Official NORAD Santa Tracker

by supporting the 1935 Social Security Act you would be selling out the working class and capitulating to right-wing special interests who wrote half the bill?

Didn't see that one coming, didja?

To get Social Security passed, progressives had to agree to exclude nearly one-half of the working class, including two-thirds of all African Americans and more than one-half of all women.

Yep, that's the deal you would have had to make in 1935 to pass what we know now is one of the most progressive and successful governmental programs of all time. But in 1935, it didn't look that way when progressives had to accept the deal racist, reactionary Southern Democrats laid down in exchange for their votes.

These backward elements held power over key committees that could have scuttled Social Security and prevented even a vote. Their deal? Exclude all domestic workers, agricultural labor, state and local government employees, and many teachers, nurses, hospital workers, librarians and social workers. Their special interest? Keeping power by keeping intact the American-style apartheid system they presided over.

So what do we do? Kill the bill and try to come back later or take what you can get now?

Good to see that Le Monde is not always a FT wannabe.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

Murray Cressmus to all.

Somewhere in cyberspace, the ghost of de Chardin is smiling.

"Latin America has passed a major stress test," says Joyce Chang, Managing Director and Global Head of the Emerging Markets and Credit Research Group at JP Morgan.

Of course, those figures obscure huge differences within the region. At one end of the spectrum is Mexico, which is certain to earn the unenviable title this year of Latin America's worst performer; and Argentina, which JP Morgan believes will contract 4.5 percent this year. At the other is Peru, which is set to grow at least 1 percent this year and 5.4 percent next year; Colombia, which is expected to contract 0.5 percent in 2009 and grow 3 percent next; and, most importantly, Brazil, whose economic performance this year is expected to be flat but jump to 5 percent in 2010.

So what explains these huge differences, and what do they imply for Latin American nations as they strive to make the most of the world's long-awaited return to positive growth? One clear factor is location, as well as each country's relative diversification of export markets. For example, it is hardly surprising that Mexico, 80 percent of whose exports go to its northern neighbor, has fared worst. Not only that, says Jonathan Heath, director of economic studies at HSBC in Mexico City, but Mexico has been hit particularly hard because so many of its predominantly manufactured exports fed into the now-traumatized U.S. automobile sector**. "Mexico was doubly exposed," he says.

The same is largely true of Central America. Over the past decade or more, the tiny economies--the average GDP of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama was less than $20 billion last year--have diversified export markets only at the margin, with the U.S. remaining Central America's overwhelmingly dominant trading partner. Looking forward, this is a potential concern because it means their future growth is inextricably and almost singularly linked to the fortunes of the U.S.

** I concluded the same a long time ago without even having to look at the figures.

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne

WASHINGTON -- In 2006 and 2007, Goldman Sachs Group peddled more than $40 billion in securities backed by at least 200,000 risky home mortgages, but never told the buyers it was secretly betting that a sharp drop in U.S. housing prices would send the value of those securities plummeting.

And where is the Securities and Exchange Commission??

"Beware of the man who does not talk, and the dog that does not bark." Cheyenne

A huge revolving Christmas star probably would make people happy, and I guess people in Munich must be enjoying this show being put up by a wind turbine. The wind turbine has nearly 9000 LED lights shining away, and using energy as low as that of a common hairdryer.

The project was initially an idea of Munich multimedia artist Michael Pendry, who approached Siemens and Stadtwerke München (Munich City Utilities) to allow him in creating this art piece. Needless to say, both agreed and Siemens helped with the LEDs which give out 20,000 candelas of lighting on the giant star.

It took nearly 12 months to finish the project, including the addition of all those LEDs on Stadtwerke München's wind turbine. As the blades of the turbine rotate, they put up a great show for onlookers. This Christmas Star will continue to shine until January 6, which is the last day of the Christmas season.

Sretan Bozic! (Happy Christmas)
But we also say to each other :

• Christ was born!
  
• Truly was born ! (answer the other person)