Intermarkets' Privacy Policy
Support


Donate to Ace of Spades HQ!



Recent Entries
Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024
Captain Hate 2023
moon_over_vermont 2023
westminsterdogshow 2023
Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022
Dave In Texas 2022
Jesse in D.C. 2022
OregonMuse 2022
redc1c4 2021
Tami 2021
Chavez the Hugo 2020
Ibguy 2020
Rickl 2019
Joffen 2014
AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published. Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me
Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups






















« Top Headline Comments 7-20-11 | Main | Another Living War on Terror Recipient Of Medal Of Honor Named »
July 20, 2011

DOOM is an equal-opportunity employer

DOOOOM

Beer at last, beer at last, thank God, we are beer at last! The Minnesota state shutdown will (probably) end today, and the liquor can once again flow freely. Democrats hate the compromise, which means that the state GOP probably got a pretty good deal.

If President Obama likes this "Gang of Six" plan, it probably means it sucks and will really piss off conservatives. However, it may also be the best deal we're going to get out of this President. Do we take the deal and keep our powder dry for 2012, or do we bunker in and insist on a better deal? Mark Steyn at NRO hates the plan, and he thinks the deal will work out as these things usually do:

If you take the Gang’s figure of half-a-trillion dollars in immediate “aggressive deficit reduction” seriously, that represents about what the U.S. government borrows every four months. What’s “aggressive” about that? And what’s immediate about it? It’s all unspecified “discretionary spending caps” and “process reforms” that will collapse like soufflés ten minutes after the signing ceremony. Obviously it’s appealing to Democrats: It accepts their view that 25 percent of GDP should be the new baseline for national (“federal” no longer seems quite the word) government spending. But what’s in it for Republicans?

There is evidence that bondholders and ratings agencies are getting antsy about the lack of a budget deal, but I continue to think this is media-generated hysteria and political theater. Smart bond-holders have factored in US debt concerns long ago, and they know that there is almost no chance the US will actually default on its debt. So when you hear the hysterical warnings that a default is imminent, you can safely ignore them, whatever happens. The US, for all its problems, is still the best of a bad lot, and investors know that.

Paul Ryan's take on the "Gang of Six" proposal. He doesn't hate it, but he seems to see more bad than good in it.

Who would have thought that a Byzantine, badly-thought-out, and partisan piece of legislation would actually exacerbate the very problem it was meant to solve? Impossible!

Give the Greeks what they deserve: Communism. This seems like a cruel fate, but after all many Greeks have been agitating for it for a century. Maybe a decade or two of having having to live in a Communist hellhole will kill their taste for it.

Thomas Sowell: Misreading 90 years of tax-cut history. Listen to the man.

The spirit of public service always warms my heart. In Wisconsin, public employees are retiring in droves to avoid any cuts to their retirement benefits. The phenomenon of "pre-emptive retirement" is quite commonplace, and it will further strain state and municipal budgets due to the sudden spike in pension rolls combined with the shortfall in senior personnel.

A California judge halts Costa Mesa layoffs until a trial. The public-employee unions asked for the injunction, and the judge granted it. Expect to see more and more of this kind of thing as city budgets run out and layoffs end up being the only major avenue of cost savings. We may end up with a wholly bizarre situation where a judge essentially orders a municipality to go bankrupt by preventing them from getting their payroll costs under control.

Someone needs to remind this guy that past performance is no guarantee of future results. You'd think he'd have learned that lesson in the 2008 downturn, but I guess not. (And those stock-market "windfalls" can disappear with terrifying speed, guys. One bad day on the exchange is all you need.)

Some rare good news for American manufacturing: American Airlines orders 460 narrowbody aircraft. 200 of those planes will come from Boeing, with the rest coming from Europe's Airbus. (I wonder if this will have any impact on the current NLRB case against Boeing?)

UPDATE 1: Via Vic in the comments: Moody's threatens a downgrade of five states if the US credit rating is cut. Like I've been saying, the credit ratings agencies were terribly embarrassed by their utter failure in the subprime meltdown, and are trying mightily to build their cred back up again.

UPDATE 2: Compton, CA, a city of delights comparable to classical Florence, is laying off 30% of its workforce. Well, unless a judge orders them not to.

UPDATE 3: Slouching towards default.


Let's see how brave you are on this side of the glass, you rodent bastard!


digg this
posted by Monty at 08:56 AM

| Access Comments




Recent Comments
CrotchetyOldJarhead : "Found greasy spoon burger place out on the west si ..."

Accomack: "Royal Farms slices the potatoes into long chunks, ..."

whig: "And you keep that great greasy taste. Posted by: ..."

Carlyl: "You can go back to a time when French fries were ..."

JQ: "Five Guys has terrible fries,.... The worst fri ..."

Ciampino - No but it'll tell you how much oxalate: "179 "What's wrong with him?" "He ate the rhubarb ..."

Angzarr the Cromulent: "And the best ketchup is from Whataburger. ..."

Quarter Twenty : "Transfer the ketchup to a generic squeeze bottle t ..."

Warai-otoko : "I've never had a ketchup go to the bitter end befo ..."

That annoying mouse you haven't been able to catch: "281 The worst fries on the planet...nay, the unive ..."

Mr Gaga: "I hate self checkout, but did it ten minutes ago. ..."

Angzarr the Cromulent: "The worst fries on the planet...nay, the universe. ..."

Recent Entries
Search


Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Top Top Tens
Greatest Hitjobs

The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon
A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates
Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny
More Margaret Cho Abuse
Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny
Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman
Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format
John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia
World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading
Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree
Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears
Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed"
Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility
Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips
They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan
Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq
Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town
When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool
What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means
Wonkette's Stand-Up Act
Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour
Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider
My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty
Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA
An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear
The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report!
Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet
The House of Love: Paul Krugman
A Michael Moore Mystery (TM)
The Dowd-O-Matic!
Liberal Consistency and Other Myths
Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias
John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate
"Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long)
The Donkey ("The Raven" parody)
Powered by
Movable Type 2.64