I’ve written the past two weeks that President Barack Obama had just 25 days to prove himself, so now that the honeymoon is over, he can’t help but wonder if there will be a divorce in 2012. I mean, let’s face it, his honeymoon with the American people, short as it was due to the economic crisis, was a bit rocky. Outside observers tell us it got testy…a lot of ‘he said,’ ‘she said.’ Obama from time to time even dressed down those he had previously been courting. Wohh, I thought. If he can’t get along in the first few weeks, how’s he going to manage the next four years? Our country, and the world, for that matter, can’t take a Liz Taylor-Richard Burton production, after all. Depression would then be the least of our worries.
But the president can at least claim victory in getting his stimulus package through, all $787 billion of it, many details of which are still under wraps as I go to post. [It’s not easy drafting a final bill of 1100 pages – much of it crapola – into something coherent for our leader to sign.] It’s done, though (with literally just one handful of Republicans out of 535 members of Congress supporting it), and what the Federal Reserve Board’s monetary policy hasn’t been able to accomplish to date, fiscal policy is expected to in moving our economy off the dime.
Two big initial questions. Will the combination of the massive and unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus finally unfreeze the credit markets? And, second, just how do we pay for it all?
Answering the second question, first, at least Luo Ping, a Chinese banking official, told the Financial Times that China would continue to buy Treasuries in spite of its misgivings about Washington’s profligacy.
“Except for U.S. Treasuries, what can you hold?” he asked. “Gold? You don’t hold Japanese government bonds or U.K. bonds. U.S. Treasuries are the safe haven. For everyone, including China, it is the only option.”
Phewww. And thank you People’s Republic of China, serving communists since 1949. As for whether or not the stimulus program, all in, will work, as well as a take on the mood in the country, following is some opinion.
George Will / Washington Post
“John McCain probably was eager to return to the Senate as an avatar of bipartisanship, a role he has enjoyed. It is, therefore, a measure of the recklessness of House Democrats that they caused the stimulus debate to revolve around a bill that McCain dismisses as ‘generational theft.’
“The federal government, with its separation of powers and myriad blocking mechanisms, was not made for speed but for safety. This is particularly pertinent today because if $787 billion is spent ineffectively or destructively, government does not get to say ‘oops’ and take a mulligan. Senate Republicans have slowed and altered the course of the ‘disaster! catastrophe!’ stampede. Still, as Anthony Trollope wrote in one of his parliamentary novels, ‘The best carriage horses are those which can most steadily hold back against the coach as it trundles down the hill.’
“Not yet a third of the way through the president’s ‘first 100 days,’ he and we should remember that it was not FDR’s initial burst of activity in 1933 that put the phrase ‘100 days’ into the Western lexicon. It was Napoleon’s frenetic trajectory in 1815 that began with his escape from Elba and ended near the Belgian village of Waterloo.”
“To commander-in-chief and economist-in-chief, President Barack Obama now has a chance to add this title to his portfolio: psychologist-in-chief.
“In the story of the Obama administration, this week will go down as one in which the president’s team succeeded in getting the deal it absolutely had to have with Congress on an economic-stimulus package. The process wasn’t always pretty, but by historical standards the speed in passing a signature economic measure is impressive.
“This also is the week in which the administration flatly failed in its effort to sell Wall Street on a parallel plan to stabilize financial markets, and when it saw Sen. Judd Gregg become the third Cabinet nominee to pull the plug before taking office.
“On all those fronts, though, the psychological strain has been significant. Put simply, average Americans as well as the financial markets look more than a little scared right now. While that fear actually has been useful for Mr. Obama in pushing through the stimulus plan, it now may be time to engage in a little Franklin Roosevelt-style, all-we-have-to-fear-is-fear-itself soothing….
“If anything, the problem for the Obama team was that there was too much optimism, considering the circumstances. Excessive optimism could translate into excessive expectations that the new president could turn things around quickly. Excessive expectations become dashed expectations, which are politically fatal.
“So the new president began throwing some cold water….Mr. Obama began talking of an economic slump that could last years, and using words such as ‘catastrophe’ to describe what might unfold….
“If the goal was to head off irrational exuberance, it worked….
“The grim language served another purpose: It was designed to create a sense of urgency in Congress to get the stimulus bill passed quickly. If Rome is burning, nobody would want to be seen doing too much fiddling.”
The chaos of the week, however, was best summed up in two episodes. President Obama toured the Caterpillar plant in Peoria, Illinois, telling employees that if the stimulus passed, he had been promised that their boss, CEO Jim Owens, would rescind some of the 22,000 layoffs previously announced. Then no sooner is Obama out the door, off to play Lincoln, when Owens addresses the troops and says more, not fewer, layoffs are probably in the offing. No one ever said being president is easy.
Then you had Timothy Geithner’s screen test, the unveiling of the bank bailout aspect of the “Rescuing America Before it Totally Goes Up in Flames Plan.” Any Hollywood director viewing the performance would have immediately told Mr. Geithner, “Don’t call us, we’ll call you…..Sophie, bring in the tall guy, Mr. Volcker.”
Last Sunday, in watching Flight 1549 Captain Chesley Sullenberger on “60 Minutes” explain how he pulled off his miracle, he said:
Alas, we had been told the same thing about Geithner; that his whole career had set him up for this time. He had been most intimately involved with the financial crisis, unlike any other player in America today, yet what followed was both pathetic and embarrassing. Or as Gerald Seib put it:
“(It) took Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner only about an hour Tuesday to take the financial markets to their own parallel state of declining confidence. The lack of convincing detail in the announcement of his plan to spend remaining funds to rescue financial markets left Wall Street with more a paucity than an audacity of hope.”
“The plan sketched out by Tim Geithner…wasn’t bad, exactly. What it was, instead, was vague. It left everyone trying to figure out where the administration was really going. Will those public-private partnerships end up being a covert way to bail out bankers at taxpayers’ expense? Or will the required ‘stress test’ act as a back-door route to temporary bank nationalization (the solution favored by a growing number of economists, myself included)? Nobody knows.
“Overall, the effect was to kick the can down the road. And that’s not good enough. So far the Obama administration’s response to the economic crisis is all too reminiscent of Japan in the 1990s: a fiscal expansion large enough to avert the worst, but not enough to kick-start recovery; support for the banking system, but a reluctance to force banks to face up to their losses. It’s early days yet, but we’re falling behind the curve.
