SAR #13143

Remember, this started with the Bush tax cuts.

Clear and Present Dangers: Why aren’t there more storm cellars in Oklahoma? Why do people smoke? Why are we so damned fat? Why don't we save for retirement? Why do we pretend global warming is going to happen to someone else, someplace else, some other time?

To Infinity and Beyond: Stock markets around the world began dropping when Bernanke said that quantitative easing will continue “in the medium term and beyond”, which ought to be a hint that things are not as rosy as the stock market would lead you to believe. It should also dampen the enthusiasm for the recent fall in the federal deficit – which should be growing now, to create jobs, not falling and cutting demand and thus increasing unemployment. So the Fed keeps feeding the fire in hopes it doesn't go out, while the real economy is experiencing something quite short of a recovery.

Nor Any Drop To Drink: UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon has pointed out that the world faces severe 'water insecurity' and warns that nations will begin to run out of drinkable water in the non-distant future. But don't worry, Wall Street is sure that when water becomes expensive enough, market forces will develop more sources and technological innovations will come on line to provide instant water. Or not.

One Size Fits All: Jaime Caruana, mouthpiece for the Bank for International Settlements - a global fraternity for central bankers- is once again urging nations to pursue higher interest rates. To fight inflation. Or to spur inflation. Or to create jobs. Or to protect the environment and promote peace and harmony. Being bankers, higher interest rates are always the BIS solution; it’s only the problem they’re supposed to solve that changes.

A Quote: “By 2018, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), there'll be more oil produced than cars can burn.” It'll be used to fuel flying pigs.

Sideshow: The Republican-controlled House frittered away another day passing measures that have no chance of becoming law. This week they played 'Let's Pretend' with a budget measure that cut Education, Interior and State funding even more drastically than the idiotic sequestration has imposed. Only war, the police state, and veterans escaped additional cuts, which tells a great deal about their priorities. As is also usual in such grandstanding, details were lacking, except for their intent to cut money for schools, health and the enforcement of child labor laws.

The German Miracle: Germany has not so much created jobs as stolen them from its neighbors, but insists that the Club Med countries failure to respond correctly to austerity illustrates the need for even greater suffering. Push will, someday soon, come to shove.

Prime Mover: “The humble shipping container is a powerful antidote to economic pessimism and fears of slowing innovation. Although only a simple metal box, it has transformed global trade. In fact, new research suggests that the container has been more of a driver of globalization than all trade agreements in the past 50 years taken together.” And they can be used to house displaced workers.

Porn O'Graphs: What's really going on.

The Parting Shot:

Ox-eye daisy. Chrysanthemum leucanthemum.