SAR #9278

Reality matters.

Tautology: Unemployment is high because people are worried about their jobs and people who are worried about their jobs or have no jobs, and who are also trying to get out from under a pile of debt, are not going do a lot of shopping. And businesses that don’t have customers can't do a lot of hiring.

MacArthurism: Defense Secretary Gates took Stan McChrystal out behind the woodshed and reminded him that General Officers serve at the pleasure of the President, and that unless specificity directed to express their opinions, they do not have any opinions.

A Good Idea: TARP Watchdog Neil Baraofsky thinks it would be a good idea, in the future, to make sure that the Treasury's public statements are accurate and truthful. I suspect it would have been a good idea had they been accurate and truthful for quite some time now.

Deconstruction: There is a growing chorus murmering that the US labor market is undergoing the permanent destruction of many millions of jobs. This explains why 1 out of 3 of the unemployed have been out of work for more than six months. Imagine what the country will be like when 8 or 10 million have been out of work for years not months. The Dow was up again yesterday.

Hide the Constitution: Will Rogers warned citizens to be watchful when Congress was in session. These days the citizen is in far more danger when the Supreme Court gathers. You've been warned.

The Other Guy's Problem: The World Bank estimates that at least 75% of the initial suffering from climate change will be suffered by the poorer countries, giving the rich industrial nations another reason to put off doing anything about their CO2 outputs.

Diagnosis: The GOP has lost control, lost control of the White House, lost control of the Congress, and lost control of its sense of decency. It has simply lost control.

Slum Dog, the Documentary: Every 15 seconds a child under 5 dies in India – 2,000,000 a year, half in the first month of life, 400,000 in the first day.

Untouchable: The IAEA's ElBaradei pointed out that the only nation in prolonged and contemptuous violation of the UN's rules on nuclear weapons and IAEA inspection of nuclear facilities is Israel, which he sees as “ the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses."

Oh Look, See The Dog: UN observers deployed in Afghanistan to monitor the recent election for fraud were fired for reporting electoral fraud on the part of the designated winner, amounting to about 30% of his vote total.

Done Deal: Based on a calm, but frightening, reprise of the unemployment data, which sees U-3 at 10% and U6 above 19%, be assured that Recession 2.0 is on schedule and will soon be here.

Möbius Strip: Under the mistaken idea that he's in some way relevant, ABC had McCain on again blathering away with a point of view that has been officially rejected by the public. Not everything has two sides.

As the Sun Sets in the West: California is becoming a failed state, Its political process is stalemated, it runs on IOUs, over 12% of its workforce is unemployed, it is cutting education and public health spending. If it were an independent country, it would get foreign aid from the US.

Hopes, Dashed: An economic recovery requires job creation by small businesses, which requires credit, which is being denied to small businesses at an accelerating rate. Small businesses have found their lines of credit reduced by 25% this year – a reduction exceeding $1.25 trillion – while 10% of of small business accounts have been canceled.

Porn O'Graph: Them that had, got. More.