgun will do the trick.

600 Pound Gorilla: A new study shows that in the last couple of decades capital gains and dividends have contributed more to the rise of income inequality than everything else put together. It's not that your pay sucks – it does, but that's not the real problem. The real problem is that all the money goes to the folks who own stock, get dividends and rake in the capital gains. Maybe we should tax their income the same way they tax our income.

Health Caring: Just think what a wreck our economy would be without the health care industry. It has added more jobs than any other industry in the last 20 years, and without it the US would have fewer jobs today than in 2000. And it is not the doctors or the nurses. It's the five admin staff for each doctor, filling out all that insurance paperwork. So hug a medical clerk today.

Porn O'Graph: It's not just Uncle Sam that's run up the debts.

The Parting Shot: