Sea Level Has Gone Up 8 Inches In 160 Years, NAS Predicts Another 12 Inches In 20 Years!

The alarmist disease spreads.

Story here.

Rush Limbaugh Has Faith In The American People To Do The Right Thing. Do You?

Do you have faith in the American people to do the right thing?

If you do, which half would that be, the half which has a last will and testament, or the half which dies intestate?

See Gallup, here.

Climate Geezer James Lovelock: We Should Be Going Mad On Methane

James Lovelock, global warming godfather, erupts again, this time in favor of fracking, quoted here:

“Gas is almost a give-away in the U.S. at the moment. They’ve gone for fracking in a big way. This is what makes me very cross with the greens for trying to knock it … Let’s be pragmatic and sensible and get Britain to switch everything to methane. We should be going mad on it.”

He's not just in favor of fracking, he's in favor of science:

“One thing that being a scientist has taught me is that you can never be certain about anything. You never know the truth. You can only approach it and hope to get a bit nearer to it each time. You iterate towards the truth. You don’t know it.” 

Lovelock thinks the data show that increased warming has failed to materialize in the last fifteen years, calling the models he helped create into question. 

Since 2005, Interest Payments On Federal Debt Have Consumed 91% Of GDP Gains

YEAR GDP INTEREST (billions of dollars)

2005  770  352

2006  754  406

2007  651  430

2008  263  451

2009 (352) 383

2010  587  414

2011  568  454

2012  360  408 (estimates)

GDP gains for the eight years come to approximately $3.6 trillion. Interest on the debt for the same years comes to approximately $3.3 trillion.

We are barely treading water. This is why the Fed is obsessed with interest rates. Any uptick in interest rates without an uptick in growth and the sheer size of the debt to be serviced will crush us.

Growth of Borrowing Has Far Outpaced Growth in the Economy

As seen here:

The debt of government at all levels plus the debt of corporations and households is now $54 trillion and counting.

GDP lags far behind, which explains the reason for the Fed's war on interest rates: to keep the cost of all this borrowing spending as low as possible.

All Fag Friday At The White House Last Week: Flippin' Off The Gipper

Obama's queer pals, flipping off the Gipper at a gay event at The White House last week.

Story here.

Rep. Ackerman Decides Not To Run Again After 30 Years In The House

Rep. Gary Ackerman (D), NY-5, has decided not to run again after 30 years in the US House.

He was one of just nine members of the House to vote recently against the national motto "In God We Trust".

And now he says that Americans "have gotten dumber" over the period.

We beg to differ. They've been dumb ever since they voted him in the first time.

Number Of Job Openings Declines

From CNN Money:

The number of job openings fell in April, the Labor Department reported Tuesday, another sign of weakness in the U.S. labor market.

The report showed 3.4 million open positions for the month, down 8.7% from the 3.7 million openings in March.

The drop in available jobs means there are 3.7 unemployed job seekers for each opening, up from 3.4 in March, meaning there is greater competition for the available jobs.

While that's a big improvement from the record high of 6.7 unemployed people for each opening in July 2009, it's far worse than the 1.6 unemployed per opening in November 2007, the month before the recession began.

Read the whole thing here.

Jonathan Turley: Assertion Of Executive Privilege In Fast And Furious Offends Against Separation Of Powers

Here:

"The assertion in my view is facially overbroad and excessive. It is the latest example of sweeping claims of executive power and privilege by this Administration. Congress has ample reason to investigate this operation, which involves alleged criminal acts that may have resulted in the death of third parties, including a U.S. agent. The Justice Department is accused of complicity in one of the most ill-conceived and harmful operations in recent years. The very officials and agency accused of wrongdoing is claiming that it can withhold documents from a committee with oversight responsibilities. ...

"Holder insists that they fall within the “deliberative process” privilege. The position however could sharply curtail the ability of Congress to be a check and balance in such controversies. ...

"The use of the privilege in my view raises serious questions over the separation of powers in the tripartite system. ...

"My greatest concern rests with the impact on checks and balances in a system already left anemic by ever-expanding claims of executive power."

