Got a major cabizzle for news this morning, do you? Data Gap Arriving!
Yup: Followers of the Shape of Things To Come reports from www.halfpasthuman.com, please stop sending me notes about the INTERNET BEING TURNED OFF IN EGYPT. It’s a few days early (Feb 8 was the target date in predictive linguini (sic), but we expect it will grow from here, once one country has ‘pulled the switch.”
And we hear that there’s a “citizens group” demanding the net get turned on in Egypt by Sunday, or here comes the rev.
Not that this would set well with our Veep Joe, who says Mubarak is not a dictator and should not step down.
And Mubarak seems to be taking it to heart, having his folks round up Egyptian Brotherhood leaders and keeping the net off. Problem may be that cell phones are likely still on, so flash mobs can happen anyway….or can they? We shall see.
Study question: Did the Muslim Brotherhood set up phone trees?
Look for colleges next year to serve up offerings like “computational revolutionary dynamics”. Wonder if that will in the political science or the computer science curriculum?
GlobalRev, Expands
As the world continues spinning toward global devolution, can’t help but notice the concept of “The Revolution Wave” is getting traction. Why, next thing you know, someone’s going to call it a GloblaRev…boy, won’t we all be surprised….
Oh, wait. This is closer: Global Research wonders “Are We Witnessing the Start of a Global Revolution?” News Junkie Post wonders if “Tunisia, wikileaks and Food Crisis: Forces for a Global Revolution.”
OK, they get bonus points for famine, but that will start getting traction this spring (which is why we are soooo into gardening…)
Besides: Sooner, or later, someone else will turn Global Revolution into a contraction; Clif gets kudos for nailing it first and I’ll just claim second place one it for using it widely. Premature contractions? Global consciousness birth pains?
Idiotic Remark of the Day Dept.
The president of France says the IMF should “monitor and enforce new rules on global economic imbalances.” GlobalGov you idiot…call it what you’re pushing for…Global Governance. People are not that dumb. Or, maybe they are in France, some to think of it…
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Love to watch how the puppets of predatory capitalism can be all globalist and free-trading one minute and “Save us! Save Us!” asking working people to pay and pay more when the sh*t they have thrown finally arrives at the fan. Frigging loverly.
GDP Lower Than Expected
Consensus was that GDP would be up 3.5% – nope:
“Real gross domestic product — the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States — increased at an annual rate of 3.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, (that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to the “advance” estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP increased 2.6 percent.
The Bureau emphasized that the fourth-quarter advance estimate released today is based on source data that are incomplete or subject to further revision by the source agency (see the box on page 4). The “second” estimate for the fourth quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on February 25, 2011.
The increase in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by a negative contribution from private inventory investment. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, decreased.
The acceleration in real GDP in the fourth quarter primarily reflected a sharp downturn in imports, an acceleration in PCE, and an upturn in residential fixed investment that were partly offset by downturns in private inventory investment and in federal government spending and a deceleration in nonresidential fixed investment.
Final sales of computers added 0.31 percentage point to the fourth-quarter change in real GDP after adding 0.29 percentage point to the third-quarter change. Motor vehicle output subtracted 0.34 percentage point from the fourth-quarter change in real GDP after adding 0.49 percentage point to the third-quarter change.
Problem: Figure out how much was based on price inflation and how much was unit volumes going up. (Care to guess my suspicions? Prices up 3.2 and flat volumes would be my bet…)
Rahming Chicagoans
ILLinois Supreme’s (not to be confused with Motown’s) have said Rahm Emanuel can run. What’s do I always say? Everything’s a business model?
Vote early and vote often, isn’t it?
Vatican Bank Watch
“Unmasking trhe Vatican’s Bank” is an interesting read…but I hear Bob Chapman’s International Forecaster is out with a bombshell of related allegations in this week’s report on his subscriber side… See how long this takes to get mainstream, although the PTB lackey MSM’s will sit on it, fer sure…
Meantime, On the Rabid Right
Repeat after me: “It’s a business model…” and “No such thing as bad press…”
Academic Excellence
Loved the headline in the SF Chronicle’s website “Professor charged with peeing on colleagues door…” Since it was a couple of math professors, we’ve narrowed our suspicions down to functions of P…
If The Top Is Near
Might want to check out this CNBC video on an aggressively managed pure bear ETF which looks at something really smart: They pick out companies which are “aggressively recognizing revenue.”
Obviously, if the Dow punches on up through 12,150, or so, then I’ll abandon my short position in a financial sector bear ETF which has cost me – if I were to sell now – about a 40% loss. BUT, if I expected to be wrong in the long term I’d be out. Just remember that the “C word” tends to happen around 55-days after a major trading peak. Wasn’t that the case in 1929 from the Sept. 3, 1929 top till….well, you go read up on this stuff.
Where’s the Beef?
If you notice the ads popping out today over Taco Bell’s “beef” used in tacos and such, it’s reportedly reaction to a class action lawsuit claiming the actual amount of ‘beef’ in their taco filling is “less than 35% beef.“ But Taco Bell says it’s 88% beef with the rest water, spices and such.
Interesting question here whether this was something done locally since as I read the history of the company, it’s a franchise and I’d be willing to bet there’s some wording in the underlying legal docs about franchisee liability IF the Taco Bell rules aren’t followed. Not saying that this is the case, but there’s a fine question involving franchisee control versus head office control which logically might come up…
Like any company that becomes successful and has a ‘big face’ to consumers, lawsuits are part of life.
I’m sure you remember the big arches folks going through lawsuits over coffee that’s too hot – something the Scandinavian in me is still reeling from since it stops being coffee under 150º and lower (under 125 it’s iced coffee). The Taco Bell analogs would be farm labor, 50-Cent, and the Chihuahua problems.
Own a category, buy a law firm is how business works anymore, seems like.
Advanced Marketing Class
Say, you notice that the State of Utah has voted forward a bill which would declare the Browning Model 1911 as the State Gun.
Now, I don’t know about you, but seems to me that after all the complaints about rabid radio and TV shows promoting this, that, and the other thing, naming a state gun would be about the dumbest thing lawmakers could do (I mean after setting the up the Fed, the income tax, oh, you know the list, right?)
But if Utah goes ahead with this (silly) plan, I have plans to campaign for the State of Texas Offishul Weapon.
I’m suggesting the Official Texas Weapon be the B83. Now, if you’re scratching your head and wondering “What the hell is a B83? never heard of such a thing…“ Click over here and scroll down.
Or, just Wiki Pantex and notice what state it’s in. Ya’ll have fun with your pop guns in Utah – just remember who makes the glassmakers, eh?
Real states choose nukes.
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