“And I don’t know about you, but I’ve got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach – a feeling that America just isn’t rising to the greatest economic challenge in 70 years. The best may not lack all conviction, but they seem alarmingly willing to settle for half-measures. And the worst are, as ever, full of passionate intensity, oblivious to the grotesque failure of their doctrine in practice.
“There’s still time to turn this around. But Mr. Obama has to be stronger looking forward. Otherwise, the verdict on this crisis might be that no, we can’t.”
President Obama evidently is going to unveil details of a foreclosure mitigation plan on Wednesday. One would hope Mr. Geithner quickly enunciates some further details of his own.
On the global front, China reported some miserable figures for January, with exports down 17.5% and imports a sickening 43%. However, the data is greatly skewed by the Lunar New Year, which fell early this year. There has actually been a shred of optimism that China may be playing a little LI-FO game (last in recession, first out), such as in bank lending is way up. That has been my own belief, and with my godawful-to-date investment in Fujian, China, I’m putting my last dollars where my mouth is.
Meanwhile, Japan is due to report GDP for the fourth quarter this week and it should be dreadful. The head of their central bank said his nation faces an “unimaginable” contraction.
And across the pond, GDP for Q4 declined 1.5% for the eurozone, with Germany down 2.1%, Italy 1.8%, France 1.2% and Spain 1.0%. Spain officially joined the recession crowd and it’s now projected housing there has another 20% to fall. Oh, how I nailed this bubble years ago, and all it took was chatting up blokes in pubs across Europe to put it all together. [All the Brits, Irish and Germans I came across, for example, were talking of second homes in Spain. By the third pint, it sunk in.]
This weekend, Timothy Geithner actually has a chance to redeem himself, a bit, with his first appearance before the G-7 in Rome. At the forefront of debate here, aside from what each is doing to handle their respective banking crises, is protectionism. As a Czech Republic leader put it this week, the Czechs holding the EU presidency currently, “The biggest risk at the moment is the risk of protectionism.” Meetings such as the G-7 and an upcoming EU summit are often derided, but there are times when they can be useful, such as now. Better they talk the issues out face to face than strictly through the press. Another opportunity occurs in April with the newly powerful G-20.
Finally, back to Barack Obama and his honeymoon cut short, it really is remarkable how he came in with a plate overflowing with titanic issues and with zero time to learn at his own pace, which is afforded most other presidents. Nope, Obama was thrown straight into the fire, and you’d have to be doing some serious bong hits with Michael Phelps not to understand his performance has been shaky. It’s why many of us when we went to the voting booth last November gave pause, or quickly pressed the Republican button straight down the line and ripped open the curtain in a flash….in case you were wondering what I normally do when I’m in there.
But, some of us lost, and as frustrated as we may get at times, it’s also important to understand just that…we lost. As Gerald Seib points out above, though, we also all understand the dire situation we’re in. We don’t need to be pounded over the head with a 2-by-4, virtually non-stop. In addressing the Business Council at the White House on Friday, Barack Obama gave a hint he is beginning to understand this with his omission of the words “catastrophe” and “disaster” from his text. Looking back, Ronald Reagan had his detractors – fewer and fewer as the years go by – but he proved how far a little optimism can go in brightening the skies at key moments.
I keep a folder of some favorite speeches of mine, including Dwight Eisenhower’s momentous farewell address. I also have Ronald Reagan’s farewell speech, January 1989. It’s where we find an oft-used phrase of mine.
“We made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.”
It’s classic Reagan, and my own little way of preserving what was so special about the man; humility, for one.
But it’s in the preceding paragraph of Reagan’s final address that we find a passage I respectfully submit President Obama should refer to in an upcoming speech to the American people and a Joint Session of Congress. [Putting on his best preacher voice]
“You all know how fond I am of quoting Abraham Lincoln. There’s certainly a lot to learn from that great figure. Hopefully, America’s teachers taught their students about him as we celebrated the 200th anniversary of his birth recently. But tonight I want to borrow a bit from Ronald Reagan, because as dark as it might seem, few were better at reminding us of all that is good in America and why this country’s best days lie ahead.
“After well over 200 years, America still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.
“Yes, America remains that ‘shining city upon a hill.’ And, yes, we can.”
Obama would bring the house down, a renewal of the bipartisanship and hope themes he campaigned on. Oh, there would be one or two figures not entirely pleased with a Reagan reference, I imagine; Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. But our president should have learned one thing in his initial 25 days, if nothing else; that being it’s not too soon to make these two irrelevant.
–Blame the week’s carnage solely on the treasury secretary, because the losses all came on Tuesday when Geithner gave his non-explanation of the bank bailout program. Otherwise, stocks largely treaded water, but because of Tuesday’s downdraft, the Dow Jones finished at 7850, down 5.2%, for its lowest weekly close since March 2003. The S&P 500 lost 4.8% and Nasdaq fell 3.6%. For the year, Nasdaq is off just 2.7% but the Dow is already down 10.6%.
One word on Friday’s action, financials fell hard yet again as Lloyds Banking Group said HBOS, the lender it took over just last month, will be reporting a massive loss, while Wells Fargo revised its fourth-quarter results to reflect further credit-related losses of its own, Wells heretofore being one of the few ‘quality’ names in the sector.
–U.S. Treasury Yields
Retail sales for January were up 1.0%, when a decline was expected, but most are in agreement this couldn’t possibly be accurate. Now if February is up, I’ll believe there is something positive going on. Otherwise, there was little on the economic front, but the next two weeks are chock full of housing and inflation data; the latter being important if producer and consumer prices foretell actual deflation.
–In yet another example of just how quickly the economy is collapsing, back in September, 52 economists surveyed by the Journal said GDP would grow 1.2% in the first quarter of 2009. Now, these same folks see a decline of 4.6%. The Group of 52 is still calling for growth by the third quarter, however, though only at a 0.7% pace, or half of what they projected in the fall. So…a good sign of a market bottom would be when they stop lowering their forecasts. At least that’s something I’ll hang my hat on.
–Another take on Sec. Geithner’s presentation, from an op-ed by Andy Kessler / Wall Street Journal:
“Mr. Geithner wants to ‘stress test’ banks to see which are worth saving. The market already has. Despite over a trillion in assets, Citigroup is worth a meager $18 billion, Bank of America only $28 billion. The market has already figured out that the banks and their accountants haven’t fessed up to bad loans and that their shareholders are toast.
“Second, Mr. Geithner wants to use up to $1 trillion to back new car loans, home loans and student loans. That’s noble, but incredibly market distorting. Who gets these loans? Will banks be forced to loan to those with bad credit? Who sets loan rates? Doesn’t this just set up another credit squeeze when government guarantees are lifted?
“What we need are healthy banks with clean balance sheets and enlightened risk assessment to provide consumer and business loans that will generate returns to shareholders.”
–Research from RBC Capital Markets projects that more than 1,000 U.S. banks, or one in eight, may fail over the next three to five years. But as awful as it sounds, it’s really just the same rate as during the S&L crisis. It’s the trend, though, that’s worrisome as RBC had previously forecast 200 to 300 would go under. Thus far, between 2008 and ‘09, the FDIC has shut 38, including four more on Friday.
–Curiously, UBS and Credit Suisse had semi-positive takes even as they both reported larger than expected losses for the fourth quarter and further job losses. “UBS has had an encouraging start to the year,” while admitting “household cash flows continue to deteriorate,” read one wire service report. Credit Suisse said 2009 started strongly “and all its divisions were showing a profit in the year to date.”
–Inflation in China declined a ninth consecutive month in January and consumer prices are now running at an annualized rate of 1.0%. Last February, inflation hit a 12-year high of 8.7%. Of course this also means deflation is now in play, but China’s central bank has room to maneuver lower, unlike the U.S. Fed, as the key borrowing rate there is still 5.3%.
–China sold more vehicles than the United States for the first time in January, thanks to the depression in the auto sector here. [735,000 in China vs. 656,000 in the U.S.] China had passed Japan in 2006. So for you financial types, looking for something to bet on now that football has gone into hibernation, why not wager on the U.S. vs. China for all of 2009? In looking at an AP piece in USA TODAY, though, I see that a GM executive forecasts China sales for 2009 of 10.7 million while Autodata Corp. sees U.S. sales of 9.57 million. I’ll go with China and give you 900,000…but no more.
–General Motors announced it is slashing another 10,000 salaried jobs, globally.
–Toyota is implementing a sweeping cost-cutting program across its North American operations, including buyouts to some 18,000 U.S. workers and pay cuts for both executives and hourly staff; the latter by reducing the two-week work schedule from 80 to 72 hours, a 10% pay cut. Toyota is eliminating bonuses for executives as well.
–Potential Good News Alert: Ford’s global marketing chief said the country’s used car market has come “roaring back” since January. Jim Farley declared, “That shows me that credit’s available. When we’re seeing the kind of growth in the used car market that we’ve seen in the last six weeks, that is a really important milestone for the bottoming out of the industry. We’re really at that crucial inflection point.”
–Nissan announced it was slashing 20,000 workers, while electronics maker Pioneer is laying off 10,000 (including closing a plasma display assembly plant in Pomona, Calif.). This is on top of previously announced huge cuts in Japan for the likes of Sony, NEC, Toyota, Hitachi and Panasonic.
[An important side issue in Japan is the status of ‘contract workers.’ It seems there is zero safety net for the tens of thousands carrying this label and now being laid off from the likes of the above noted corporations.]
–Further evidence Dubai’s bubble has burst. 1,500 work visas are being canceled every day, as reported by the New York Times.
–The Irish crisis deepens as the government frantically tries to pump up its last two major independent financial institutions, Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland, though as you’d expect common shareholders suffered in the massive new recapitalization effort in terms of dilution. Aside from preferred shares, the Irish government could own up to 25% of the common. Earlier, No. 3 Anglo Irish Bank was fully nationalized.
So what are the above two banks then doing to combat the housing crash? Offering new buyers a one-year mortgage rate of 2.49%. Good Lord. And you can borrow up to 92%. As one of my buddies who goes there with me and I were discussing, “Isn’t this what got them in the mess in the first place?”
And the other day I spoke of the potential for violence on the Emerald Isle. On Monday, Feb. 9, the Irish Independent reported:
“The threat of strikes over the controversial pension levy grew last night.”
The head of the Civil and Public Services Union said “The anger is far greater than generally anticipated….and I think the anger over (this pay cut) will just build over the next couple of weeks.”
Ireland only has four million people and the prime minister is warning of 400,000 unemployed by year end.
–Our neighbor Canada’s jobless rate is up to 7.2%, while the number of bankruptcies there soared 47% in December. Canada’s banking sector, however, has fared far better than that in the U.S., owing to better regulation, including reduced leverage ratios.
–Wal-Mart is cutting 700 to 800 jobs from its Arkansas headquarters, though the company is quick to add it expects to add thousands of jobs for the 125 to 140 new stores that are part of its ongoing expansion plans.
–Intel announced it would spend $7 billion in new manufacturing facilities in the U.S. over the next two years, saving 7,000 jobs in Arizona, New Mexico and Oregon.
–Bad news…as of last week, my steel production comparison was a current 1006 vs. a year ago level of 2134 (000s tons).
–State-owned Aluminum Corp. of China, a k a Chinalco, is investing $19.5 billion in Anglo-Australian Rio Tinto Group, the world’s third-largest mining company, in order for China to gain copper and iron ore assets in the next up cycle, especially at low, low prices, or so they hope. It is China’s largest overseas acquisition.
But, the Aussie government is concerned over the structure of the deal and rival BHP Billiton may counter with another offer of its own, BHP having made an unsuccessful hostile run at Rio last year.
–Air France-KLM Group is eliminating 2,000 positions, though solely through attrition. Worldwide, passenger traffic held steady in the fourth quarter but it began to collapse in January, as many of you have been confirming through your own anecdotes.
–Such as the one from a friend of mine and a trip he took to Costa Rica with his wife two weeks ago. They stayed at a luxury establishment (that will go nameless for no particular reason) and he was shocked it was so empty. When the two played golf on the spectacular course, it turns out they were the only ones to play all day. Of the 3 pool areas and two beaches, there were never more than six guests lounging around…among the five alternatives, total. And then at mid-week the hotel stopped the breakfast buffet because there were so few takers.
My friend was told the place was 20% occupied, though it was clearly less than 10%, and the resort has a staff of 700.
“No. Two-three years ago you wouldn’t have been able to get in.”
