Today's edition of quick hits:
* Terror plot: "An insider, working with the United States and an allied security service, thwarted the al-Qaida bomb plot hatched in Yemen and provided information that allowed the U.S. to launch a Predator drone strike that killed the group's operations chief."
* Iran: "A South Korean nuclear inspector on a mission for the United Nations was killed, and a Slovakian inspector was injured, when their car overturned on Tuesday near a nuclear site southwest of Tehran, semiofficial Iranian media reported."
* It keeps getting worse: "The previous 12 months were the warmest in the U.S. since record keeping began in 1895, government scientists reported Tuesday."
* Some relief at the pump: "Gasoline prices fell for the fifth consecutive week, extending a sharp decline that has eased fears that prices would soon top $4 a gallon at the pump."
* Job growth has been very sluggish of late, but the number of job openings has increased considerably, and is now at the highest levels in years.
* Systemic bribery: "The tough U.S. anti-bribery law that Wal-Mart may have violated in Mexico has ensnared leading companies from virtually every sector of the economy, as federal prosecutors increasingly punish firms for transgressions such as giving foreign officials computers and shopping bags of cash."
* Is it entertaining to see Paul Krugman and David Brooks obliquely go after one another? As Upper West explained, yes, it is.
* And Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) offers a video update on his post-stroke rehabilitation. He's still very wrong about improving the economy by taking investments out of the economy, and I'm not sure why he included an economic message in the clip, but I'm delighted his health is improving.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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Um, huh? Top $4.00 a gallon? Try $5.00 in Santa Clara, California.
shhhh, you're spoiling the narrative.
Brooks per link:
"Papering over them with more debt"? Debt from what? Only military. There is no other source of debt, NONE. Does Brooks know this?
"We structuralists do not believe that the level of government spending is the main factor in determining how fast an economy grows". Oh yeah? And the evidence is where? Try Somalia or EVERY poor country that has low government spending and EVERY rich country that has high government spending. Show me ONE rich country with low government spending or ONE poor country with high government spending. Brooks has ZERO evidence for his assertion.
How about stimulus? How about payroll tax cuts? How about Bush tax cuts? How about safety nets? Krugman advocates more stimulus. I agree Brooks is correct in that if we continue to think old ideas will solve today's problems, we will continue to add to the deficit. I've said all along we have a structural issue with the economy. Thus, the large long term unemployment. Yesterday's skills are not todays. Labor, also, must recognize this. There is a reason foreign auto companies are building plants in the South. Right to work.
There is a reason foreign auto companies are building plants in the South. "Right to work" has nothing to do with it. It's called "business friendly". Red southern states get tax handouts from feds that feds collect from blue states. Red states use the tax handouts to subsidize and attract business from the blue states that are paying the higher tax. Red states use tax incentives to attract car manufacturers, just look it up.
"There is a reason foreign auto companies are building plants in the South. Right to work." Prove it! Those foreign auto companies have strong labor unions in their home countries. Higher wages mean a larger market and more sales. Besides, labor costs are only about 10% of a new car's price. A few percent savings in labor is practically nothing.
David Brooks is lying. From his column: "The recession grew out of and exposed long-term flaws in the economy." Long term? Bullsh!t. Unemployment was 4.4% less than five years ago, that is "long term"? "Hyperefficient globalized companies need fewer workers." Sure, just in the last five years. Let's go back to the 1930s when everything was done by hand and unemployment was about 20% or in 2000 when it was 4.0% before tax cuts kicked the legs out from under the "structure".
"The United States, once the world’s educational leader, is falling back in the pack. Unemployment is high, but companies still have trouble finding skilled workers." Again, just in the last five years. Sure, dude, just make it up.
Brooks wrote a fun book "Bobos in Paradise" but except for that is not worth the time of day and is only good for getting his butt kicked.
"...extending a sharp decline that has eased fears that prices would soon top $4 a gallon at the pump."
I'm with Trollop up at #1. I haven't seen gas BELOW $4.20 and up (mostly WAY up) in the last couple of months. And I'm here in northern California, too.
a comment on the Sen. Kirk video: everyone else's world does not revolve around him....many people have gone/are going through rehab from a stroke. I'd rather learn about the care being given to our injured vets.
and with the approach of MOthers Day...let's remember that the day began as a day of protest against war by outspoken women who refused to send any mother's son to fight in a war.
hmmmm....when did it happen that our elected Presidents did not serve, nor their sons??? It sure is someone else's war. Reading Drift and breaking into outburts of agreement over passages.
I also noted what great
governmenttaxpayer-paid insurance he must have to get such wonderful rehabilitation services. We should all be able to have insurance to help us in our time of need.When can we see Brooks and Krugman on TRMS discussing these structuralist views?
The bottom line is that America is being protected and is neutralizing threats as they come up. One year ago we disposed of the mass killer of thousands of Americans -- Osama bin Laden -- in a a daring and skilled raid carried out by our superbly trained and incredibly brave military under direct orders from this president. Now we have reduced the threat from another al Qaeda operation through a similarly successful operation. The only threat we face is from Republicans that wish to rattle sabers and undermine the US government with reckless partisanship. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
Really? What threats are those?
What threat is that? They might blow up an airplane? That would be a real shame and a tragedy but NO THREAT to America. Only an idiot would claim crashing an airliner would destroy the whole country. That is really nuts. And it furthers the aim of terrorists who intend to make you scared, and you play right into their hands.
Yes, and that threat is not sufficiently neutralized.
Also reading Drift. Terrific.
Made it up to about the end of Reagan's
kingshipPresidency. I'd give a page number but it's on a Kindle. What a thoroughly creepy human being HE was. He didn't seem "all that bad" at the time, but history is not being kind at all. So much has come out about him and his politics... little of it good. I had no idea, but I guess I wasn't alone... the Great Deceiver, indeed.Hope we NEVER see his ilk again... oh .. wait... {face palm}