To the Horror of Global Warming Alarmists, Global Cooling Is Here

Forbes Reports …

“German meteorologists say that the start of 2013 is now the coldest in 208 years – and now German media has quoted Russian scientist Dr Habibullo Abdussamatov from the St. Petersburg Pulkovo Astronomical Observatory [saying this] is proof as he said earlier that we are heading for a “Mini Ice Age.” Talking to German media the scientist who first made his prediction in 2005 said that after studying sunspots and their relationship with climate change on Earth, we are now on an ‘unavoidable advance towards a deep temperature drop.’”

Faith in Global Warming is collapsing in formerly staunch Europe following increasingly severe winters which have now started continuing into spring. Christopher Booker explained in The Sunday Telegraph on April 27, 2013, “Here in Britain, where we had our fifth freezing winter in a row, the Central England Temperature record – according to an expert analysis on the US science blog Watts Up With That – shows that in this century, average winter temperatures have dropped by 1.45C, more than twice as much as their rise between 1850 and 1999, and twice as much as the entire net rise in global temperatures recorded in the 20th century.”

 

Yahoo Grabs Tumblr

Yahoo (NASDAQ:YHOO) appears to have added another arrow to its social media quiver by purchasing the microblogging platform Tumblr. The $1.1 billion acquisition has just been approvedby Yahoo’s board according to anonymous sources via the Wall Street Journal. Tumblr’s board approved the deal yesterday, reports Forbes.

Marissa Mayer, who has run Yahoo since leaving Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) last year, engineered this latest acquisition after becoming interested in the social media startup several months ago. Founded in 2007, Tumblr has rocketed in popularity with its unique blend of blogging and social networking. The company only recently added advertising to its service last year which has so far generated $13 million in revenue.

Tumblr, stylized in their logo as tumblr., is a microblogging platform and social networking website, owned and operated by Tumblr, Inc. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog. Users can follow other users’ blogs, as well as make their blogs private. Much of the website’s features are accessed from the “dashboard” interface, where the option to post content and posts of followed blogs appear.

As of May 19, 2013, Tumblr hosts over 108 million blogs

 

USA Shale Energy Boom, What’s Going On…

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Divine Intervention? Why the US Is No. 1 in Shale.

America is the leader of the global shale energy boom, and the rest of the world is racing to catch up. But countries like China and Australia are having difficulty replicating the successes of the US. Whether due to providence, dumb luck, or plain old technological prowess, the US shale revolution just isn’t easily exported. Writing for Forbes, Jeff McMahon explains why.

First of all, America’s existing pipeline infrastructure has been a boon to shale production. The US has the most extensive network of pipelines in the world, and though the system needs updating, it has allowed wildcatters to bring hydrocarbons to market relatively quickly. The US also benefits from world-class drilling expertise, which is in short supply elsewhere around the globe.

But the most interesting point McMahon makes is the role that US mineral and land rights have played in the shale boom. “Individual landowners in the United States can lease mineral rights to their property, a right landowners do not possess in some other nations.” . . .

This is an important point, and it helps explain why oil discoveries Nigeria lead to land confiscation and rioting while similar discoveries in America are more likely to create more wealthy Clampetts.

Of course, all of this is happening despite, not because of, Administration policy.

Free market capitalism works every time it’s tried.

 

Obama’s Budget — Tax Increases On Charities

We don’t need no steenking charities, we got big mamma government.

Forbes writes:

President Obama’s long-awaited budget proposal, to be released today, does not come right out and say that  intends to reduce  contributions to charity—but that is almost certainly what would happen were it to become law.  Here’s why.  The White House has effectively doubled down on a tax change it has been pushing for four years that would limit the value of the charitable tax deduction.  The Administration has, since 2009, pushed unsuccessfully to allow only 28 cents on a dollar donated to charity to be deducted—even though the top tax rate for the wealthy donors who make most use of the deduction has been 35 percent.  In the budget released today, the President again proposes to cap the charitable deduction at 28 percent—despite the fact that the top rate on the highest earners has increased to 39.6 percent.  Think of it this way:  the White House proposal would raise the cost of giving to charity from 60 cents per dollar to 72 cents per dollar.  That’s a 20 percent increase in what can be called the “charity tax.”

The Stock Markets Are Forecasting Economic Stagnation, Not Recovery

 

A number of commentators, some of them friends, have been declaring that current stock market valuations prove that the economy is in full recovery. They think that the market reflects high levels of optimism about the future and that this means that the economy is in a V-shaped recovery, or that we’re about to enter a phase of strong economic growth.

Not so fast.

The optimism case is generally inconsistent with the weakening spate of recent economic statistics this week including ISM and jobs growth. Furthermore, it’s hard for anyone who writes or speaks from any principled free-market perspective to square optimism with the current policy environment which is unusually hostile to markets. So the optimist club turns as a last refuge to stocks.

Stocks by themselves might be showing some signs of optimism about growth (or at least monetary easing), but the equity market is not the whole market. Yes, when stock prices go up, that can often be a sign of optimism, but not when bond prices have gone up more. In other words, at the risk of oversimplifying: when investors are buying more stocks than bonds they expect growth. On the other hand when markets are buying more bonds than stocks (as they did in response to this week’s lousy March jobs report), they expect stagnation or even contraction.

In order to understand what the market is saying, you have to break off the bond market from the stock market in order to compare them and see what gifts the data (Latin for givens or gifts) offer.

What we find when we break up the various factors to examine them individually is that growth matters for stocks, but that its main effect is not in the total valuation of stocks, but in their valuation relative to bonds.

Read more at forbes.com …

Being set up for the “sucker punch”.

