Tuesday, July 28, 2009

SAR #9208

Our ancestors were not dumb, they just didn't have petroleum.

Spin Cycle: Here's the great unwashed data on June new house sales: They were down 23% y/y. Prices were down 12% y/y. This is what three consecutive months of improvement looks like. Yes, on a monthly basis it was "the biggest gain in 8 years". Should I cue the band?

Meditate on This:
34 times as much money ($10.6 billion) has been bet on emerging-markets mutual funds than on US stock funds.

New Track: Now the professional nay-sayers conclude that the "pesky 5 billion" in the non-industrial world aren't going to do their part so we shouldn't even try. Besides, cutting back on carbon emissions would cut into profits and bonuses. Especially bonuses.

Compromise: Bribepartisan Senators have agreed on healthcare reform without a low-cost public option and without requiring employers provide health insurance for employees. The agreement pleased both the US Chamber of Commerce and PhRMA, the drug lobbying group. Healthcare reform without the health care or the reform. Words are slippery devils, aren't they.

Quoted: “Job insecurity, together with declines in home values and tight credit, is likely to limit gains in consumer spending.” Y'think? No wonder we pay Ben the big bucks.

Bad New/Worse News: Geithner admits that we cannot restructure Fannie and Freddie right now "because they are the entire mortgage market in the country.” They are also failing and will need lots more money "soon." Me, too, especially now that I'm buying cars for the neighbors.

Accomodation: We've suffered from inflation so long we think it's normal. It's not. It's a product of the Federal Reserve.

More is More, Sort Of: Faced with falling sales, Lay’s has decided to reverse the old trick of putting less in the same package and actuallyl put more in the same package and charge the same price. They say it’s because they wanted to give the customer greater value. Nope, it’s because they want the customer to continue giving them money and the 20% more doesn’t cost near what loosing sales does.

What's Wrong With This Picture: 'US Eyes Private Guards for Bases in Afghanistan' Maybe there's an argument for hiring out KP duty, but guarding the base? Are wars necessary or just for profit?

Mirror, Mirror: Over 7 million have lost their jobs so far; we've erased the last ten years of net job growth. In the "real economy" where people work, get paid and spend their earnings, the working and getting paid and spending parts aren't working.

There, Piggy, Piggy: There were about 100,000 new swine flu cases in England last week.

Faith Healing: Before you get excited about China's continuing growth - GDP up8% even though exports are down 20% - remember their 'stimulus' was the same as the US handing out $4.5 trillion and forcing the banks to lend it (not pay themselves bonuses). Bound to have an effect. Also bound to end poorly.

Short Answer: Will America lose the clean-energy race? Yes, to Mother Nature

Rhetorical Question: "Is the US Economy Close to Hitting Bottom?" Most financial and economic commentators say "Yes." They didn't see it coming, but they claim to be able to see it going. Me, I'm gonna sit here and take notes.

What's Good for GM... Detroit's schools, which stopped working years ago, face imminent bankruptcy.

Getting Ready: In preparation for the 2012 Olympics - or something - British coppers have been given the power to enter homes and confiscate pamphlets and posters and "announcements and notices of any kind."

Wholesale: Condo/Hotel units in south Florida's luxurious One Bal Harbor project are now selling for 94% off their one-time prices.

Efficiencies: US fuel efficiency has improved by 3 miles per gallon since Model T days, average commuting speeds have decreased

Porn O'Graph: The Fed's "stable prices".

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Efficiencies: US fuel efficiency has improved by 3 miles per gallon since Model T days, average commuting speeds have decreased

The Infernal Combustion Engine is OVER 110 years old. Wow, now there's a technology that has some real staying power. A real testament to the evil combination of political and economic power of the OIL and AUTO Oligopolies and their supporting industries like never ending road building and repaving, trucking, etc.

And now the whole scam is Global with the Japanese, Chinese and India muscling in on the Rackets. Hey, Godfather............

Anonymous said...

Accomodation: & Porn O'Graph

Would that the media would explain that a 3% target interest rate means that your dollar today will be worth 97 cents next year and 94 cents the next and so on and so on.

P.S. How that cost of living increase working out? Oh, didn't get one? I see...

RBM

Anonymous said...

meant inflation rate

RBM

Anonymous said...

A new study published in the Journal of Nature Geoscience may have figured out why global temperatures keep falling much to the chagrin of the "Church of Global Warming Moonbats." Their entire model was all wrong.

http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/ngeo578.html

Nuclear is the most efficient, stable, and cost effective energy source. Wind and Solar get subsidies of up to 40%. Cap and Trade will take that to 50%. My brother, an engineer with 20 years in the nuclear power field, has run the financial models over and over that show a 8B nuclear plant will return between 14 to 16 percent once online and provide that return for 60 years. Obtaining financing for the 8B is the problem without destroying utilities credit rating. That is where the government should step in.

Instead, Obama (i) closed Yucca, (ii) is in favor of the abomination of a cap-and-trade bill that rewards Wall Street but is otherwise impotent, and (iii) appointed a self-avowed communist as his green jobs czar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Jones

We are so screwed.

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Anony 9:07 PM

You cite the Zeebe, Zachos & Dickens' paper and sum it up with: "they may have figured out why global temperatures keep falling...

First, go read the paper again. They did not figure out why global temperatures keep falling. They, in fact, say nothing about current climate change except to suggest that the 55 million year old Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) may provide clues to help predict the extent of our current warming.

Specifically they point out that the amount of carbon released then (they cite data to suggest 3Gton C, instead of the more commonly accepted 5Gton figure) only accounts for perhaps half or less of the warming during the PETM.

That would not invalidate the current claim that doubling CO2 levels will produce a 3C raise in temperature - it suggests that there were other things going on 55 million years ago that resulted in the temperature raising twice as much as is currently predicted.

That does not show that the current models "are all wrong", but rather that we may be in greater danger from global warming than has been determined to date. Our knowledge of events 55 million years ago is pretty sketchy at best, so all we 'know' about that time is open to revision and reinterpretation. It is used by climate scientists because the hot-house conditions then are the closest analogue to what is expected in the next few hundred years.

But yes, we are so screwed - especially when members of the general public can so mis-read a scientific letter.

ckm

Lily said...

I just stumbled onto you blog and I have to say, you mange to come up with qyuite some good posts, that are spot on!

Charles Kingsley Michaelson, III said...

Sarah - We aim to please. Tell a friend or three...
ckm