The Next Bubble?

Quite a few smart people are predicting that student loans will be the next big asset bubble to pop and splatter us all with the detritus.  Some are saying it has already started...

Narratives...

Peggy Noonan on the political narratives of the 2012 Presidential hopefuls:

Here's the problem: There is no story. At the end of the day, there is only reality. Things work or they don't. When they work, people notice, and say it. 

Would the next president like a story? Here's one. America was anxious, and feared it was losing the air of opportunity that had allowed it to be what it was—expansive, generous, future-trusting. It was losing faith in its establishments and institutions. And someone came out of that need who led—who was wise and courageous and began to turn the ship around. And we saved our country, and that way saved the world. 

There's a narrative for you, the only one that matters. Go be a hero of that story. It will get around. It will bubble up.

Read the whole thing.  Sure is nice to have the old Peggy back...

Another One Bites the Dust...

Anwar al-Awlaki is dead, the means unspecified (not that it really matters)...

Coffee! Now!

Via colleague Aleck L., a poster that instantly made me think of Debbie.  For some reason.

Phone Outage...

Way out here in the nether regions of Lawson Valley, we had a telephone outage yesterday.  We didn't find out what the cause was until Debbie stopped and talked with the repair crew.  It seems that some thieves, night before last, climbed ladders up the utility poles, cut through the phone cable between several poles, and made off with the wire to sell as scrap copper.  The chart at right shows the motivation: the price of copper is roughly four times what it was in 2000, though in the past few days copper prices (like those of nearly all commodities) has been plunging.

Gophers aren't bad enough?  We have to have copper thieves, too??