–Latvia’s economy tanked to the tune of 10.4% in the fourth quarter over a year ago. The hotel and restaurant biz was off almost 25%.
–Beazer Homes saw revenues decline 53% for its fiscal fist-quarter, while it has now reduced its work force by a whopping 70% since 2006. Separately, luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers reported revenue dropped 51% in its recent quarter, while overall, the sector was disappointed that the stimulus package cut the proposed tax credit for new homebuyers to $8,000 from $15,000.
–In the latest foreclosure data from RealtyTrac, among metro areas, Merced, Calif., ranks first, with one in every 59 housing units receiving a foreclosure notice. It was followed by Las Vegas and the Cape Coral-Ft. Myers area in Florida. Nevada is still the number one state, with one in every 76 in foreclosure.
–Economist Mark Zandi says there are growing signs housing will bottom by year end. I’m sticking with my forecast of last year that we’ll bottom in April or May in terms of prices, but then we’ll sit there for a long spell.
–Bernie Madoff continues to sit in his penthouse as the feds and his attorneys try to hash out a plea agreement, but the state of Massachusetts is alleging Bernie’s wife, Ruth, took $15.5 million out of accounts linked to her husband’s activities in the weeks leading up to his confession and arrest. The money was withdrawn from Cohmad Securities – a Madoff-owned brokerage named after him and co-founder Maurice “Sonny” Cohn, the latter now refusing to cooperate. So at this point it’s pretty hard to argue Bernie was acting alone, right sports fans?
–As part of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s report on the $3.6 billion in bonuses that Merrill Lynch paid out before its purchase by Bank of America was finalized, we’ve learned nearly 700 employees picked up a cool $million or more. As Cuomo wrote in a letter to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank, “One disturbing question that must be answered is whether Merrill Lynch and Bank of America timed the bonuses in such a way as to force taxpayers to pay for them through the deal funding.”
“One beneficiary was Peter Kraus, a Thain hire who started at Merrill in mid-September and quit Dec. 18, the day Bank of America took over.
“He walked away with a $24.9 million bonus for those three months of work, which figures to about $249,000 a day. The day he quit, his wife closed on a $36 million luxury Park Ave. co-op, records show.”
So imagine if Mr. Kraus had his bonus clawed back. Imagine the plate-smashing in the Kraus household as Mrs. Kraus went ballistic.
–Speaking of bonuses, in the dead of night as the stimulus bill was being assembled, the corrupt Democratic Senator from Connecticut, Christopher Dodd, inserted a provision that severely restricts bonuses that can be paid to executives of those firms accepting government money. But here’s the catch. As opposed to the earlier provision, approved by President Obama, that basically restricted only the top four or five, and placed no limits on restricted stock, Dodd’s attachment, against the wishes of the Obama administration, could hit highly paid traders and department heads. I don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for the Street in this regard, but it will defeat the very purpose of accepting government help in order to encourage future lending. The banks will pull back and go further into a shell to protect their right to compensate as they see fit. And Dodd did another thing the administration didn’t want; giving the banks the ability to pay the government back more easily, again, defeating the purpose of this portion of the TARP program. That was Christopher Dodd, ladies and gentlemen, playing King for a Day; though not one person in America elected him as such. Even George Washington passed up the opportunity to play God.
–U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is calling for clawbacks of investment banker payouts. “The short-term bonus culture in banks has got to end,” Brown told MPs. “The bonus has got to be over many years rather than one, and it should never be a one-way bet. If you fail, there should be a clawback system.” [This is fair, in some respects, as opposed to Dodd’s move…as I’ll explain further next week when we get more details.]
–Newsstand sales of magazines fell 11% in the second half of 2008, this after a 6% decline in the first half of the year. Staggering. According to Publishers Information Bureau, ad pages in consumer magazines fell 17% in the fourth quarter.
–The Metropolitan Opera is typical of the times. Its endowment is down by a third, productions are being sidelined, and staffers are seeing their pay cut 10%. [Crain’s New York Business]
–As I’ve noted before, I live in a generally wealthy area and its funny all the anecdotal stories I’m hearing about the buying of gold bars and silver and gold coins, the surest sign of bunker time. A story in the FT noted that “The U.S. Mint sold 92,000 ounces of its popular American Eagle coin last month, almost four times that which it sold a year ago and more than it shipped during the whole of the first half of 2007.”
“The move into gold is being driven by the very rich, with bankers saying that some clients are hoarding gold in their vaults….
“Traders and analysts said jewelry demand, historically the backbone of gold consumption, had collapsed under the weight of the high prices. Sharp falls in demand in the key markets of India, Turkey and the Middle East have capped the potential of any price rally. But the lack of jewelry demand has not discouraged investors.”
–Inflation Watch: The cost of a first-class stamp is going up 2 cents on May 11, but remember, you can buy those “Forever Stamps” at the current 42-cent rate until May 11. So if you send out about ten bills a month, you could save $2.40 over the course of a year by purchasing six books today!
–Too bad us baseball fans can’t claw back Commissioner Bud Selig’s $18 million compensation for 2008.
–Some of us who have CNBC on all day, and watch the same commercials over and over due to a lack of new advertisers, as well as the collapse of others, are wondering if the Pajamagram folks will be advertising for Easter. “Give her what she’s always wanted…” Now that would be the true sign of the apocalypse.
–To paraphrase golfer Seve Ballesteros, ‘Me so stupid!’ Back on 12/27/08, I wrote:
“The only billionaire I’ve ever had drinks with, Roger McNamee, and his Elevation Partners fellow investor Bono, have hiked their contribution in Palm to 39 percent. Roger’s hanging with this one, even though Palm reported a loss of $506 million in its most recent quarter. [Roger’s been too successful in his career for him to fail. I may have to stick Palm on my idea board for 2009, which is rather empty right now.]”
Good grief. On 12/26/08, Palm closed at $3.21. On 1/2/09, Palm finished at $3.12. The shares ended this week at $8.70, and I stupidly didn’t follow my own advice and buy some. [I’m not chasing it now, however.]
“Bursting with indignation, legions of marijuana advocates are urging a boycott of Kellogg Co., including all of its popular munchies, for deciding to cut ties with Olympic hero Michael Phelps after he was photographed with a bong.
“The leader of one of the biggest legalize-pot organizations, the Marijuana Policy Project, called Kellogg’s action ‘hypocritical and disgusting,’ and said he’d never seen his members so angry…
“ ‘Kellogg’s had no problem signing up Phelps when he had a conviction for drunk driving, an illegal act that could actually have killed someone,’ said Rob Kampia, the group’s executive director. ‘To drop him for choosing to relax with a substance that’s safer than beer is an outrage, and it sends a dangerous message to young people.’”
That’s just an opinion, folks, and not necessarily mine. But it will be interesting to see if Kellogg’s bottom line is impacted in any way during ‘09.
–Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is fuming over President Obama’s comments during a Monday town hall meeting in Elkhart, Ind. Obama said, “You can’t get corporate jets, you can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on the taxpayer’s dime.”
“That’s outrageous,” Goodman told a gathering of tourism officials. “He owes us a retraction.”
Goodman is right. While I understand the timing of some annual incentive trips, particularly for the financial services community, may not have been the best recently, you can’t then just kill a separate entire industry, a rather vital segment of the economy at that. Like in Goldman Sachs feeling compelled to quickly move a three-day tech conference, which wasn’t a boondoggle, to San Francisco.
Here’s hoping by next year things are relatively back to normal with the convention/incentive trip crowd.
In the meantime…there are some phenomenal deals in Vegas. I’m on Mandalay Bay’s list and in just one week, they lowered a new promotional rate first down to $109, and then $65! If you have the wherewithal…Vi-va…Las Ve-gas!
Israel: So here’s the deal on the Israeli election. You have 120 seats in the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, and 12 parties won seats, topped by the Tzipi Livni-led Kadima’s 28 and Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud faction at 27. Now it’s a race to see who can build a coalition comprising 61 seats, with anti-Arab, far-right Avigdor Lieberman seemingly kingmaker with his Yisrael Beitenu (Our Home) party at 15 seats.
The process is that an official tally is posted this coming Wednesday, after which President Shimon Peres consults with all 12 parties to hear their recommendations about who should become prime minister. Peres then picks the candidate he feels has the best chance of forming a government. If Livni or Netanyahu can talk of 61 seats that are in the fold, Peres’ choice is easy. But then the premier-designate has six weeks to finalize the coalition, so with 12 different agendas, it’s not a certainty we’ll really know who is heading the new government for a while. Recall, just last fall Livni failed to form a government after Prime Minister Olmert resigned, which is why we had the vote last week in the first place.
Well, no one should be surprised if Livni and Netanyahu opt for a unity government. Livni was not only a Mossad agent at one time, but she was a Likud member of parliament until she broke off with Ariel Sharon to form Kadima over the settlements and territorial issues. The two are really not that far off in their core beliefs; though Netanyahu seeks an “economic peace” with the Palestinians before any political one.
As for the Palestinians, 56% in Gaza believe Hamas is leading them in the wrong direction and Fatah’s popularity has gained some, while in the Arab world there is gloom over the prospects for a right-wing Israeli government.
Also, remember there is a critical election coming up in Lebanon on June 7, at which point Hizbullah could gain a ruling majority.
And just a sidebar on the assassination of Hizbullah military commander Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus, a year ago. An Israeli newspaper said it had new details, including that Israel had dispatched a team of agents to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq before Mughniyeh was to attend a reception for the then 29th anniversary of the Iranian revolution. The team slipped into Syria and began monitoring his movements days before. For some reason Mughniyeh opted not to travel with his security detail, and while he was inside the reception, assassins broke into his car and removed the headrest, replacing it with an identical one loaded with explosives. It was then set off by remote control. [Andrew Wander / Daily Star]
Israel knows, however, that Hizbullah will at some point avenge Mughniyeh’s death.
Iraq: A female suicide bomber killed 40 on Friday when she blew herself up at a Shia religious pilgrimage, a day after a separate attack killed 12. Both occurred despite heavy security, thus giving further evidence this country still has a long ways to go and it will be difficult for President Obama to authorize any widespread withdrawal of U.S. forces until after the national election late in the year.
Afghanistan: At the annual Munich Security Conference, Vice President Joe Biden said:
“As we seek a lasting framework for our common struggle against extremism, we will have to work cooperatively with nations around the world – and we will need your help. For example, we will be asking others to take responsibility for some of those now at Guantanamo as we determine to close it. Our security is shared. So, too, I respectfully suggest, is our responsibility to defend it….
“America will do more. That’s the good news. The bad news is that America will ask for more from our partners as well.”
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer followed by adding Europe must further its commitment in the war against the Taliban.
“When the United States asks for a serious partner, it does not just want advice. It wants and deserves someone to share the heavy lifting.”
But even as there is talk the U.S. is preparing to significantly increase its forces in Afghanistan, President Obama is asking for a coherent endgame before he agrees to a large surge. Obama wants to limit any American role to fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda, while leaving the nation-building to NATO. The problem is, contrary to the requests of Biden and De Hoop Scheffer, Europe is not willing to step up any more than it already has, with Britain perhaps contributing another 300, max, at last report.
The seriousness of the campaign here could not have been better spelled out than in the Taliban’s coordinated attack on the Afghan Justice Ministry and other government buildings in Kabul. 8 terrorists and 20 others were killed. The Taliban called in its responsibility as the first shots were going off, saying it was sending a message that the government needed to stop torturing Taliban prisoners. While the overall level of attacks in Kabul has actually decreased as the Afghans do a little better job with security, the level of sophistication has picked up.
The country is due to hold a presidential election in August, but one can’t help but wonder if it can be pulled off, especially with the United States so down on the corrupt and incompetent Hamid Karzai.
[It doesn’t help that the Government Accountability Office just released a report that thousands of weapons, shipped to Afghanistan, are missing; with improper or non-existent records on about 87,000 rifles, pistols, mortars and other weapons. In some cases serial numbers were recorded but they don’t know where the arms are, while in others serial numbers were never logged in the first place.]
Iran: At Munich, Vice President Biden also said Iran has “a very clear choice: to continue down the current course and face continued pressure and isolation. Or, abandon the illicit nuclear program and your support for terrorism, upon which there will be meaningful incentives in return.” [Biden’s remarks edited slightly.] Iranian Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani, also in Munich, said Iran hoped the U.S. would abandon its “tired carrot-and-stick” approach. [Larijani then reminded everyone why we should be concerned in saying there “could be different perspectives on the Holocaust,” an awful statement at any time, but particularly untimely as it was made on German soil. Larijani is supposed to be “moderate.”]
“Iran’s launch last week of a satellite using a homegrown rocket is another reminder of why Europe needs a missile defense – and needs to start building it now. Combine Iran’s improving missile technology with its nuclear aspirations, and it’s a lethal mix.”
One thing seems clear, Iran is receiving support from North Korea.
For his part, Iranian President Ahmadinejad said, “The new U.S. administration has announced that they want to produce change and pursue the course of dialogue. It is quite clear that real change must be fundamental and not tactical. It is clear the Iranian nation welcomes real changes. The Iranian nation is ready to hold talks but talks in a fair atmosphere with mutual respect.”
As I’ve written many a time before, I just feel we’ve crossed the line of no return when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program. At this point, dialogue only buys Iran more time.
On the election front, with the presidential vote being held June 12, former president Mohammed Khatami (1997-2005) announced he is running, as expected, though the Guardian Council could still deny him an opportunity (not likely, however). Ahmadinejad remains the favorite, and is definitely the favorite of the hardliners on the Council. So, I’m thinking Ahmadinejad, who is really only No. 3 or 4 in the power structure, could press for a crude nuclear test before the vote to cement his election.
Pakistan: U.S. officials described the release of A.Q. Khan, the architect of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons program, as “extremely regrettable.” France also voiced its concern. But in his first comments, Khan said “The nuclear program has made this country secure,” while refusing to respond to questions about allegations he is Mr. Nuclear Proliferator.
“Islamabad is telling the new U.S. government that it won’t simply be able to dictate terms of cooperation in fighting the Taliban and al Qaeda. Like nearly everyone else around the world these days, the Pakistanis are looking to see how far they can push Mr. Obama before he pushes back….
“Mr. Khan was placed under house arrest by former President Pervez Musharraf after the Bush administration presented the evidence of Mr. Khan’s global WMD sales. But the U.S. has never been allowed to interrogate him. With the cowboys George W. Bush and Dick Cheney safely out of power, the new government of Asif Ali Zardari must figure it’s a good time to placate Pakistani opinion and risk upsetting the Yanks.
“If a nuclear weapon ever does incinerate a U.S. city, Mr. Khan will be as responsible as anyone. Mr. Obama has said he’ll focus on fighting the spread of WMD, but the world’s proliferators will interpret Mr. Khan’s release as evidence that you can sell anything and get away with it.”
Separately, the Pakistani government acknowledged for the first time that Islamic militants trained in Pakistan prior to the Mumbai attacks and that eight had been charged with aiding the attackers, including the supposed mastermind. Of the eight charged, six are in custody.
Pakistan is asking for cooperation from India before it releases its final report.
[As I go to post, we’re also learning of a large attack by a U.S. drone on a key Taliban hideout. This could be highly significant.]
Russia, et al: In enunciating the Obama administration’s new foreign policy agenda at the annual Munich security conference, Vice President Joe Biden said the White House was committed to missile defense, but with conditions.
“We will continue to develop missile defenses to counter a growing Iranian capability, provided the technology is proven and it is cost effective. We will do so in consultation with you our NATO allies and with Russia.”
But the danger is that the administration, in wishing to pull Russia back to the West, delays or postpones the already existing plans for the missile system, thus imperiling our allies in the Czech Republic and Poland that stuck their necks out in giving their approval to have elements of the system based on their land.
A newspaper editor for a Czech newspaper, Milan Vodicka, had the following thoughts in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.
“What’s worse, Czech and Polish leaders would lose credibility among their opponents and, most importantly, Russia. Moscow would see the failure to build the radar system as proof of its influence over Central Europe, and as recognition of its veto power over European security policy.
“Mr. Biden doesn’t seem to appreciate that the missile defense project isn’t just about American interests. It’s about the Czechs and the Poles, too.
“The Americans wanted the radar and the interceptors, and they wanted them within the borders of our countries. Our leaders went to great lengths to meet Washington’s requests. They stood firm in the face of passionate protests at home and intimidation from Russia….
“It’s beginning to look as though the Americans were taking us for a ride. Now that there’s a new driver in the White House, they think they can just drop us off at the curb.”
And sure enough, on Friday a senior U.S. official said “If we are able to work together to dissuade Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, we would be able to moderate the pace of development of missile defenses in Europe. The impetus for the deployment of the missile defense system is the threat from Iran.” [Reuters]
Meanwhile, Russia continues in its efforts to keep Georgia and Ukraine out of NATO and within its sphere of influence, and it persuaded Kyrgyzstan to kick out U.S. forces from a base there that was critical in the Afghan war effort.
Plus as Ukraine’s economic crisis deepens, there is yet another split in the Kiev government over seeking aid from Moscow, following a cut-off from the IMF because Ukraine hasn’t been meeting its debt payments. The Kremlin is brilliantly orchestrating a creeping coup, while Austria has stepped forward to urge the European Union to support Ukraine because of its strategic importance. Austria’s finance minister said an economic or political “catastrophe” there could trigger a “domino effect” inside the EU.
North Korea: The U.S. general in command in South Korea (where we still have 28,000 troops) said a military response could not be ruled out should Pyongyang test-fire a long-range missile capable of hitting Alaska. The North has been assembling the missile at an east coast launch base and South Korean officials believe it could be ready for launch at month’s end. The actual positioning of the 36-meter rocket, as well as the fuelling process, will be viewed by U.S. satellites and can give the outside world a warning several days in advance. If fired successfully, it would go over Japan.
Ironically, Hillary Clinton’s first trip as secretary of state is to Asia – South Korea, Japan, China and Indonesia – so the North is on the verge of miscalculating if it thinks by testing the new administration it will receive more goodies. Quite the contrary, it could refocus the region on an even sterner policy of sanctions. Prior to heading off yesterday, Ms. Clinton said the Obama administration would normalize relations with Pyongyang if Kim Jong-il agreed to verify he had abandoned the nuclear weapons program. We’ve gone down this road before. It dead ends over the hill.
China: This is another momentous year in China, aside from the government having to deal with the economic crisis. It’s the 60th anniversary of the forming of the People’s Republic of China, as well as the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square.
And the year has gotten off to a terrible start on the public relations front with the fire in Beijing that destroyed the unfinished Mandarin Oriental Hotel, one that started as employees of China’s next door national television network held an illegal fireworks display to celebrate the end of the Lunar New Year celebrations. China Central Television issued a rare apology, though there were no pictures on the front page of The Beijing News. What an embarrassment, though, and not exactly a good omen.
