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A friend of mine once called it Elvis Disease. Occasionally an individual will become so powerful, that he forgets he is mortal. (It’s what happened to Marlon Brando’s character in “Apocalypse Now.“) Because when a human becomes so important that people confuse him with a god, he might start believing it himself. When Elvis came out of the dressing room for the first time in that sequined white jumpsuit with elephant bells, high collar, and a matching cape, he asked the people he thought were friends, “Ahh , what d’yall think? Ahh picked it for my Hawaii show…” But everyone...

Details are sketchy but it appears the months long crisis in Honduras is close to being over thanks to an agreement between the legitimate government headed by President Roberto Micheletti and Chavez wannabe Manuel Zelaya that was dictated by the United States government. The agreement calls for the return of Zelaya to power. In return, the US promised to recognize the result of the elections scheduled for the end of November. The Voice of America is reporting: "Mr. Micheletti said late Thursday he has authorized his negotiating team to sign an agreement that "marks the beginning of the end" of...

At the time of writing, when practically every country is inflating, though most of them are at peace, price controls are always hinted at, even when they are not imposed. Though they are always economically harmful, if not destructive, they have at least a political advantage from the standpoint of the officeholders.By implication they put the blame for higher prices on the greed and rapacity of businessmen, instead of on the inflationary monetary policies of the officeholders themselves. Let us first see what happens when the government tries to keep the price of a single commodity, or a small group...

Attempts to lift the prices of particular commodities permanently above their natural market levels have failed so often, so disastrously and so notoriously that sophisticated pressure groups, and the bureaucrats upon whom they apply the pressure, seldom openly avow that aim. Their stated aims, particularly when they are first proposing that the government intervene, are usually more modest, and more plausible. They have no wish, they declare, to raise the price of commodity X permanently above its natural level. That, they concede, would be unfair to consumers. But it is now obviously selling far below its natural level. The producers...

We are getting closer - I can smell it - just watch bubble vision these days. Resident CNBC court jester Dennis Kneale recently announced on his freak show that the ‘recession ended in June’. Meanwhile Goldman (GS) is shoveling out huge (tax payer sponsored) bonuses for the past quarter. It really didn’t take much - did it? After extreme pessimism in early March good ole’ greed and irrational bullish exuberance have returned in four months flat. Which is exactly what I predicted late February, remember?

America chose to save us from the most evil party, and the most despicable President in the universe [Saddam]. Meanwhile, the Arab powers stood firmly against the American project. They used all means to thwart them, but Allah’s will had another say in this matter. America turned the Ba’athists into the world’s laughing stock by showing them fleeing in their underwear on live television. Meanwhile, the Arab powers turned those cowards into national heroes on their satellite channels. America gave the lives of 4,000 of its people to Iraq’s land to instill security and democracy, while the Arabs sent us...

US president to emphasise democratic goals for African countries during speech to Ghanaian parliament The US is planning a dramatically more assertive policy in Africa, sometimes backed by a threat of force, to end conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria that are seen as among the principal obstacles to the continent's revival. Barack Obama is to address Ghana's parliament tomorrow on his first visit to Africa as president with a speech that is expected to emphasise that the key to prosperity is democratic, accountable government. But an important part of the new administration's policy will focus on...

Fareed Zakaria enters the fray to explain why Iran’s Velvet Revolution is not about to happen. He makes some good points about why Iran 2009 is not Prague 1989 — the regime has money and guns and the religious establishment is not aligned behind the demonstrators. He also makes some less good points — that alleged U.S. support for armed groups fighting the regime, or U.S. rhetoric about a possible military strike, or U.S. support for Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war always rallied people around the regime.

By Daryl L. Hunter As great as the “Tea Party” metaphor is for tying our colorful history to current events the tea party has been misrepresented as a tax protest instead of a spending protest and this doesn’t present our concerns accurately. Even Sean Hannity has been calling the Tea Parties tax “protests” when it really is so much more. On 4-15-2009 I attended two tea parties one in Jackson Hole Wyoming, the other in Idaho Falls, Idaho. These events covered the gamut of our discontent, but I don't think it serves us well to be pigeonholed by the liberal...

Have you ever found yourself in the position of asking, on your own behalf or on behalf of others, how many or precisely which people it would be useful to kill in order to secure a benefit for yourself or your cause? And just how to do it? No? Others have. Their answers have ranged from Cain’s original “Abel, with my bare hands” to Hitler’s “all the Jews, mainly by gas,” and the widespread Hutu view in the Rwanda of 1994, “the Tutsis, with machetes.” The question burns today for the government of Sudan and in the Congo.

