The Cynical Economist

Big Brother is watching us……….

From BreitBart

“The President has put in place an organization with the kind of database that no one has ever seen before in life,” Representative Maxine Waters told Roland Martin on Monday. “That’s going to be very, very powerful,” Waters said. “That database will have information about everything on every individual on ways that it’s never been done before and whoever runs for President on the Democratic ticket has to deal with that. They’re going to go down with that database and the concerns of those people because they can’t get around it. And he’s [President Obama] been very smart. It’s very powerful what he’s leaving in place.”

“I grew up in a socialist country and I have seen what that does to people. There is no hope, no freedom, no pride in achievement. The nation became poorer and poorer and that is what I see happening here. As a young boy I was fantasizing about one day going to America, making a success of myself – the American dream. America’s wealth comes from the efforts of people striving for success. Take away their incentive with badmouthing success and you take away the wealth that helps us to take care of the needy. Yes, in socialism in the rich will be poorer – but the poor will also be poorer. People lose interest in really working hard and creating jobs. I think this is a very slippery slope. It seems like people don’t learn from the past. That is why I am voting Republican and putting this ad on television.

I am Thomas Peterffy and I am responsible for the content of this advertisement.”

I completely agree with the above. I immigrated in the USA  12 years ago. I came here legally to make my dreams reality as many other people did before me, caring a suitcase and 2000 dollars borrowed from friends and my parents . When I speak with immigrants they are just as stunned as I am, to see what is America becoming. We left a socialist utopias and for what? To see that someone here is promoting what our dear leaders back home couldn’t achieve in 45 years… free healthcare, free education, free this, free that, a month vacation for a year’s work, 3 years off if you give birth, guaranteed work, guaranteed salary, everyone is equal, so equal that the janitor had (almost) the same salary as the teacher…….  at the end it all collapsed. Utopian societies are just that – utopias.  

From NY Daily News
BY KRISTEN A. LEE

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid now has more in common with former Senate Republican Rick Santorum than he may like.

Santorum’s name has been linked with a filthy, sexual definition since 2003, when sex columnist Dan Savage urged his fans to popularize it on the Internet.

Now Reid’s name seems to have a new meaning too.

The Urban Dictionary, which compiles user-submitted slang expressions online, defines “Harry Reid” as: “A sexual position where you climb on top and then do absolutely nothing.”

A sample sentence is helpfully provided: “I spent so long trying to talk her into bed that when I finally got on, I pulled a ‘Harry Reid’ and fell asleep.”

The dictionary entry goes on to accuse Reid of blocking bills passed by the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives. Both political parties have accused the other side of obstructionism since the 2010 midterm elections when the GOP regained control of the U.S. House, dividing Congress.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, which was tipped off to the new definition, noted that the Urban Dictionary has another entry for “Reiding,” which is defined as “using the Congress of the United States to silence free speach [SIC]of private citizens.”

Uh-Oh…

Dems block Obama’s tax-cut bill

Republicans, eager to put Senate Democrats on record on taxes, tried to force a vote Wednesday on President Obama’s proposal to extend middle-class tax cuts but raise taxes for the rich, but Majority Leader Harry Reid objected, essentially sidelining the president’s plan.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, Republicans’ leader, tried to set up competing votes — one on the GOP’s plan to extend all the tax cuts for one year, and another on Mr. Obama’s proposal to extend them only for households making $250,000 or less.

But Mr. Reid objected to the request, saying he didn’t want to have the vote on the GOP’s legislation.

5 Democrats join Republicans in voting to repeal Obamacare - HARRY READ BLOCKS VOTING IN SENATE TO REPEAL OBAMACARE FOR THE 33th TIME 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., countered by blocking an immediate vote. “We’ll get to the tax issues. That way we’ll be able to talk in more detail about Governor Romney’s taxes,” he said in a reference to Democratic campaign attacks on the GOP presidential candidate’s overseas investment, the relatively low rate of income tax he is required to pay and his refusal thus far to release personal tax returns dating before 2010.

House Obamacare Repeal: Thirty-Third Time’s the Charm?

The House of Representatives voted today to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It was the 33rd time Republicans have voted to chip away at, defund,  or repeal the health care law. Democrats called the move a political charade since the repeal law has no chance of becoming law this year.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte: Harry Reid Will Block Health Care Vote in Senate

House Republicans are moving toward another vote to repeal the health care overhaul. Republican leaders are calling today’s vote a rejection of an unpopular law saying that it would block a tax on the middle class. The question is, if it passes in the House, what happens in the Senate?

Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) explained her take on Happening Now, saying that she foresees Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid blocking the Republican vote so that it won’t be able to go forward into the Senate.

The reason Harry Read blocks the voting on the repeal of Obamacare?

HE IS AFRAID THAT DEMOCRATS IN THE SENATE MAY JOIN THE REPUBLICAN AS THEY DID TODAY IN THE HOUSE  AND THE VOTE WILL SUCCEED EVENTUALLY TO REPEAL OBAMACARE

The Education Blob

Since progressives want government to run health care, let’s look at what government management did to K-12 education. While most every other service in life has gotten better and cheaper, American education remains stagnant.

Spending has tripled! Why no improvement? Because K-12 education is a virtual government monopoly — and monopolies don’t improve.

GOP teachers balk at Obama-centric NEA convention - “Democracy” at work

“What I don’t like is the harassment going on for people to be an ‘EFO’ – an educator for Obama,” said Maureen van Wagner, a special education teacher from Anchorage, Alaska.

In interviews with The Associated Press, roughly a dozen teachers who identified themselves as Republicans said they felt pressure from union leaders and the rank-and-file to support Obama’s re-election – and felt marginalized when they wouldn’t. Some interviewed said they were so worried about retribution from their colleagues that they wouldn’t provide their names for publication.

GAO: ‘Little is Known’ About Effectiveness of Gov’t Jobs Programs for Disabled

According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), “little is known” about whether nearly three dozen federal jobs programs for the disabled are actually helping people find work, including programs designed to help disabled veterans.

Sorry, America, you’re rich enough. Stop working

That is a must read, if you want to understand how insane (my opinion) some economists are… and not only economists are that insane….

Don’t Indulge. Be Happy….  – Here it comes  - in future America the “Department of Happy” (abbreviation D’OH, because we already have DOH -”Department of Health”) will tell every each of us when we are happy… 

Why, then, do so many of us bother to work so hard long after we have reached an income level sufficient to make most of us happy? One reason is that our ideas about the relationship between money and happiness are misguided. In research we conducted with a national sample of Americans, people thought that their life satisfaction would double if they made $55,000 instead of $25,000: more than twice as much money, twice as much happiness. But our data showed that people who earned $55,000 were just 9 percent more satisfied than those making $25,000. Nine percent beats zero percent, but it’s still kind of a letdown when you were expecting a 100 percent return.

Promises, Promises

Barack Obama has an accountability problem. It’s not simply that during the 2008 campaign he made extravagant promises to heal the planet, slow the rise of the oceans, end political divisions in America, and usher in an era of hope and change. It’s that as a candidate and in the early days of his presidency, Obama and his top aides made a series of very specific promises on a range of issues.

As a candidate, Obama promised to create five million new energy jobs alone, claimed that by the end of his first term his health care plan would “bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family,” and guaranteed that his financial rescue plan would help “stop foreclosures.” As president-elect, Obama informed us that he had asked two of his top economic advisers, Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, to conduct a “rigorous analysis” of his economic recovery plan. The report that he released predicted unemployment would not rise above 8 percent if the stimulus plan was passed. And in the first year of his presidency, Obama pledged to “cut the deficit we inherited in half by the end of my first term in office,” “lift two million Americans from poverty,” and “jolt our economy back to life.”

Another Solyndra in the Making? - 5 million new energy jobs eh? 

Having already received $249 million in federal money, advanced battery maker A123 Systems has just five months of cash left to burn.

Another MF Global in the making?  - Missing $220 million??? - Prominent Cedar Falls businessman hospitalized after suicide attempt 

Another MF Global incident may be looming in the horizon. A small futures brokerage is freezing client funds after its owner attempted suicide, according to a press release on the brokerage’s website. PFGBest, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based broker with about $400 million in client-segregated funds at the end of April, moved customer accounts into liquidation status while the company investigates “accounting irregularities.”

 Obama: Most People “Would Acknowledge That I’ve Tried Real Hard” - video 

Here is the question - Should we re-elect someone because they’ve tried hard or because they’ve been successful?

The Single Most Accurate Indicator of Labor Market Health

China boosts state firms as entrepreneurs struggle - Obama’s dream…

“I am disappointed at the situation in China,” he said. “This is unfair.”

Today’s state companies and their relationship to the private sector have changed drastically from the era of central planning.

Beijing cut back state industry in the late 1990s, wiping out tens of millions of jobs. Then a new generation of leaders began in 2005 to build up elite companies such as oil giant PetroChina Ltd., phone carrier China Mobile Ltd. (CHL) (CHL) and Bank of China Ltd. to control industries deemed strategic.

State companies benefit from monopolies, low-cost bank loans, free land and other favors. Instead of competing with private companies, state firms extract money from them by controlling access to oil, electric power, phone service and other essential resources.

Obama’s transportation secretary hails Chinese infrastructure - If a Chinese official makes a statement praising some other countries way of doing business, he would be executed for a treason

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood argued Saturday that China outpaces the United States in building major transportation infrastructure like high-speed rail because of its authoritarian system and because the Chinese don’t have the Republican Party holding up progress.

“The Chinese are more successful [in building infrastructure] because in their country, only three people make the decision. In our country, 3,000 people do, 3 million,” LaHood said in a short interview with The Cable on the sidelines of the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival on June 30. “In a country where only three people make the decision, they can decide where to put their rail line, get the money, and do it. We don’t do it that way in America.”

LaHood said that despite this, democracy is still preferable. “We have the best system of government anywhere on the planet. It is the best. Because the people have their say,” he said.

Transportation Secretary: Without Obama ‘No One Would Have Ever Predicted’ Lexus Hybrids– Which Debuted in ‘04 -LOL that’s one stupid transportation secretary. Can you imagine, if it was only him and two other bureaucrats,  that  managed the American infrastructure? (look the article above) America would have been in ruins long ago…

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has credited the Obama administration’s work on fuel standards for having “jump started” the development of Lexus hybrids, even though the company debuted its SUV hybrid in 2004.

Oops; U.S. “Overpaid” $14 Bil In Jobless Benefits -The looting of America continues,  not only by the big crony capitalist and bankers, but also by illegal aliens and jail inmates

Corruption has plagued the nation’s out-of-control jobless benefits program for some time and the problem has only gotten worse under the Obama Administration. As far back as 2010, there were reports of unemployment checks going out to illegal immigrants in at least one state as well as other unqualified legal residents and citizens.

Earlier this year a mainstream newspaper reported the unbelievable story of a convicted murderer who for years collected unemployment benefits from jail. In all, the felon, a gangbanger, raked in more than $30,000 in unemployment benefits from 2008 to 2010 while incarcerated in California. When his contacts cashed the $1,600 monthly checks they would deposit a portion into his jail account and he would share some of the money with his fellow jailed gang members.

Unthinkable, Predictable Disasters - 

The disintegration of the euro, like America’s entitlement bomb, is both unfathomable and inevitable.

You can’t plan for disasters by refusing to talk about them

Santel and Farage  - Euro Titanic Hits The Iceberg 

PUNK ECONOMICS 5: THE WORLD SLOWS & EURO CRISIS FAR FROM OVER

Raising Minimum Wage: A Help Or Harm? - I agree…

Bill Dunkelberg, chief economist for the National Federation of Independent Businesses, a group that lobbies against increasing the minimum wage, says that every dollar an employee gets comes out of somebody’s pocket. He says it’s not logical that raising the minimum wage will add more spending money to the economy.

“It’s not the job of businesses to turn themselves into social service providers and pay in excess of value to the firm,” Dunkelberg says. “We do have something called the earned income tax credit, where we provide supplemental income to people who are working but need more money.”

The 11 Ways That Consumers Are Hopeless at Math

This is your brain on shopping, and it’s not very smart….

My 17 hours of hell at hospital where a patient died of thirst: Left unattended in agony, one writer’s account of her ordeal at an NHS ‘centre of excellence’ - A must read about the UK NHS and what is coming to America. Read the horror story and how well the “free” health care works in real life

Last summer, I sought help  at St George’s A&E one Saturday after my skin broke out in angry blisters. After a four-hour wait, a female doctor looked at my weeping skin and said: ‘Dermatology is not an emergency at weekends.’

As I begged her to help, she barked: ‘You seem very agitated. I think you need to see  a psychiatrist.’

I walked out and went to a  private hospital where, for £100, a doctor diagnosed a nasty form of eczema and put me on steroids.

I vowed then never to go back to St George’s. But when I collapsed in agony one Sunday night in May, my boyfriend had little choice but to call 999…..

Hospitals ‘letting patients die to save money’ - That only can happen in America, right?…Nope! It is in the UK again. The land of the free healthcare and home of the sick no one cares for…. 

Dr Gillian Craig, a retired geriatrician and former vice-chairman of the Medical Ethics Alliance, is one of the six signatories to The Daily Telegraph letter.

“If you are cynical about it, as I am, you can see it as a cost-cutting measure, if you don’t want your beds to be filled with old people,” she said. She advised that those who did not want to be put on the pathway should carry cards made by Dr Rosalind Bearcroft, a consultant psychiatrist from Kent, and another signatory.

83 percent of doctors have considered quitting over Obamacare

Eighty-three percent of American physicians have considered leaving their practices over President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, according to a survey released by the Doctor Patient Medical Association.

The DPMA, a non-partisan association of doctors and patients, surveyed a random selection of 699 doctors nationwide. The survey found that the majority have thought about bailing out of their careers over the legislation, which was upheld last month by the Supreme Court.

Even if doctors do not quit their jobs over the ruling, America will face a shortage of at least 90,000 doctors by 2020. The new health care law increases demand for physicians by expanding insurance coverage. This change will exacerbate the current shortage as more Americans live past 65.

By 2025 the shortage will balloon to over 130,000, Len Marquez, the director of government relations at the American Association of Medical Colleges, told The Daily Caller.

The tax man cometh to police you on health care

The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold most of President Barack Obama’s health care law will come home to roost for most taxpayers in about 2 1/2 years, when they’ll have to start providing proof on their tax returns that they have health insurance.

That scenario puts the Internal Revenue Service at the center of the debate, renewing questions about whether the agency is capable of policing the health care decisions of millions of people in the United States while also collecting the taxes needed to run the federal government.

From WSJ
Updated June 25, 2012, 7:27 p.m. ET

The rules and burdens that explain Europe’s economic crisis.

Prime Minister Mario Monti has issued a new “growth decree” to revive Italy’s moribund economy. Among other initiatives, the 185-page plan proposes discount loans for corporate R&D, tax credits for businesses that hire employees with advanced degrees, and reduced headcount at select government ministries.

Will any of this solve Italy’s economic problems? Only in the sense that one could theoretically drain Lake Como with a ladle and straw. Allow us, then, to illustrate why Italy’s economy stagnates.

Imagine you’re an ambitious Italian entrepreneur, trying to make a go of a new business. You know you will have to pay at least two-thirds of your employees’ social security costs. You also know you’re going to run into problems once you hire your 16th employee, since that will trigger provisions making it either impossible or very expensive to dismiss a staffer.

But there’s so much more. Once you hire employee 11, you must submit an annual self-assessment to the national authorities outlining every possible health and safety hazard to which your employees might be subject. These include stress that is work-related or caused by age, gender and racial differences. You must also note all precautionary and individual measures to prevent risks, procedures to carry them out, the names of employees in charge of safety, as well as the physician whose presence is required for the assessment.

Now say you decide to scale up. Beware again: Once you hire your 16th employee, national unions can set up shop. As your company grows, so does the number of required employee representatives, each of whom is entitled to eight hours of paid leave monthly to fulfill union or works-council duties. Management must consult these worker reps on everything from gender equality to the introduction of new technology.

Hire No. 16 also means that your next recruit must qualify as disabled. By the time your firm hires its 51st worker, 7% of the payroll must be handicapped in some way, or else your company owes fees in-kind. During hard times, your company may apply for exemptions from these quotas—though as with everything in Italy, it’s a toss-up whether it’s worth it after the necessary paperwork.

Once you hire your 101st employee, you must submit a report every two years on the gender dynamics within the company. This must include a tabulation of the men and women employed in each production unit, their functions and level within the company, details of compensation and benefits, and dates and reasons for recruitments, promotions and transfers, as well as the estimated revenue impact.

The system does allow certain exemptions—provided your company stays small, or you hire the right gender or in certain areas. Industrial and security firms are exempt from paying into the national fund for temporary unemployment if they have 15 employees or fewer; retail and tourism companies don’t have to start contributing until they hire their 51st worker; and trade companies are exempt until they hire their 201st employee.

Here’s another loophole you might try to jump through: Businesses currently receive tax credits worth up to €15,200 per year per new permanent-contract hire—that being for new employees who are also women or under the age of 35 and live in the regions of Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Basilicata, Puglia, Calabria, Sardinia and Sicily.

Businesses with no more than 250 employees may also still be enjoying their three-year profit-tax holiday, which was granted in 2010 for small and medium-sized firms that reinvest their profits in forging “networks” for “innovation” with other small businesses nearby.

All of these protections and assurances, along with the bureaucracies that oversee them, subtract 47.6% from the average Italian wage, according to the OECD. Two-thirds of that bite comes before payroll, meaning many Italian workers are unaware of their gross cost to employers.

But you as the employer are aware of them, which may explain the temptation to stay small and keep as much of your business as possible off the books. This gray- and black-market accounts for more than a quarter of the Italian economy. It also helps account for unemployment at a 12-year high of 10%, and GDP forecast to contract 1.3% this year.

Still, who knows: With any luck, you may discover a loophole in Mr. Monti’s new growth decree that will allow you to hire a few more employees without incurring too many costs—provided, one assumes, that all of the new hires are disabled, blue-eyed Sardinians under the age of 35.

U.S., Europe on different paths to same place

… the unsustainable “bubble” is not student debt or subprime mortgages or anything else. The bubble is us, and the assumptions of entitlement. Too many citizens of advanced Western democracies live a life they have not earned, and are not willing to earn.

………………….

Any functioning society is like an orchestra. When the parts don’t fit together, it’s always the other fellow who’s out of tune. So the Greeks will blame the Germans, and vice-versa. But the developed world is all playing the same recessional. In the world after Western prosperity, we will work till we’re older, and we will start younger – and we will despise those who thought they could defy not just the rules of economic gravity but the basic human life cycle.

AIG Chief Sees Retirement Age As High As 80 After Crisis

“Retirement ages will have to move to 70, 80 years old,” Benmosche, who turned 68 last week, said during a weekend interview at his seaside villa in Dubrovnik, Croatia. “That would make pensions, medical services more affordable. They will keep people working longer and will take that burden off of the youth.”

Oakland wrestling with broke pension system

The Police and Fire Retirement System was closed to new employees in 1976 because it was so badly underfunded. There are still 1,086 benefactors in the system, only one of whom still works for the city.

The city approved a special tax to fund the pension system in 1981 that currently costs the average homeowner $419 a year. But when the tax revenue proved insufficient, council members in 1997 voted to issue bonds.

Spain is in ‘total emergency’, the EU in total denial

The cancer has now spread to the vital organs of the EU. Spain is not a peripheral Mediterranean country. It is not an insignificant player in the political project. It is not a marginal going-along-for-the-ride-and-the-free-money passenger on the euro train. Not only is its economy so large as to be indispensable, but its ties with Italy mean that the Italian economy (which is the third largest in the EU) would be fatally compromised by its fall. “Itexit” is almost unpronounceable, so perhaps it’s fortunate that it will never be required: after Spexit, there would be nothing left to exit from.

Spanish bailout would be ‘technically impossible’

Spain declared Tuesday it is being virtually shut out of stormy credit markets but a bailout is technically impossible for the eurozone’s fourth-biggest economy.

Budget Minister Cristobal Montoro said soaring borrowing costs on the bond market were a sign that creditors were closing the door on loans to the sovereign.

France hits back at Obama over Europe debt crisis - LOL. A lot of joy fills my heart when I see politicians blaming each other for their own mistakes…

“The crisis did not start in Europe… Lehman Brothers was not a European bank,” Fabius said after talks with his counterpart Giulio Terzi in Rome.

“We should not shift responsibility. We’re all in the same boat,” he said.

‘Virtual’ GSA employees spent $750,000 on travel over nine months

Ninety-five high-ranking employees at the General Services Administrationwho are assigned to work from home racked up $750,000 in travel expenses over nine months, documents show, prompting concerns from agency officials and a review of the expenses.

GSA handed out $1 million to workers under investigation

The federal General Services Administration has handed out more than $1 million in taxpayer-funded bonuses since 2008 to dozens of employees who were under investigation for misconduct.

The 5th Avenue to Serfdom

Nobody thought about taking away your Big Gulp until the government began to pay for everyone’s health care.

Electric vehicles fall drastically short of Obama’s 1 million goal - How easy is to waste other peoples money…..

Factory Orders In U.S. Unexpectedly Dropped In April 

Orders to U.S. factories unexpectedly fell in April for a second month, pointing to a deceleration in manufacturing as the global economy cools.

FedEx Retires 24 Jets To Cut Costs As U.S. Shipments Fall

FedEx Corp. (FDX) retired 24 jets to cut capacity in the U.S. domestic Express division as a slowing economy saps shipping volumes for the operator of the world’s largest cargo airline.

BIS warns global lending contracting at fastest pace since 2008 Lehman crisis

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said cross-border loans fell by $799bn (£520bn) in the fourth quarter of 2011, led by a broad retreat from Italy, Spain and the eurozone periphery.

Market rumor: Pimco and JP Morgan halt vacations to prepare for economic crash

On June 1, market rumors were coming out of a hedge fund luncheon stating that Pimco, JP Morgan, and other financial companies were cancelling summer vacations for employees so they could prepare for a major ‘Lehman type’ economic crash projected for the coming months.

Dem Senator Tom Carper: ” Lets Not Talk Ourselves Into a Recession. Fundamentals For The Economy Are Actually Quite Good”… - Well, we also can’t talk ourselves out of a recession, can we? It is easy for this guy to say that everything is fine and dandy. He is collecting a SIX FIGURES  SALARY PAID BY US -THE TAXPAYERS. A recession will start for him, when we stop subsidizing his dumb ass to go on TV and tell us, that we are OK…

Goldman Sachs Cuts a Little Deeper - LOL. Economic fundamentals are so “good”, that GS is laying off people …

 Last week’s layoffs are seen as a sign that Goldman is looking further up the food chain for additional cuts after already slashing 8.5 percent of its work force, or 3,000 people, in the last year. In addition it has cut more than $1.4 billion in noncompensation expenses from its operations over the last year or so.

As the Economy Sinks, a Do-Nothing President

Last Friday morning, as the latest terrible jobs report came out, here were the recent contents on the White House website dedicated to the issue of jobs. There was a post on how small businesses can get on the federal grant gravy train. There were four or five posts by West Wing celebrities on how they got their first jobs. And a few hours after the dismal employment report came out, up went a post on…female entrepreneurs.

Interspersed in there was some hand-wringing about the report—“Problems in the job market were long in the making and will not be solved overnight,” wrote Council of Economic Advisors Chair Alan Krueger—but the website conveyed the basic truth about this administration. Not only does the Obama team not have, as it has never had, a plan to deal with the Great Recession; it also has no motivation to take action now in the face of economic stoppage. As the economy sinks into the 1%-growth range, if not recession, we’ve got a do-nothing president. In an election year.

RAHN: Taxation goes global

Distant bureaucrats want your money with little accountability

What government unit has the right to tax you – your local government, regional or state government, federal government or multinational organizations, such as the United Nations, the World Bank and theWorld Health Organization? The reason the question is becoming more important is that rising numbers of politically powerful persons and institutions are calling for global taxes on such things as financial transactions, tobacco, sugar and carbon emissions.

CLINTON IN ARCTIC TO SEE IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE - THE ELITIST ARE LYING TO US AND PUSHING FOR GLOBAL TAXES

Returning from a tour of the Arctic coastline aboard a Norwegian research trawler with scientists and government officials, Clinton told reporters that she learned “many of the predictions about warming in the Arctic are being surpassed by the actual data.”

“That was not necessarily surprising but sobering,” she said.

The United States wants to see that change managed by the Arctic Council, an advisory group composed of the Arctic’s closest neighbours, even as other countries are drawn to the region for oil, gas and trade.

Hillary Caught Lying Again

What Hillary actually encountered in Norway – was record cold and a country getting covered with snow in June.

Swedish ‘summer’ kicks off with June snow - Oh, gee even Norway’s neighbors to the east – Sweden got snow IN JUNE! 

Residents in northern Sweden were forced to grab shovels rather than sun lotion on what was supposed to be the first day of summer, as much of the region was left covered in a thick blanket of snow on Friday.

The ozone hole disappeared over the Arctic - It is written in German. Use Google Translate. 

Good news from the Arctic : The gigantic ozone hole has startled the researchers in the past year, has disappeared. Human conduct, however, was not in the game – the weather is responsible for the healing of the shield. 

1930s photos show Greenland glaciers retreating faster than today - But nobody thought it was a big deal

Recently unearthed photographs taken by Danish explorers in the 1930s show glaciers in Greenland retreating faster than they are today, according to researchers.

After the expedition returned the photographs were used to make maps and charts of the area, then placed in archives in Denmark where they lay forgotten for decades. Then, in recent years, international researchers trying to find information on the history of the Greenland glaciers stumbled across them.

Taken together the pictures show clearly that glaciers in the region were melting even faster in the 1930s than they are today, according to Professor Jason Box, who works at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State uni.

Global warming skeptics as knowledgeable about science as climate change believers, study says 

A study published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change finds that people who are not that worried about the effects of global warming tend to have a slightly higher level of scientific knowledge than those who are worried. As respondents’ science literacy scores increased, their concern with climate change decreased.