Meanwhile, in Euroland ...

1. “Spain is not Greece.” (Elena Salgado, Spanish finance minister, Feb. 2010)

2. “Portugal is not Greece.” (The Economist, 22 April 2010)

3. “Ireland is not in ‘Greek Territory.” (Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan)

4. “Greece is not Ireland.” (George Papaconstantinou, Greek Finance minister, 8 November 2010)

5. “Spain is neither Ireland nor Portugal.” (Elena Salgado, Spanish Finance minister, 16 November 2010)

6. “Neither Spain nor Portugal is Ireland.” (Angel Gurria, Secretary-general OECD, 18 November 2010)

Yet many Irish fought for Spain in the ol' days against France and the UK.

Every year, more and more people buy on-line. That might explain some of it, I don't know. I know where my sister lives, in the area where PA and DE adjoin, she says that the stores seem as busy as ever.

A key effect of devaluation is that it makes the domestic currency cheaper relative to other currencies. There are two implications of a devaluation. First, devaluation makes the country's exports relatively less expensive for foreigners. Second, the devaluation makes foreign products relatively more expensive for domestic consumers, thus discouraging imports. This may help to increase the country's exports and decrease imports, and may therefore help to reduce the current account deficit.

-Federal Reserve

Everything will be fine just as soon as they have finished destroying the value of the dollar.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/opinio......nted=all

"Who Killed the Disneyland Dream?"

Don't miss the embedded video link in the article above, to a nostalgiac old video of Disneyland.

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Excerpt from article:

“Disneyland Dream” was made in the summer of 1956, shortly before the dawn of the Kennedy era. You can watch it on line at archive.org or on YouTube. Its narrative is simple. The young Barstow family of Wethersfield, Conn. — Robbins; his wife, Meg; and their three children aged 4 to 11 — enter a nationwide contest to win a free trip to Disneyland, then just a year old. The contest was sponsored by 3M, which asked contestants to submit imaginative encomiums to the wonders of its signature product. Danny, the 4-year-old, comes up with the winning testimonial, emblazoned on poster board: “I like ‘Scotch’ brand cellophane tape because when some things tear then I can just use it.”

The Barstows accept as a birthright an egalitarian American capitalism where everyone has a crack at “upper class” luxury if they strive for it (or are clever enough to win it). It’s an America where great corporations like 3M can be counted upon to make innovative products, sustain an American work force, and reward their customers with a Cracker Jack prize now and then. The Barstows are delighted to discover that the restrooms in Fantasyland are marked “Prince” and “Princess.” In America, anyone can be royalty, even in the john.

How many middle-class Americans now believe that the sky is the limit if they work hard enough? How many trust capitalism to give them a fair shake? Middle-class income started to flatten in the 1970s and has stagnated ever since. While 3M has continued to prosper, many other companies that actually make things (and at times innovative things) have been devalued, looted or destroyed by a financial industry whose biggest innovation in 20 years, in the verdict of the former Fed chairman Paul Volcker, has been the cash machine.

It’s a measure of how rapidly our economic order has shifted that nearly a quarter of the 400 wealthiest people in America on this year’s Forbes list make their fortunes from financial services, more than three times as many as in the first Forbes 400 in 1982. Many of America’s best young minds now invent derivatives, not Disneylands, because that’s where the action has been, and still is, two years after the crash. In 2010, our system incentivizes high-stakes gambling — “this business of securitizing things that didn’t even exist in the first place,” as Calvin Trillin memorably wrote last year — rather than the rebooting and rebuilding of America.

Cash for clunkers was a success? Wow must depend on how you define the word I guess.

GM turned arround? I guess if I had a company that got hundreds of billions in tax relief I would be able to run a company as a success as well. (Guess it is not only the hated RICH who got tax breaks, but car companies that the government owns huh?

Sure statistics can be misleading, but this is a lot of data, all in one place. Food for thought:

http://www.businessinsider.com/22-statis......ow-start

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/featu......s-201010

This is a really good read - and astonishing - how Greece got in so much trouble.

I love how, despite the fact just about noone there pays tax, in election years the government pulls the tax inspectors off the streets so even those few won't be annoyed.