SAR #14149

"We cheer-led the rise of property prices not realizing that it would destroy, if not our own lives, but the lives of our children." David Boyle.

Leavening: The number of student loan borrowers is going up, as is the amount they are borrowing. Student debt is higher than total credit card debt and higher than all of the nation's car loans. Oh, and jobs that require a degree are not at all time highs. Still.

Once And Done: The Top of the World: “[Piketty's] core message… can be delivered in a few lines: “Left to its own devices, wealth inevitably tends to concentrate in capitalist economies. There is no ‘natural’ mechanism… for inhibiting, much less reversing, that tendency. … Vast inequities should, in theory, be ‘competed away’, but mostly they’re not.” 
 
Just So Story: Along Florida's beaches and barrier islands they are building like there is no tomorrow. And there won't be. Recent reports have assured us that the Greenland Ice Sheet is melting faster than anticipanted and that the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Shelf – and the 10 to 12 foot sea level rise that goes with it – is underway and is unstoppable. A little like developers in Florida.

Finely Printed: Yes, the US is going to reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan. What about the number of mercenaries?

Spot Quiz: Name another nation in the world that regularly has non-political gun-based mass murders. For extra credit, identify what sickness in the American make-up drives these tragedies. If there were a way to reduce the slaughter would you support it? If it included increased gun control, would you support it? If the increased gun control would keep your daughter from being gunned down?

PG-13: The latest guess at the First Quarter 2014 GDP number is out, and it's not fit for children. The magic number is a minus 1.0%. And if the stimulus effect of taxpayer-subsidized healthcare spending is excluded, it would be a minus 2%. So, on the general theory that things are so bad they'll have to get better, the stock market rose.

Runner-Up: A 3-year-old boy in Arizona shot and killed his 18-month-old brother with a neighbor's gun. It wasn't clear whether the boy or the neighbor would get the automatic life-time NRA Membership. 
 
The Parting Shot: