NBC

Yesterday we implied a difficult question when we illustrated the huge size of US Treasury bond holdings that China and Russia have between them - accounting for 25% of all foreign held debt - implicitly funding US standards of living (along with the Federal Reserve). The difficult question is "Can the U.S. really afford to greatly anger the rest of the world when they are the ones that are paying our bills?" What is going to happen if China, Russia and many other large nations stop buying our debt and start rapidly dumping U.S. debt that they already own? If the United States is not very careful, it is going to pay a tremendous economic price for taking military action in Syria.

Labor Secretary Perez crossed the credibility line on his second day at the job.

Why on earth does the UN Security Council still exist when the rules and regulations that the people who have the right to veto set up in the first place are dumped just as quick as you can say Bachar al-Assad?

Someone wants to get the United States into a war with Syria very, very badly.  Cui bono is an old Latin phrase that is still commonly used, and it roughly means "to whose benefit?"  The key to figuring out who is really behind the push for war is to look at who will benefit from that war.  If a full-blown war erupts between the United States and Syria, it will not be good for the United States, it will not be good for Israel, it will not be good for Syria, it will not be good for Iran and it will not be good for Hezbollah.  The party that stands to benefit the most is Saudi Arabia, and they won't even be doing any of the fighting. 

WWhile there may have been a verbal attempt by the Obama administration to diffuse Syrian tensions in the aftermath of Thursday's shocker out of the House of Commons, the action on the ground so far is hardly conciliatory. Or rather water, because a sixth US warship has now anchored in proximity to Syria, joining the recently arrived fifth destroyer USS Stout, which joined the warships already "breathing down Assad's neck." From AP: "Five U.S. Navy destroyers - the USS Gravely, USS Mahan, USS Barry, the USS Stout and USS Ramage - are in the eastern Mediterranean Sea waiting for the order to launch. And the USS San Antonio, an amphibious assault ship has now joined them. The USS San Antonio, which is carrying helicopters and can carry up to 800 Marines, has no cruise missiles, so it is not expected to participate in the attack. Instead, the ship's long-planned transit across the Mediterranean was interrupted so that it could remain in the area to help if needed." So in addition to a cruise missile based force, the US is now bringing in the marines? The justification that they are there "just in case" seems a little shallow in context.

Right now, ship traffic around Syria, and especially around the port city of Latakia and Tartus (where the Russian naval base is located), is normal as can be seen on the real-time map of naval traffic in the Mediterranean courtesy of Marine Traffic. If and when (supposedly Thursday if NBC is to be believed) the US finally launches the Tomahawks, expect a prompt evacuation of the triangle between Lebanon, Turkey and Cyprus. Or maybe in advance, especially if some of the more "strategic" tankers get advance notice things are going down. Keep an eye on real-time Mediterranean traffic courtesy of the map below.

During the NBC Nightly News segment last week about one of the unintended consequences of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Lisa Myers reported speaking with "almost 20 small businesses and other entities around the country" and that "almost all said that because of the new law, they’d be cutting back hours for some employees." But the Obama administration doesn’t see why there’s such a fuss.  According to Myers: The White House dismisses these examples as “anecdotal.” The president’s top economic advisor [CEA Chair Jason Furman] told us “he sees no systematic evidence the health care law is having an adverse impact on the number of hours employees are working.” So, should we take our government’s word and dismiss the examples as anecdotal?

Here we go again.

While many Wall Street economists and strategists shrugged in the face of tin-foil-hat-wearing bloggers who suggested the disaster that is the part-time jobs receovery was due to The Affordable Care Act - of 953,000 jobs created In 2013, 77%, or 731,000 are part-time - epitomized best by Larry Kudlow and Deutsche Bank's ever-smiling Joe Lavorgna; it seems the drag on employers' hiring has now hit the mainstream media. As NBC Nightly News reports in this succinct clip, things are not going according to plan for the President's better bargain even as Fed's Bullard proclaims "clear improvement in labor markets." Perhaps he should watch TV this evening?

In 3 Months, Do We Want to Entrust  U.S. "National Security" and Perhaps Even "Human Survival” In the Northern Hemisphere to THESE Guys?

Nuclear Regulatory Commission Is Using Obviously Faulty Models to Pretend Crumbling Nuclear Reactors Are Safe

“Who You Are Speaks So Loudly I Can’t Hear What You’re Saying”

Thanks to the revelations this week of more sexts, Anthony Weiner's lead has evaporated in the mayoral race. As WSJ reports, among registered Democrats, 25% support City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and 16% support Mr. Weiner, a 14 percentage point swing in Ms. Quinn's favor compared with a poll taken several weeks ago. Mr. Weiner's unfavorability rating surged to 55% in the poll with only 30% still viewing him favorably (from 52% last month). But perhaps more for the ongoing humor of it than his policies and prowess, a stunning 69% of 18-29 year-olds believe he should continue to run for Mayor (and 61% of Bronx residents). Mr. Weiner "needs to get voters to give him a third chance," said one analyst, adding that "his negatives are at an all-time high. There's been a significant erosion in people's willingness to say he deserves another chance. They are more reluctant to grant that."

Just 45% of those surveyed in the NBC News-WSJ poll said they approved of the job the President was doing. This is a big drop from just a few months ago - even as stocks surge (and apparently so do jobs?). This is close to the lowest ever approval rating for a President proclaiming things are on the up. Congress is even worse - with its lowest approval rating on record - as bad as during the debt-ceiling debt debacle. What is most stunning is that a huge 57% of those surveyed would vote fopr a ballot measure to replace all members of Congress. As is clear from the charts below - people in the real economy do not care about the market (anymore) as it appears the link between Obama's popularity and stocks broke in February 2013.

BREAKING PHOTO: Wheels just came off a Southwest flight at LaGuardia Airport - @BobbyAbtahi pic.twitter.com/j1coXlxuSU

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 22, 2013