In Malaysia, as in so many other places, it’s difficult for religions to get along.
The latest nonsense involves a Malaysian court allowing a Catholic newspaper to use the word “Allah” to mean God.
This has upset a few Malay Muslims, and the more extreme among them have firebombed three churches.
No word yet on whether Malaysia’s Buddhists or Hindus are angry.
Gorilla says: “And nobody anywhere seems to give a shit about freedom for us nonbelievers!!!”
In Argentina, the President has ousted the head of the central bank.
This was done because the central bank refused to allow its reserves being used to help fund a large domestic budget deficit.
Result: the yield premium on Argentinian bonds over US Treasuries is nearly 7%.
Gorilla thinks: “Ben Bernanke, watch your back, I’d do something about unemployment if I was you!”
85,000 more jobs shed in December, only 2 1/2 times the number forecast by market “experts”!
It’s difficult to recall in Gorilla’s lifetime when reality and fantasy diverged so much in the US economy and in the perceptions of those charged with doing something about it.
In Realityville, the economy is not adding jobs; it’s not growing more than anemically. Most growth is replacing inventory from short-term, ineffective schemes like cash for clunkers. The real unemployment rate is above 15% (the 10% headline rate doesn’t count those who’ve given up looking for a job). Auto sales are falling again. Home prices are declining. The CRE bubble is bursting. Consumers aren’t spending, they’re saving.
Meanwhile, in Fantasy Land, the Fed is worried about inflation, which doesn’t exist but might if a powerful central bank is mostly obsessed with defending its hawkish reputation. The political class is hopelessly deadlocked, so there’s little chance of the large scale stimulus (on the order of $2 trillion/year for the next 2-3 years) and jobs program the country has needed for over a year but hasn’t gotten. The chattering class is reading the tea leaves about Byron Dorgan, whoever he may be, and regurgitating the “Daddy, save us from terrorists” dirge. Americans on Main Street seem increasingly angry, despairing, and deranged.
Professor Marvel doesn’t have a magical answer to bring these disparate threads into something resembling a grown up approach. President Obama seems more concerned with rearranging the rhetorical deck chairs than proposing anything that just might be controversial.
Gorilla sums it up: “Rosy scenario doesn’t pay the mortgage, doesn’t provide health care, and doesn’t hire. What good is she?”
Prices of commercial real estate in New York City are plummeting, now 40% below 2007 and predicted to reach 58%.
There are currently 920 football fields and 180 buildings worth of trouble.
Paul Krugman has a very good real estate chart:
And this story is being repeated around the country. As with autos, as with the unemployed, as with residential real estate, there’s a huge oversupply and little or no demand.
Gorilla asks: “Is this wave two or wave three? We all seem to be at sea!”
Refreshingly, the President took responsibility for the multiple intelligence community failures behind the underwear bomber’s attempted terrorist attack.
Unchangingly, the President seems to be making a distinction between accountability, which he accepts, and blame, which he does not wish to dole out. It’s a distinction without a difference when it comes to actual policy.
These failures were clearly firing offenses, or at the very least required a degree of professional integrity that might offer resignations if you happened to be the head of the CIA or Homeland Security.
Instead, there will be lots of scrambling, lots of money wasted on air marshals and body scanning machines, and the odds of a similar attack being successful will be the same: about 11 billion to one.
The President seems to be a grown up, but he’s allowing the frightened children of an immature nation to make policy, so it’s difficult to see what lessons were learned in this fiasco.
Gorilla says: “Bring on the responsibility and bring me the heads on sticks!”
