There’s been a severe drought hitting the Midwest that has laid waste to a large percentage of the country’s corn crop this year. The headline I read was “There ain’t been no gol-derned rainclouds up in that there sky for a coon’s age, there ain’t” so I can only assume this is the worst it’s been in over 50 years. Aaaaaaand since we are now required by law to have at least 10% ethanol in our gasoline these days, this drought translates directly into higher prices at the pump.
HA! Stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it, hippies! Your tree-hugging bloodlust for lower gas prices and less dependence on foreign oil has resulted in higher gas prices. I feel like hugging an oil sheik and gently whispering in his ear “I’ll never leave you again, not even 10%.”
India has enjoyed one of the world’s worst power outages, leaving over 600 million people without electricity. So if you’re computer needs technical support in the next little bit, you’re screwed.
Investigation is still on-going in what is being dubbed as one of the greatest financial frauds of our time. And, given the top-notch financial fraud we’ve seen lately, that is a pretty big allegation. During the stock market/real estate downturn, a number of high ranking bank officials were accused of artificially tampering with and setting the rates for the LIBOR (London Inter-Bank Offering Rate) otherwise known as the rate banks charge one another for overnight deposit lending which is controlled by the British Bankers Association.
Now, that doesn’t sound like a huge deal until you realize that the LIBOR is the underpinning rate behind $350 trillion in derivatives. So, while the blatant fraud assisted in providing very favorable consumer borrowing rates, it also trashed the returns that a bunch of municipalities rely on, wiped out an enormous amount of wealth retirees rely upon, and generally violated an untold amount of confidence in our world financial markets. Barclays has already admitted fault and more than a dozen other institutions have their necks on the chopping block right now.
Pretty awesome, Great Britain. I’m sure your Men’s Gymnastics bronze will be enough to get everyone to forget about this little snafu.
Our housing recovery stats continue to be a mixed bag. Homeownership has hit a 15 year low. The recent Case-Schiller home price index advanced 2.2%. Existing home sales in June dropped 5.4%. Mortgage rates maintain their rock-bottom pricing. Most definitely choppy waters, but I’ll take that any day over the seemingly endless plummet that has characterized the past few years.
The Summer Olympics make me smile like few things do. Once every four years (because no one honestly gives even half a shit about the Winter Olympics) America is united in cheering on our champions as they strive towards glory. Provides a ‘poetic justice’ kind of contrast to the divisive nature of our presidential political season. The inspiration from one individual’s success can make an entire country’s partisan bickering seem downright pathetic.
There’s a lesson buried somewhere in there.
But what the hell: Let’s kung-fu kick that hornet’s nest for fun.
Mitt Romney was recently chastised by the Palestinians for his comments indicating that Israeli culture allowed them to be comparatively more economically prosperous. So you mean to tell me that Jewish people are good with money?!??!?!!!?!?!?!??!?!?!??!??!?!?!
Yup. That was the whole joke. SO worth it.
Obama enjoyed his own gaffe in the form of “If you’ve got your own business—you didn’t build that. Someone helped you.” Now, while I am sure this comment was intended to point to the communally built system that allows entrepreneurs to succeed in this country, holy hell was it an epically dumbass choice of words. The re-election campaign has gone into back-pedal overdrive mode, which absolutely cracks me up.
To close a little further away from home, the European Central Bank’s top dog Mario Draghi has boldly stated that he will do “whatever is necessary” to preserve the integrity of the euro and keep the currency of the league of nations intact and alive. And if there is anything my upbringing on video games has taught me, it’s that you don’t take something a dude named Mario says lightly.
If that guy gets hold of a fire flower, someone’s going down. Probably Bowser. And I don’t think Bowser has anything to do with this. But everyone loves seeing a scapegoat burn. Especially literally.
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