Thursday's Jersey Shore Free Tidbits

Did you know that Kim Jong Un is the younger son of the late Kim Jong-IL?  It seems the older son Kim Jong Nam was caught trying to enter Japan to visit Tokyo Disneyland  in 2001.  Nam now lives in Macau having a gambling good old time. 

The issue isn't how Bain Capital makes money.  You may not like it, but that's what private equity does.  The issue is how Mitt Romney is trying to portray it as something completely different.  Can’t run from your pass and can’t run from who you are no matter how much you flip flop.

Once again for those in the cheap seats: oil is a commodity traded in commodity exchange.  The price is set by global supply and demand.  Further, the U.S. hasn’t purchased Iranian oil since 1987, so when the issue about the Strait of Hormuz came up, it didn’t matter that we haven’t been buying Iranian oil, the perception was that supply could be adversely impacted and that drove the price up at the commodity exchange.  I’ll save a more in depth analysis for another time.

According to Popular Science, unmanned aircraft now make up 31 percent of the military's air power, a "40fold increase in the drone army" from 2005. According to a new congressional report, the U.S. military now has nearly 7,500 drones.   We have how entered the Drone Wars

Wal-Mart spent over #2Billion on advertising in 2010.  Who would have thought that saying Cheap stuff dirt cheap could cost so much. 

Can the Eurozone really survive?  Almost half of all Europeans trust their own country ‘a lot’ but only 20% have the same faith in other Europeans.  I guess when Germany blames Spain for killer cucumbers that actually originated in Germany, trust can become an issue.

The GOP already has a serious problem with the Hispanic community and it could very well be a significant factor in the November elections.  So what does the likely Republican nominee do?  He celebrates the endorsement of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kovach; the architect of the Arizona SB1070 anti-immigration law.  “I’m so proud to earn Kris’s support,” said Mitt Romney. “Kris has been a true leader on securing our borders and stopping the flow of illegal immigration into this country. We need more conservative leaders like Kris willing to stand up for the rule of law. With Kris on the team, I look forward to working with him to take forceful steps to curtail illegal immigration and to support states like South Carolina and Arizona that are stepping forward to address this problem.”  Yeah, that will help. 

The recent actions by the Europeans and Japanese to sever oil links with Iran are promising.  If other countries such as India, China, South Korea, and Pakistan cut or even just not expand their dealings with the Iranian regime, the pain will be significant.  The U.S. threat to sanction foreign banks dealing with Iran has also had the desired effect of bringing the Iranians to the table.  Yes, Republican chicken hawks, we call it diplomacy.

So now bankers in Europe, Asia, and now Canada are asking the U.S. not to enforce the Volcker Rule; the rule in the post financial crisis regulation prohibiting investment banks from proprietary trading.  The concern is that the rule could prevent some U.S. Banks from trading with other foreign institutions.  So the same guys (US Investment Banks) who nearly destroyed the global financial system, and the same guys (the rest of the world’s Investment Banks) who blamed the U.S. guys for nearly destroying the global financial system want to act like it never happened.