COLLECTIVE MADNESS
“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."
just ya dont hate it when your ammo you bring to church, temple or mosque blows up and kills a few?
ReplyDeleteI know I do...
Yeah, but what about when it happens to THEM, WIO?
ReplyDeletePBUT
Housing Woes in U.S. Spread Around Globe
ReplyDeleteStill, the problems in Britain pale next to those of Spain and Ireland. Residential investment accounts for 12 percent of the Irish economy and 9 percent of the Spanish economy, compared with 5 percent in Britain and 4 percent in the United States, according to the I.M.F.
The glut of housing has brought new construction to a standstill, driving up unemployment and dimming the prospects for two of Europe’s stellar performers over the last decade.
“We’re waking up from the property dream and finding ourselves in a situation where prices are falling in Spain for the first time,” said Fernando Encinar, a founder of Idealista.com, a real estate Web site.
In Spain, more than four million homes were built in the last decade, more than in Germany, Britain and France combined. Average house prices tripled in parts of the country, as Spain’s torrid economy attracted immigrants and Northern Europeans snapped up holiday homes along the Costa del Sol.
Now, though, thousands of those houses stand empty. The I.M.F. estimates that property is overvalued by more than 15 percent. With mortgages drying up and prices swooning, speculators who once viewed Spanish property as a no-lose proposition are confronting hard reality.
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Economists have been busy cutting their growth forecasts for Spain, with a few saying that it may stagnate this summer. BBVA, a leading Spanish bank, forecasts that unemployment will rise to an average of 11 percent this year, from 8.6 percent in 2007.
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After a 16-year boom that was interrupted only briefly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Ireland has the most overvalued housing market among developed countries, according to the I.M.F. In its recent economic outlook, the fund calculated that prices are 30 percent higher than they should be, given Ireland’s economic fundamentals.
China displaces the U.S. at Ecuador's Manta Base
ReplyDelete- Threatswatch
doug Yeah, but what about when it happens to THEM, WIO?
ReplyDeletePBUT
not to worry, it's the joos fault
Joos in the phews!
ReplyDeleteJoos in the phews!
Jim Henley at Unqualified Offerings on one of the regular hazards of blogging from an ideological niche:
ReplyDeleteThought for the Day
Daniel Larison should of course critique Obama’s "bittergate" remarks if he wants. He’s a blogger; that’s what we do. He should feel free to offer the most unflattering analysis possible: he’s an ideological opponent of Obama. But paleoconservatives should probably be wary of pronouncing confidently on the political effects of a controversy among ordinary people, because, no more than libertarians, they haven’t got a clue. Larison was pretty confident that the Wright brouhaha meant the end of Obama before any polling had even been done. The fact that Obama is even around to have a mini-scandal about his San Francisco remarks shows how much Larison overdrew his conclusions the first time.
I should say, in any "normal" election of the last thirty years, the Jeremiah Wright case alone, let alone Bittergate, would be fatal blows to Obama’s candidacy; they don’t just cross the rightist-PC line but obliterate it. Sorry, Liberal Readers, it’s that simple. But one of the things we’re in the process of discovering is how abnormal this election is going to be, compared to the general run of elections in my lifetime. Larison is too quick to assume he knows the answer.
Posted by Jim Henley @ 8:14 am, Filed under: Main
I see Wretchard related the good news (or "good news" insofar as it's still ambiguous) of a thousand plus Iraqi police being shitcanned. Apparently their efforts weren't very... workmanlike.
ReplyDeleteWe've got a problem not very dissimilar, and at least as bad, in our own ICE right there at home. Might wanna take a look at that, Serpico. Wherever you are.
And wasn't that one of the best movies ever?
ReplyDeleteYes it was.
When I go to mosque, I always leave my weapons at the door, but always wear my body armour inside. Makes it harder to pound my forehead on the floor, but the feeling of security is worth it.
ReplyDelete