Thursday, May 29, 2014

SAR #14148


A new entity has been established without our noticing: the economic state.

Prophets and Loss: Remember all the fortunes that fracking the shale plays was going to create? Did you get in on the ground floor? Is your company one of those whose debts have doubled over the last four years while revenue has only increased 5.6%? A lot of frackers are spending at least 10% of their sales income on interest payments. Exxon, for comparison, pays 0.1% of its sales in interest. Drillers gotta drill, to make enough money to at least pay the interest on the loans they took out to do their previous drilling. And then they have to borrow more money to drill more holes to make more money to pay back the interest on the loans that went into the last set of holes. As for paying off the principal? Well, they're frackers, principles don't enter into it.

As the World Turns: A woman has been stoned to death by her family in front of a Pakistani high court for marrying the man she loves. At least it wasn't the woman she loved. A Sudanese woman who was found guilty of marrying her Christian lover has given birth in jail. She will now suffer 100 lashes and then hanged
 
Pace Yourself: S&P 500 CEOs got an average 8.8% pay raise last year and now their median income is over $10 million – 257 times what the average worker makes. But they deserve it because of all the hard decisions they have to make. And all the jobs they crea.... Because they can.

Qualifications: A Duke University business major who was expelled over rape charges is suing the university. Not to expunge his record, but to get his degree. He figures that with the degree and the rape charges he's a shoo-in for a Wall Street job.

Oily Days: Somebody else has noticed that there seems to be a correlation between the price of oil and the price of food. Y'think?

This Just In: Studies show that low paid workers don't have much money! 
 
Bonded Out: The stock market keeps climbing ever higher, while the yeild on 10-year Treasuries keeps dropping and are now down to 2.43%. If the bond mavens think that a 2.43% return on their money over a ten year period is a good deal, what do you think that might mean for the profits of corporate America? Bigger fools, bigger fools. Have we still got lots of bigger fools?

Antigonish: The governor of the Bank of England says capitalism will be doomed if its ethics vanish. Its ethics?

Camel's Nose & The Tent: The Russians are 'offering' to supply humanitarian aid to the 'conflict zone' in eastern Ukraine, and has asked the Ukrainian government to allow several Russian divisions to escort the supplies into the country. Russian would like “the fastest possible answer” to their request. 
 
Porn O'Graph: Correlation is not causation, but it gets suggestive after a while.

The Parting Shot: 

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