 

Well Worth A Read – Self Damning Words of Climate Alarmists

Larry Bell has a great column at Forbes titled:

In Their Own Words: Climate Alarmists Debunk Their own “Science”

Here’s a few gems from the first page:

Former U.S. Senator Timothy Wirth (D-CO), then representing the Clinton-Gore administration as U.S undersecretary of state for global issues, addressing the same Rio Climate Summit audience, agreed: “We have got to ride the global warming issue. Even if the theory of global warming is wrong, we will be doing the right thing in terms of economic policy and environmental policy.” (Wirth now heads the U.N. Foundation which lobbies for hundreds of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to help underdeveloped countries fight climate change.)

more here

When in doubt, just lie, the low information voters won’t know, and the lamestream media won’t say anything.

It’s An Obama Crazy World

Golfer Phil Mickelson told reporters he may retire or move after Democrats statewide and nationally moved to pilfer at least 62% of his income.

Forbes reported:

Word is, Phil Mickelson is mad as hell about rising tax rates, and he’s not going to take it anymore. What follows is a brief portion of an interview Mickelson gave earlier today after carding a final-round 66 at the Palmer Course at PGA West in La Quinta – which I assure you, is not associated with the La Quinta next door to your local Denny’s – in which the golfer hinted that he is considering drastic career changes because of a combined tax rate nearing “62, 63 percent:”

Q. When you’re asked about Stricker’s semi-retirement, with the political situation the last couple months, blah, blah, blah, what did you mean by that? Do you find it an unsettling time in a way?

PHIL MICKELSON: Well, it’s been an interesting offseason. And I’m going to have to make some drastic changes. I’m not going to jump the gun and do it right away, but I will be making some drastic changes.

Q. Meaning leaving from California?

PHIL MICKELSON: I’m not sure.

Q. Moving to Canada?

PHIL MICKELSON: I’m not sure what exactly, you know, I’m going to do yet. I’ll probably talk about it more in depth next week.

Galt’s gulch beckons.

The National Debt: $16 Trillion Dollars Of Moral, Cultural And Political Decay

Forbes writes:

Wow! We’ll soon cross Sixteen Trillion Dollars in Federal Debt!

S-i-x-t-e-e-n T-r-i-l-l-i-o-n D-o-l-l-a-r-s. That’s a lot of vote buying even for Washington. Is this ruin? Have we indentured our children into servitude? Solomon warned borrowers will be slaves to their lenders. Add $120 plus trillion in unfunded forthcoming liabilities and, well, we’re doomed.

Yet, as significant as this looks, and sixteen trillion of anything cannot be insignificant, the economic repercussions are the least of America’s worries. We still finance this cheaply. Rates on Treasuries remain low. Moreover, America endures as the world’s preeminent economic engine.

At least before Obama and his anti-Colonialist policies, and making of dreams from his father … you went and watched the watched the movie, didn’t you? If so, now you know …

Obviously, debt weighs heavily on markets, especially the spending which spurred annual deficits exceeding $1 trillion. Government intervention smothers more gainful private pursuits. As Washington nonchalantly politicizes capital the economy suffers. Private actors would invest far better than politicians bribing the electorate.

As resources filter through the state’s machinations, liberty and prosperity are sacrificed to political ends. Massive debt is economically bad, really bad, and perhaps even hopeless; but much, much worse is what this reveals about America’s moral, cultural and political decay.

The day the DNC Convention opens … sky high debt.

KFC Razzes U.S. Grads Living At Home With Folks

Recent U.S. college graduates still living with their parents are getting the needle from KFC, a major purveyor of take-out comfort food.

As if those jaundiced looks from the parents weren’t enough, jobless grads are now hearing it from their pals at KFC through an ad campaign making light of their having to move back home after four years — or more — of campus living.

Forbes said campaign — with the tagline “Bite Size Chicken is all Grown Up” — includes five “mini-shows” in which typical twenty-somethings confront changes that have occurred in their family dynamic and often their old bedrooms.

Forbes noted the subject matter could be a little touchy to members of their key demographic who may be having difficulty getting their adult lives on track. At the same time, it points viewers to a Web site that could solve their problem by offering a contest in which the top prize is a year’s free rent and a yearlong supply of KFC.

When you got no job, your future dims on you. You are wasting the most enjoyable days of your lives. When you establish your career direction — Hope you enjoy your Obama, You want fries with your Obama, or just eat it raw? Your future is dim …… Obama votes were your high point. What has happened to you and your dreams …….. No job, it sucks.

I met a rosy eyed Obama voter at a new car dealership before his Obama vote. He told me how great it would be. That dealership has closed, everybody got fired. There is nothing there but an empty lot … Some great wouldn’t you say?

How Obamacare’s $716 Billion in Cuts Will Drive Doctors Out of Medicare

So then what will seniors do for healthcare?

Didn’t they already pay for the coverage in the past.

Forbes has this article:

There are 600,000 physicians in America who care for the 48 million seniors on Medicare. Of the $716 billion that the Affordable Care Act cuts from the program over the next ten years, the largest chunk—$415 billion—comes from slashing Medicare’s reimbursement rates to doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes. This significant reduction in fees is driving many doctors to stop accepting new Medicare patients, making it harder for seniors to gain access to needed care. Here are a few of their stories.

My doctor told me last week that new medicare patients were not welcomed. You might want to make sure you get the doctor you want, before it closes completely.

$716 Billion is a really big number, in the words of the Obama, it’s a cut in Medicare by 1/3. That was input into the Obamacare costs up front. Rob Medicare to pay Obamacare …

Apparent the Obama does not think people can hear …

Doctors apparently aren’t as dumb as Obama thinks they are either. What about bending the cost curve down, how many will have to die?