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."

Monday, August 01, 2011

$ Seven Trillion in New Debt - Our Head is Still in the Ditch




The debt ceiling agreement reached by Democrats and Republicans will likely prove enough to spur investors around the world to take a big sigh of relief, Pimco’s CEO Mohamed El-Erian said Sunday evening.
“This two step agreement is sufficient to lift the threat of a U.S. default and will therefore fuel a relief rally in markets around the world,” he said in an emailed response to questions about the deal by Dow Jones Newswires.
By “two step agreement,” El-Erian was referring to a process that includes both lifting the government’s debt ceiling as well as setting a framework for additional budget cuts later.
The U.S. still faces the risk of a downgrade of its AAA debt rating, however, he added.
“The impact on the AAA will depend on whether S&P sticks to what it stated back on July 14 when it placed America’s rating on negative watch,” El-Erian noted.
El-Erian, who doubles as co-chief investment officer at the world’s biggest bond fund shop, also observed that a “strict interpretation” of terms for a downgrade would likely lead the ratings agency to lower its view on U.S. credit.
“I suspect, the agency is under enormous pressure not to do so,” El-Erian added.

88 comments:

  1. My prediction, made in the previous post, was similar to some of my spectacular stock picks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. If Krugman don't like it, I like it.

    And then there are the reported terms of the deal, which amount to an abject surrender on the part of the president. First, there will be big spending cuts, with no increase in revenue. Then a panel will make recommendations for further deficit reduction — and if these recommendations aren’t accepted, there will be more spending cuts.

    Waaa fuckin' waaa.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Throw darts at the stock page of the WSJ. Matched against 'the experts'--two years running the dart thrower won!

    Or, stick to farming and real estate.

    Grow alfalfa. :)

    Eat TV dinners. :)

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  4. Seven trillion in new debt is just two or three newly minted one trillion dollar platinum coins, after all.

    Should be 'no big deal'.

    Keep 'em in Harry Reid's drawer.

    Or drawers.

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  5. The Good News is: Things aren't any worse this morning than they were yesterday morning. (Quite a positive thing, really; when you figure Congress was In Session.)

    On the other hand: Things are about the same.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Well, that's the way it is most mornings, Rufus (as I wax philosophical/hopeful)

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  7. I was trying not to be a Gloomy Gus on my first comment of the morning.

    What I wanted to say was, "We're still in deep shit, and getting deeper."

    ReplyDelete
  8. Growth stopped somewhere around $3.25/gal. We're now at $3.70/gal, and going higher.

    I'm not for sure that even a Very Severe Recession would, at this point, bring gasoline prices back down into the range needed for Growth.

    ReplyDelete
  9. The fundamental difference between Me, and the Fed is: The Fed believes it was the "Shock" of the rapid rise in gasoline prices that caused the "Soft Patch."

    I believe it's more Fundamental. I believe that it's the "Price Level" that's causing the problem; not, the Shock of getting there.

    The Fed believes that the price of gasoline will either go back down, or we will "adjust."

    I believe that, only with the very worst recession will the price of gasoine go back down into the "growth range," and This is the Important one, WE CAN'T ADJUST.

    At least, not for several years.

    ReplyDelete
  10. That's why the Fed keeps getting these numbers wrong, and I keep getting them right.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Gas prices -- Here in Moscow they are high. You go east back into the county 40 miles they are lower back there, when they should be higher due to the cost of delivery.

    What's going on?

    Simple, it has ever been thus here, the stations are sucking off the foolish students.

    This has been investigated by the Idaho Attorney's Office at least three times, and nothing ever, ever comes of it.

    :)

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  12. ISM at 50.9

    Oops

    We're in recession.

    ReplyDelete
  13. The ISM was the last little ray of sunshine (we've been manageing to export a few expensive items.)

    The Sunshine, it is gone.

    ReplyDelete
  14. The Main Thing to remember is that the "Main" thing is the Main thing.

    The Main Thing is "Growth."

    Growth washes away a lot of sins.

    Recession puts you on the express train to hell.

    That sound you hear is steel wheels.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Take a nap while you can. The track gets a little bumpy pretty soon. And you're in for a long trip.

