SAR #14064

History makes progress a tenuous concept.

Looks Like a Duck: In January, the EU industrial producer price index fell 0.4% m/m and 1.2% y/y. In the eurozone it was down 1.4% y/y. Disinflation, they insist. Not deflation. Not yet.

Pick One: The authors of academic research papers quoted by Paul Ryan (Budget Maven – WI) to prove that federal poverty programs don't work say that either Mr. Ryan does not understand what he reads or is willfully misrepresenting their findings. You chose.

Takes One To Know One: The senior aide chosen by PM David Cameron to set the guidelines for protecting children from Internet pornography has been arrested for... child pornography.

Protecting & Serving: A Kansas teen who was arrested last year for jaywalking and was gutsy enough to film his own arrest for what the cops alleged was 'obstructing justice' – defined as filming cops being bullies – has been arrested again. This time for once again filming cops harassing him, which is illegal nearly everywhere, especially in Topeka. At least he didn't point his finger like a gun... 
 
Deja vu: The Iraqi government has taken up where the US left off, killing civilians in Falluja.

Cup, Lip, Slip: There is a “cavernous gap between our reigning economic theory and reality. But because our economic theory is a “just world” theory, one that assumes that people get what they deserve, thus the rich are the good and the poor deserve their fate. Clinging to the neoclassical model will, as we enter an age of scarcity, erode our social cohesion and require the state to engage in ever greater forms of coercion. The greater the discrepancy between theory and reality, the more coercion is required to keep the populace docile. Ask the former leaders of the former Soviet Union. Or Putin. Or take a good look around you.

The Parting Shot:

  Green Moray Eel, Gymnothorax funebris.