Like Much Else, US Electrical Consumption Flat to Declining Since 2000

Euro Zone GDP Flat For Q1 2012 After -0.3 Q4 2011

CNBC.com here has the full story.

For Q1 2012 Germany carried the weight for the whole zone, with growth up 0.5 percent.

But France was flat at zero growth.

Italy was down at -0.8 percent, and down -1.3 year-over-year.

The Netherlands came in at -0.2, and -1.1 year-over-year.

Spain was down at -0.3 percent.

Markets across the pond at this hour are down 1 percent.

Green River Formation Oil Shale Deposits Spell Death of Peak Oil

Mark J. Perry reports here:

Shouldn't it be newsworthy that the U.S. has 1.5 trillion barrels of recoverable oil in the Green River Formation, an amount even greater than th[e] estimate of 1.392 trillion barrels of proven oil reserves in the entire world? 

Today's Gold to Oil Ratio is a Little High at 16.47

1584 the ounce/96.13 the barrel, almost 10 percent.

A pull-back in gold from here to the 1450 area or a rise in oil to about 105 would move the ratio toward the average of 15.

Since oil is a commodity constantly needed and therefore in constant demand, gold is money, and over-indebtedness is ubiquitous, I'm guessing we'll see continued liquidation of gold to help pay the bills. 

President-Elect Hollande Of France Owns Property Worth $1.5 Million

According to this story, three properties in the French Riviera.

Part-ownership apparently is involved with two of the three properties, which are smaller, say other reports, a few of which also state that the Paris apartment is not owned but rented.  

'Mr. Normal' has claimed to dislike the rich and regards the world of finance as his enemy.

So here:

The 57-year-old Socialist has openly admitted that he "does not like the rich" and declared that "my real enemy is the world of finance". This means taxing the wealthy by up to 75 per cent, curtailing the activities of Paris as a centre for financial dealing, and ploughing millions into creating more civil service jobs.

Norway's Peace Geezer Johan Galtung Erupts With Sustained Anti-Semitism

'Principal Founder of Peace and Conflict Studies'

Blaming the Jews not just for the inspiration, mind you, but for the crime of the Norway shooter, according to this story:

Appearing on the left-wing radio show Democracy Now, Norwegian academic Johan Galtung, whose grand-daughter was nearly killed during the attack, hinted darkly that Breivik drew inspiration from the notorious Irgun bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which occurred on the same date in 1946. In a subsequent speech, Galtung suggested Mossad involvement in the Norwegian massacre, noting for good measure that Jews control the American media.

Here's a transcript of Galtung's remarks on Breivik's choice of 22/7:

JOHAN GALTUNG: Well, she is doing fine. She’s a strong young woman, a wonderful person. Thanks for having me.

Well, the mass murderer is now in court. There’s a lot of talk about his psychology. I find that less interesting. Much more interesting are the deep motivations, always thinking politically. And in order to get into that, you can start with the date he chose. That was 22nd of July. Twenty-second of July, 1099, the Knights Templars liberated Jerusalem for the Christians, later on for the Jews. The 22nd of July, 1946, King David Hotel was exploded by what was at that time Jewish terrorists. Some of them later became prime ministers of Israel. So the day is not quite by chance. He has deep, deep anchorings in Judeo-Christian mythology and the myths of the Knight Templars.


So, I suppose we're supposed to believe that the King David Hotel attack was chosen by Jews, what, to commemorate an attack on Jerusalem by Christians in 1099? What a crackpot.

But there's more, much more.

The Mossad connection to Breivik was asserted in a now infamous speech given by Galtung last September, all of which is neatly summarized with links here by Bruce Bawer:

Last September 30, he gave another lecture entitled “Ten Theses about July 22” – that being the date on which Anders Behring Breivik massacred 77 people in and near Oslo. The lecture, according to NRK, the Norwegian national broadcasting company, “was greeted with a standing ovation by some, while others chose to leave the auditorium.” Good for them. In Dagbladet on October 7, John Færseth neatly summed up the lecture’s message as follows: “Galtung comes dangerously close to the idea that the world is really controlled by Jews and Freemasons.” After Galtung replied to Færseth, the latter followed up by reprinting his Dagbladet article in the Humanist along with a reply to Galtung’s reply. Galtung’s reply to the reply to his reply – are you still with me? – appeared in a later issue of the Humanist, and both items from the Humanist were made available online on April 23. ...

