I get these regularly and even without the full daily report Wheeler’s insights are interesting. In order to read the full content…which is clearly far more knowledgeable, unusual, insightful than you will see elsewhere ….you must subscribe. There is one article linked below that is a ‘free’ article, and worth the read. I have shortened this a bit so go to his site to see more.
1. The best international news is the impending death of a monster. It's from a surprising source - who knew Dan Rather was still functioning? He's 80 now and has a news show on a small cable channel called HDNet. On Wednesday (5/30), he reported that Hugo Chavez was in "the end stage" of metastatic rhabdomyosarcoma. This is an especially virulent cancer that once it metastasizes (spreads throughout the body) is quickly fatal. Chavez's government has been quite secretive about what type of cancer he has, refusing to disclose any details. If Rather's source is accurate, Chavez may indeed be dead within a month or two. And then there will be blood. Castro will see to that...
2. More enjoyable int'l news: Iran has been Flamed. On Monday (5/28), the discovery of a massive new computer virus dubbed Flame was announced. Like Stuxnet only 100 times bigger (20GB vs. 200KB), it targets computers in Iran - and Palestinian Arab computers in Israel's so-called West Bank. Flame is not just copying massive amounts of Iranian data, it's wiping out entire hard drives.
3. How many gas stations do you pass by on an average day? For most folks it's several. Dozens every week, a couple of hundred or more every month. Every one of them throughout America is loudly displaying a campaign ad against President Zero. Look at the next gas station you drive by and you'll see the campaign ad shouting at you - wordlessly, for the ad consists only of numbers. It's the price per gallon.
4. President Barack Hussein Obama is racing down the trail blazed by Sen. George McGovern, who in 1972 was buried by the largest popular vote landslide in American history. (President Lyndon Johnson in 1964 won a slightly higher percentage of the popular vote than Richard Nixon did in 1972 -- 61.1 to 60.7 -- but LBJ's margin over Sen. Barry Goldwater was smaller, because fewer voted for minor party candidates that year.) Sen. McGovern was too far to the left, swing voters thought, and not very competent -- an image reinforced by the shambles his supporters made of the Democrat national convention. Swing voters are forming the same opinion about President Obama, who sometimes seems as if he's deliberately trying to dismantle the coalition that elected him in 2008. Here is how he is doing it. Read more for free...
5. In a Gallup poll May 23, more disapproved of Vice President Joe Biden (45 percent) than approved (42 percent.) In 12 swing states, Slow Joe was underwater 40-52, intensifying speculation President Barack Hussein Obama may dump him for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton…..But even if Slow Joe continues to commit a gaffe a week, I doubt he’d hurt Mr. Obama much, because people vote on the basis of what they think of the presidential candidates. So its unlikely any of the aforementioned Republicans would gain for Mr. Romney many votes he wouldn’t otherwise have had. There’s one guy who could matter more, thinks former National Security Council staffer Paul Miller. When Gallup last polled on him in April, 2011, Americans rated Gen. David Petraeus favorably, 61 percent to 7 percent. That poll may have been what prompted President Obama to make Gen. Petraeus CIA Director.
6. The latest news from the EU Crisis Front: Southern Europe's debtor states must pledge their gold reserves and national treasure as collateral under a €2.3 trillion stabilization plan gaining momentum in Germany.
The German scheme -- known as the European Redemption Pact -- offers a form of "Eurobonds Lite" that can be squared with the German constitution and breaks the political logjam. It is a highly creative way out of the debt crisis, but is not a soft option for Italy, Spain, Portugal, and other states in trouble. The plan is drafted by the German Council of Economic Experts and inspired by Alexander Hamilton's Sinking Fund in the United States -- created in 1790 to clean up the morass of debts left by the Revolutionary War. Flourishing Virginia was comparable to Germany today. Germany would have a lockhold over the fund, able to enforce discipline. Each state would have to pledge 20% of their debt as collateral. "The assets could be taken from the country's currency and gold reserves. The collateral nominated would only be used in the event that a country does not meet its payment obligations," said the proposal.
This demand could enflame opinion in Italy and Portugal. Both states have kept their bullion, resisting the rush to sell by Britain and others. Italy has 2,451 tons of gold, valued at €98bn in March.
7. Many in the political class, including President Obama and many members of Congress, have an interest in confusing, rather than enlightening, the public. The effort to misinform about the growth in spending and the impact of government spending on job creation reached a new level last week when the president claimed he was the most restrained spender since President Eisenhower and that spending was up only a little more than 1 percent (over what?). A quick review of economic policy for the past 30 years, as can be seen in a glance at the table below, provides evidence that big increases in government spending do not create jobs but, in fact, do the opposite. The correct way to measure the impact of government spending is not to look at the nominal numbers, which include population and economic growth and inflation, but rather as a percentage of GDP (national output).
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