Bad US Q1 GDP does not look like a blip

GDP rose 0.11% in the first quarter, whilst the consensus was 1.2%. Only consumer spending was up, and that was due to heating bills and Obamacare, not voluntary consumption.  Residential construction, business investment, inventories, net exports, and government spending were all negative.

This does not appear to be a weather-related blip, because weather effects were offset by heating and healthcare.  The other categories would still have been down.  It’s even worse when one looks at inflation.  The BEA used a 1.3% annual rate in Q1.  If they used the BLS’s 1.8%, GDP would have been minus 0.39%, or if the BPP’s 3.91%, it would have been minus 3.8%.

Elder abuse in the USA: Well-educated seniors are being exploited

65% of men with professional degrees age 62-74 are working while only 32% of high school graduates in that age range are. 

Well-educated senior men are being abused by the system, and the less-educated are not pulling their own weight. 

Is the USA the new China?

Boeing expects to deliver 725 passenger jets in 2014, more than the 648 last year and the highest level ever.

It’s all about Asia.  Is the US the new China?

The end times and the rise of the locavores

In Vermont, 55% of public schools have vegetable gardens.  Vermont ranks #1 among locavores, followed by Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Hawaii.

Is Vermont the next Cornwall?  "The center cannot hold."

The FT calls it the "disUniting Kingdom." Cornwall heads for the exits.

Cornish nationalists (both of them), who argue that Cornwall has never legally been a part of the UK, are making progress: the EU will be giving them protected national minority status, like the Welsh and the Scots.  

This follows logically from the designation in 2011 of the Cornish Pasty as a “Protected Geographic Indication” by the EU. (Although in my opinion the pasties one buys in Cornwall are even worse than the pseudo-Cornish ones in London.)  This is reminiscent of how the growing popularity of putine in the 1960s anticipated the rise of Quebec separatism.  

The March of Progress

Brunei’s government is introducing death by stoning and the severing of limbs to bring its laws into greater harmony with Sharia.

These changes are being temporarily delayed due to” unavoidable circumstances.” Brunei is a marshy country; perhaps they don’t have enough stones? 

How much more can Russia endure?

US-led sanctions against Russia are producing a budget surplus there. Several factors are in play: 1. Crisis keeps oil prices high. 2. Lower credit rating weakens ruble. 3. Revenues from oil and gas sales buy more rubles. 4. More rubles produce a budget surplus.