Around the World in a Daze

·         Tea Partiers and their GOP masters need to stop comparing U.S. to Greece.  In Greece, sovereign debt woes have led to a bailout package demanding austerity measures in the form of spending cuts and tax increases.  In the U.S., our financial failure has led to increased GOP sponsored reductions in regulations, spending, and taxes.  Oh and more thing, we have an independent monetary policy that allows us to inflate away our debt.
·         Is it possible for the US to have fiscal and monetary policies that generate stability at the expense of volatility?  I swear we create more bubbles than SC Johnson’s Scrubbing Bubbles®.
·         The Netanyahu government in Israel’s policy is simple: Put off Palestinian statehood by creating disharmony between the various factions: Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc.  By casting them as a disorganized militant mob, the Israeli government will always be able to play the no treaty without security card.  And the Palestinians are all too happy to oblige.
·         Is anyone else worried about the Putin vision of a Russian led Eurasian Union consisting of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and the big prize Ukraine?  Hammer and Sickle 2.0.
·         In the Ukraine, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in jail for violating legal procedures while approving a natural gas import contract with Russia.  She is now being investigated for an alleged contract killing of a lawmaker in 1996.  Most believe she is being persecuted by President Viktor Yanukovych who wants to get his rival out of the picture.  Now Tymoshenko is no angel, but if making a bad business deal gets a leader imprisoned, the U.S. would need even bigger prisons.
·         How weak and inept is the Arab League?  It cannot stop Syrian butcher al-Assad from killing thousands of his citizens.  It asks for a cease fire instead.  Cease fire?  When one heavily armed side is butchering a defenseless civilian opponent, you don’t ask for a cease fire, you sent in your forces to stop it from happening.
·         Data out of Britain shows that Weight Watchers is more effective in reducing obesity than the National Health Services.  So literally and figuratively, the British government has a hard time cutting the fat.
·         What are the odds that Italian Prime Minister and horn dog Silvio Berlusconi hit on Argentinian President and widow Cristina Fernandez at the recent G20 meeting?  As good as that Berlusconi DIDN’T hit on German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

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