    ReplyDelete
  16. We are witnessing the very beginning of the end of "the age of oil."

    ReplyDelete
  17. The stock market has not been impressed, so far.

    ReplyDelete
  18. High water covers lot's of stumps, as my dad used to say.

    ReplyDelete
  19. It all looks the same from 30,000 feet up, is what my grandfather used to say. (speaking of crops, good and bad)


    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  20. NJ Transit Bus Idles for 5 Hours With Dead Driver

    In a perverse sort of way this seems terribly, tragically apropos.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Instead of adding $10 trillion to the debt over the next decade, we're only adding $7 trillion. We "save" $3 trillion dollars!

    Guess what? It's still $7 trillion dollars accounts payable.

    ReplyDelete
  22. It's just six or seven newly minted one trillion dollar platinum coins, Miss T, relax already.


    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  23. Time to invest in shelf stable foods, ammo and pay your debt down...

    I just got (finally) my 6500k honda generator.

    Strap in, the next 18 months are sure going to be an interesting ride....

    And to Ms T, I am sure the Shooter from Norway doesnt even KNOW me...

    But he is right about one thing...

    Islam is at war with the world.

    As for the innocents of Norway? They certainly are as innocent as the innocent civilians of Jerusalem, sad to think that the majority of Norway's people dont agree, they believe that Jews should be allowed to be blown up in pizza parlors by
    justified Palestinians committing "acts of resistance".

    Those that justify the use of terror will certainly someday be plagued with the same...

    Does Norway have cafe's, discos and pizza shops?

    It's only a matter of time when the Jihadists in their midst learn to target those spots...

    ReplyDelete
  24. OK. Great. Debt ceiling is raised so we can borrow more money to pay interest and principle on the money we borrowed AND continue to pay out money that doesn't exist to programs that are hemorrhaging.

    The "Super Congress" will agree to cut all the things that nobody agrees to cut today, later.

    At least we didn't default and have interest rates go up. I suppose that's the best we can hope for.

    I'm smelling "victory" here barmates. Smells a lot like the 150lbs of "victory" I muck from the stalls every morning.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Here's one of the ways we have to go; but it's going to take years.

    A Large Part of the Solution

    ReplyDelete

  26. I'm smelling "victory" here barmates. Smells a lot like the 150lbs of "victory" I muck from the stalls every morning.


    You've won my daughter's heart :)

    (if you are indeed talking about horses)

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  27. Vice President Joe Biden joined House Democrats in lashing tea party Republicans Monday, accusing them of having “acted like terrorists” in the fight over raising the nation’s debt limit.

    Biden was agreeing with a line of argument made by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Pa.) at a two-hour, closed-door Democratic Caucus meeting.


    “We have negotiated with terrorists,” an angry Doyle said, according to sources in the room. “This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.”

    Biden, driven by his Democratic allies’ misgivings about the debt-limit deal, responded: “They have acted like terrorists,” according to several sources in the room.

    Biden’s office declined to comment about what the vice president said inside the closed-door session.


    I'm not really an anything other than an Idaho Republican but I went to a Tea Party Event once, and this kind of rhetoric really pisses me off.


    “This small group of terrorists have made it impossible to spend any money.”

    heh :)

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  28. So, we have a new debt target of $16.7 trillion. Bit of a soft target really, shouldn't take too long.

    We all knowthe best way to deal with a problem of over-spending is to borrow even more money and then announce to the Electorate how you have made a timely deal to save the day.

    What geniuses these politicians are.
    The Best and the Brightest.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Obama was crucified by Republicans in the debt debate; there's little left of him to salvage. Now we have a Republican Party that's gotten practically everything it wants (but not everything, that will come after the next electtions, which given the anemic job numbers - thank you Obama!!! - the Republicans will likely sweep). For the jobless, those drowning in debt, losing their homes - millions of them, and unable to pay for their chidlren's education, Obama and his crowd offer nothing. At least with the lunatic Republicans we know what we're getting, with Obama, I have no idea. Does he have any core? Any beliefs?

    ReplyDelete
  30. He believes he's special is all I can figure.

    I still can't get those styrofoam pillars out of my mind.

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  31. Holy Cow the Nikkei is nose diving.

    Down 1.35% in just a few seconds.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I wanna spend money and I can't, wa wa wa.


    It's tearing (riprip) and tearing (crycry) me part.

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  33. This is interesting on a thread about extinctions--

    Ranger Joe Today 02:18 PM
    Mass Extinction also meant defeat of giant short faced bears that could run down and kill a race horse...huge man eating dire wolves...eagles with sixteen foot wingspans...vicious 700 lb saber toothed tigers...moody irascible wooly mammoths (who's hides and bones made great bivouac tents) and a whole menagerie of other angry megafauna that made life difficult. I say that victory was a good thing. Many paleo-anthropologists describe all-out war between man and beast as we fought our way across the Bering land bridge all the way down to Tierra del Fuego (where an old tribe spoke a similar tongue as the Inuit) with spears and atlatls in dug-out canoes searching for food and shelter. Pure progressive Darwinism. My kind of hubris.


    It's true, there is or was a tribe that " spoke a similar tongue as the Inuit".

    Never heard about that short-faced bear though. My spear would be his match I'm certain.


    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  34. And there was flora and fauna down in Nevada during the last wet that you wouldn't believe, big critters, and ancient men, too, and fish in what are now the dry lake beds, and soaring birds in the skies, and then the dry came and it all blew away and the ancient men moved south, southeast and southwest.

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  35. And such considerations do put a nation state's deficit in a perspective not of today only and who really cares that every home in Las Vegas is underwater?

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  36. Conservatives are only conservatives until it's time to get their entitlement check. Liberals need to wake up to the fact that in a country where someone can hold up a placard saying 'keep your government hands off my medicare', they've seriously failed to make people understand the importance of Federal government programs. A huge number of voters who voted Republican in 2010 are people drawing social security - do we really think all of them could survive without their checks?

    I still find it wacky that the Tea Party's gal for 2012 is a former IRS tax lawyer.

    ReplyDelete
  37. The dollar is toast. Relatively few Americans would self identify as liberals or fans of 'big' government is irrelevant. On issues like the public option, higher taxes on the rich, maintaining social security/medicare, trade, the importance of jobs over the deficit --the public pretty strongly aligns with the positions that are way too populist and liberal for the Democratic establishment.

    More to the specific point; getting the rich to pay more taxes was not particularly unpopular in polls among the Republican base either. The size of the supposed base isn't relevant to Democratic failures. They already got elected on these positions after all.

    ReplyDelete
  38. The basics are replacing energy imports, increasing domestic manufcturing, increasing middle income salaries, decreasing individual debt and decreasing governmental employment and spending as private incomes increase.

    ReplyDelete
  39. We are undergoing a very large step-down in the need for unskilled/semi-skilled labor, and rapidly escalating transportation costs.

    This could be, almost, worse than the thirties because the Black Liberal will be voted out, leaving us a Republican Congress (including a filibuster majority in the Senate,) and a Republican President.

    We could be in for ten, or more, years worse than any we can, now, imagine.

    ReplyDelete
  40. I think Deuce has it about right.

    I don't see any of that happening unless the black liberal is voted out.

    Which I am almost certain now will be the case. I'm almost ready to start taking bets.

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  41. And when I read Rufus I just go woe is me, is us, and head for bed :)

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  42. Rufus is very depressed. I see massive heartache, and pain on the very near horizon.

    And, not a glimmer of hope.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Yes, but on the other hand, these days, practically everybody has a car, and sufficient food, there is no 'dust bowl' and unless I am badly mistaken, we are not heading into a all out world war, though the muslims are a big problem, at least in Europe and for the Israelis.

    I think we will make it through all right, we have all these wonderful colleges everywhere now, and we know how to farm.

    There are some bright spots, Rufus.

    g'nite

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  44. yeah, I guess that's all true, but we're still heading into one long, and exhausing recession.

    Income, and Spending numbers out first thing in the morning. They ought to be fairly abhorrent.

    I watched TV most of the day, and "One" mention was made of the hoard of cash sitting offshore, and not a single mention of how higher gas prices might be a leading cause of our impending recession.

