SAR #13122

“In a land of freedom we are held hostage by the tyranny of political correctness.” RGIII

Sticktoativity: After several trillion dollars in QE, the Fed has noticed that it is not working and promises to continue the program until it does.

Drinks All 'Round: The US has so much oil and gas that it'll be so cheap they'll be giving it away – North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Texas have so much fossil fuel buried in shale formations that frying the globe is a foregone conclusion. Oh, sure, a few spoilsports are pointing out that we've not really overcome the depletion of our old big oilfields and natural gas wells, nor figured out how to get this stuff out economically, and the stuff in the shale (and the Canadian sands) isn't really petroleum, but that's all details.

The Beating Goes On: Europe's unemployment data is getting worse, as are living conditions and social unrest. The ECB will meet this week, but all that's expected is a little trimming of interest rates and some platitudes about grim and bear it.

There's No There There: Morgan Stanley says there is “little real evidence” that US manufacturing is recovering, or that 'fracked gas' is going to change things because “low natural gas prices will likely have limited ramifications on capacity decisions.” Just because a company can make stuff a bit cheaper won't do so if they can't sell the goods.

Down The Drain: House Republicans want to prevent the government from collecting the data necessary to formulate and evaluate policies, to limit the Census Bureau to the 10-year census. Period. Which would end such data gathering and reporting as unemployment reports, GDP data, and the research used to decide the allocation federal resources because... Because... Because it will make it harder for the government to work for the people.

Compromised: In response to a judge's order that Plan B One-Step be sold over the counter without prescription, the FDA has pretended to comply by telling drug stores to put the product on the shelf, but to limit sales to those 15 years and up. The government realizes that these kids might be having sex, but pretends that those under 15 don't have sisters. So, will the judge be happy? The Justice Department isn't, but why they get a say in a medical matter is unclear...

Reworded: After one prince said Saudi Arabia would raise it's crude oil output to 15 million barrels a day by 2020, he was quickly corrected. The plan is to raise its “production capacity”to that level. Even if they do so, if Saudi consumption continues to rise at current rates, none of the increase would be available for export, so who cares?

Payback: Conservatives are turned off by eco-friendly products. That's all right, the environment is eventually going to turn off conservatives.

Foam: Here we go again, home builders are again holding lotteries for the right to buy a new house – sound familiar? If life's so good, how come the US home ownership rate - which is now at 18-year lows - continues to fall? Investors (for which read 'speculators') are buying houses, but people don't seem to be buying homes.

New Speak: The US approach to the current round of climate talks is described as 'pragmatic', which seems to mean talking a good game without committing to do a damned thing. The wording: "We consider that the agreement should provide for Parties to define their own mitigation contributions, taking into account national circumstances, capacity, and other factors that they consider relevant." Which pretty much guarantees business-as-usual, which in turn means that at least 4ºC of warming will be baked into the planet before anything gets done to limit it.

Porn O'Graph: What Peak Oil would look like, if there were such a thing.

The Parting Shot:

 

Virginia, creeping.