Saturday, November 14, 2015

SAR #15318


Code Orange: Donald Trump once again surged to the head of the popularity contest being held here and there by the GOP. But then he began bad-mouthing Gentle Ben.
Bigger Fools: Americans owe over $8 trillion on their houses, a tad over $1 trillion for college educations that are not worth what they cost, and just under a trillion on their credit cards. That's $10 trillion in private IOUs. Do you really think they are good for it?
Noted: “Americans are pessimistic about the economy because, for many of them, the economy hasn’t gotten better... Millions of Americans left the labor force in the recession and haven’t returned. Millions more are stuck in low-wage jobs or are working part time because they can’t find full-time work.” It's the difference between numbers and lives.
My Bad: The Utah judge who ruled that a same-sex couple were, by definition, bad parents, has reversed himself. Temporarily.
The Bernake: “There’s a lot of savings in the world looking for a relatively small number of good-return investments, and so the equilibrium real interest rate in the economy is very, very low”. Which is another way of saying that the economy sucks and all that free money he pumped into Wall Street is keeping interest rates down.
Distant Early Warning? Foreclosure starts have recorded their sharpest increase in over four years, as the recovery recovers.
The Beginning of the End, Part 2 or 3: The president of the EU says that the EU's “open borders” system could be ended due to the migrant crisis. That was one of the dreams that the EU was built on – free movement of free people within the EU.
Left Hand/Right Hand: A federal court has ruled that warrentless tracking of web histories is a violation of the Wiretap Act and other privacy laws. The NSA told the court to mind its own business.
Après moi, le déluge: A second Greenland glacier, Zachariae, has joined Jakobshven in galloping to the sea, and its neighbor Nioghalvfjerdsfjorden seems to be joining the race. Together the three contain enough ice to raise sea levels over three feet globally. But not right away. Exactly when is not known, but the time horizon keeps getting shorter and shorter.
This Time Next Year: A grassroots movement will place a proposition on next year's Colorado ballot that would establish “Colorado Care”, a universal single payer health insurance system. It would be paid by a 10% payroll tax (7% from employers and 3% from workers, but let's face it it all comes out of the workers...) and would save the citizenry about $5 billion a year. Insurance companies are not delighted.
Travel Tip: Take Beattyville, KY off your bucket list.

3 comments:

G-fan said...

The Bernake vs. Bigger Fools Wait till those interest rates to rise, because it won't be going up as fast on those near empty savings accounts as it will on the variable rate loans. Yellen will be in for some yelling.

G-fan said...

Memory of Fruit Flies Democracy can't work if the people can't remember the past further than their morning cup. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/15/barack-obama-lgbt-idol-in-chief

Gegner said...

Beattyville/bucketlist: Took a few paragraphs to tumble to the fact the Brits were responsible for this bit of fingerpointing...a salve for their own fiscally challenged populous. See, things aren't so bright in the US after all.

But it doesn't damn the true culprit, [I've got mine, F.U. capitalism and the hellacious mismanagement that is the 'global race to the bottom.'] Surprisingly, the article does point at the conundrum of Republicanism (and how the oligarchs keep installing unpopular overlords as our 'representatives') but without comment. {Seems the Brits have their own variety of 'conservatism' to cope with.}

Ironic how the 'Party System' reflects the true issue, the 'haves' and the 'have nots' yet 'party politics disguise that the 'stage' is controlled by the haves to keep the have nots complacent.

Same as it ever was.