    I feel like I'm residing in a lunatic asylum.

    g'nite.

    ReplyDelete
  45. August 2, 2011
    Police: Teens Leave Church Picnic To Riot
    Thomas Lifson

    Boy, church picnics have really changed since I was a kid. WPIX TV, Pittsburgh reports

    About 100 teenagers swarmed from a McDonald's to Trader Joe's to a new Target store during a riot in East Liberty on Sunday, police said.

    Police said the trouble started at Mellon Park, where Mount Ararat Baptist Church had just wrapped up its community picnic.

    The Rev. Linda Oliver said that out of an estimated attendance of over 3,000 people, only a fraction of those people are responsible for starting the trouble.

    The bonds of civilization are fraying.

    Hat tip: David Paulin



    Showing 6 comments


    puhiawa Today 02:24 AM
    Time to play: Guess The Color!

    Jerry M. Today 02:52 AM
    Well, let me see. Hmmmm. Wow, this is hard. Could it be, might it be ......... Oh, I think I know. Or maybe not. I don't want to rush into this one. Aaaaargh! The suspense is killing me. I just can't figure it out. Please help me with this. What color are these nice little children?

    StormRider Today 04:02 AM
    George Bush did it !!! After all the man is like a one man plague, everywhere at once causing Mayhem where ever he is, even if he isn't there. So George caused the riot, after all none of the participants are to blame for their actions.

    Bubba's BBQ 45 minutes ago
    "only a fraction"? what is the fraction, dear reverend? 1/3? that is still 1,000 little thugs.
    1/6? That is still 500. 1/12? 250. sorry, your lame explanation doesn't cut it. How much do you want to guess it was a good old fashioned "blame whitey" rally.

    Van Owen 39 minutes ago
    Liberte. Fraternite. Egalite. Freebie.

    chickyj 32 minutes ago
    Well here is the church website. Im shocked. http://www.mt-ararat.org/index...

    ReplyDelete
  46. It is a youth problem in Philadelphia, black youth raised and fed by government handouts, sired by jobless bums, born by welfare brood sows, predators and thieves, mostly future criminals, all because white liberal wimps have not the courage to identify them for what they are, fearful of the black hustler social shakedown industry ready to bludgeon them with the dreaed "R" word.

    Youths

    ReplyDelete
  47. .

    I feel like I'm residing in a lunatic asylum.

    Fair enough.

    But then you have to ask who is the patient?

    .

    ReplyDelete
  48. Q waits patiently, all day, for the perfect opportunity. :)

    ReplyDelete
  49. Personal Spending - Down 0.2% for June

    First Negative Print since Sept 2009.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Personal income up 0.1%. 1.2% annual

    Prices down 0.2%

    ReplyDelete
  51. Scratch that. Core Prices Up 0.1%

    ReplyDelete
  52. Prices and income up 0.1%, and

    Spending Down 0.2%

    Spending is 70% of the economy.

    Figure it any way you want, the economy was contracting in June.

    ReplyDelete
  53. The proposed spending cuts over the next 10 years will not even pay for the interest on the current debt. As this posting shows, the interest owing on the federal debt will exceed $450 billion this year, setting a new record:

    http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2011/07/interest-on-united-states-d...

    If interest rates increase to historically normal levels as seen in the early 2000s, interest owed on the debt could well rise to $960 billion annually, more than what is spent on Social Security and Medicaid in a year.

    This is, to put it mildly, a rather pitiful deal.

    ReplyDelete
  54. The failure of companies to hire has not a whit to do with "uncertainty," or "obamacare," of "threat of higher taxes." These are memes put out by politicians, and talking heads that have never started a business in their lives.

    Businesses aren't hiring because their customers are broke. The bottom 40% are one breath away from "tits up."

    ReplyDelete
  55. Large busenesses don't create jobs. Medium-sized businesses don't create jobs. Small businessses don't create jobs.

    You come out of recession when a guy gets laid off, gets mad, goes down to the bank, borrows money against his house, and Starts Up his Own Business.


    Big problemo this time. His house is most likely "underwater," and, even if it isn't, the bank is rebuilding its own balance sheet.