Jonathan Turley: Obama's Deportation Order "One More Brick In The Wall Of The Imperial Presidency"

So here:

"It raises some troubling questions, again, about President Obama['s] assertion of executive power. While liberals again celebrate the unilateral action, they ignore that danger that the next president may also simply chose to ignore whole areas of the federal law and criminal code in areas ranging from the environment to employment discrimination. It is one more brick in the wall of the Imperial Presidency constructed under Barack Obama — a wall that may prove difficult to dismantle for citizens in the future."

Obama Claims Executive Privilege Over Something He Says He Knew Nothing About

Uh huh.

EU Fascism: Methinks Mr. Barroso Doth Protest Too Much Of Democracy

So does Ambrose Evans-Pritchard here, who for prudential reasons does not call Mr. Barroso's EU fascist, but he might as well have:

I would accept that six or seven of the EU states are genuine long-established democracies. Others are – frankly, to borrow Mr Barroso’s diction – on probation, in historical terms. Some do not qualify at all. (I refrain from naming them for fear of extradition by one of their politico-magistrates under the European Arrest Warrant scheme, sold to voters as an anti-terrorism device and now used to muzzle free speech).

As for the EU itself, the organisation toppled the elected governments of Italy and Greece last year, replacing them with EU technocrats.

It ignored the NO votes to the European Constitution in France and The Netherlands, ramming through the slightly-altered text as the Lisbon Treaty without referendums – except in Ireland. When the Irish voted NO to that as well, they too were ignored.

That was the moment when the EU crossed the line altogether and lost fundamental legitimacy (at least for me). Lisbon is a rogue Treaty. Mr Barroso – charming though he may be – is a rogue president of a rogue Commission.

The whole construct has become authoritarian and will become autocratic if this crisis is exploited to force through fiscal union.

So we face democratic danger if they take the necessary steps to rescue the euro, and we face financial danger if they don’t.

Thanks a lot.

It's not like the analogy hasn't occurred to him very recently, either, as here:

It was for this outcome that the Greece’s elected government was toppled last year in an EU Putsch. We now learn from ex-premier George Papandreou that this was "all Sarkozy’s fault".

France’s leader refused to let Papandreou call a referendum on the bail-out terms (which would almost certainly have passed), and Chancellor Angela Merkel went along with this shoddy act of EU colonialism. The EU threatened, in effect, to cut off Troika payments. The PASOK government was replaced by an EU-appointed technocrat. ...

Year after year of "internal devaluation" will drive [Greek] unemployment to catastrophic levels before it breaks the back of the labour movement sufficiently to clear the way for drastic pay cuts. It is basically a Fascist policy. Mussolini pulled it of in 1928 under the Lira Forte policy, but he had coercive advantages.

Goodbye Euro. Get Ready For The New Thaler, The Dollar's Forebear.

From Germany, of course.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard summarizes the recent developments about a North-South split in Europe, here:

Unease over escalating euro rescues is building by the day in Germany. Forty economists and professors have written a joint letter to Mrs Merkel proposing a break-away "Northern Euro", exhorting her to step back from the brink before making the "even greater error" of ratifying the ESM.

The group said Berlin must clarify exactly how much Germany could stand to lose from the ECB's internal payments system, known as Target2. The Bundesbank claims on fellow central banks have exploded to €699bn, or 27pc of German GDP. The arcane issue of Target2 has fueled a hot-tempered debate in Germany over who foots the bill if monetary union falls apart.

The professors called for study laying out the pros and cons of a return to the D-Mark, or the creation of a new currency or "North Euro" led by Germany, the Netherlands, and like-minded states.

The idea of a North Euro -- or "Thaler", the coin of the late Holy Roman Empire -- was first [m]ooted by the former chief of the German Industry Federation, Hans-Olaf Henkel.

It would let southern EMU states to keep the euro and uphold euro debt contracts. The region could reflate and regain trade competitivenes with a weaker exchange rate.

While the letter is unlikely to sway thinking in Berlin, such radical proposals are gaining a wider hearing. Georg Schuh, chief investor of Deutsche Bank's DB Advisers, said the crisis is terminal. "A break-up of the eurozone is very likely. Capital markets have already priced it i[n]. I think we are in the end-phase," he said.

Due To Low Taxes On Fuel, USA Ranks Among Nations With Lowest Price Per Gallon

US fuel taxes, state and federal combined, average about 50 cents per gallon. Fuel taxes in much of Europe are four, five, and six times higher than in the USA, typically running from $2.00 to $3.00 per gallon.

