SAR #16259

Democracy is a process, not a place.

Thanks For All The Fish: Israel has manipulated the Obama administration into promising it $38 billion in military aid to help it keep crushing the Palestinians for another ten years. The Defense Department views this as a way of making sure the War on Terror continues ad infinitum.

Smoke/Fire: Two of three technicians who worked on Clinton's email server repeatedly took the Fifth rather than answer questions at a Congressional hearing. A third did not bother to show up. Why, if Mrs. Clinton and the FBI are correct and there was nothing improper, much less criminal about her email fiasco?

Multiple Choice: Are stock and bond markets bubbles? a) Yes. b) Hell yes. c) It's different this time. d) Get serious.

Tell-Tale Heart: Mme. Lagard has – rather belatedly – come to the realization that globalization has not been a Good Deal for a lot of people, and that governments should boost support for low income workers and reduce the inequality in their societies, before there is “a growing sense among citizens that they lack control, that the system is against them.” She also suspects that “corruption remains endemic.”

Overcrowded: There are about 50,000 wild horses in the US. About 45,000 of them will be 'culled' (for which read killed) in order to provide grazing land for cattle.

Salt, Pinched: While the media gushes over the 5.2% median household income rise and the decline of the US poverty rate to 13.5%, let's keep in mind that both of these measures are worse than they were in 2007 before Wall Street took a hammer to the economy. We are, at last, back to being as rich as we were in 1998.

Computer Language: At its San Francisco campus, the University of California – which avidly recruits students to train in computer skills, has hired an India-based IT outsource agency and is laying off its own tech workers – who are expected to train their foreign replacements.

Rhetorical Question: If Medicare for All could save the country $400 billion a year, what are we waiting for?

Angels/Pinheads: After flailing about for nine years, it has become obvious that there is nothing the central banks can do – including manipulating interest rates – that will spur economic growth absent actual demand.

What's the Point? What problems are self-driving cars the answer to? Or are they a form of Apple Watch on wheels?

Smoking Mirrors: According to Paul Romer, chief economist for the World Bank, the trouble with macroeconomics is that “much of the work in this area no longer qualifies as scientific research.” No longer? And that “on simple questions of fact ... the answers verge on the absurd.” Verge?

A Parting Shot: