Cab Thoughts 6/16/12

The Onion's take on the fine for swearing in Maine town: "someday only the rich will swear."

So now that the military has taken over again in Egypt, what part of the Arab Spring are we in? Or has the old winter just sprung back?

For all you who believe that the stock market can not be manipulated, and this in a land where there is only a nominal court but a lot of firing squads: http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/china-stock-index-evokes-tiananmen-with-6489point-fall-20120605-1zsoe.htmlThe largest percentage of languages prefer the verb at the end (45%) like German, Hindi,  and Japanese, followed by the middle placement (43%) like English. The remaining 12% of the languages stick the verb out front like Fijian and  Irish.

The Federal Reserve’s detailed survey of consumer finances showed families’ median wealth plunged from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010 — a 39 percent decline. That put them on par with median wealth in 1992. This is astonishing. It is as if the people in this country have worked 20 years for nothing. The government must be scrutinizing itself, right? No self-respecting guy thinking himself a leader could look at this and shrug, right? Right?

Daniel Yergin stated on Sunday in the NYT that shale gas now provides 37% of America's gas supply, up from just 16% in February 2011 and 2% or less around 2000, and that US oil imports are down to 42% from 60%. Astonishing changes in energy use.

In the U.S., coal's market share fell from 45% to 36%, according to the latest EIA data


Obama's statement that the private sector is fine and we need more public sector jobs speaks volumes.  How would these jobs be supported? What would they do? Indeed all jobs are created equal.