1. Essential (and humorous) political and economic wisdom from Bird and Fortune (British). Pretty funny.
a) How the markets work
b) British General on fighting terrorism
c) How investment banking works
d) How the U.S. spreads democracy
e) Why Britain leads the way on immigration policy
f) Why older people ought to start blogging and twittering
g) China syndrome Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
2. Here's some other British humor along the same lines (not quite as funny):
a) The BP oil spill
b) Quantitative Easing
c) The Greek Economy
d) Solvency in our time
e) Rupert Murdoch Crisis
f) How the economy works
g) How to run a country
h) Whale dies of old age
i) Clean energy
j) Courtesy costs you nothing
k) The age of reason
3. Here's some "end-of-the-world" humor of the darker sort. It's also proof that there's practically no end to the number of ways the world could end, even without counting asteroid impacts. Not to mention, a reminder that humor is generally made from bad news, sort of like lemonade from lemons.
a) HEADLINE: ENTIRE WORLD THREATENED
In case you thought the Fukushima nuclear plant complex in Japan was by now safely safely shuttered, Mr. Matsumura, a former ambassador to Switzerland, has recently warned that the Fukushima reactor at building #4 could threaten the entire world and could make life on earth barely possible for centuries to come. "Should the building collapse because of another aftershock or should water from that reactor seep out, it would mean a worldwide disaster of unparalleled proportions."
e) HEADLINE: UNITED STATES SOON TO BECOME MAFIA STATE
A study released Thursday says that just over 1000 individual donors (0.00033% of the population) account for 94% of the $230 million raised by super PACs. Just 47 people account for more than half (57.1 percent) of this total amount from individual donors. And a single person, Sheldon Adelson, has verbally committed to as much as $100 million (a pittance for him) or an "unlimited amount" to fund Mitt Romney ads to defeat Obama and presumably buy a new justice department. (Adelson is a multi-billionaire casino mogul currently under investigation for money laundering and bribery. Also, his former Sands China CEO has accused him of promoting prostitution, working with mafia figures, bullying banks and potentially violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by putting a government official on his payroll.)
a) How the markets work
b) British General on fighting terrorism
c) How investment banking works
d) How the U.S. spreads democracy
e) Why Britain leads the way on immigration policy
f) Why older people ought to start blogging and twittering
g) China syndrome Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
2. Here's some other British humor along the same lines (not quite as funny):
a) The BP oil spill
b) Quantitative Easing
c) The Greek Economy
d) Solvency in our time
e) Rupert Murdoch Crisis
f) How the economy works
g) How to run a country
h) Whale dies of old age
i) Clean energy
j) Courtesy costs you nothing
k) The age of reason
3. Here's some "end-of-the-world" humor of the darker sort. It's also proof that there's practically no end to the number of ways the world could end, even without counting asteroid impacts. Not to mention, a reminder that humor is generally made from bad news, sort of like lemonade from lemons.
a) HEADLINE: ENTIRE WORLD THREATENED
In case you thought the Fukushima nuclear plant complex in Japan was by now safely safely shuttered, Mr. Matsumura, a former ambassador to Switzerland, has recently warned that the Fukushima reactor at building #4 could threaten the entire world and could make life on earth barely possible for centuries to come. "Should the building collapse because of another aftershock or should water from that reactor seep out, it would mean a worldwide disaster of unparalleled proportions."
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: Great news for our nuclear waste disposal problem! We would finally have a choice of several inexpensive places to dump our nuclear waste for the next 1000 years, i.e., WA, OR or CA. Astute investors can also make money investing in cave real estate, bottled water, canned goods and certain other articles.
b) HEADLINE: UNITED STATES ENTERING NEW DARK AGE
i) Americans had a total of about $870 billion in student loan debt in the third quarter of 2011. Delinquency rates are nearly twice that of other household debt, at 21%. College debt has risen faster than wages.
ii) 53% of recent college grads are jobless or underemployed.
iii) Higher education institutions are having to grow their long term debt by 12% a year just to make ends meet, and tuition rates have been increasing at 3 times the rate of inflation since 1983, and are set to grow 6.5 times more than the consumer price index by 2030.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: We may finally be pressured into getting serious about computer and internet learning. Imagine what we could do if we put educators, actors, psychologists and video game developers all in the same room! Inexpensive, effective computer and internet learning could finally blossom! And many overworked college professors would finally have time to relax and play tiddly winks with other highly-educated unemployed people! Here's just one example, for instance.
c) HEADLINE: HELL MOMENTARILY FREEZES OVER
A Goldman-Sachs employee recently left the company, citing a deterioration in the teamwork, integrity, morality and respect for the clients' interest that used to be a central part of its culture.
b) HEADLINE: UNITED STATES ENTERING NEW DARK AGE
i) Americans had a total of about $870 billion in student loan debt in the third quarter of 2011. Delinquency rates are nearly twice that of other household debt, at 21%. College debt has risen faster than wages.
ii) 53% of recent college grads are jobless or underemployed.
iii) Higher education institutions are having to grow their long term debt by 12% a year just to make ends meet, and tuition rates have been increasing at 3 times the rate of inflation since 1983, and are set to grow 6.5 times more than the consumer price index by 2030.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: We may finally be pressured into getting serious about computer and internet learning. Imagine what we could do if we put educators, actors, psychologists and video game developers all in the same room! Inexpensive, effective computer and internet learning could finally blossom! And many overworked college professors would finally have time to relax and play tiddly winks with other highly-educated unemployed people! Here's just one example, for instance.
c) HEADLINE: HELL MOMENTARILY FREEZES OVER
A Goldman-Sachs employee recently left the company, citing a deterioration in the teamwork, integrity, morality and respect for the clients' interest that used to be a central part of its culture.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: Good news! Not all Goldman-Sachs employees former employees are dishonest!!
d) HEADLINE: ARMAGEDDEN SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 2012
Ehud Barak, the influential Israeli defense minister, gave this ominous and paradoxical reassurance in a televised interview on Friday: "I believe and hope that there will be no war this summer, but that is all that can be said at this time." (7/25/12) Meanwhile, Israeli officials have gone into a special "lockdown" mode since two months ago. Iran's president Ahmadinejad has made his most strident anti-Jewish threat yet. (8/3/12) Goaded on by a recent bombing of key Syrian government officials, the uprising in Syria is quickly becoming a larger war between Sunni and Shia sects, and between Sunni Jihadists and Assad's secularist dictatorship. This war could easily engulf the entire Middle East, and already, foreign fighters are streaming into Syria from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Algeria, Kuwait and other places. Ahmadinejad has not wasted any time in inserting his own fighters and spies in Syria, as he has his own sectarian (Sunni) interests in opposing the uprising in a country with whose rulers he traditionally has had an alliance. Israel is the biggest potential loser, because Assad and his relatively stable relationship with Israel may be replaced by yet another radical, Jihadist government, or a puppet government controlled by Ahmadinejad.
