The Big Picture

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• 3-Star General: We’ve Lost the Wars In Iraq & Afghanistan
• Timeline of Media Scare Stories
• Economics Indicators Dashboard
• Don’t Shop on Thanksgiving and Other Good Advice
• 10 Wednesday AM Reads
• “The Karl Marx Credit Card – When You’re Short of Kapital”

3-Star General: We’ve Lost the Wars In Iraq & Afghanistan Posted: 26 Nov 2014 10:30 PM PST 3-Star General Who Helped Lead War On Terror: We've Lost the Wars In Iraq and Afghanistan "That Would Be Four Times Biting That Poison Apple: Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and Then Iraq Again" 3-star General Daniel Bolger helped to lead the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The first sentence of his new book - Why We Lost: A General's Inside Account of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars – starts: I am a United Sates Army general, and I lost the Global War on Terrorism. It's like Alcoholics Anonymous; step one is admitting you have a problem. Well, I have a problem. So do my peers. And thanks to our problem, now all of America has a problem, to wit: two lost campaigns and a war gone awry. Yahoo News notes: Having studied military history, he says he should have known that a U.S.-led counterinsurgency in a country like Afghanistan could never work. Now, with the rise of the Islamic State, there's a growing choir urging the U.S. military to lead yet another ground war in Iraq. "That would be four times biting that poison apple: Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and then Iraq again," he said. General Bolger is right. The U.S. previously carried out regime change in Iraq in 1963 and Afghanistan in the 1970s. Empire after empire has broken its back trying to control Afghanistan.   "One more surge" won't do the trick. War has bankrupted empires for 2,500 years. America is  no different. Especially when countries go into debt to finance the war … instead of paying for it out of current finances. America has fallen into the same trap … and is digging an ever-deeper hole.

Timeline of Media Scare Stories Posted: 26 Nov 2014 11:30 AM PST This is fascinating stuff; more on this next week.   Click for an interactive chart. Source: Information is Beautiful

Economics Indicators Dashboard Posted: 26 Nov 2014 09:00 AM PST Here’s the monthly update from Russell:   click for interactive graphic Source: Russell Investments

Don’t Shop on Thanksgiving and Other Good Advice Posted: 26 Nov 2014 06:30 AM PST This is the time of year when Americans gather with family and friends to give thanks. A bounteous feast is the time to express gratitude for our good fortune. We count our blessings, humbled by the fortuity of our circumstances, grateful for whatever it is we have. Once you get that over with, it’s time to go shopping. At least, that seems to be the message of retailers, as they intrude further and further into the holidays. This year, a growing number of retailers are actually open on Thanksgiving Day, including Wal-Mart, Kmart, Sears, Target, Kohl’s, Staples and Macy’s. (A Facebook page has called for a boycott). Being open on Thanksgiving smacks of desperation, and you should do nothing to encourage the excesses of this antifamily, antifootball behavior. It is all part of the plan. The manipulators at the National Retail Federation and elsewhere work hard to create a sense of consumer frenzy. Thus, I have dubbed the season between Thanksgiving and Dec. 25, “Shopmas.”   Continues here

10 Wednesday AM Reads Posted: 26 Nov 2014 05:30 AM PST My pre-Thanksgiving Day reads for your traveling enjoyment: • Hedge Funds Lose Money for Everyone, Not Just the Rich (Bloomberg) • Black Friday Is No Sure Indicator of Holiday Retail Sales (WSJ) see also When It Comes to Holiday Shopping, Not All Plastic Is Equal (NYT) • New Mortgage Lending Drops to 13-Year Low (Real Time Economics) • Radical cures for unusual economic ills: The crisis left a grim legacy, and the answers are likely to be unorthodox (FT) • The Tortoise and the ECB (Pimco) What are you reading? Continues here

“The Karl Marx Credit Card – When You’re Short of Kapital” Posted: 26 Nov 2014 04:00 AM PST Tis the season, presented without comment: Source: Climateer Investing   See also Suggested Taglines for the Karl Marx Credit Card : • There are Some Things Money Can't Buy. Especially If You Abolish All Private Property. • From each according to their ability, to each according to his need. For everything else, there's #Marxcard. • The Marx Card – Because Credit is the Opiate of the Masses.

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