What's up?

From a Yahoo! News story: “NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks climbed on Tuesday, driving the S&P 500 to its best month since October 2002. Upbeat news from Europe set the tone for financials, helping them recover much of Monday's losses and continue a recent robust rally after British bank Barclays (BARC.L) declined to take part in a government asset-protection plan. Even as the broad S&P 500 rose 8.5 percent in March for its best one-month percentage gain since October 2002, uncertainty about the struggling economy left the benchmark U.S. stock index down 11.7 percent for the first quarter.” I think this is rather dumb. Doesn’t anyone adjust for the change in the average? 8.5 percent sounds like a lot but 8.5 percent of 1,000 is a lot less than 8.5 percent of 10,000. There is no reason to smile. Please.

Extradition

From a Yahoo! News story: “MADRID, – A Spanish court has agreed to consider opening a criminal case against six former Bush administration officials, including former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, over allegations they gave legal cover for torture at Guantanamo Bay, a lawyer in the case said Saturday. Human rights lawyers brought the case before leading anti-terror judge Baltasar Garzon, who agreed to send it on to prosecutors to decide whether it had merit, Gonzalo Boye, one of the lawyers who brought the charges, told The Associated Press.” One question: Why not pursue Bush and Cheney as well? The Spaniards wholeheartedly sanctioned the Inquisition for more than a century and now they are getting faint hearted at water boarding? Please. Stop this self-serving hypocrisy.

Global warming hehe

From a Yahoo! News story: "SYDNEY – The floodlit cream shells of the famed Opera House dimmed Saturday as Sydney became the world's first major city to plunge itself into darkness for the second worldwide Earth Hour, a global campaign to highlight the threat of climate change." And you think this will help? This is something sponsored by the Wildlife Fund, an organization headed by very wealthy people whose lights in their own mansions never go out. Please!!! What a hypocritical exercise this is. Just to be somewhat contrarian, all the lights in my house will be on - all 100 of them.

China again

From a Yahoo! News story: “BEIJING – China is calling for a new global currency to replace the dominant dollar, showing a growing assertiveness on revamping the world economy ahead of next week's London summit on the financial crisis. The surprise proposal by Beijing's central bank governor reflects unease about its vast holdings of U.S. government bonds and adds to Chinese pressure to overhaul a global financial system dominated by the dollar and Western governments. The world economic crisis shows the "inherent vulnerabilities and systemic risks in the existing international monetary system," Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan said in an essay released Monday by the bank. He recommended creating a currency made up a basket of global currencies and controlled by the International Monetary Fund and said it would help "to achieve the objective of safeguarding global economic and financial stability." Zhou did not mention the dollar by name. But in an unusual step, the essay was published in both Chinese and English, making clear it was meant for a foreign audience.” I told you so.

Doomsday

From a Yahoo! News story: "WASHINGTON – Congressional Republicans on Sunday predicted a doomsday scenario of crushing debt and eventual federal bankruptcy if President Barack Obama's massive spending blueprint wins passage."

It sounds a little scary. So what happens if the USA goes bankrupt? Any idea? Will China take over? What I would like to know is how many top flight American people already own property in Europe (just in case).

The boss

From a Yahoo! News story: “BEIJING – China's premier didn't say it in so many words, but the implied warning to Washington was blunt: Don't devalue the dollar through reckless spending. Premier Wen Jiabao's message is unlikely to be misunderstood at the White House. It is counting on Beijing to help pay for its stimulus package by buying U.S. bonds. China already is Washington's biggest foreign creditor, with an estimated $1 trillion in U.S. government debt. A weaker dollar would erode the value of those assets. "Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets. To be honest, I'm a little bit worried," Wen said at a news conference Friday after the closing of China's annual legislative session. "I would like to call on the United States to honor its words, stay a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets." I told you so.

Madoff again

From a Yahoo! News story: “Madoff pleaded guilty Thursday to 11 charges, including fraud, perjury and money laundering, in what could be the biggest swindle in Wall Street history. He faces a maximum sentence of 150 years in prison, and the judge immediately jailed him. In arguing for his release, Madoff's lawyers say they would have a difficult time preparing for his sentencing without the ability to see him frequently to review his finances. They say they expect Madoff will be kept in solitary confinement, with limited contact with his lawyers, at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. They point out that Madoff did not flee after his December arrest, even though he "was always cognizant of the fact that he would die in prison." All of this was avoidable. Why does a swindler swindle anyway? Because it's so much fun? A game, perhaps?

The end

This is from another story in Yahoo! News: "There is a high probability that the collapse of the United States will occur by 2010," Panarin told dozens of students, professors and diplomats Tuesday at the Diplomatic Academy. Panarin didn't give many specifics on what underlies his analysis, mostly citing newspapers, magazines and other open sources. He also noted he had been predicting the demise of the world's wealthiest country for more than a decade now. But he said the recent economic turmoil in the U.S. and other "social and cultural phenomena" led him to nail down a specific timeframe for "The End" — when the United States will break up into six autonomous regions and Alaska will revert to Russian control. Panarin argued that Americans are in moral decline, saying their great psychological stress is evident from school shootings, the size of the prison population and the number of gay men. Turning to economic woes, he cited the slide in major stock indexes, the decline in U.S. gross domestic product and Washington's bailout of banking giant Citigroup as evidence that American dominance of global markets has collapsed. "I was there recently and things are far from good," he said. "What's happened is the collapse of the American dream." Panarin insisted he didn't wish for a U.S. collapse, but he predicted Russia and China would emerge from the economic turmoil stronger and said the two nations should work together, even to create a new currency to replace the U.S. dollar.” What to do??? Who is Panarin anyway???

Predictions

You probably read this in a Yahoo! News story: PASADENA, Calif. – “An asteroid about the size of one that blasted Siberia a century ago just buzzed by Earth. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported that the asteroid zoomed past Monday morning. The asteroid named 2009 DD45 was about 48,800 miles from Earth. That is just twice the height of some telecommunications satellites and about a fifth of the distance to the Moon. The space ball measured between 69 feet and 154 feet in diameter. The Planetary Society said that made it the same size as an asteroid that exploded over Siberia in 1908 and leveled more than 800 square miles of forest…. The asteroid was only spotted two days ago and at its closest point passed over the Pacific Ocean near Tahiti.” All that damage from an asteroid smaller than my backyard. This is pretty scary, especially if nobody saw it coming until two days before it flew by. What to do???