And that will be it, apparently, didn’t you know there’s an economic recovery on?
This will of course be news to those whose unemployment benefits have run out, whose houses are being foreclosed, and whose futures look bleaker than ever…
So, George T. suggests a reprise of Nena’s old song, 99 Luft Balloons, because we can’t all be Captain Kirk:
Gorilla says: “Just to prove the real world was here!”
More anemic growth in the first quarter of 2010…
The “recovery” looks like taking quite a bit longer.
In normal recoveries, growth should be well above 5%, enabling more people to be hired.
At 3.2%, unemployment will remain high.
In fact, the Administration is still forecasting 8% unemployment in 2012!
Gorilla says: “The scale this time is more or less Lionel!”
The tidetime folklorist wonders when Germany will come to its neighbors without hat in hand.
The Platter: Gildo Hat Euch Lieb by Gildo Horn (Unification Is Hard To Swallow)
The Bait: The Real Image HDS Grave Digger (Nana Mouskouri Is Now Full European)
The IMF’s tripled the size of the Greek rescue package, a necessary first step on the road to recognizing reality…
Of course, it’s still not enough money, as Portugal will require at least $100 billion, and Spain is waiting in the wings if the markets remain unconvinced.
Further contagion of this sort might end up costing $1 trillion. The lack of coherent political leadership in Euroland, most especially from the Germans, is making the problem worse.
Another unanswered question is who’ll be responsible for replenishing IMF coffers if the bill escalates further.
Answer: the US taxpayer will bear a very large burden. That’s not getting any discussion on this side of the pond, but it’s inevitable.
Gorilla says: “The Germans won’t go and the Greeks can’t leave!”
“A Latin cross is not merely a reaffirmation of Christian beliefs,” Justice Kennedy wrote. “Here, a Latin cross in the desert evokes far more than religion. It evokes thousands of small crosses in foreign fields marking the graves of Americans who fell in battles, battles whose tragedies are compounded if the fallen are forgotten.”
Gorilla says: “Guess Justice Kennedy forgot all about those non-Christian and non-believing Americans who died in the same battles, defending a Constitution they thought guaranteed the separation of church and state”.
The Massachusetts wind farm is go…
But it’s still years away from being built, plenty of opponents will spend plenty of money to tie things up in the courts.
Most of the objections appear to fall into 2 categories:
1) “We’re giving away our environment to private interests we can’t trust”. (the environmentalist’s lament)
2) “We’re building a bunch of ugly windmills that will ruin the view from my seashore property”. (the Ted Kennedy NIMBY lament)
As an alternative energy source, wind has a lot of promise.
In fact, we could reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, cut down on destructive climate change, and give a leg up to many developing countries if we:
A) Eliminated all agricultural subsidies and tariffs.
B) Put wind farms in places like Nebraska and Iowa to make up for the loss of the subsidies.
C) Take advantage of the Midwest’s geography to become “the Saudi Arabia of wind”.
Gorilla says, somewhat ironically: “Let’s stop backing socialist Know Nothing farmers and support the free market for a change!”
“When I was 17, I killed someone with my car. I felt bad about it for years, but never bad enough to attend the victim’s funeral or talk to his parents. When my husband ran for President, we had to cover it up, because people then might not be as sympathetic as I’m trying to look now. Heck, I’m still engaging in the same pattern of false equivalence that was the hallmark of the Bush Administration: blaming the victim for driving an infamous Corvair, although the Corvair turned out to less infamous than we didn’t know at the time. Of course, mostly it’s all about selling my book.”
Gorilla says: “Opening up is the new covering up!”
The Louisiana oil spill is now looking like an environmental catastrophe, the robots are the last resort!
Curiously, we’re hearing nothing much at all from those, including the President, who thought that offshore drilling is a great solution to America’s energy needs.
It’s another reason why no one in Washington is really serious about climate change or alternative energy.
The costs aren’t massive, but the political willingness to impose those costs, through higher taxes or cap-and-trade on fossil fuels, is nonexistent.
We’d rather mourn miners than shut the mines and move on to a place where 4% of the world’s population no longer consumes 25% of the world’s energy.
Gorilla thinks: “Hopefully the oil will spread all over the people of Arizona, making standing while non-white a reality at last!”
The test of Euroland begins in earnest…
The bond market for Greece, Portugal, and Spain, and possibly Ireland and Italy, is nearing collapse.
There’s not much belief in:
*The ability of the Greeks to undertake serious fiscal and monetary reform.
*The ability of the Portuguese to refinance an external debt that’s larger than Greece’s.
*The willingness of Germany and other Euroland countries to finance a large scale rescue package on the order of $200-250/billion over the next 3 years.
*The capacity of the European Central Bank to do anything other than fight non-existent inflation.
Will there be haircuts? Inevitably, on the order of 20-30%, which may then risk the solvency of several European banks.
Will Euroland survive? Not likely in its present form, the question is who will leave and who will be pitched out.
What about America? Time to ask the wizards of Wall Street just how much they stand to lose in this debacle.
Gorilla says: “The free drinks are gone, you’ll have to pay up for and with more than peanuts!”
Not sure what the point of this New York Times story is…
Shorter version: Although Pope Benedict got a pedophile appointed to be an Austrian bishop, he did a little more than nothing once said bishop was exposed, although what that nothing was is unclear, since the bishop was never prosecuted, but this counts for something, at least in comparison to other top Vatican officials.
Gorilla concludes: “Should make everyone in authority feel marginally better about the cover up!”
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