    And, on top of that, the guy's wife says, "are you crazy? They just moved the factory to China, and everyone's out of work. Who in the hell are going to be your customers?"

    ReplyDelete
  56. Mayor Nutter of Philly, says it wasn't like that, not like that at all, the media got it all wrong. !!!

    Sure.

    Sometime someone with a concealed weapons permit will open up on them, like that fellow in New York on the subway.

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  57. There are over 200 openings at Schweitzer Engineering Labs here, and yesterday I saw a real first, a line of people waiting to put in an application for an apartment through a property management firm here. Things are jumping, student enrollment at an all time high. We're an island of hope in a sea of despair right now. If I were totally self centered I'd say,
    "Let the bad times roll" cause bad "out there" is good for us "here".


    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  58. Bernard Goetz is the guy I was thinking of --

    Bernhard Goetz Quotes


    I think vegetarianism is a crucial ethical choice for an individual and a society.
    Bernhard Goetz

    I would, without any hesitation, shoot a violent criminal again.
    Bernhard Goetz

    If you have love in your life, you have life.
    Bernhard Goetz

    Jail is much easier on people who have nothing.
    Bernhard Goetz

    Prior to being mugged I did not feel I had to carry a gun. However, I knew how to shoot a gun very proficiently. As a boy, I used to play cowboys and Indians all the time.
    Bernhard Goetz

    The whole trial seemed surreal.
    Bernhard Goetz

    With my time in the limelight, I regret that I didn't use it more to push vegetarianism. I support vegetarian options in the school lunch program.
    Bernhard Goetz

    You can't let yourself be pushed around. You can't live in fear. That's no way to live your life.
    Bernhard Goetz


    A vegetarian 'with an attitude' -- :)

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  59. That, too, could change, my friend. Pell Grants, Student Loans - High on the Republican Hit List.

    ReplyDelete
  60. .

    Sometime someone with a concealed weapons permit will open up on them, like that fellow in New York on the subway.



    A lot less likely to be someone with a concealed weapons permit than someone without.

    MI just went through their 10 year anniversary of the right to carry laws. People worried that there would be another 100,000 people out there carrying weapons. Actual it turned out that there are now over a quarter million people carrying with MI CCW's.

    When the law was first introduced almost every police department, anti-gun group, and many businesses and newspapers ranted against the new law. They predicted a a rapid rise in the amount of shooting deaths.

    What happened was pretty much nothing, other than the number of violent crimes went down.

    They've had a number of police chiefs interviewed here over the past couple of days stating that passing the right to carry law was a pretty much non event.

    There have been about 4000 (? 2000) people cited under the law but the vast bulk of them were given to people who got stopped for traffic violations and forgot to tell the officer they had a CCW.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  61. Our politicians are too afraid to speak the painful truth. EVERYTHING must be changed. Every single sacred ox must be gored to some degree.

    This debt deal does just the opposite. Mark my words. There will NEVER be a balanced budget amendment. There will be no meaningful cuts. There will be taxes. The status quo has been preserved.

    The hyper-rich that control the country have no loyalty to it. They are loyal to others like them and the plutarchy they have created. Our federal government acts on its behalf, not ours. Our latest debt deal more proof of that.

    We need to end the fallacy of continuous, unlimited growth with limited resources. We're running out of the stuff we need to make stuff. You can't grow 6%/year when your energy costs double in a year. Can't. Do. It.

    Major investments in biofuels will help, but it will be the "80% solution." Energy is going to be used very differently from here on out.

    Cradle-to-grave government support is dead. It's just that the people that peddle it and the people depend on it won't figure it out until it is pried from their cold, dead hands. Since the financial chicanery used to make our entitlements look OK is called criminal conduct in the private sector, even idiots will soon realize they have been lied to about these programs and there is nothing left. Math will ultimately win here.

    Debt replaced income in the 90s and 2000s and people lied themselves into prosperity. Our government and the shithead companies it props up are still thinking this way.

    The days of the $60,000 pickup truck are over. People are going to drive their cars until everything falls off. Cuba's 54 Chevys come to mind for potential longevity. It's going to be the guy with the CNC machine and 4140 steel ingots custom making parts for these vehicles that will have a job - but he will not be rich doing it.

