Morning Audibles 7.7.10 - The Beatings Will Continue

Obama Says Direct Israeli-Palestinian Talks May Be Imminent: (Translation: Israeli missiles will be flying towards Iranian nuclear reactors soon, and we're here to help).

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKRaWXQrDuuE&pos=8

Excerpt:
July 7 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said direct Israel-Palestinian talks may get started within less than three months, praising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a leader prepared to take “risks for peace.”

Translation: It'll be much easier to "talK" to the Palestinian Authority after their funding is cut off... Next headline, BP takes "risk for closing spill" by detonating a nuke...

The fact that the president suggested that direct talks are imminent means “he knows something that we don’t,” Aaron David Miller, a public policy scholar at the Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, said in a telephone interview.

Translation: The President knows that the US has placed a aircraft carrier unit on the Straits of Hormuz... Imminent talks? You betcha!

“What Obama now understands is that fighting with the Israelis is inevitable and appropriate if it driven by a strategy that can ultimately make the president, Israel and the Arabs look good,” said Miller, who was a member of the U.S. mediating team for Middle East peace efforts under former Presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush.

Translation: Especially if it makes "the President" look good... And he could use a convenient distraction at the moment with the DOW crashing and oil soaked seagulls...

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Krugman Says U.S. Economy Is Facing a ‘Long Siege’ 

http://noir.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601010&sid=ajsHBWT_hxvk

Excerpt(s):
July 6 (Bloomberg) -- Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman said the U.S. should have a “kitchen-sink strategy” that uses all fiscal and monetary policies possible to prevent the economy from sliding back into a recession.

Translation: Didn't Hilary (and others) try that "kitchen sink" thing before?

- At a time when European countries such as Germany are calling for austerity measures to rein in budget deficits, Krugman is calling for more stimulus to prevent a repeat in the U.S. of Japan’s decade of economic malaise in the 1990s.

- “The most effective things you can do, in terms of actual bang for the buck, is actually having the federal government go out and hire people,” he said. “We are deep in the hole here, and you need to be unconventional to get out of it.”

Translation: Prof. Krugman, YOU SIR, are in the deepest hole of all...

He said too many policy makers and commentators are overly concerned that the ballooning U.S. deficit would set off a crisis of confidence similar to Europe’s sovereign debt crisis. “I worry about the politics,” he said. “I worry about our ability to get a consensus to do the pretty straight-forward things we need to do to balance our budget in the long run.”

Translation: How about "passing a 2010 budget" for starters?

The projected U.S. budget gap in 10 years can be brought under control with a “combination of modest tax increases and reasonable spending cuts,” particularly on health care, Krugman said, adding it’s “extremely unlikely” the U.S. would ever default on its debt.

Translation: How about "passing a 2010 budget" for starters? As for taxes... Do you mean "tax hikes" like these? http://www.atr.org/sixmonths.html?content=5171

“I’m not aware of any example of a country that got into fiscal difficulty because it began a stimulus program and couldn’t take away the stimulus program,” he said.

“If you’re serious about fiscal responsibility, you should not be saying, ‘let’s skimp on aid to the economy in the middle of a financial crisis.’”

Translation: How about "passing a 2010 budget" for starters?

“We are, I think, sliding into a situation where we’re likely to see several bad years ahead,” Krugman said. “Given what I see in the political process, the odds are against us avoiding a really prolonged bad period.”

Translation: Moynihan (below), would disagree with you...

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Liquidate, liquidate, liquidate

Commentary: Some inconvenient facts about fiscal austerity

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/some-inconvenient-facts-about-fiscal-austerity-2010-07-07

Excerpt(s):

- A possible corollary in the context of the present rip-roaring debate about the macroeconomic impact of our dawning age of fiscal consolidation and austerity is that Nobel Laureates, especially, aren't allowed to make up their own history.

- So Professor Joseph Stiglitz please get out your copy of "Historical Statistics of the United States" and, after perusal of the GNP and government finance tables, consider retracting your preposterous statement on CNBC last week that federal spending cutbacks caused the Great Depression. Perhaps you might copy Professor Krugman while you're at it.

- When the public's new-found enthusiasm for autos, appliances, and home goods couldn't be funded by these new lines of credit, winnings from the stock market were available to make up the difference. While buying durables and stocks on credit is not an original sin, a central bank policy that caused consumers to plunge off the deep end into unaffordable debt possibly is. In any event, after the music stopped in late 1929, durable goods purchases virtually ceased through the mid-1930s.

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Ah, hell with it... This is REALLY why the S&P can't catch a bid (other than PPT, MOMOS, & Kass)...

Lindsay Lohan Is Sentenced to 90 Days in Jail

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/06/lindsay-lohan-is-sentenced-to-90-days-in-jail/?src=mv

Clearly, Ms. Lohan has seen better days (along with most of the other protagonists in todays narrative)...