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Saturday, December 31, 2011

Happy New Year!

But will it be?

At best, my impression is that it will be mixed. It's US election year, so Mercans are doomed to spend part of it feeling about like this:
(Gacked from Ace).

Blinding me with SCIENCE
. Oh, wait - that's not science? For this malady, I can only offer these famous words of wisdom:
Why do people who know the least know it the loudest?
I have been reading DU recently, which is why this question is much on my mind. Only today, for example, I learned that military spending is 58% of the US budget and that the US does not borrow - that in fact no sovereign nation with its own currency borrows.

If it's any comfort, Mark Twain was being exceedingly snarky about Congress long before we were born. Some things never change.

This does not pertain, but it is one of the best bits of knock-down snark ever composed, and it is attributed to Mark Twain, so:
The average American may not know who his grandfather was. But the American was, however, one degree better off than the average Frenchman who, as a rule, was in considerable doubt as to who his father was.
Oh, yeah. Since I digress, is there something about Snark and the name Mark? Look at this modern master of econo-snark in action. This man does not tolerate idiocy - he savors it. He rolls it on his tongue and enumerates the flavors - and he is named Mark! Do you believe in reincarnation?
The political and commercial morals of the United States are not merely food for laughter, they are an entire banquet.
That could be the motto of the Snarky Mark blog, couldn't it?

Said banquet will be laid out for us in glorious panorama in 2012 due to an election which is all about money, in a nation running out of money, with problems that substantially due to many of the citizens not having enough money to eat in restaurants as much as they like while having the prospect of having even less money in the future.

Hopefully we will all survive the year without cocaine poisoning. You may find this collection of Twainese a great relief to your feelings as we get closer to the icks of November. For example:
That awful power, the public opinion of a nation, is created in America by a horde of ignorant, self-complacent simpletons who failed at ditching and shoemaking and fetched up in journalism on their way to the poorhouse.
There is also the comforting reflection that although it was this bad back then, we still survived and did pretty well. So if you get depressed this year, just walk around singing a song about "from sea to shining sea of idiocy", and reflect that what you see is probably about what got us the successes of the past. There is no reason to be too depressed.

There is also no reason to be that optimistic. If you haven't got money, and you have little chance of getting money, and a very substantial hunk of your economy requires spending money that you haven't got, it stands to reason that some degree of angst lies in your future.

Comments:
Churchill told us that, "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else." Our misfortune is that it now takes so very long for our elites to exhaust the possibilities of everything else.
 
The excuse-generating elite. Yup.
 
The 3 of us at Black Angus on Friday spent almost as much as I make in a day! ( We had a gift card to use up.) I think maybe it's going to take a change in the culture, becoming personally frugal, before we can become frugal as a nation.
 
Teri - painfully true. If you look at the retail reports, it is clear that many are being forced to a new frugality.

I don't think DC has caught on yet.
 
MOM,

"Why do people who know the least know it the loudest?"

I'd really like to know the answer to that one. And why is it often said anonymously? And in uppercase? I point you to a recent comment on a post I did over 4 years ago. Apparently "Anonymous" felt my income inequality chart was "nit-picky" and that I didn't understand how the Gini coefficient works. He/she felt the need to incorrectly "correct" me.

So what prompted it? I'm guessing that he/she lives in a high income inequality state, has high income, and didn't particularly care for the tone/implications of my post.

I try to double check my own work, but if I see an error in someone else's work I tend to triple check it. Further, if there is still any doubt at all then I will pose it as a question just to be on the safe side.

"Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt."

I never feel more foolish than when I point out an error that doesn't exist. Maybe that's just me.

WV = swink

Sarcastic winks for the win! That blogger WV system sure knows its stuff.
 
MOM,

"I don't think DC has caught on yet."

As seen in that link I offered in my last comment, DC has the highest income inequality.

I theorize that the higher the income inequality, the longer it takes to catch on.

How else could one explain the subprime crisis containment theories offered by the "excuse-generating elite"?
 
That is not a bad theory, Mark.

It could explain a lot.
 
Teri, et al: the President has a solution to the present austerity, and it can be summarized as " less is more " . For example, he has the " quality adjusted life years " Medicare program for those over 70, whereby he, under the sole and absolute discretion granted to him in his signature Obamacare legislation, can decide if plus 70's really could do with fewer hip replacements, and other expensive geriatric medicine.

For those still paying income tax, less is more will mean a doubling of income tax rates, as even Obama realizes that $1+ trillion per year Federal budget deficits as-far-as-the-eye-can-see can NOT be financed through borrowing in perpetuity, and confiscating all assets of the 1% only yields a measly one trillion, which amounts to only one 6 month debt limit increase, days.

For further details on less is more, tune in to " Obama for America 2012" ( but not before November 7 ;-) )
 
M_O_M,

I've no idea at what point it will actually start being enforced (or even at what point the regulations will be defined), but do you have any thoughts on FATCA, the foreign account reporting law? There's been grumbles from foreign firms about divesting U.S. assets...
 
I think I found a better description for the state of the eurozone. They're just a little unwell.

Word verification: paidsop. WV is making more sense than eurozone leaders.
 
paidsop!!

I love it!

WV = smopter

For some reason I am reminded of Apocalypse Now. Send in the stagflationary mop helicopters?

I love the smell of eurozone in the morning.
 
Mark, just make sure the helicopters are painted black. :)

WV: dingyrsu. Enough said.
 
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 
Hmmm. I hadn't thought of the black helicopter. That makes even more sense.

Stagflationary Mark's black OPs helicopTER?

SMOPTER!

Since I don't own any black helicopters, I will assume that some are being assigned and dispatched to my home, lol. Sigh.
 
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