SAR #13199

“There are two kinds of investments: those that lose all their value at once, and those that lose value slowly.” Dmitry Orlov

What Part of Globalization Don't You Understand? The US Sideshow Senate wants the oil business to explain why the price of oil (and thus the price of gasoline) is so damned high, when we're drowning in all that new tight oil and shale oil. I hope at least one of the titans of industry can convince the Senate that shale oil etc. is part of a global market where the highest bidder gets the oil. And maybe they could bring up how damned expensive all this new oil is to wrest from the ground.

Gullibility: Global regulators are attempting to devise ways to convince the public that the benchmarks that form the base of our financial markets – things like Libor, the price of gold and oil and wheat and so on – are being honestly reached. Even though they're not.

On Average: While Wall Street is reporting 20% to 70% increases in their income, the average American worker's wages remain unchanged after adjusting for inflation. Of course Wall Street's earnings greatly come from cutting costs – like wages. Of June's 195,000 new payroll jobs, 75,000 were in restaurants and bars, where the average weekly paycheck is about $351, less than half the average for all other private industries. In recent months, reports out of Washington and Wall Street have flooded the media with stories about how the economy is looking up. If only. 
 
Deathbed Conversion: The World Bank has suddenly discovered that coal-fired power plants are bad for us and will limit its lending for them to countries that have "no feasible alternatives" to coal, which is vague enough to let them continue financing most of them.

Hat/Hurry: Two of the top officials at the Bonneville Power Administration have been abruptly shown the door when it was discovered that they had retaliated against a half-dozen employees who had been “helping an inspector general’s inquiry about hiring practices.”

Hiccups: June's housing starts fell 9.9% from May, mostly due to a strong drop in multi-family house starts. Single-family starts were only 0.8% below May's numbers. We are to believe that the housing market is still booming; the decline was “due to the weather.” Permits for future construction also fell, in anticipation of more weather.

Thoroughness: There are well over 500,000 miles of undersea cables carting email and internet hither and thither around the globe – and through NSA computers. For our benefit, they say.

Grades: Republican state senator Osmond (yes, one of those Osmonds) wants to make education optional in Utah. He attended high school in Utah and is proof that, at least in his case, it was a waste.

Anything, Something: The feds – finally – are reportedly considering charging low-ranking Wall Street banksters with “intent to commit fraud.” Or felonious jaywalking. Or maybe excessive hubris... 
 
Covered: The usually calm and thoughtful American public has come unglued because Dzhokar Tsarnaev made the cover of Rolling Stone. 
 
Pure Coincidence: No Such Agency is being credited – by the CIA no less – for overhearing “al Qaida-linked groups” on the phone chatting about a bombing campaign against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. They needed a little good PR.

Appealing, Really Appealing: The Obama administration is appealing a judge's decision that would end “genital searches' in Guantanamo. Waterboarding is okay, but playing with their genitals is forbidden? Okay, but answer me this: what in the world can these guys in their cages get to hide beneath their genitals?

The Parting Shot: