Global Stock Slide, The Graceful Jimmy Carter
Friday, August 21, 2015
Vol. 4, No. 233
The China Syndrome: Stock prices around the world are sliding on worries about the Chinese economy. China’s main index dropped 4.3 percent today. Yesterday the Dow Jones dove 350 points. Investors are worried that emerging markets in China, Brazil, and Russia are sputtering. Falling oil prices are contributing to the trouble.
Drumbeats: North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has ordered his troops on a war footing after his forces traded artillery fire with the South. Kim is irritated by 11 giant arrays of loudspeakers the South is using to broadcast propaganda to the North and is threatening to destroy the sites. While North Korea has made plenty of threats over the years, the language is a little firmer this time.
Drachma Drama: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who led his country’s clash with the European Union over Greek debt, announced he’s quitting and calling for new elections. Tsipras was elected only in January but has lost support for accepting tough austerity conditions in exchange for a financial bailout. Greece received the first $14.5 billion yesterday.
Nation: Cheerfully and gracefully, former President Jimmy Carter told reporters yesterday that the skin cancer removed from his liver has spread to his brain. “I’ve had a wonderful life. I have thousands of friends,” he said. The 90-year-old Carter said he would undergo treatment, including radiation, but also that he is content and ready to accept what happens. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” Carter said at the Carter Center in Atlanta. “I do have a deep religious faith, which I’m very grateful for.”
The Biz Page: Sprout, the company that developed the just-approved sexual desire pill for women, has been snapped up for $1 billion by Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The drug’s first side effect is to increase the desire for profits.
Trumped: The Washington Post reports that the field of Republican Presidential candidates is stumped about how to deal with frontrunner Donald Trump. Despite saying things and declaring plans that would sink most politicians, Trump seems to be bullet proof. “No one has figured out how to handle Trump,” said New Jersey’s Republican governor Thomas H. Kean Sr. “Everyone underestimated him terribly from Day One. But as someone who knows him and knew his father — the whole family — I can assure you, that was a mistake.”
Some candidates are sidling toward Trump, others condemning him. But calling Trump a “cancer on conservatism” didn’t help Rick Perry and trying to be Mr. Reasonable has done nothing for Jeb Bush. One political operative said only the candidates with no hope of winning can spout what they really think while the others hoping to steal Trump supporters have to watch what they say.
Praise Jesus: While as many as 37 million people registered with the Ashley Madison adultery website are waiting to hear from their spouses and employers after a massive data breach, former Christian reality show star Josh Duggar has fessed up. “I have been the biggest hypocrite ever,” Duggar said. “While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the Internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife.”
In his Ashley Madison profile Duggar listed some of his personal peccadilloes, which we won’t get into, but we will say he’s interested in travel and photography!
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