How high is high enough?

Been thinking about the rather parabolic rise of oil due to the mideast tensions over the last couple of weeks, and can’t help but notice that while Mr. Gaddhafi is the new public face of the revolution meme, Bahrain has disappeared. It’s being reported that large-scale protests are still occurring, but that the Saudi government may have “politely” asked the media not to cover it. If Bahrain escalates and/or spreads to Saudi Arabia, we’re in for a much larger spike in oil prices. I’m increasingly convinced that the U.S. is in for a double dip, and very soon, unless crude takes a dive in short order. There’s just not enough in peoples’ pockets in this “recovery” to absorb higher prices at the pump.

We can hope…

Another year is ready to begin, and we can hope in the face of many adverse facts that we’re starting to turn the proverbial corner in regards to the economy. While I’ve certainly seen what could be considered anecdotal evidence of people shopping in hordes this holiday season, I can’t quite escape the unemployment rate, continuing foreclosures, houses still dropping in value, the ongoing sovereign debt problems in Europe and all that bad debt still hiding within the black hole of banks’ balance sheets… I suppose there’ll be plenty of time in 2011 to discuss such matters, but for now, let us hope and be of good cheer – for Christmas comes but once a year.

Cheap

Is it always going to be about cheap labor and cutting corners? Hard to imagine anything different, right?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101118/ap_on_re_as/as_china_fire

Uncertain, anyone?

It;s been a while since I’ve updated this space, in part because I’ve been watching with interest the ridiculous goings on of the political hopefuls in this run-up to election day. I’m sure we can all agree that a sea change is almost certain; the majority of Americans are scared and have no idea where we’re heading as a nation. One thing is certain – we’re not coming back to the way things were before the financial collapse; we were living  through an illusion at any rate, fueled by easy credit and a desire to live like we thought we should live, not bound by the ugly reality of paychecks and bills. We’ll continue to see more and more whores come out of the woodwork, taking advantage of  a populace wracked by worry, in order to make their millions through book deals and speaking engagements. It’s all quite depressing, when you stop and consider where we are. As for your host, I’ll be keeping watch on the 50 states looking to get to get to the bottom of what has now been revealed as a fraudulent foreclosure process, and waiting for the other shoe to drop.  This entire episode will end badly, as homes will continue to drop in price due to a bottleneck in determining who owns what property. Would you buy a house the bank owns when you’re not sure if you’ll be tied up in court 2 months after you buy it? Meanwhile, I watch with happiness as the miners are pulled out and returned to life. It’s about time we saw something uplifting in a pretty desolate global landscape.

More regular updates to follow,

Honeypie

Too Little Too Late?

The Obama Administration has finally announced a bit of sane news regarding the economy. As I see it, applying $50 billion towards infrastructure projects (ala FDR) is a step in the right direction. Creating jobs has always been one of the only ways we’re going to escape the gravity of  a now obvious ( at least in my mind) depression. Add to that the fact that our roads, bridges and countless other mainstays of American life are in bad need of an overhaul, and on the surface, this makes sense. Ahhh, but there’s always a hurdle, isn’t there? What about the already insurmountable deficit we’re facing? Republicans (and a good many Dems facing re-election shortly) aren’t likely to hop on this bandwagon. I give this long overdue idea a 50-50 chance of passing at best. There’s just no stomach for more debt, whether right or wrong. As we skate along on the knife’s edge of a public acknowledgement that we’ve never left the recession in the first place, I have to imagine that the current administration is starting to sweat heavily. We’re in for a bumpy road this fall, as that awakening comes closer and closer.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obama-labor-day-agenda-job-growth-ideas/story?id=11554930

Where are we?

I’m not sure that the nation in general knows what direction we’re headed, or that we even have a definable goal anymore. Little known stat trackers like the “Hindenburg Omen” can spook the markets, Iran and Russia are hurtling towards Iran having  a functioning nuke reactor, we feel bad for the affected families by the floods in Pakistan, but there’s no seemingly no will to be charitable (that, or there’s just no money left). The media keeps painting a picture of an imminent double dip recession (my humble view is that we haven’t ever gotten out of the first one). It’s  a listless August – the dog days of summer feeling like the calm before yet another approaching storm. I worry that as a society we’re not prepared for whatever may come; we’re too wrapped up in keeping our jobs or watching the latest reality show. We need for several good things to happen to us, events to lighten the mood and remind of us of our humanity, rather than the now regularly occurring divisive politics that dominate the news cycle. I don’t give a damn about the mosque near Ground Zero – live and let live. But we choose sides as we’re instructed to do, and feel that we must. Meanwhile, we keep moving along the road, and I for one can only hope our collective destination means us no harm.

Mountains of Money

How do we get out from under the enormous amount of debt creation we’re inflicting on ourselves? I keep trying to come up with the right answer. It can’t be that we continue to print more money in order to satisfy interest on the money we’ve already created, right? That would be very inflationary a lot of us would end up paying more for our burger. No, that won’t do… How about cutting spending? Seems obvious on the surface, doesn’t it… except that in all likelihood will smother the feeble economic recovery we’re supposedly experiencing. You know, by killing government jobs and all… Either way, we’ve got a nice little mountain to climb…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100723/ap_on_bi_ge/us_budget_deficit_2

Who Ya Gonna Call?

The article I’m attaching for your reading pleasure doesn’t indicate that I’m predicting a Mad Max scenario across the U.S. What it does mean is that I have a real concern as to how states and counties will continue to make ends meet given their shrinking coffers due to an ongoing loss of tax revenues. The Feds simply cannot print additional money (we’ll call it stimulus) in order to bail out the states. Faced with that reality, cuts will be made-and they will be painful.  I predict more house and senate votes on additional stimulus measures sooner than later, both for the slowing economy as a whole (just think-all that money in ’08 and ’09 just to paper over an ongoing collapse) as well for states like California and Illinois, which are really just U.S. versions of Greece.  In the meantime, hope you don’t need the cops in Oakland…

 http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/will-thousands-of-police-layoffs-unleash-chaos-and-anarchy-across-america

For the least of my brothers…

The blog post I’m attaching provides a disturbing view into what appears to be a systematic effort to limit charitable giving to the homeless. Have we devolved this much to where the government would rather receive additional federal money to “handle ” it themselves rather than let volunteers play the part?  A sad state…

http://www.sometimesrhymes.com/Sometimes_Rhymes/Blog/Entries/2010/7/9_Does_Bob_Dylan_Need_To_Give_Up_on_Touring.html

Who benefits?

I don’t imagine you’d disagree with me that the American Armed Services have given a fair amount of sacrifice in the war on Afghanistan.  And I don’t think I’d get any pushback on the fact that America has invested a pretty penny in the infrastructure in the battle to win hearts and minds. You never guess who is providing even more infrastructure money and is building quite a few hospitals, roads, etc? China. Not a troop on the ground, yet they’ve determined the mineral resources deserve railroads, and have developed quite the trade rapport with the Afghanis. So I ask you -  what is the sacrifice for? The attempt to neutralize the Taliban when the majority have admitted that Pakistan is where the real problem lies, or the ongoing nation-building in Afghanistan? China definitely has the leg up on this one…