General Motors and Chrysler, President Obama yesterday declared, "must ul timately stand on their own, not as wards of the state." Yet Obama -- by virtually taking charge of the two companies' economic structure and demanding the ouster of GM Chairman Rick Wagoner as the price of further federal aid -- has pretty much made the auto giants "wards of the state." Certainly, forcing Wagoner's resignation -- to be followed by the eventual replacement of most of GM's board -- while instructing Chrysler to partner up with Fiat represents a level of government intervention in US business not seen in...

NEW YORK – Wall Street's March rally is on hold after the White House rejected turnaround plans from General Motors Corp. and Chrysler and gave investors an economic reality check. Major indexes fell about 3 percent Monday, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which lost about 254 points but finished well off its lows. Financial stocks weighed heavily on the market amid worries that banks will need fresh injections of capital. Fears of an automaker bankruptcy have been looming over investors for months, and the latest developments, which included the removal of GM's CEO Rick Wagoner, made the market uneasy...

Freedom’s Battle: The Origins of Humanitarian Intervention, Gary J. Bass, Knopf, 509 pagesBy David BromwichThe Clinton administration believed in the good of humanitarian intervention, and the Kosovo War aimed to set a pattern for such efforts. The 11 weeks of bombing and the 12,000 killed on the ground seemed to its architects a fair price for so clear a demonstration of enlightened resolve. That false rumors of massacre were used to incite the war, that the ethnic killings turned out to be mainly a consequence and not a cause of the bombing—these were seen as side-effects of a humane exuberance.By...

What's in store for air base shoppers? Maine's political delegation wants commissary open after BNAS closes By BETH QUIMBY, Staff Writer February 5, 2009 Michael Cholewinski pushes a cart of groceries for Robin Spears of Skowhegan Wednesday. Spears shops the commissary in Topsham twice a month, saving $100 to $150 a trip, he says. John Patriquin/Staff Photographer John Patriquin/Staff Photographer Joni Kirk of Topsham shops at the commissary in Topsham Wednesday. Maine’s delegation is calling for the facility to remain open when Brunswick Naval Air Base closes in 2011. MILITARY DISCOUNT, PLEASE The Department of Defense operates 284 commissaries worldwide,...

Surprise! Surprise! Former New York Times reporter Chris Hedges has admitted what almost anyone familiar with his reality-challenged rantings already knew: he is a socialist. Hedges explains in Truthdig Why I Am a Socialist (emphasis mine): The corporate forces that are looting the Treasury and have plunged us into a depression will not be contained by the two main political parties. The Democratic and Republican parties have become little more than squalid clubs of privilege and wealth, whores to money and corporate interests, hostage to a massive arms industry, and so adept at deception and self-delusion they no longer know...

Breaking News: SEC intends to temporarily ban short selling, but it's not clear if the commission has approved the move. Cox is briefing congressional leaders. Separately, the government is seeking congressional authority to buy distressed assets.

Today, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank are announcing coordinated measures designed to address the continued elevated pressures in US dollar short-term funding markets. These measures, together with other actions taken in the last few days by individual central banks, are designed to improve the liquidity conditions in global financial markets. The central banks will continue to work together closely and will take appropriate steps to address the ongoing pressures. Bank of England action The Bank of England will offer...

Joe Black, the owner of the coffee shop "Geeks On Caffeine," has been asked by a television producer if he can film an episode of the addiction recovery program "Interventions" there. Nothing special...except for a divine guest on the show! NOTE: The author of this comic requests that you visit his web site and refrain from copying it within the thread. Thank you!

One problem with politicians is that when problems they create come to a head, they typically feel this irresistible urge to DO something, rather than to UN-do something, or to simply back off to avoid exacerbating the situation. Too often, that which they end up doing has very little connection to the cause of the crisis, but plays well in the press and superficially makes everyone feel better. Bills that are rushed through Congress under duress are never studied enough, providing too tempting an opportunity to quietly slip in unrelated provisions that erode freedoms in ways that would never pass...

Trying to fix problems that affect vast numbers of people has an intuitive appeal that politicians and policymakers find irresistible, but several warehouses of research studies show that intuition is often a poor guide to fixing systemic problems. While it seems like common sense to pump money into an economy that is pulling the bedcovers over its head, the problem with most social interventions is that they target not robots and machines but human beings -- who regularly respond to interventions in contrarian, paradoxical and unpredictable ways. "How well does government do in helping the market to improve what it...