-By Thomas E. Brewton
How will the Fed handle it?
The Wall Street Journal reports (U.S. to Ratchet Up Borrowing, July 31, 2008):
With this fiscal year’s budget deficit expected to more than double from the previous year, the U.S. government plans to nearly quadruple its borrowing to $555 billion.
The Federal Reserve’s dilemma is that opening the money-supply spigot enough to provide funds for banks and other institutional investors to buy the $555 billion of new Treasury debt will contribute further to the inflation already under way.
Continue reading “Inflation and the Burgeoning Deficit”
The Washington Post’s 
Have you noticed that the old media standby story of the homeless has not been pursued much in the last four or five years? Some may remember how the media constantly bemoaned the state of the homeless during the Reagan and H.W. Bush years in office, and how the media constantly used this tale as a club with which to beat those two Republican presidents over the head. Folks like Rush Limbaugh, I recall, noticed how this standard media go-to story disappeared once Clinton became president and postulated that it would fast return once G.W.Bush took the Oval Office. But, the homeless has not made much of a media come back. In fact, that meme has virtually evaporated as a major media focal point. And there is a reason for that. Under the Bush administration, homelessness has actually 
Apparently, CNN decided that they didn’t have enough video of rioting in their recent story on unrest in Belgrade, Serbia, so they decided to add in footage of rioting in Budapest to sexy up the story. I have to say, if the Kosovars intend to make the cut with CNN in the future, they’d better start rioting to the satisfaction of CNN’s video editors. Either that, or CNN can start showing us all some truthful video with their stories. Whatever the case, CNN’s misstep doesn’t just make them look bad, it makes all Americans look bad.
Barack Obama is again unfairly throwing out the race card at an opponent. This week Obama was warning that his Republican opponents will assault him with racist attacks, but is dropping this warning even though no one has yet done so. On July 30th, 
The Associated Press injected an editorial comment into the news… again. A few days ago, the AP issued a piece headlined 
Yes, there are two Americas. The one where John Edwards used to have a scholarship program that he intended to set up as an example for all of America to follow… and the one where he cancels that scholarship program. Is it because he isn’t running for president any more? Since Edwards has other things to do now — like hiding from the media in his mistresses’ house and maybe getting a few $400 haircuts — 
Most haughty Europeans look down their nose at we “violent Americans.” They sniff the air at the ugly American and assume that they are, one and all, more “civilized” than we gauche colonials. Look at all the gun violence in America, they say. They tsk. tsk us for the deaths by gun. Certainly they are better than we?
Starting off with the often ridiculed 1998 hyperbole from writer Toni Morrison who decided that Bill Clinton was the nation’s first black president, “Asian Pop” writer,
The Chicago Tribune 
How many Germans would vote for Barack Obama for our president? CNN claims to know. During the last weekend that Barack Obama was in Germany, CNN used a graphic on the Wolf Blitzer show that claimed that 72% of Germans preferred Obama with only a mere 11% who favored John McCain. Of course, CNN didn’t think it relevant to mention that 
In a follow up report to our