Theater of the Absurd

The confluence of rapidly rising speculative valuations on Apple, Netflix, Amazon and others combined with record-levels of insider stock selling and market trading dominated by racks of algo robots qualifies this period in history for the moniker Theater of the Absurd.  Oh, let's not forget the $trillions of dollars the Federal Reserve is and will continue to print in order to reduce the value of the dollar and foster a chimeric rising stock market to assuage all us sheeple that our economy is moving forward, or in recovery, or whatever the eupehemism du jour is.  Oh, and let's also not forget BLS statistics - where poor showings have been consistently underreported and then revised upward later, when the mainstream media isn't paying attention.

Here is a good, short article by analyst Allan Newman http://www.decisionpoint.com/TAC/NEWMAN.html on some aspects of our ongoing Theater of the Absurd.  Good reading, and quick.  And let me recommend again, for contrarian perspective, adding www.zerohedge.com to your reading list.

A Little Gem of a Movie - My Dog Tulip

Do you love dogs?  Do you find them interesting?  Do you appreciate hand-drawn and painted animation?  If you do you should try to find a screen that has "My Dog Tulip" and go see it.

This animated story is based on Joe Ackerley's book on finding his lifetime best friend - an Alsation he rescued at 18 months and kept company with for 15 years, from when he was "well over 50" into advanced age.  The story is sentimental without being maudlin or too cute, and whimsical in a wonderfully wry manner.  All of the characters drawn by Ackerley, even the little bit characters, live fully and expressively.

The old-school animation by husband-and-wife team Paul and Sandra Fierlinger is subtle and rich at the same time. The pencil line-art cartoonery that punctuates the flow is clever and very amusing.... I could easily watch a feature length story done that way.

The voices are first rate - Christopher Plummer, Lynne Redgrave, Isabella Rossellini - what would you expect?

A great "little" story with a lot of depth.  What a nice surprise!

Public Pensions Too Much to Swallow - For Another Public Agency!

A little more daylight on one of the biggest economic elephants in the room - public pension funding.  Seems a cozy relationship between LA City and the DWP where they just transfer "layed off" workers back and forth is under some real stress...  LA City recently handed DWP something like 1500 "transfers" and now DWP is saying they can't afford to pay the pensions that are coming due.  http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dwp-pension-20101014,0,5040462.story

This is piquant given the fact that DWP is notorious for compensating its public servants to the tune of 50% higher than LA City for comparable jobs.

The private sector continues to take a full measure of austerity in this terrible economy, while the public sector continues to pay large salaries and even larger pensions to police, fire, prison and other public employees.  Public jobs outpay their private counterparts, and when you add in the "ghosts" - public pensioners who can retire at about 50 and then receive full pay for decades - that are adding to the burden of each job position, it's utterly ludicrous.

A California Gubernatorial Election Theme

I had the wonderful good fortune to see Donald Fagen, Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs plus an all-star band perform recently at San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival.   They did a fantastic rendition of Steely Dan's "Peg".  I hate it when current news gets enmeshed with songs I enjoy.  The only cure is to write it down.  I don't have time to record this, so I'll just have to offer up the lyrics...

MEG (with many apologies to Steely Dan)
I've seen your picture
Your money surely bought it
This is your big debut
You’ve got 2thousand dollar shoes
So won't you smile for a camera?
they’ll need to photoshop it, Meg

I like your cheap shots

Nobody does them better

You run a skewer through
Cheap and mean that’s you

And when you lie for a camera
I know I’ll love you better

Meg
It will come back to you
Meg
It will come back to you
Then your campaign stalls
You see it all in 3-D
Jerry Brown’s your nightmare movie

I like your trick shots
Nobody shoots them better
Wherever you point them to
They ricochet on you
And when you lie for a camera
the voters will know better

Meg
It will come back to you
Meg
It will come back to you
Then your campaign stalls
You see it all in 3-D
Jerry Brown’s your nightmare movie