Prices in the table reflect conditions prevailing around the world in early April 2012 when prices were at their most recent highs.

(source)

Fuel Taxes In Developed World 4 To 6 Times Higher Per Gallon Than In USA

Fuel taxes in 2010 were 6 or more times higher per gallon than in the US in places such as Turkey, Germany, Britain, Finland, and France.

5 times higher in Italy, Ireland and Sweden.

4 times higher in Spain, South Korea, Japan and Poland.

Converts To Conservatism Like Mitt Romney Are The Worst Bigots

"Fox News is watched by the true believers."

Public Pension Funding Gap Widens 9 Percent Between 2009 And 2010

"The total gap between the money states had available and what they'll have to pay out in the decades ahead reached $757 billion in 2010, the most recent year for which figures are available. That was up 9 percent from the year before, according to the study entitled 'The Widening Gap Update'."


Read the complete story, here.

Government Intervention Reduces Amplitude At The Expense Of Longer Wavelength

And we're all pretty sick of it, too.

Macroeconomic wisdom from Joe Calhoun, here:

Government intervention in times of recession is seen as the compassionate thing to do but it doesn’t accomplish what it purports to. Intervention – monetary or fiscal – can reduce the amplitude of the business cycle but only at the expense of a longer wavelength. Fiscal policies that provide temporary income support during unemployment only work until the benefits inevitably run out. Bailout programs that rescue badly managed companies only work until further mismanagement destroys the capital provided by the bailout. Monetary policies designed to distort asset prices have no lasting effect and only work as long as the Fed is actively intervening in the market. All interventions may be well meaning but there is no free lunch. Eventually, economic reality must be accepted and the excesses purged.

All PIIGS Among 14 Countries With 10 Year Borrowing Costs In Excess Of 6 Percent

As shown here:

With Deposit Guarantee Schemes in PIIGS Flat on Their Backs, ELA Stands Ready

Bloomberg here had the awful truth buried in an article at the end of May:

Spain has dipped into its guarantee fund, which stood at 6.6 billion euros in October, to cover loan losses for buyers of failed banks. It used the facility to inject 5.25 billion euros into Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo when it agreed to sell it to Banco Sabadell SA in December. The deposit-guarantee program will also reimburse the bank-rescue fund for the 953 million euros it paid for a stake in Unnim Banc, which was sold to Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA. (BBVA) The country had 931.2 billion euros of deposits at the end of March, according to ECB data.

In other words, in October 2011 Spain had at best only 7 billion euros guaranteeing roughly 931 billion euros in deposits. After covering the losses mentioned, Spain is down to 0.4 billion euros covering 931 billion euros.

As if that's not bad enough:

Italy’s deposit-insurance program is still unfunded, with banks pledging to contribute if and when necessary. Silvia Lazzarino De Lorenzo, a spokeswoman for Roberto Moretti, chairman of the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund, declined to comment. The country had 1.1 trillion euros of deposits at the end of March, ECB data show.

Compared to Italy which can cover nothing, and Spain which can't cover one tenth of one percent, Portugal looks like a veritable paragon of prudent planning with 0.85 percent of deposits covered:

Portugal has a deposit fund of 1.4 billion euros collected from banks through annual contributions, according to Barclays. The country’s total deposits stood at 164.7 billion euros at the end of March, according to the central bank.

John Mauldin, depending on David Kotok, here, must think that all that is really quite beside the point since the ECB funnels liquidity to the various European national banks through secretive ELA, "emergency liquidity assistance". These transfers then become debts on the books of the sovereigns, which only make their borrowing problems, and their euro area spending compliance problems, that much worse.

Notice the dramatic explosion in ELA funding by the ECB in May 2012.

Obviously, the ECB was getting ready for today's big event.

Between Greece with about 150 billion euros left in the banks and Portugal with a like amount, and Spain and Italy with about 2 trillion euros between them, the ELA backstop for the banks of those four countries represents at best about 10 percent of deposits.

It's a stop-gap measure which might work, but the euro area's problems will only continue to fester and worsen no matter what happens today in Greece.

Who knows, maybe that spat between Merkel and Hollande was just for show so that Hollande gets what he needs today in his own elections in France, after which they'll work it on out.

Hope springs eternal.