Venezuela: Polls show that President Hugo Chavez may pull out the latest referendum, Sunday, on granting him president for life status. Just 14 months ago he had been rebuffed in his attempt to remove the constitutional limit on his tenure, that otherwise would end in 2012.
Editorial / Washington Post
“How did Latin America’s self-styled ‘Bolivarian revolutionary’ turn his fortunes around? Not through rational argument, it is fair to say. Mr. Chavez’s regime has mounted a propaganda and intimidation campaign of a ferocity rarely seen in Latin America since the region returned to democracy 25 years ago. Pro-Chavez rhetoric dominates the national airwaves, from which opposition voices have been almost entirely excluded. Pro-government thugs have targeted student demonstrations, the home of an opposition journalist and the Vatican’s embassy, which gave shelter to one student leader.
“Then there is the assault on Venezuela’s Jewish community – which seems to have replaced George W. Bush as Mr. Chavez’s favorite foil. After Israel’s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip last month, the caudillo expelled Israel’s ambassador and described Israel’s actions in Gaza as ‘genocide.’ Then Mr. Chavez turned on Venezuela’s Jews. ‘Let’s hope that the Venezuelan Jewish community will declare itself against this barbarity,’ Mr. Chavez bellowed on a government-controlled television channel. ‘Don’t Jews repudiate the Holocaust? And this is precisely what we’re witnessing.’”
On Jan. 30 a synagogue in Caracas was attacked by thugs who spray-painted “Jews get out” on the walls. Later, five police officers were among those arrested for the incident.
Australia: The death toll may exceed 300 in the bush fire catastrophe, Australia’s worst natural disaster since the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983 killed 75. Some of the fires appear to be the result of arson, and one suspect has been charged with acts Prime Minister Kevin Rudd characterized as “mass murder.”
The fires have also reignited a number of debates. I have long written Australia was Ground Zero for global warming and no place on earth appears to be heating up faster than here; so the fire issue is only going to get worse.
But it’s also a debate about living in vulnerable areas that are “bush fire prone,” somewhat similar to the issue faced in parts of California, though also different. It’s about small towns being established in the middle of the woods or bush.
I found this passage from a story by Meraiah Foley of the New York Times instructive.
”Every summer, thousands of fires burn across this hot, dry continent, and there are not enough firefighters to protect every home. Many rural Australians know that it is only a matter of time before they, or someone they know, will face a stark choice: evacuate or stay and fight the fires.
“Fire authorities across Australia advise residents who choose to defend their homes to stay indoors while the blaze passes through. [Ed. emphasis mine] Citing statistics from past fires, the agencies say that most people can survive a wildfire as long as they avoid direct contact with the searing temperatures and scalding gases that come with an advancing fire.”
But in the Victoria fires, there was little time for an orderly escape and some were killed as the houses were overwhelmed.
The result is one town, Marysville, is sealed off to the public “due to the horrific scenes there,” according to Reuters, with possibly up to 100 victims.
Zimbabwe: I have to admit I am surprised by the turn of events here but count me as a skeptic. President Robert Mugabe swore in his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai, to be the new prime minister in a unity government. In his speech afterwards, Tsvangirai said:
“Political violence must end today. We can no longer afford brother against brother, because one happened to have a different political opinion.”
Tsvangirai added, “No Zimbabwean will ever go hungry again. Our hospitals must be places of healing…On Monday, all schools must reopen.”
He also vowed to pay civil servants in foreign currency, but warned “94% unemployment” would take some time to alleviate. Now that will require a stimulus plan.
“I offer my hand of friendship and cooperation, warm cooperation and solidarity in the service of our great country Zimbabwe. If yesterday we were adversaries…today we stand in unity.”
Oh, brother. Maybe Mugabe is just old and tired. We know he had to have feared for his life. Here’s yet another classic case of ‘wait 24 hours.’ [A leading opposition figure has already been arrested, for example.] We also need to see how the U.K. and U.S., in particular, react in terms of aid, seeing as Mugabe is still the real power.
Mexico: In the northern state of Chihuahua, directly across from Texas and New Mexico, 21 died in a massive gun battle between the drug cartel and Mexican soldiers. Six of the victims had been part of a group of nine that was kidnapped.
–The worm has turned. Newsweek’s Conventional Wisdom Watch awarded Barack Obama a down arrow. “Does he walk on water – or thin ice?”
“In public, Mr. Obama may tell us the problem is the lack of Republican support. But if he is as comfortable with the stimulus as he says, if the bills under consideration are really the tonic our economy needs, if by not passing a stimulus immediately we truly risk catastrophe, and if the American people are going to call the Republicans to account for not going along, why all the fuss? Why not just have it passed on your own, and take full credit.
“Unless, of course, even Democrats are beginning to hear whispers of ‘Nancy Pelosi’ ringing in their ears.”
–Editorial / Washington Post…on Sen. Judd Gregg
“For the Obama administration, Mr. Gregg’s withdrawal represents another bump at a particularly unhelpful time. Mr. Gregg said yesterday that he had told the White House several days ago of his decision. If so, you have to wonder why the administration did not take better control of the situation, instead of waiting for the news to detonate and then issuing a statement that looked peeved and churlish as it insisted that Mr. Gregg had come calling for the job, and not the reverse.”
–I’m a little disturbed at how Barack Obama treats Joe Biden in public. Yes, we all know how the vice president can act at times and how some of the things coming out of his mouth are rather entertaining, if not entirely appropriate, but there are ways to privately treat these matters, rather than the very public way Obama has opted for. What gets me is Obama is seemingly respectful of everyone else.
–Editorial / Washington Post…on Dick Cheney
“ ‘The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected.’ So declared former vice president Dick Cheney in an interview this week with Politico. Mr. Cheney is right – which is why he should be apologizing rather than defending the extreme Bush administration policies on detention and interrogation that he championed.
“Mr. Cheney asserted that the administration’s antiterrorism policies may have been unpopular but were necessary, and he offered sweeping and unverifiable pronouncements about their effectiveness. ‘If it hadn’t been for what we did – with respect to the terrorist surveillance program or enhanced interrogation techniques for high-value detainees, the Patriot Act and so forth – then we would have been attacked again,’ Mr. Cheney claimed.
“Characteristically self-assured, Mr. Cheney perpetuated the myth that abiding by the rule of law puts the country in danger. In a thinly veiled attack on the Obama administration, he scoffed at those who are ‘more concerned about reading the rights to an al-Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans.’ This is not only a mischaracterization of Mr. Obama’s position, it is a false choice….
“Most profoundly, Mr. Cheney fails to recognize the damage these policies have done to the country’s reputation at large. They have alienated even once-stalwart allies, and they have played into the hands of terrorist leaders, who use the sordid images from Abu Ghraib and tales of abuse at secret CIA prisons overseas as political ammunition to recruit the next wave of suicide bombers and foot soldiers. Thanks to Mr. Cheney and his aides, global respect for the United States is at a low point.”
[But aside from its stance against torture, the Obama administration is following other Bush policies on the anti-terror front, as the Journal pointed out in an editorial on Friday, praising the White House.]
–Along these lines, Democratic Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy has proposed a “truth commission” to look into tactics of the Bush administration during the “war on terror.” Interestingly, in a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, two-thirds of those surveyed said there should be investigations into torture allegations. Four in ten want criminal investigations. I didn’t think these figures would be so high.
Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter said, “If every administration started to re-examine what every prior administration did, there would be no end to it. This is not Latin America.”
–I stumbled on this quote from Dwight D. Eisenhower (whose ranking has been steadily rising as time goes by).
“Though force can protect in emergency, only justice, fairness, consideration, and cooperation can finally lead men to the dawn of eternal peace.”
–Hackers broke into the Federal Aviation Administration’s computer system last week, accessing the names and Social Security numbers of 45,000 employees and retirees. The server that was accessed was not connected to the operation of the air traffic control system. Nonetheless highly worrisome.
–The Vatican buried the hatchet with Charles Darwin, with a leading theologian saying Darwin’s theory of evolution was compatible with Christian faith.
It really is fascinating how Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on the exact same date back in 1809, and I liked this bit by Adam Gopnik in the February issue of Smithsonian comparing the two.
“Darwin and Lincoln helped remake our language and forge a new kind of rhetoric that we still respond to in politics and popular science alike. They particularized in everything, and their general vision rises from the details and the nuance, their big ideas from small sightings. They shared logic as a form of eloquence, argument as a style of virtue, close reasoning as a form of uplift. Each, using a kind of technical language – the fine, detailed language of naturalist science for Darwin; the tedious language of legal reasoning for the American – arrived at a new ideal of liberal speech. The way that Darwin uses insanely detailed technical arguments about the stamen of an orchid to pay off, many pages later, in a vast cosmic point about the nature of survival and change on a planetary time scale, and the way that Lincoln uses lawyerly arguments about who signed what and when among the Founders to make the case for war, if necessary, to end slavery – these things have in common their hope, their faith, in plain English, that people’s minds and hearts can be altered by the slow crawl of fact as much as by the long reach of revelation. Their phrases still ring because they were struck on bells cast of solid bronze, not chimes set blowing in the breeze.
“In all these says – their love of family, their shrewdness and sensitivity, their invention of a new kind of plain speaking – these two men are worth looking at together precisely because they aren’t particularly remarkable. The things that they loved and pursued, the things that intrigued and worried them, were the same things that most other intelligent people in their day worried about and that worry and intrigue us still. Even mountains are made of pebbles, built up over time, and an entire mountain range of minds has risen slowly between them and us. Most of the rest have been submerged by time, but Darwin and Lincoln remain peaks within those mountains of modernity, and they look out toward each other. From the top of one you can see the other, and what you see is what we are.”
–Interesting story that the Audubon Society has found more than half of 305 bird species in North America are spending the winter about 35 miles farther north than they did 40 years ago. The only explanation why so many are opting to do so is global warming.
Over the 40 years covered by the study, the average January temperature in the U.S. climbed 5 degrees.
–I imagine if you were on the international space station and happened to see a flash from the two communications satellites colliding in the first-ever crash of two such craft in orbit, it would have freaked you out. “What the (heck) was that?” Alas, none of the three astronauts are known to have seen it, nor are they in any real danger. But there are concerns the Hubble Telescope could be impacted by the huge debris field (as well as flying saucers from Mars, come to think of it).
–Congratulations to 70-year-old Stump (ten, in human years), the Sussex spaniel that took Best in Show at the Westminster Kennel Club show, becoming the oldest to win the award.
“It’s Sully and Suleman, the pilot and ‘Octomom,’ the two great stories that are twinned with the era. Sully, the airline captain who saved 155 lives by landing that plane just right – level wings, nose up, tail down, plant that baby, get everyone out, get them counted, and then, at night, wonder what you could have done better. You know the reaction of the people of our country to Chesley B. Sullenberger III: They shake their heads, and tears come to their eyes. He is cool, modest, competent, tough in the good way. He’s the only one who doesn’t applaud Sully. He was just doing his job.
“This is why people are so moved: We’re still making Sullys. We’re still making those mythic Americans, those steely-eyed rocket men. Like Alan Shepard in the Mercury rocket; ‘Come on and light this candle.’
“But Sully, 58, Air Force Academy ’73, was shaped and formed by the old America, and educated in an ethos in which a certain style of manhood – or personhood – was held high.
“What we fear we’re making more of these days is Nadya Suleman. The dizzy, selfish, self-dramatizing 33-year-old mother who had six small children and then a week ago eight more because, well, she always wanted a big family. ‘Suley’ doubletalks with the best of them, she doubletalks with profound ease. She is like Blago without the charm. She had needs and took proactive steps to meet them, and those who don’t approve are limited, which must be sad for them. She leaves anchorwomen slack-jawed: How do you rough up a woman who’s still lactating? She seems aware of their predicament.
“Any great nation would worry at closed-up shops and a professional governing class that doesn’t have a clue what to do. But a great nation that fears, deep down, that it may be becoming more Suley than Sully – that nation will enter a true depression.”
Pray for the men and women of our armed forces, and the victims of the Buffalo air tragedy.
Dow Jones -5.2% [7850]
S&P 500 -4.8% [826]
S&P MidCap -4.7%
Russell 2000 -4.8%
Nasdaq -3.6% [1534]
Bears 38.7 [Source: Chartcraft / Investors Intelligence]
Have a great week. I appreciate your support.
