Speaker of the House Boehner Says No to Tax Increases to Reduce Deficit, Mr. Obama Needs to Channel Former British Prime Minister Brown, Swiss Bank UBS Has a $2 billion Problem,

 And Other News of the Day 

The Deficit Reduction Commission became the Spending Reduction Commission after House Speaker John Boehner said no to any tax increases.  This was a surprise only to one Adlink Novarian who had been living in Antarctica for the past 11 years. The Speaker did press for tax reform which was revenue neutral, meaning lower taxes for wealthy people would be offset by higher taxes on low and middle income taxpayers.



Britsh PM Gordon Brown's Temper
Can Some Erupt onto Mr. Obama?



Gordon Brown, who succeed Tony Blair as Prime Minister in England is the subject of a new book by one of his cabinet members.  The book reports on Mr. Brown’s temper,

Appalling”, “volcanic” and “brutal” are some of the adjectives Darling uses to describe Brown’s temper.

Democrats are wondering if Mr. Obama could borrow some of this temperament, not all of it, but just enough to get things done, or to be seen as committed to getting things done.

Remember how banks are saying they don’t need more regulation, that they can take care of their own business.  Well UBS just had a rather bad experience.

UBS said on Thursday that a rogue trader in its investment bank had lost $2 billion, delivering a fresh blow to the beleaguered Swiss bank.

The new impetus in bank regulation has been on the trading activities that large banks do for their own account.  Banks have said they are on top of things but

The case could also bolster the efforts of regulators who have been pushing in some countries to separate trading from private banking and other less risky businesses.

Of course, if politicians will not put new, stronger regulations in place they can always go back to the old system where bankers lose billions, get bailed out by taxpayers and get to keep their jobs and their great salaries and bonuses.  That’s worked well in the past.

Gail Collins of the New York Times Editorial section has this to say about Michelle Bachmann,

As we’ve all learned, Bachmann’s strong points are her passion and determination, while her weak ones include a rather free-floating relationship with reality.

Thus showing how a real, professional journalist can say in one sentence what the rest of us take several paragraphs to present.

Some private colleges and a few public ones are offering a four year guarantee.  If a student doesn’t graduate in four years, the college will pay for the fifth year’s tuition.  The catch, the delay has to be the college’s fault

most promise to pay only if the extra year is the result of a problem they caused — a required class not offered when the student needs it, for example.

An unnamed college official advised students counting on the school paying that fifth year to also participate in the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes.  Students were told that they have a higher chance of winning the grand prize than ever getting a school to find that it was the school’s fault that the student did not graduate in four years. 

A lost cat was recently found.  Why this is news, the cat was lost in Colorado and turned up five years later in New York City.  The cat was rescued in New York and its owners identified by a micro chip that was inserted in the cat.  The owner was overjoyed and in a burst of understandable hyperbole said



Cat with microchip urges same
for children



“All our pets are microchipped,” Ms. Squires said. “If I could microchip my kids, I would.”



Upon hearing the news Michelle Bachmann immediately denounced goavernment programs requiring parents to insert microchips in their children against their will, Ron Paul said the program of putting microchips in children would lead to government control of everybody all the time and Rick Perry asked who made the microchips and did they make political contributions.