A Little Reality Breaks Through
It is nice to see that Federal Reserve Chairman “Gentle Ben” Bernanke realizes that an “economic slowdown” is in progress and wants to do something about it.
CNN Money reports: Bernanke: Juice the economy ‘quickly’
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Thursday that legislators should enact a fiscal stimulus package in order to help beleaguered consumers as recession fears grow.
The comments by Bernanke, who testified before the House Budget Committee, came as a cascade of more bad news about the housing, financial and manufacturing sectors stoked calls for decisive action.
“To be useful, a fiscal stimulus package should be implemented quickly and structured so that its effects on aggregate spending are felt as much as possible within the next twelve months or so,” Bernanke said.
…
January 17, 2008 1 Comment
Ashura = Violence
Ashura is the most important holy day for Shi’ia Muslims as it is at the very root of their schism with the Sunni. It commemorates the martyrdom of the third Imam, Hussein, and the battle of Karbala in 680CE.
It has unfortunately also come to mean violent attacks against Shi’ia pilgrims in Iraq, this MSNBC report, Iraq blast kills 10 worshippers on Shiite holiday, is just the first I noticed, but there will be more. There always are.
While I accept the possibility that I’m just weird, I don’t really understand why people seem to cling so tightly to their defeats, and remember so little of their victories.
January 17, 2008 3 Comments
