I didn't bother watching the press conference because I don't care if Obama said "Special Olympics" on Leno or did a first class impersonation of Nero and Marie Antoinette's love child on 60 Minutes. I don't care what his approval rating is. I'll deal with that sh*t when it's time to be betting.

Right now, the world is on the threshold of finding out what the thing they most feared (no, not terrorism) is like to live with.

China wants to hedge off a lot of its dollar risk by switching the backing of the home-and-away currencies from the USD to the SDR basket, which is presently majority USD at 60%. As bad a gutpunch as that is and as big a recipe for recess-flation in Big Sammy it is, one has to give honor points to China for doing it this way, and helping its sister dictatorship, Big Sammy, deal with it in parts rather than lowering the boom.

The SDR doesn't technically have to be composed of any particularly specfied currency in any particularly specified proportion, though the IMF might argue that point with me. It is supposed to be a voluntary thing.

I'd like hang the big SDR pinata from the mighty elm tree and invite Ser Carl and Ser Gabby to join me in guessing scenarios as to how an SDR, backing Chinese money and being the new world reserve currency replacing the USD, should be composed and how it's likely to be composed.

As weird as it sounds, on dead reckoning, I'd say the x-variable 1% greater or fewer Romanian Leu in the SDR basket roughly means something like Manhattan, Kansas, yes having food and water riots or no, not having food or water riots.

I guess that's why they call this The Dismal Science. I just know that when every yapping mouth on US TV is telling me that "inflation is the last thing Obama has to worry about" is the time I start looking for those inflationary smoke signals. But that's why I'm me and Ali Velshi is Ali Velshi, of course.



El Espiritu De La Escalera

It seems like fire ants at the picnic again today, but I want everyone thinking cozy Chevy Van for when it rains, not fire ants.

Nevertheless, I am giving myself 4-bells for having predicted that NOBODY else would be getting out of GITMO anytime soon because 99% of the inmates have a legit war crimes claim against the US in any number of European courts. After making the prediction on the radio show I noticed AP articles suggesting Obama having "second thoughts" on the subject of closure or further release because, well, you know, we have to keep an eye on those terrorists.

First guy he did let out made a beeline for UK Crown Court and filed war crimes charges. What do you reckon the rest of them would do?



IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST?

I've been called upon to guest blog in place of a dear friend from college who has to abandon her post for the day to do some investigation for a free-lance feature.

Her politics are about identical to my own, but she's a Brooklyn Jewyorinquena (actually, this is her favorite compliment; she's a shiksa but PASSED her entire life owing to a German surname, dark complexion and hair and kind of Angelina Jolie vibe) from St Ann's. She does cool feature pieces on stuff like Vietnamese-American gang culture in Westminster, CA. She has exposed one of the famous literary frauds of recent vintage. Real, real sharp woman.

She lives in the Pacific Northwest now. That connects her tangentially in blogging to the Reason libertarian thing, as opposed to more of what would be a roots gaff. They don't have any Carl Rosen acolytes out there and I surely don't want to encounter any of the grandchildren of Aaron U. Jones. Then again, maybe I do.

My sense is that she gets a lot of the libertarian shut-in types with Soldier Of Fortune subscriptions for whom she's Venus. I have no experience blogging in that environment but it won't have the Margarent Mead feel if I'm just in a libertarian echo chamber going on about drug laws and inflation. I WANT WINGNUTS TO COMMENT THERE SO I CAN LET THE FREAK FLAG FLY!

I'll file my report forthwith.

Kelso's Nuts love you