Europe, again, especially Italy and Greece.
Ah, we had an election, too! Or, more properly, lots of elections, many of which mattered a lot to the people whose lives will be directly affected by the results. I'd be very cautious, however, about extrapolating at all. It was a good day for the Democrats (although hardly a landslide; the Dems did well at a few high-profile elections and ballot questions, but there was a lot of status quo elsewhere). But it probably means just about zero for 2012.
And the continuing troubles in Syria and Yemen shouldn't be forgotten, either.
So, what do you think mattered this week?
Saturday, November 12, 2011
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There were 3 things that mattered. One, Europe is going down the drain which won't be good for the US. Two the elections especially the ballot measures in Mississippi and Ohio. And three.... uh.... er... oops.
ReplyDeleteThe Arab League suspending Syria. Just last year, it was unthinkable.
ReplyDeleteThe new measures of poverty and what they reveal -- particularly that government programs do, in fact, actually work for the working poor.
And . . . oops. There were some sex scandals, I can only hope they matter to elevate our discussions of sexual abuse and harassment, but I've no long-term confidence in that happening.
The indictment of Jerry Sandusky and revelation that Penn State officials were aware of his sexual assualts, but didn't report it to the police. I'm haunted by this.
ReplyDeleteItaly and Greece both agreeing to austerity programs may matter, but if the Euro collapse is inevitable, I'm not sure the house of cards will hold for a whole 'nother year. But I'm not putting it beyond the realm of possibility that some European leaders are at least thinking about if they want a US Republican President.
ReplyDeleteAlso, too - the polls keep changing, but Romney continues to top out around 25%. Cain is sliding, so now Gingrich?? This is not going to be a nominee the GOP is enthused about. Could leave Mitt a Hobson's/Sophie's/McCain's choice of picking someone competent for VP, or picking someone the true believers will rally behind.
Europe's (and Wall Street's) banksters are shivering that Corzine just might get jailed. I see little having occurred on the government front over there, despite the headlines. They're still kicking the can down the road, and the bond yields rising demonstrates that. But slow progress is better than no progress, I guess.
ReplyDeleteOver here, the big news is that the Ohio referendum passed, and the Left dodged a HUGE bullet. Kasich and the R's tried to ram it so far up the public employee unions' rears that their teeth bent outwards.
They tried to pass law similar to the rest of the right-to-work states in this country, in other words.
Probably too precipitous an action in Ohio right now, though. But if that legislation had stuck, the Left would have been mortally wounded. Much of their cash flow comes from public employee labor unions, and they'd be screwed if those were neutered, and you can bet the rest of the country was watching carefully to see whether this went through. The Left REALLY dodged a bullet here.
Kasich and the R's should have followed the Wisconsin/Michigan model, and worked more incrementally on their fiscal problems. Hereabouts in Michigan, most all of the Public Safety millages went through this past Tuesday, so the people clearly see that as a priority, and don't see police and fire as the places to go for budget savings. I suspect that's the direction Ohio will go now, same as the other Midwest states.
As for what this election means across the board, that's tough to read. Last November, a WHOLE bunch of local tax increases got smacked down, and we saw far less of that stupidity on the ballots this time around, in SE Michigan. The pols got smart this time, evidently, and didn't stick their hands out blindly. However, I noticed a couple issues went down in the rural outlying areas, in Macomb County (home of rock and roll Reagan Democratism) and Livingston County, so I suspect that the Left's problems in rural areas haven't subsided much.