Whatever financial shenanigans are going on over in Europe, we can count on China to provide financial and political stability for the Eastern Hemisphere, right? Well, maybe not:

China is an emerging market oddity in demographic terms. It is not the oldest, but it is the fastest ageing country on earth, and by 2050 it will be older than the US on every major demographic measurement. From now on, China's youth and working age populations are going to fall, and those over 65 will soar. Put another way, there will only be 2.5 workers to support each older citizen, compared with ten today. . . .

. . . the Yangtse Delta ... is not the equivalent of a Silicon Valley, which thrives on adversarial conflict in innovation, proprietary ownership of processes, patents and copyrights, and the absence of hierarchy and political interference. . . .

. . . the [economic restructuring] issue is about whether the Party is willing and able to give citizens political, as well as economic, rights, and whether in today's rapidly modernising economy, rule by law can substitute for rule of law without thwarting or distorting economic development. . . .

. . . the government's legitimacy rests on a sort of informal social contract based on the continuous delivery of eight to nine percent economic growth. But a slowdown could occur for a variety of reasons over the next decade and beyond. . . .

. . . China's increasing status as a world power is already generating global tensions. When a Chinese craft recently rammed a Japanese fishing boat off the disputed Senkaku islands, the Japanese Foreign Minister wondered whether we are now starting to see the 'essence of China'. . . .

As the saying goes, read the whole thing. And while you're at it, be sure to read this article as well:

The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to take out protection against the risk of a sovereign default by China as one of its top trade trades for 2011. This is a new twist.

It warns that the Communist Party will have to puncture the credit bubble before inflation reaches levels that threaten social stability. This in turn may open a can of worms.

"Many see ChinaÂ’s monetary tightening as a pre-emptive tap on the brakes, a warning shot across the proverbial economic bows. We see it as a potentially more malevolent reactive day of reckoning," said Tim Ash, the bankÂ’s emerging markets chief.

Between Scylla and Charybdis indeed. ..fritz..

Posted by: Open Blogger at 08:24 AM | Comments (54)
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It's all over but the shouting and there will be shouting from the left.

A day after the Senate rejected President ObamaÂ’s preferred tax plan, officials said the broad contours of a compromise were in focus.

Rather than extending the tax rates only on income described by Democrats as middle class — up to $250,000 a year for couples and $200,000 for individuals — the deal would also keep the rates for higher earners, probably for two years. In return, Republicans said they would probably agree to extend jobless aid for the long-term unemployed.

Senior Democrats on Sunday said that they were resigned to defeat in the highly charged tax debate, and they voiced dismay.

I would have like to have seen the Republicans force spending offsets if they were going to vote for the unemployment extension but despite appearances, they aren't in charge of either house of Congress just yet. It was going to be hard for them to force Democrats to do it that way, so in the end they pretty much gave up nothing for a major win.

Jake Tapper had some quality snark on how big a retreat extending the tax cuts represents for Obama.

In addition to extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, President Obama has agreed to re-invade Iraq

The left is going to freak about this. What's not to love?

It also gives some 'reporters' a chance to show off their bias and economic illiteracy in one tidy package.

Behold NBC's First Read's take.

And get this: Extending the Bush tax cuts, jobless benefits, and other tax cuts for two years will likely cost more than the stimulus didÂ…

No, No, a thousand times NO...letting people keep their own money does not 'cost' anything. The only element of the package that costs money is extending unemployment benefits, which the Democrats are all for.

Now, the Republicans have offered any spending cuts to make up for the revenue the government expected to collect from the Obama tax hike but they aren't in the majority (yet) are they? The Democrats haven't even passed a budget for the current fiscal year, so the only way you can assume that the government is losing expected revenue is if you buy into the idea that the federal budget is always and forever on a one-way, auto-pilot trip to greater spending. That's fair enough since that's been the case for decades but the GOP is going to need to start trying to change that. We'll see.

Posted by: DrewM at 08:17 AM | Comments (119)
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At 10am Pacific Time (1pm Eastern), a panel of the Ninth Circuit will hear argument in the federal Prop 8 case. It will be televised live on C-SPAN and some California local channels. You can also watch it live or later as streaming video on C-SPAN's website.

Typically, the judges allot 30 minutes for oral argument in each case. The judges have scheduled the Prop 8 argument for 2 hours, owing to the number of parties and the complicated issues. Here's a quick guide if you plan to watch or listen: more...

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 03:47 AM | Comments (169)
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If we're not here for each other then what are we here for?

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:44 AM | Comments (117)
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As season ending cliffhangers go, not bad. We lost another regular character this week. more...