Among the questions Galtung wants to see discussed freely – in order, you understand, to prevent an explosion of anti-Semitism – is whether, as one of his fellow “peace researchers” in Sweden has proposed, Anders Behring Breivik was an operative for the Mossad. (In other words, Galtung expects us to mull over the proposition that the government of Israel masterminded the cold-blooded execution of dozens of Norwegian teenagers attending a summer camp.)

Galtung also suggests that a more open and robust discussion of the contents of a certain book would be yet another healthy way to prevent anti-Semitism from spinning out of control. Which book?  Why, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, of course. “I wonder how many of those who have such definite opinions about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion have actually read them?” Galtung writes. “It’s impossible to do so today without thinking of Goldman-Sachs.”

Norway, to paraphrase Harvey, is a pestilent seminary, the cause of more or less truculent plagues, of the Breivik variety, and of the Galtung.

Must be something in the water.

Money Is Hiding From Obama, Not From The Market

Jeff Cox at CNBC.com here, like most in the financial press, cannot understand that mom and pop no longer invest not because they do not trust the market, but because they do not trust the political leadership which is manipulating it:

[I]f investors are learning more, that education has taught them to flee the market.

Money market mutual funds, where investors typically park their money in times of duress before deciding where to deploy, has shrunk from just short of $4 trillion during the worst days of the financial crisis all the way down to $2.57 trillion, according to the Investment Company Institute.

But the lion's share of that money has gone not to stocks but to bonds. In the most recent week for which data is available, stock funds lost a stunning $5.3 billion while bond funds gained $7.5 billion.

All this, while the stock market has doubled gains off its March 2009 666 number-of-the-best intraday low.

President-Elect Hollande Of France Must Be Reading Clive Crook

Here's Clive just days ago:

The question is whether Hollande will row back from his campaign pledges quickly enough to avert disaster.

The mood of jubilation among France’s unreconstructed leftists will make it difficult. And Hollande doesn’t have much time. Mitterrand took from 1981 to 1983 to discover that his policies constituted the alternative that Margaret Thatcher had in mind when she said, “There is no alternative.” Hollande may have just days to come to the same revelation. Looming parliamentary elections complicate the tactical judgment. Hollande needs voters to give him the majority in next month’s vote for the legislature. He can’t betray his supporters before then.

Whether it’s sooner or later, Hollande will be forced to acknowledge reality, and the disillusionment of the French left will be terrible.

But if it’s sooner, some good could come of his election. ...

Wisely, Hollande’s campaign was more about posture than specifics. We know he’s against austerity and for taxing the rich -- but he hasn’t drawn up a budget. That must wait, he says, until auditors have checked the government’s books. This could give the new president cover to rethink his position on longer-term fiscal control and structural reform. If he does that and insists on short-term fiscal moderation, whether this is deemed a renegotiation of the fiscal pact or merely a supplement to it, his election might help Europe.

And now we have President-elect Hollande today here, taking cover and preparing his supporters for the bad news:

Hollande stuck to his own deficit reduction goals despite new European Union figures released Friday that paint a bleak picture for France and the whole eurozone.

"I have known for several weeks that there was a greater degradation than the outgoing government said there was. We conclude that this is a confirmation," Hollande told reporters in the central city of Tulle.

He said the new figures do not necessarily mean he has less room to maneuver after he takes office Tuesday. "No, we had already expected this," he said in remarks shown on French television.

He said he's asked for an audit of France's budget by the Cour des Comptes, budget watchdog. The audit is expected to be completed by late June.

The Rational Thing To Do Is Get Out Of Bonds Now

So Mark Hulbert, here:

Given your belief that bonds in a decade’s time will be lower than where they are today, and the dismal failure of bond market timers to successfully time the market’s gyrations, the rational thing to do is get out of bonds now.

Wikipedia Article 'Continent' Is Someone's Playground Today

Here's a screen-shot:

The EU Ponzi: Drowning Banks and Sovereigns Clinging to Each Other

So Satyajit Das, quoted here:

“As with the sovereigns, the LTRO does not solve the longer term problems of the solvency or funding of the banks, which now remain heavily dependent on the largesse of the central banks,” said Das, who fears deep recession. “It is a government-sponsored Ponzi scheme where weak banks are supporting weak sovereigns, who in turn are standing behind the banks — a process which can be described as two drowning people clinging to each other for mutual support.”

Hillary Clinton Takes A Career Risk

Obama Trounces 'No Preference' 79-21 Percent in NC Primary

Hm. Hm. Hm.

Obama Beats Texas Inmate in Coon Skin Cap in WV Primary 59-41 Percent

Oh wait, that's his hair.