d) HEADLINE: ARMAGEDDEN SCHEDULED FOR SEPTEMBER 2012
Ehud Barak, the influential Israeli defense minister, gave this ominous and paradoxical reassurance in a televised interview on Friday: "I believe and hope that there will be no war this summer, but that is all that can be said at this time." (7/25/12) Meanwhile, Israeli officials have gone into a special "lockdown" mode since two months ago. Iran's president Ahmadinejad has made his most strident anti-Jewish threat yet. (8/3/12) Goaded on by a recent bombing of key Syrian government officials, the uprising in Syria is quickly becoming a larger war between Sunni and Shia sects, and between Sunni Jihadists and Assad's secularist dictatorship. This war could easily engulf the entire Middle East, and already, foreign fighters are streaming into Syria from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Algeria, Kuwait and other places. Ahmadinejad has not wasted any time in inserting his own fighters and spies in Syria, as he has his own sectarian (Sunni) interests in opposing the uprising in a country with whose rulers he traditionally has had an alliance. Israel is the biggest potential loser, because Assad and his relatively stable relationship with Israel may be replaced by yet another radical, Jihadist government, or a puppet government controlled by Ahmadinejad.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: The good news is the U.S. for once will not be accused by the rest of the world of secretly instigating the Syrian uprising with ulterior motives--unless GW Bush has already claimed credit for that too. Experts will acknowledge that what actually started the Syrian uprising was common to other "Arab Spring" uprisings--a population explosion resulting in millions of semi-educated jobless young men, combined with climate change--i.e., the worst long-term drought in several hundred years that drove 3 million starving farmers and herders into extreme poverty and into the city slums, combined with the brutal indifference of a wealthy, incompetent, totalitarian dictator who kept his money in various secret off-shore accounts and avoided making his tax returns available to the public. In terms of new trends, this war will likely cause horses and wagons to become the new "retro chic" mode of travel for a few wealthy landowners in the U.S., and natural gas powered buses will become popular for others. Also, the obesity epidemic will come to an end as the pendulum swings.
e) HEADLINE: UNITED STATES SOON TO BECOME MAFIA STATE
A study released Thursday says that just over 1000 individual donors (0.00033% of the population) account for 94% of the $230 million raised by super PACs. Just 47 people account for more than half (57.1 percent) of this total amount from individual donors. And a single person, Sheldon Adelson, has verbally committed to as much as $100 million (a pittance for him) or an "unlimited amount" to fund Mitt Romney ads to defeat Obama and presumably buy a new justice department. (Adelson is a multi-billionaire casino mogul currently under investigation for money laundering and bribery. Also, his former Sands China CEO has accused him of promoting prostitution, working with mafia figures, bullying banks and potentially violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by putting a government official on his payroll.)
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: As vice president, Adelson will be able to throw some great parties. Since he's made a lot of money and knows about business, he and Romney will be able to fix our problems and the trickle down effect will "make America strong."*
*smelling
f) HEADLINE: EXPERTS SAY WORLD ECONOMY A PONZI SCHEME
This video discusses exponential growth curves that inevitably become unsustainable. (The internet is full of such "paid advertisement" headlines--and these invariably predict the callapse of the monetary and financial system, and end with some teaser messages regarding "hot stocks" that will benefit from the crisis.) Actually, the concept of unsustainable exponential growth in (1) the derivatives market, high frequency trading, hedge funds and other financial innovations, (2) government debt, (3) oil and (4) food production and (5) water usage followed by a crash does make sense. Few people would deny the inevitability of such a crash, and few prognosticators of future events are ever wrong--just "early". Unfortunately, a prediction is rarely useful without an accurate timeframe.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: This is an opportunity for all of you to make lots of money! We can all get rich! Just make sure your broker of those "hot stocks" doesn't become involved in the total collapse, and that the companies you invest in are able to deliver your dividends in gold bullion (or chocolate bars) via donkey if necessary.
*smelling
f) HEADLINE: EXPERTS SAY WORLD ECONOMY A PONZI SCHEME
This video discusses exponential growth curves that inevitably become unsustainable. (The internet is full of such "paid advertisement" headlines--and these invariably predict the callapse of the monetary and financial system, and end with some teaser messages regarding "hot stocks" that will benefit from the crisis.) Actually, the concept of unsustainable exponential growth in (1) the derivatives market, high frequency trading, hedge funds and other financial innovations, (2) government debt, (3) oil and (4) food production and (5) water usage followed by a crash does make sense. Few people would deny the inevitability of such a crash, and few prognosticators of future events are ever wrong--just "early". Unfortunately, a prediction is rarely useful without an accurate timeframe.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: This is an opportunity for all of you to make lots of money! We can all get rich! Just make sure your broker of those "hot stocks" doesn't become involved in the total collapse, and that the companies you invest in are able to deliver your dividends in gold bullion (or chocolate bars) via donkey if necessary.