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at 08:15 PM | Comments (143)
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Of course what he got was to keep his job and phat retirement in exchange for enduring a bit of tedious kabuki theater.

...Now Rangel and, to a lesser extent, California Rep. Maxine Waters are firmly imprinted in the media and public mind as the poster pair for congressional corruption....

Not so fast...being slightly a few nano-meters more grounded in reality than Nancy Pelosi, even this HuffPo writer had to stop short on making that specious claim.

...There are dozens of other lawmakers not named Rangel who are just as deserving, if not more so, of being thrust onto the political hot seat. In October 2009, for example, 27 other members of Congress were named as being under investigation for possible ethics violations...

...Most of the other suspected violators aren't as well known as Rangel. And they lack his seniority and power. Only a handful on the list are Republicans...

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 08:10 PM | Comments (22)
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(Major SNAFU on my end. I accidentially hit "Publish" when I meant to hit "Draft" a little while ago, so apologies to Waterhouse and Nickless who got comments in before I re-vanished this back to draft status. You weren't seeing things...it wasn't a ghost ONT and your comments are still there)

I'll make it up to you by doing an even worse ONT than usual. Feel better now?

Concerning Camoflage Dip:

AKA: Hydrographing. No pudding on hand? No problem! Try this instead...

The technique doesn't work on all surfaces. Such as cats for example. Trust me on this.

More stupidity below the fold...

more...

Posted by: Genghis at 06:30 PM | Comments (294)
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All these burgers have been personally approved my Michelle Obama.

Michelle Obama recently announced her initiative to "green up" public schools. It's part of her ongoing effort to help America eat more healthy.

First Lady Michelle Obama is expected to announce . . . a major new initiative that would place up to 5,000 salad bars in public schools nationwide, despite uncertainties over how local health inspectors might treat those salad bars and USDA nutrition-tracking rules that could prove a major impediment.

Carl's Jr./Hardees Foot Long Cheeseburger


Friendly's Grilled Cheese Burger Melt


Burger King Quad Stacker


McDonald's Mega Mac
(Meggie Mac's Favorite)


The KFC Double Down

Posted by: Open Blogger at 02:41 PM | Comments (380)
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Looks like Auburn and Oregon took care of business yesterday in the college game, so today it's all NFL. You can enjoy a game if you want, I'm working today. It's not that I hate you, per se. It's not you, it's me.

Ok, some of it is you.

Enjoy the last half of your weekend morons.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 09:00 AM | Comments (532)
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As the year winds down, I'm trying to finish several reading "projects" that I've had going for awhile.

I'm still climbing the north face of Richard Taruskin's Oxford History of Western Music. I bought these books to fill a gap in my musical education, but it's a huge time commitment -- it'll probably be several months before I finish them all. The good news is that Taruskin's writing, while academic, is not dry. It makes reading these long books less of a chore than it might otherwise be.

I'm also finishing up Ralph Stanley's autobiography Man of Constant Sorrow. I'm not normally much of a fan of biography, but I made an exception in this case. I've long been a fan of the Stanley Brothers (Ralph's later solo works not so much), and I've always been fascinated by the American musical scene in the post-World War II years. That's when music stopped being a largely regional phenomenon and began being a true nationwide "popular culture" phenomenon due to radio. (Well, actually, that occurred during the 1930's, but really took off in the postwar years.) Stanley's book is interesting as a portrait of a hard-working road-band of that era -- people tend to forget that the Stanley Brothers were never as popular as Flatt and Scruggs or Reno and Smiley or Jimmy Martin or other bluegrass bands of the period. They barely made a wage most of the time, and Carter Stanley (the best lead singer in country music history, in my opinion) died before he saw any real success. Ralph Stanley wouldn't know real stardom, in fact, until O Brother, Where Art Thou? came out in 2000 -- when he was seventy years old. The ghost of Carter Stanley hangs heavy over the later chapters; you can tell that Ralph still misses his brother terribly, even all these years later.

And finally, I recently re-read a few Faulkner novels: Intruder in the Dust, Absalom! Absalom!, and The Sound and the Fury. I find that Faulkner's books improve on me as I get older; where I once found them portentious and rather over-wrought, I now like their rather rather gothic tone.

I will probably pick up George W. Bush's Decision Points sometime in the new year and give it a read. Normally I don't bother with Presidential memoirs -- they're usually self-serving and hagiographic, and never tell you what you really want to know -- but I sort of feel obligated to read this one. I'll probably buy a copy for my Kindle; this isn't the kind of book I'll read more than once.

Posted by: Monty at 05:29 AM | Comments (149)
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