The Past Week: July 26-August 1, 2009 (Inflation vs. Deflation; CNBC Ratings Plunging; Wind Turbines; Perpetuum Jazzile and Simulated Rain)

~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

Like nearly everyone else, I’m obsessing over the economy, so this discussion on inflation vs. deflation really caught my attention this week.

Check it out at the Two Beers with Steve site:

Episode 14 – Chris Martenson Talks Inflation Vs. Deflation

In Episode 14 we have our first ever interview with Dr. Chris Martenson, the author of the Crash Crash video series and the namesake for the www.ChrisMartenson.com website. We spend an hour discussing the most hotly debated topic in the economic blogosphere, Inflation Vs. Deflation.

This was one of the more fascinating podcasts we have done and is worth a second listen. But we have plenty of more interesting interviews coming up in the near future so I ask that you please subscribe to the Two Beers With Steve podcast through Itunes. The direct link to Itunes is provided below.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=315666764

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You’ve just listened to a brilliant discussion (above), which is exactly what you DON’T get on CNBC, parent company GE.  And guess what? The ratings are plummeting. I tune in every day to see what the markets are doing, but am fully aware of the “acts” that are being presented to us every day on the subject of the economy. So, I turn it off. And so are a lot of other people. Now, there may be some “dropoffs” from cancelled cable subscriptions, but I figure the reason for the drastic decline in the numbers is that people are sick of being sold propaganda. But FOX is no better and not everyone (including me) can tune into Bloomberg, although they have an excellent website broadcast.

More here from The Pragmatic Capitalist:

WHY IS CNBC VIEWERSHIP PLUNGING?

(snip)

What’s even more baffling is that none of the other financial news networks have been able to capitalize on this.  Bloomberg continues to simply report the news – which is great, but makes for very boring TV.  Fox has essentially copied the CNBC model, but has done so without the talent and respected (or disrespected) personalities.  There is a huge market for financial TV and all viewers really want is a station that doesn’t feed them bullshit all day and does so through an informative two sided debate model.   Can anyone dethrone the king of financial news as they flounder or will the total lack of creativity at the other networks continue to give CNBC the title of “best of the worst”.

Late evening reruns of Jim Cramer’s Mad Money and Donny Deutsch’s  Big Idea are the only things still standing.  Deutsch isn’t bad, but Cramer…well, it’s a shame he’s still getting eyeballs!

The piece includes a chart of what’s going on at http://pragcap.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/nielsen.jpg.

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Just a note: there’s a new post up at our sister site, Open Range Ramblings. If you want to see what creates windpower, check out the up-close pictures of a turbine blade that I encountered on my trip to Albuquerque!

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Finally, Kenosha Marge forwarded this amazing video.  It’s incredible!  It’s even more wonderful as we wait for our monsoon rains to start falling here in Southern NM.  The clouds are there, but where is the rain?

Chicago Correspondent Leslie also created a direct link, just in case the video doesn’t play at  http://tinyurl.com/n5k6wb

The fabulous simulation is at the start of the choir’s performance of Toto’s “Africa.”  WONDERFUL STUFF! You’ll feel refreshed!

Title: Amazing choir (Perpetuum Jazzile) uses their hands to simulate storm

THE PAST WEEK

*By Grail Guardian

*A Stolen Victory During the Beer Summit–OR, How to Rewrite Congressional Votes While No One is Really Looking (It’s About Our Food)

As China (And Other Countries, Too) Makes Non-dollar Trade Deals Around the World, Maybe Americans Should Seek Safety in the Reincarnation Bank

A.P. Clamping Down on Bloggers; New Stance Will Stifle “Even Minimal Use” of News Articles Online

The Past Week: July 19-25, 2009 (The Journalism School Named after Walter Cronkite; Poor Economy, Cash-Strapped Families = Unclaimed Bodies of Loved Ones)

Did You See Sarah Palin Live with Greta? WOW!! In the Kitchen, Meal Prep and Policy…(UPDATE 1X–Video Up)

~~By InsightAnalytical-GRL

UPDATE 1–The video of Part 1 of this 2 Part interview (Part 2 is tonight, 11/11) in up at FOX but I had to search for it!  (Maybe they’re burying this deliberately.) Here is the link to where I found it…Greta’s Inteview With Sarah Palin Greta has some pics of the Gov’s Office on her GretaWire blog right now.

9 PM  MT Time (7 PM Alaska Time)

I have to say this was an amazing thing put together by Greta van Susteren. Live from Alaska, an extensive interview with Sarah Palin. When the video goes up, WATCH!

I caught most of the filmed segment in the Governor’s Office where the discussion was about her being “handled” and her “feminism.”

Well, she was unapologetic about going off script…she wanted to talk more about the qualities of John McCain, the man, and she said she had no regrets when she did so.

As for the question about whether she was a feminist…She said she considered herself one, “whatever that means” and talked about all the things women who work and raise families have in common. Greta asked her if the flack from the left was about abortion, and Palin said most likely, but she said that the key thing was to work to lower the number of abortions through information, and all the other means at our disposal…She sounded pretty “Clintonian” to me on the subject. She clearly felt that if that was the “be end and end all,” then women were missing an opportunity to forge a stronger presence.

Greta also asked her about 2012 and she was quite open to 4 years or 8 years if things like family circumstances, etc. were favorable. In other words, she sounded like she was very open to the idea of getting out there again, and spoke about how much she would like to do something for the country on a broader scale.

The other subjects of conversation that stood out was when she talked about her family and how her kids saw that offensive 4-letter word on a T-shirt as they drove through Philadelphia.

And I was really ticked off again about all that degradation of Palin, how she was an insult and inexperienced, when, in the course of the conversation, said she was used to the hardball of politics even at the local level and how it didn’t faze her because she had been at it since 1992. Where was Obama in 1992?? What has he done that makes him more experienced as a leader than someone who has worked there way up since 1992??

By far the best part of the interview was conducted in her home….LIVE…from the kitchen, as she prepared dinner. She was taking the skin off a pile of big franks and she worked steadily on stuffing them with extras.  All the while, she spoke clearly on energy and how she wanted to see a cleaner planet and energy independence. She talked about how Alaska has as much coastline as the rest of the U.S. and how there are so many resources that can be developed through technology that can then be exported to other countries…tidal power, wind power, geothermal.  She felt that there was an opportunity for bringing together environmentalists and “the development crowd” as she described her leanings into a synergy where “something could get done.”

What really got me was how she MULTI-TASKED–cooking dinner and talking about all sort of complicated issues at the same time.  When have you seen a candidate for VP do THAT?? But this is what women do everyday, without skipping a beat…and what makes Sarah Palin a real person to so many people,  not just another pre-fabbed politician.

So the question I thought of was –Could BARACK OBAMA do that as smoothly and naturally?  I doubt it!  He is so scripted and basically, phony, that he wouldn’t even deign to pick up a hot dog and discuss energy policy at the same time!!  The joke used to be that Gerry Ford couldn’t walk and chew gum at the same time…Well, Sarah Palin doesn’t have THAT problem.

Tomorrow, there’s part 2 of the interview (Tuesday, 11/11)…I’ll be watching, for sure! (Moose chili on the menu…)  This interview tonight made it clear that Alaska is not hicktown…It looks like everwhere else in the US, for those who think Palin dropped in from another planet…(boy, what a great kitchen), which might be news to some of the “elite” who fester in DC.

After Greta, I happened to see a couple of minutes of Glenn Beck on O’Reilly. O’Reilly had opened with Palin’s discussion of the “jerks” out there and then Beck said an interesting thing: that she TOOK ON THE POWERFUL in the party…which lends credence to our suspicions about how they’re trying to do her in. He also said that she disagreed with McCain on a lot of things.  He said that she called him and told him that people weren’t booking her on shows, so she was going to do it herself. And she did…going on his show among others. More indication that she was getting a bum deal from her handlers…Nicolle Wallace, perhaps?  (See Sarah Palin, Nicolle Wallace, CBS, Katie Couric…Too Close for Comfort? (And What of George and Jeb?) O’Reilly said the media would “kill her” and my reaction was, “NOT IF I CAN HELP IT!”

All I can say is…GO SARAH!!!