It’s interesting being present at the creation of an underclass.
Connecting The Dots: DoD Secretary Panneta says the US Navy will expand its presence in the South China Sea, where – according to Chinese estimates - there are as much as 213 billion barrels of petroleum.
Been There, Done That: So far various IMF/EU/ECB agencies have injected a tad over €2 trillion to preserve the Eurozone from collapse. How's that working out? Haven't we seen this movie before? The one about “Quantitative Easing in our time,” with a cast of thousands?
Graduation, Rated: Even if you are not stuck with a 9.25% interest rate, and even if you manage to graduate, a college education is the riskiest investment a person can make right now. Worse than buying a house.
Mushrooms:A new FCC rule that requires the identities of groups behind political ads be posted on-line is being attacked by... Republicans. They're also trying to kill laws calling for energy efficiency in lighting. Keep 'em in the dark.
Moving On: The tricks are getting old and stale and Bernanke's magic has lost its zing. Morgan Stanley now sees the next round of QE as kicking the can down the road just a few hours, a couple of days at most. Can they - the central bankers - come up with new tricks? Perhaps, but it all revolves around the creation of money out of thin air and if that was going to work, it would have a couple of years ago. This does not end well.
Ups And Down: In May part-time jobs increased by 618,000 while full time positions dropped 266,000. Ah, recovery. Since 2007, 6.9 million full time jobs have disappeared while part-timers increased by 3.1 million.
All Together Now: Deutsche Bank cut its GDP forecast for 2Q2012 from 2.9% to 2.4%, while Goldman cut their guesstimate from 2.0% to 1.8%. The S&P seems to be on life support: It had the best week of the year, up 3.5% this week – amid the lowest volume of the year.
Asked & Answered: What is shadow banking? “Shadow banking is a market-funded, credit intermediation system involving maturity and/or liquidity transformation through securitization and secured-funding mechanisms." Aren't you glad you asked?
Idle Hands: Three out of five young people still live with family. Only one in six has a full-time job. This is the US we're talking about, not Greece or Spain or Egypt. The odds are that this generation will never recover from the setbacks they are suffering now.
Brave New World: A depressing recitation of daily life in today's Greece, tomorrow's Spain, and the rest of the future... What it's like when the money (credit) runs out. A required reading assignment.
Be careful What You Wish For: The anti-tobacco campaign is working; far more American Teens are smoking marijuana than cigarettes.
Porn O'Graph: United we stand.
The Parting Shot:
Relax, it’s the weekend.
1 comment:
RE: Graduation Rated
The full quote is better:
Students today graduate from post secondary education with more debt (inflation adjusted) than the generations before did. This is a fact and is not debatable. This debt is exempt from all bankruptcy laws. I could borrow 50 thousand dollars to start a business bedazzling jean jackets tomorrow and if it didn't work out be free and clear of that debt in seven years, but if I wanted to be a scientist and things didn't work out I'd be stuck with that liability for the rest of my life. This makes education literally the riskiest investment a person can make, which strikes me as counterproductive to the formation of a country comprised of people who will make it vibrant and viable in the future.
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