The Games Never Stop

From Macro Man….

Meanwhile, back in the US, Goldman recorded super earnings in the first part of the current fiscal year, announcing Q1 earnings of $3.39 per share, well above the consensus expectation of $1.64. Except that they didn’t. Buried in the small print, it appears that as the Easter Bunny was delivering candy and eggs to children all over the world, he also desposited a small turd in the GS income statement. In December, which magically falls outside the aegis of any reporting period (falling through the cracks, as it were, in the transition from investment bank to bank holding company) , the firm lost $2.15 per share. Add that to the Q1 earnings figure, and you get a result that is comfortably lower than consensus.

Links For Today

The End of the World Is Nigh Again. (A post arguing that the market is due for another major correction).

The Fruits of China’s One Child Policy. We all know that there is going to be more males than females in China because of the one child policy. But the figures keep getting worse and worse.

The US electrical grid has been penetrated by Chinese and Russian Intelligence agencies according to the Wall Street Journal.

The French Are Making America Look Bad

From the Telegraph…..

As a multinational force off Somalia built up its military muscle, French forces staged their rescue after talks broke down.

One hostage and two pirates were killed and three other adults and a child on the yacht, the Tanit, were rescued six days after it was seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, a spokesman for Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, said.

Meanwhile, the pirates defy America….

We are not afraid of the Americans,” one of the pirates told Reuters by satellite telephone on behalf of the gang holding the captain.

“We will defend ourselves if attacked.” A pirate commander onshore in the Somali pirate town of Eyl said that preparations were being made by other pirates to set sail to help their beleaguered friends.

“We are planning to reinforce our colleagues who told us that a navy ship was closing in on them and I hope the matter will soon be solved,” said Abdi Garad. “We are making final preparations and will try our best to save our friends.”

Speaking of beleaguered, The Belmont Club remembers all hostages that nobody seems to care about. It is a useful counterbalance to all the news coverage being given to the captured American captain.

Deportation and Death

Armenians On Deportation March (source)

This is what loosing everything you had looks like. This is what facing starvation, and death looks like. Between 600,000 to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in the Armenian genocide. Is this a bit of history you aren’t familiar with? Read more about it(1).
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(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide