Iceland’s economy continues to contract, and is not expected to start growing again until 2011!!!
The country’s effectively bust, its banks having lost $60 billion.
There’s still no recapitalization of the banks and domestic consumption has fallen off a cliff.
Gorilla thinks: “Hell is freezing over in Iceland!”
A very good op-ed discussion today about climate change in the NY Times, with Paul Krugman and James Hansen.
In essence, Krugman argues that cap and trade has worked before and should therefore work again with respect to carbon emissions. Hansen argues that cap and trade doesn’t do enough, and that a carbon tax is the only way to make fossil fuels obsolete over time.
There’s a bit of irony both ways: Krugman, an economist, is saying that politics make a carbon tax impossible and that cap and trade can achieve the goal of reducing emissions. Hanson, a climate scientist, argues that unless fossil fuels are made more expensive there won’t be enough incentives to make alternatives economically viable.
And they’re both right. It does come down to the perfect (taxation) being the enemy of the good (cap and trade), provided you assume (as Krugman does) that the Congress will do something soon to set up a cap and trade system.
Gorilla isn’t so sure: “I doubt the Senate will go along with anything that upsets Big Coal and Big Oil! Doing nothing about climate change is the default option until things get really bad: see health care reform!”
Fucking women makes the public option whole.
Misogyny’s after all a vote getter!
Chucking the condoms awakens a male soul
To be a prince, where once was a bed wetter
His Gal Nominee for prosecutor role
She gets paid less, like a Lily Ledbetter.
Conferencing point remains to keep ‘em down
More or less the plaything of a Senate clown.
Remember 2001?
America was attacked by some fifth-rate terrorists who got lucky and America’s intelligence community was exposed as a fraud.
So, into Afghanistan we went, in search of the people who planned the attack and to topple the regime that allowed those people a safe haven.
Alas, we allowed the terrorists to escape and they’re still at large.
2009?
We’re now stuck in Afghanistan, and the rationale at the moment is that we need to stay there to prevent the bad guys from coming back again.
The bad guys? We have no idea where they are, and haven’t had any idea for years, according to the Defense Secretary.
Revenge was the mission in 2001, it’s unclear what the mission is in 2009, but the mission will go on.
Gorilla says: “Which is worse? The creep we don’t hear, or the creeps that keep escaping?”
Gorilla's Blog