Adelson tells all, or at least some of it

When you're one of the richest  guys in America, you don't have to be asked twice to share your views with the Wall Street Journal.  As a record contributor to Republican candidates against
President Obama,  here we have multi-multi-billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson  stepping up to explain why he's a former Democrat who has staunchly supported the Republican team.

You may recall that it was Newt Gingrich, alas, the lone GOP candidate to promise that he would build  a permanent base on the moon, who got a political life preserver stuffed with $20 million from Adelson before  Newt, for all of his dreamy chutzpah,  landed on the dark side of the lunar landscape.  That was when Adelson switched his allegiance to Romney, with the explanation that he didn't leave the Democratic Party but rather, it left him.  Nice try, for a guy whose fortunes are amply inflated by his investments in Macau, his Chinese  Mecca for high rollers. (I keep waiting for a poor crossroads preacher to buck the uber wealthy class and stand up to  say that  Obama is a nice guy.)

Adelson,  a devoted advocate of Israel, said he doesn't trust Obama to defend that nation  and doesn't mind saying so. . On domestic matters,  he is not thrilled with unions, either,  and is said to own the only non-union casino in Vegas.   On that score, when he says he no longer shares Democrats' values, I'd say good for them.

Memo to Kasich: an ailing Sears closing stores

WE RECENTLY NOTED in this space that there could be a positive side to Sears' rejection of a $400 million tax break offered by Gov. Kasich to lure the ailing company away from Illinois. We wouldn't end up with a lemon.

The report of the company's growing distress in today's Wall Street Journal confirmed the point: Sears plans to close upward of 120 stores and make other changes to cut its losses. Its stock has plunged 46 pct. the past year.

The WSJ quotes Credit Suisse retail analyst Gary Balter predicting the problems will only get worse:

"It begins and , some would argue, ends with Sears' reluctance to invest in stores and service, effectively asking customers to pay for a poorer shopping environment than available at competitors and on line. We do not see how that will turn around."

Much of the Sears story has been known in the retail world for a long time - as well as in the Ohio governor's office. So shouldn't we also assume that Kasich's feathery $400 million offer was hardly more than grandstanding? It is, after all, the Kasich brand.

As the Tea Party goes, so goes (down) Boehner

OH FOR Santa's sake! Let's stop picking on John Boehner, the cipher who is otherwise known as the House Speaker. It isn't enough that he's lost control of the Tea Party- controlled House Republicans. Or that he has to contend with the persistent Cheshire cat smile of Eric Cantor, who figures to replace him. Or that he is being accused of being the grinch that stole Christmas from the middle class by bucking the two-month tax cut extension that most of the Republican senators supported. Or that he sobs a lot .

No. We now see the conservative Wall Street Journal accusing the House Republicans of "thoroughly botched politics" while fiendishly noting that President Obama is in a "stronger re-election position today than he was a year ago." As Seinfeld's Kramer would shudder, "Whoa,Mama". (Even John McCain said he fully agreed with WSJ)

Obviously it is taking a toll on Boehner. When Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer tried to forced an up-or-down voted on the tax cut extention, the C-SPAN live TV coverage was cut off, an obvious move by Boehner, who has control over the House TV cameras. The message: Boehner has not only lost control of the House, he's lost control of himself.

Obsessing the Recession

I'M NOT sure when I first learned that two plus two equaled four,  but it has somehow stuck with me for many years.  But not being a disciple of  Pythagoras, I continue to have problems with simple numbers as well as explanations of why numbers are  so important in defining an economic recession.  It seems ages ago when the gurus who  inspect such events began to wonder when, if ever, the U.S would finally sink into a recession, as if everyone who had lost a job along the way didn't already know.  Forever in denial, the experts cautiously inched backward with such descriptions as downturn, economic  stagnation, slowdown, contraction   and  slump.  But recession?  Well the GDP and the real GDP, it says here,  have declined .3 and .8 pct.  respectively.   And real personal consumption is down .04 pct.  You could have fooled me.  

Alas, the euphemistic days are over.  Now the talk is about when did the recession actually begin! Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Robert Hall, Stanford professor and chairman of the National Bureau of Economic Research Committee,  says there is a chance we can finally know the answer. He says:  "...the severity of the credit crunch could be enough for some committee members to make a recession conclusion as early s next month."   

Good.  I hope that such clarity  comes in time for Christmas shopping.   With the semantics of the country's recessive economic ills out of the way, it's time to head back to the shopping malls, just as George Bush once urged all Americans to do as his earlier remedy for a, um, downturn. Meantime,  the Fed has cut prime interest rates another .5 pct. to jump start the economy.  With the rate now shaved to a mere 1 pct., without any discernible help for the economy in the wake of all previous cuts, I wouldn't be surprised if the future cuts will be in eighths to give the Fed experts more room to convince the public that it is indeed trying to help us out of this mess.    Don't know that even that will work.  In fact until we know when the recession began, I'm not even sure that two and two are still four.