5-4, of course, but the Supremes have just made de facto discrimination legal again.
What a country.
29 June 2009
19 June 2009
Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics
That old saying, "figures don't lie, but liars figure" sound familiar?
When the news appeared that the number of people on unemployment had dropped, and that this was a sign of better things happening in the economy, I had to avoid an upchuck. Phooey, I told anybody who would listen. All that happened was that more folks got tossed off unemployment (ran out of weeks) than came on. You can expect that this will continue for years. The liars will say that things are getting better. Yeah, right. And the bankers still flit around in their taxpayer subsidized jets.
The NYT ran the story today. Yup. More folks got tossed off than came on. Green shoots my sphincter.
When the news appeared that the number of people on unemployment had dropped, and that this was a sign of better things happening in the economy, I had to avoid an upchuck. Phooey, I told anybody who would listen. All that happened was that more folks got tossed off unemployment (ran out of weeks) than came on. You can expect that this will continue for years. The liars will say that things are getting better. Yeah, right. And the bankers still flit around in their taxpayer subsidized jets.
The NYT ran the story today. Yup. More folks got tossed off than came on. Green shoots my sphincter.
15 June 2009
Tapas
A few small bites today.
Notice that China is feverishly stimulating its domestic consumption? They have admitted, albeit with loud rectitude, that export (read: labor exploitative) based economies quickly collapse. They are admitting the truth: capitalists and consumers are co-dependent. For some years now, the Chinese (and American by proxy and directly) capitalists wagered that they could take all the growth for themselves. So long as they had American chumps running the government (and I am not convinced that Geithner/Bernanke aren't), they could dump their production here. Capitalists, not being particularly forward thinking, were shocked to discover that the proceeds of this game were dollars; bits of psuedopaper embedded as bytes in various computers. There is no post-industrial (well, at least no post-physical production) economy. Surprise, surprise. So, now China is embarking on building, to a greater extent at least, a self sufficient (closed world, as the economists like to call it) economy. They have learned that the only international trade which should exist is in natural resources; these exist only in some countries and have to be traded for production (or other resources on occasion) goods.
Why trade a bird in the hand for a fart in a whirlwind? The Chinese ain't dummies.
Folks who follow Iran for more than a few seconds, and without the blinders of Right Wingnuts, have known for years that the President of Iran is kind of like the Queen of England, or governor of Texas: a ceremonial gasbag with no institutional power. For those with short memories, the Right Wingnuts chose to ignore Ahmadinejad's "moderate" predecessors with the charge that the President of Iran was merely a figurehead. Once they got a boogie man to their liking, well now the President of Iran is a really important guy who has to be taken seriously. He's a real meany. So, today the Supreme Leader of Iran (you knew there is one, yes?) says that the voting will be looked into. There is good reason to let the populace have whatever pointless, powerless figurehead they want. The pointless, powerless figurehead makes no difference to him. Right Wingnuts are just do stupid and evil. Banana Republic El Jefes.
Finally, the end of the Joe Sixpack Bull Market. I missed it, alas, being to concerned with other things, like this blog. Ironic, I suppose. It is no accident that oil, and other commodity, prices are rising. The "markets" are expressions of localized (local can be in particular places in the real world, real time, or manmade of either; stock markets are the latter) inflation and deflation. As I write, the Big Money is going back into commodities. It never made much headway into the regular stock market, which is why the Calf Market (calf, little bull?) is over. Oh well. Unearned income should be taxed at confiscatory rates, just to discourage such sloth and exploitation of power. Real work, real pay. Works for me.
Notice that China is feverishly stimulating its domestic consumption? They have admitted, albeit with loud rectitude, that export (read: labor exploitative) based economies quickly collapse. They are admitting the truth: capitalists and consumers are co-dependent. For some years now, the Chinese (and American by proxy and directly) capitalists wagered that they could take all the growth for themselves. So long as they had American chumps running the government (and I am not convinced that Geithner/Bernanke aren't), they could dump their production here. Capitalists, not being particularly forward thinking, were shocked to discover that the proceeds of this game were dollars; bits of psuedopaper embedded as bytes in various computers. There is no post-industrial (well, at least no post-physical production) economy. Surprise, surprise. So, now China is embarking on building, to a greater extent at least, a self sufficient (closed world, as the economists like to call it) economy. They have learned that the only international trade which should exist is in natural resources; these exist only in some countries and have to be traded for production (or other resources on occasion) goods.
Why trade a bird in the hand for a fart in a whirlwind? The Chinese ain't dummies.
Folks who follow Iran for more than a few seconds, and without the blinders of Right Wingnuts, have known for years that the President of Iran is kind of like the Queen of England, or governor of Texas: a ceremonial gasbag with no institutional power. For those with short memories, the Right Wingnuts chose to ignore Ahmadinejad's "moderate" predecessors with the charge that the President of Iran was merely a figurehead. Once they got a boogie man to their liking, well now the President of Iran is a really important guy who has to be taken seriously. He's a real meany. So, today the Supreme Leader of Iran (you knew there is one, yes?) says that the voting will be looked into. There is good reason to let the populace have whatever pointless, powerless figurehead they want. The pointless, powerless figurehead makes no difference to him. Right Wingnuts are just do stupid and evil. Banana Republic El Jefes.
Finally, the end of the Joe Sixpack Bull Market. I missed it, alas, being to concerned with other things, like this blog. Ironic, I suppose. It is no accident that oil, and other commodity, prices are rising. The "markets" are expressions of localized (local can be in particular places in the real world, real time, or manmade of either; stock markets are the latter) inflation and deflation. As I write, the Big Money is going back into commodities. It never made much headway into the regular stock market, which is why the Calf Market (calf, little bull?) is over. Oh well. Unearned income should be taxed at confiscatory rates, just to discourage such sloth and exploitation of power. Real work, real pay. Works for me.
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