SAR #13329

Charter schools do not improve education, but that's not the point.

Into the Valley of Death: After a dozen pointless years of wounded and dead Americans, wounded and dead Afghans (and Pakistanis killed in the spill-over), the US is close to getting Karzai and the drug lords to agree to let the nonsense go on for another decade as long, to quote Karzai, as US troops “bring a lot of money.”

No Price Like Home: October new house sales fell 8% m/m and 6% y/y, perhaps because the market cannot absorb price increases of 2% a month while wages aren't rising at all. 
 
The Lack Of The Irish: The EU/ECB/IMF has taken a page from the US playbook, claimed victory for the forces of austerity and pronounced Ireland cured after 5 years of bloodletting. Here's what they've accomplished: Employment is now down12.8% from 2008, the number of unemployed persons has tripled, the GDP is shrinking by 1.2% annually and 17% of all mortgages are delinquent.

On Being Black In America: Miami Gardens resident Earl Sampson has been stopped and questioned by the police 258 times in the last four years and arrested 62 times for trespassing. At his place of work. 
 
End The End The Fed Foolishness: When you read that inflation and the Fed have reduced the value of the dollar 97% since 1911, its apples and oranges. A dollar is a medium of exchange. Most of us exchange our labor/time for dollars. Back in 1911 we exchanged an hour of our lives for ten cents, which would buy whatever... now we exchange an hour of our lives for $14.78, which buys a hell of a lot more & better stuff than that ten cents did. Tell those folks to move along. 
 
What's Wrong With This Picture: “President Barack Obama hosted Morocco’s King Mohammed VI at the White House on Friday for talks on furthering democracy." 
 
The Plan: After filibustering literally hundreds of bills during Obama's presidency and filibustering nearly all of his nominations, the Republicans are secretly delighted that the Democrats have exercised the 'nuclear option' and reverted to simple majority on Presidential nominations. That way, when they get back in power, they can gut the upper chamber and declare a dictatorship - and blame it on Harry Reid. It is part of their drive to make the government as dysfunctional as they claim it to be. 
 
Rehtorical Question: Who's paying for JPMorgan's various settlements? Duh?

Asked & Answered: "Does the share of income flowing to corporations and professional workers in the financial sector reflect their marginal contribution to the total value of social output, so that, if their work ceased to be done and their skills were allocated elsewhere, we would all be worse off?" That is, can Wall Street, in its present form, be justified?  Ha. "For everyone but the top 1 percent of earners, the American economy is broken." 
 
Whistling Past the Graveyard: German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Saturday that there were no longer any risks of contagion in the euro zone, and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras stressed his country did not need a further bailout. "The euro is stable, financial markets are no longer concerned about the future of the euro zone and there are no risks of contagion anymore," he said.

A Little Help From My Friends: NSA has been intercepting, analyzing and storing British citizens' telephone and internet activity for the UK's GCHQ and they, in turn, have been doing the same for NSA. Nothing in US law says NSA can't spy on the British, so... The US government does the same thing with commercial firms in the US who collect info the government can't, but which the government can buy. Too many lawyers.

Quoted: “An increasing number of economists are beginning to worry that technological change may make large numbers of people completely unemployable. In short, the robots are coming to take our jobs. If so, we’ll need an economic system that can cope when lots of people have no way to making a living.” So, why not a guaranteed annual income for all to solve the demand problem?

Porn O'Graph: Republican family planning advice.