Story here.

Hm.

Unions Fail to Get Falk as Dem. Nominee v. Walker in WI

Politico has the story here:

Despite his late entry into the race, Barrett held a wide lead in the polls, aided in part by higher name recognition. Falk acknowledged that fact while campaigning in Milwaukee on Monday, saying she has always been the underdog.

“I have been all along because Tom [Barrett] just ran for governor a year ago,” she said.

Barrett’s victory came despite organized labor’s best efforts against him. Most of the state’s unions – including the AFL-CIO, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the SEIU and the United Food and Commercial Workers – endorsed Falk.


The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel shows here the beating the unions' candidate received at the hands of Barrett, who will face  energized Republicans who turned out massively for Walker yesterday in the pro forma Republican primary:

David Stockman Agrees With John Bogle: Everything is Overvalued

In an interview reproduced here, I find myself pleasantly surprised because David Stockman says many agreeable things, especially this:

TGR: Will the mayhem stretch into the private sector?

DS: It will be everywhere. Once the bond market starts unraveling, all the other risk assets will start selling off like mad, too.

TGR: Does every sector collapse?

DS: If the bond market goes into a dislocation, it will spread like a contagion to all of the other asset markets. There will be a massive selloff.

I think everything in the world is overvalued—stocks, bonds, commodities, currencies. Too much money printing and debt expansion drove the prices of all asset classes to artificial, non-economic levels. The danger to the world is not classic inflation or deflation of goods and services; it's a drastic downward re-pricing of inflated financial assets.

Mourdock Creams Lugar in Indiana, But is he a Conservative?

Murdock once supported the Fairness Doctrine, of all things, way back in 1992, according to this story. The source cited is National Review.

And he's supposedly soft on sanctions against employers who employ illegals. No source named.

We'll see. He'll have to defeat Democrat Joe Donnelly first though.

Anyway, that squish Lugar is history.

The Refrain in Spain: "hagamos como islandia"

"Do as Iceland"!

Just say . . .

 

North Korean Camp 14 Escapee Hooked in Stomach, Hung Over Fire

From the London Evening Standard, here, which details some of the experiences of the only known person to escape the hell-hole known as North Korea, to which Jimmy Carter recently sent condolences on the death of the little monster responsible for the crime:

Shin’s conception had been arranged by the guards. They chose his mother and father, Shin Gyung Sub, as prizes for each other in a “reward” marriage. The couple were allowed to sleep together for five nights and then Shin’s father was allowed to visit his family only a few times a year. Their eldest son, Shin He Geun, was born in 1974, Shin arrived eight years later.

Park Yong Chul was a well-travelled North Korean who’d enjoyed a life of relative luxury before arriving at Camp 14 in 2004. Shin was instructed to befriend Park — and extract a confession. Through him, Shin learned about the existence of other countries, televisions, computers but mostly, he learned about food. Park described chicken, pork and beef, leading Shin to make his first free decision: he chose not to snitch on Park, instead hatching a plan for them to escape together. “Hearing about the food he’d eaten in the outside world was the main trigger,” recalls Shin. “I wanted to eat that kind of food — things unimaginable within the camp.”

Park was electrocuted during the escape as he squeezed through the electric fence. Shin suffered only burns, a small price after years of torture. His body bears many scars — his finger was chopped off by guards who also stuck a hook through his stomach and suspended him over a fire.

The Triumph of Newspeak in the EU: Spending is Austerity

The only voice which doesn't whine in the language of Newspeak appears to be Angela Merkel's in Germany. For the rest, the plain record of increased spending on the failed EU welfare state experiment gets called austerity.

Investors.com puts it best, here:

Austerity? Spending has boomed in the EU over the last decade. During the 2000s, EU member nations collectively boosted government outlays by 62%. Average government spending by EU nations today stands at about 49.2% of GDP — vs. 44.8% in 2000.

On its own website, the EU itself ridicules the notion of government austerity as a "myth."

"National budgets are NOT decreasing their spending, they are increasing it," the EU says, noting that in 2011, 23 of the 27 nations in the EU increased spending. This year, 24 of 27 will do so.

Did that decade-long spending increase boost GDP growth? No. During the 2000s, average annual GDP growth in the EU fell to 1.2% from 2.2% in the 1990s.

So the idea that Europeans are "tired" of austerity is false. You can't be tired of something you haven't tried. This is why an exasperated German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday she'll continue to demand that other countries make real cuts in spending.