    People are going to fix their washing machines when they break and not buy new ones.

    Conspicuous consumption is dead. Keeping your shit running for the least cost is where it's at.

    Lay-away is making a huge comeback as the depression-era rule of "if you don't have the cash on-hand, you can't afford it" sinks in to the hyperglycemic minds of the sedentary, bulging populace.

    Folks need to turn off the HGTV, get off their asses and start making things happen on their own.

    You aren't going to flip that house for double what you paid. You won't earn a six figure salary driving a forklift for 25 years. You won't get $65K your first year out of college. Do not make stimulus funds, federal grants, or any handout from the government the core of your business plan. The Mexican with the work ethic will ALWAYS get the job over you. Your kid isn't smart because he got a trophy for writing a sentence just like the other 80% of the class. The Chinese, Indian and Pakistani kids are kicking his ADD-addled, pansied, video game and mountain dew-addicted ass in every subject that matters. Good luck thinking he'll get that rap music or mixed martial arts fighter contract later in life.

    Americans need to grow up immediately and start taking control of their destinies from the idiots in DC. I don't care if it's a vote, overthrow, tune-out, drop-out or just plain ignoring them. The passive citizen schtick has to stop before we get this country turned around.

    Wow. That felt good.

    ReplyDelete
  62. WOLF KILL COUNT UP TO 5


    The Tribune

    Four more wolves were killed near Elk City last month as part of an ongoing effort to push the animals away from the small mountain hamlet.

    The foot traps were set by agents of the Federal Wildlife Services Agency are are being monitored by agents and locals.....

    "It's so far up there and Wildlife Services is so undermanned" :) heh


    "The local guys are checking the traps on a daily basis."

    The effort to target wolves there came after months of complaints by Elk City residents who reported frequent wolf sightings over the winter. Those reports included domestic dogs and cattle being attacked by wolves.

    (dogs - their weak point bobo will take advantage of!!)

    The Director said Monday two large calves were attacked and killed within the Township even after the four first wolves were trapped and killed.

    He extended the order that allows the trappers, deputies and officers to kill wolves until August 29 just a few days before the start of statewide wolf hunting season.

    "I didn't see any reason to continue the kill order once the season starts", he said.
    xxxxxx

    Gentlemen, and ladies, it will sound like Afghanistan out here this fall.

    Quirk, want to have some September fun and games???

    Dead Wolf Running Scared

    ReplyDelete
  63. They need to make a graph that shows what a few platinum trillion dollar coins look like, too.

    http://usdebt.kleptocracy.us/

    ReplyDelete
  64. Quirk, I'll even loan you may 4 bladed man capable Grecian bear slaying spear, and you can go astalking, while I sit in the pickup with .243, a ambushing over yapping dog bait.

    Dead Wolf Running Scared

    ReplyDelete
  65. That trillion dollar platinum coin thingy is the best idea I've heard of in a long long time.

    Talk about your concentrated wealth!

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  66. .

    Four more wolves were killed near Elk City last month as part of an ongoing effort to push the animals away from the small mountain hamlet.

    Ironically, the wolves each carried a collar and name tag, Spot, Molly, Rex and Fido.

    The natives of the small hamlet were at a loss to explain it.

    In related news, IQ around hamlet has dropped precipitiously in recent days.

    .

    ReplyDelete
  67. The End Of The Kemalist Affair

    Christopher Hitchens

    Maybe Rufus is right, things just go from bad to worse.

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  68. That's right, the wolves tore the collars off the dead dogs and carried 'em around as trophies. They do that kind of shit, just to really piss the two legs off.


    DEAD WOLF REALLY RUNNING SCARED NOW

    ReplyDelete
  69. China Threat May Be No Big Deal

    4-2-1 problem.

    Vietnam and China in disputes.
    China and India in disputes.
    China and Japan in disputes.
    China even in disputes with N. Korea
    China and Burma in disputes.
    China and Taiwan in disputes.
    China and Russia in disputes.
    China and everybody in disputes.




    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  70. CAIRO—Mobs of ordinary Egyptians joined with soldiers to drive pro-democracy protesters from their encampment in Tahrir Square here Monday, showing how far the uprising's early heroes have fallen in the eyes of the public.

