Let's begin abroad by explaining why Spain is boned. Spain suffers from the same disease as the rest of the continent generally -- socialism, postmodernism, an ossified job market, an unsustainable welfare state -- but in more concentrated form. Spain is so boned that their main export these days is young 'uns (h/t Andy).

If you look at the countries currently in the midst of insolvency in Europe -- Ireland, Greece, Portugal, and (shortly) Spain -- it's obvious that they are different entities altogether from their more prosperous European peers. For one, most of them are recent entrants onto the first-world stage. Spain languished under Franco until the mid 1970's; Ireland only emerged from decades of civil strife (both amongst themselves and against England) in the early 1990's; and Portugal was (and still is) a third-world nation glued to the continenet almost as an afterthought. Portugal is more properly thought of as a North African developing country than a first-world European country, whatever the maps say (h/t rdbrewer).

The Euro project hid those problems...for a while. Cheap credit allowed the dysfunctional European countries to borrow enough money to pretend to a first-world standard of living for more than a decade. There was real growth in the various economies -- particularly in Ireland -- but much of the "growth" was mainly borrowed money with little attendant economic or social reform.

The Great Downturn of 2008 did not cause the problem; it simply exposed what a sham the whole thing had been all along.

England is watching the drama play out on the Continent, and thanking $DEITY that they never signed on to the Euro. England still has serious problems, but they also have options that the other European nations do not have because they control their own currency.

Teh Krugman finds Ryan's budget "ludicrous and cruel". Which, to my mind, is praise of a very high order. Krugman is a perfect reverse barometer: the more he hates it, the more good it is likely to do. Alexander Pope once wrote (all unknowingly) of Krugman: " “Sir, I admit your general rule/That every poet is a fool/But you yourself may serve to show it/That every fool is not a poet.” Burn!

[UPDATE] The Hammer likes Ryan's plan, though, and his opinions -- unlike those of Teh Krugman -- actually carry some weight.

More on the "man-cession". The unemployment rate among young men is higher, but older men may find themselves permanently shut out of the labor market:

A Bureau of Labor Statistics study found that many older workers who lose jobs never go back to work again. Of those aged 55-64 who were displaced from 2007 through 2009, 21 percent were out of the labor force as of January 2010. "I have heard some people say, 'It's not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe people are just making voluntary decisions about work-life balance,'" says Michael Feroli, chief U.S. economist for J.P. Morgan Securities. "In principle that's possible, but all of a sudden people wanted more work-life balance? I don't think so."

The government "shutdown" still looms as of this writing.

"At this point, whether or not the government shuts down tomorrow night is almost entirely in the hands of the Democrats in the Senate and of the skinny guy with the ears. This suggests that the decision will be determined principally by the DemocratsÂ’ calculation: will it, or wonÂ’t it, pay off politically?"

Obama, in a bid to force a solution to the budget impasse, issues another proclamation: "Huh! Buh! Hojanga blabbo schmuh! Flart! Bing jingle ho-jam!" Or words to that effect.

You have to take your hilarity where you can find it, I guess.

New York City officials: "Apparently, our wildly optimistic rate-of-return calculations are to blame for our pension shortfalls. Not our overly-generous retirement benefit packages!" Monty: "Well, yeah, but aren't you having to assume these ridiculous rates of return because of these generous benefits you've promised?" New York City officials: "Shut up-a you face, you!"

But in the face of all this DOOM!, let us savor the few exquisite moments of victory that come our way.

[UPDATE 1] I'm not sure if this counts as good news or not. Europe's aggregate "distressed debt" is running around $2 Trillion, which is higher than that of the US. So this might count as a "Woo hoo! We live to suck another day!" kind of thing.

[UPDATE 2] Chuckit sends a link that explains how California continued to bone itself even while the recession was raging. Foolish optimism? Pure stupidity? Cynical self-interest? There's no reason it can't be all three, I guess.
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Posted by: Monty at 04:58 AM | Comments (397)
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"Children are dying." That's a succinct summary of humankind, I'd say. Who needs tomes and volumes of history? Children are dying.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 02:53 AM | Comments (246)
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So Who Spends The Most Years in Retirement?

Here's a chart comparing average life span with average retirement years across countries.

One sad thing about this chart is how relatively few years most Americans get to enjoy retirement - 10 years for men and 16 years for women. It may be small compared to many other countries but it's still enough to bankrupt Social Security. And I'm guessing it's going to get shorter in the next few years. So uh, good times, good times.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 06:35 PM | Comments (890)
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Williamsburg, this time.

Must be nice.

You know, I think that's the way to beat this guy: Just keep controversies brewing every week. He'll resign rather than miss his me-time.

Who'll Be With Him? Dave in Texas adds--

[Consider] the military crew contingent and ground staff required for an Air Force One Mission. It's a full flight crew plus hundreds of ground personnel. Special Air Mission teams from Andrews. Multiple C-141 cargo planes (at least two) will fly in advance carrying the Presidential motorcade. There are a thousand servicemen and women in the 89th Airlift Wing who are on station and engaged from flight planning to execution, to conclusion.

And not one of them will be paid next week because Obama decided they're just pawns in his political game.

It's important he get a chance to relax and recharge. We're coming on golf & gala season.

Posted by: Ace at 05:19 PM | Comments (286)
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Because I goofed on that story I haven't gotten to gloat.

Ann Althouse is gloating more than me.

This is fun too:

Can we please, please, please not try to be the smartest ones in the room just this one time and play the game that Republicans always play. Let's declare victory now and talk about pushing Prosser off the stage. This is the message.

Kloppenburg won an election she should never have won. What a humiliation for the Tea Party and their media toads.

This is a total Wisonsin smackdown of Scott Walker

Prosser should really understand it is time to leave the stage.

Prosser sticking around is just hurting Wisconsin.

There is serious businesss to conduct and Prosser is just gumming up the works by trying to challenge this.

From Dan Riehl.

Oh: A lot of people have pointed out: This officially means Wisconsin is a purple state. It might even be reddish.

Even if it had been an even split -- what the hell? We heard for weeks about how outraged the left was, how animated.

Because I still get my news, even second-hand, from the media, I got the impression the left was roaring back.

But they never bothered to report how animated the right still was, huh? They sort of wishcasted that all away, huh?

So, at the end of the day, in an election the left poured money and energy in to, and had the media faithfully singing from their hymnals... we won.

In Wisconsin.

I don't know -- I think based upon this Wisconsin is officially "Lean GOP" in November.

The Presser: Good stuff, plus other gloating.

More Wisconsin Implications: Barack Obama can safely lose a lot of the swing states (and red states) he won in 2008 and still win in 2012, as long as he keeps the Democratic core, including Pennsylvania, the midwest (excluding Ohio), and Colorado.

But I'm not sure there's any likely way he can win without Wisconsin.

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Posted by: Ace at 04:01 PM | Comments (400)
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No details-- I don't think they even know yet what the details might be.

I think we can assume it will contain either no cuts at all or a restoration of the cuts already made.

It's just an attempt to claim they passed something, too.

Posted by: Ace at 03:05 PM | Comments (97)
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Update: It's real. It's also easy to prove, as the Weekly Standard notes, because either an entire city's votes were missing from the tally or they weren't. Some kind of incompetent running the operation there forgot to save Bloomfield's votes or something.

Anyway, they'll explain that at the presser.

...

A net 7000 votes for Prosser (more, really) are now being tallied and will should be outside the margin of fraud.

A lot of flaming stuff today.

I'm going to leave this as the top post for just a little bit, then I'm putting the last one back on top -- for reasons I don't understand, people aren't jumping on that last one. I'm screaming about it on Twitter and in emails.

I don't get it. Is there some reason this isn't huge?

Posted by: Ace at 01:39 PM | Comments (651)
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Corrected: This story was wrong as written. It's below, but here's the scoop.

First, the Air Force Times did get this wrong, leading to the confusion, which got picked up by Mike Flynn.

But like I said-- that story gets it wrong. Here's why the troops got paid on time in 1995:

A frequent question is how this compares to the last government shutdown in 1995-1996. There were two shutdowns at that time, one of five days, from November 13 through November 19, 1995, and one of 21 days, from
December 15, 1995 through January 5, 1996. The first shutdown was not long enough to affect pay checks, and DOD was not affected by the second because defense appropriations were enacted on December 1, so funding was available.

So, the draft guidelines should be about the same as under Clinton.

The difference isn't the procedure, but that Clinton was a responsible enough president to strike a deal on defense so that our troops would get paid.

Whereas Obama intends to hold them hostage.

Sorry for the mistake. I have to note, defensively, the Air Force Times got it wrong, which led Flynn to get it wrong, which led me to get it wrong.

I have to thank two people for getting me the right story: First, the indispensible Morgen at Verum Serum, who alerted me about 20 minutes ago that he thought the story was wrong, based on his quick googling of a Congressional Research Staff study on the 1995 shutdown.

And then, Gabe Malor, who really clarified everything with the information now printed above.

Also, I want to thank vets like USADawg who wrote to say they remembered getting paid on time every week in 1995. Yup, you're right -- but because of the deal Clinton and Gingrich struck.

The original, errant story is below. It's in error, and I'm sorry.

But there still is an important takeaway: It would in fact be Unprecedented, as Obama likes to say of himself, for a President to refuse to reach a deal to keep the troops paid during a shutdown.

Summing up: In 1995, in a time of peace, Clinton signed a bill ensuring troops' pay.

In 2011, fighting three wars, one of which he claimed to enthusiastically support and another he started, Obama is threatening to not pay troops in the field.

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Posted by: Ace at 12:26 PM | Comments (438)
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Stray thought: We didn't have Drudge in 1995, did we? Oh, sure, he was posting weather and earthquake stuff. But no one really heard of him until 1998, the Lewinsky thing. (And when I say "no one really heard of him" I of course mean "I never heard of him.")

Drudge is big shakes. He drives storylines. The media fights him on this, but Drudge is a homepage for a lot of people.

And right now he's got Obama saying "SHUT IT DOWN."

Posted by: Ace at 11:57 AM | Comments (124)
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This could be my last chance to post it.
I'm taking it.

At Gateway Pundit.

Update/Cautionary Note: This is from a blog called WisPolitics. I usually am very skeptical of factual reporting on blogs. So, caution.

Update: JSOnline confirms.

Prosser's up -- at the moment.

But if you think our tallies can change... hoo boy, can theirs!

...

Winnebago County returns posted by the clerkÂ’s office give Justice David Prosser 244 more votes there than JoAnne Kloppenburg compared to the results The Associated Press tallied.

Flaming Honey Badger thanks to Johnny, hat tip to Ben for sending it to me.

Correction: I initially misread and miswrote this concerns two counties. It's just one, Winnebago.

Posted by: Ace at 11:26 AM | Comments (290)
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