    Egyptian security forces tear down tents of liberal protesters who had camped in Cario's Tahrir Square to press military rulers for political reforms.

    Six months after young, liberal activists helped lead the popular movement that ousted President Hosni Mubarak, the hard core of these protesters was forcibly dispersed by the troops. Some Egyptians lined the street to applaud the army. Others ganged up on the activists as they retreated from the square that has come to symbolize the Arab Spring.

    Squeezed between an assertive military and the country's resurgent Islamist movement, many Internet-savvy, pro-democracy activists are finding it increasingly hard to remain relevant in a post-revolutionary Egypt that is struggling to overcome an economic crisis and restore law and order.


    "The liberal and leftist groups that were at the forefront of the revolution have lost touch with the Egyptian people," says Shadi Hamid, director of research at the Brookings Institution's Doha Center. "These protesters have alienated much of Egypt. For some time they've been deceiving themselves by saying that the silent majority is on their side—but all evidence points to the contrary, and Monday's events confirm that."

    Monday's turmoil in Tahrir followed a massive Friday demonstration on the same square by hundreds of thousands of Islamists, who called for transforming Egypt into an Islamic state—and railed against the liberal and secular youths who had helped motivate millions to rise up against Mr. Mubarak.

    The Islamists' numbers dwarfed those of the activists who have re-occupied Cairo's central square since July 8, criticizing the slow pace of reforms, calling for police accountability and pressing for speedier trials of Mr. Mubarak and his associates.


    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  71. Elk City, Idaho pop. 202, last census, Real Estate


    Good place to retreat to when Detroit, Phoenix and Philly really start to break down.

    FYIOH

    ReplyDelete
  72. Stock Market finally agrees with Rufus.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Down about 1,000 pts since my "sell in May, and Go Away" call, T. :)

    ReplyDelete
  74. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  75. fas·tid·i·ous (f-std-s, f-)
    adj.

    3. Excessively scrupulous or sensitive, especially in matters of taste or propriety


    FTIOH

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  76. The Biggest Story in History - Completely Overlooked.

    Foxconn -- the world's largest maker of computer components, which assembles products for Apple, Sony and Nokia -- plans to use one million robots to do "simple" work, China Business News quoted chairman Terry Gou saying.

    Gou announced the plan to 10,000 staff at a company event in Shenzhen on Friday, various media reports said.

    Foxconn currently has 10,000 robots doing painting, welding and assembly tasks. It will increase that number to 300,000 next year and to one million in 2014, the report said.


    Foxconn to replace 500,000 Workers with Robots within 3 yrs

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  77. There used to be an old saying when I was in college, Rufus - "Let the machines do the work" --sounds delightful but the students forgot about "where's my paycheck?"

    :)

    There was another saying - "Never trust anyone over thirty."

    Which has probably been replaced now with - "Never trust anybody."

    :)

    FTIOH

    ReplyDelete
  78. The same thing happened in the twenties (loss of agricultural jobs due to mechanization, with no place to put the displaced workers.)

    That, among a lot of other things, led to the Great Depression.

    Robotization is Great for our long term future.

    It's going to be a bitch for a lot of people in the here, and now.

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  79. If the service sector ISM is fiftyish, tomorrow, there'll be a lot of grave faces at the NYSE.

    Below fifty, and they'll all be in the bathroom puking.

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  80. THE GREAT EAGLE IN FREEDOM RISES TO THE CHALLENGES OF LIVING AS AMERICA IS NOW FIGHTING FOR IT'S LIFE IN A WORLD WHERE THE ENEMIES ARE ALL ABOUT, BUT LIKE THE GREAT EAGLE, AMERICA CAN DISCOVER A NEW AND BETTER FREEDOM FROM THE ASHES OF A CORRUPT STATE AND SOAR AGAIN WITH THE STARS AND STRIPES IN A NEW BEGINNING.

    BLESSINGS DALE


    g'nite

    FTIOH

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  81. .

    Drone to Replace U2

    It will be hard to cut military spending. Those companies provide so many neet toys.

    (If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it.)

    .

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