Breakfast Links

I am on Fox Business at 8:30 Central time this morning.

Obama gave a very “Bush” like speech last night to defend his reasons for going into Libya.  To be honest, I am less clear now about our military strategy than I was before.  It seems like the West is relying on the Libyan rebels to be good enough fighters to take and control territory, while they lob cruise missiles and keep the Libyan Air Force grounded. War is never pretty.  The most perfect plans always go awry.  Gaddhafi isn’t just going to walk away from 40 years of rule. If the reasons for Libya are to protect innocent people from slaughter, why aren’t we in Syria?  Assad is a terrorist dictator too.

A nuclear expert explains the plutonium situation in Japan. I think it’s tough to read headlines, every headline with the word nuclear sounds sensationalist to me. It’s very important to get good information on this, and rationally consider it.

Fears of the super rich.

The center-right is under attack in Europe.  Merkel, Sarkozy and Berlusconi all under pressure.  Sarkozy and Merkel because they are seeking to begin to dismantle the socialist safety nets.  When people are getting something for free, try taking it away from them.  Berlusconi thought he was Caligula.

I keep seeing articles on rising anti-semitism.  In certain parts of Europe, it is unsafe to be Jewish and walk down the street. Alan Dershowitz writes about his experience in Norway.  I am not afraid of another Holocaust, but it just is something to be aware of.  The whole thing boils down to a Palestine-Israel thing.

Nobel Prize winner Michael Spence thinks that HFT ought to be banned.

I don’t necessarily agree with him, but we ought to end payment for order flow, internalization, and dual trading. Then see how the market acts, if the bid/ask is bigger and if it’s less volatile. It still might be simply because it’s a machine market, not a human market.

Americans are not worried about global warming. But they are worried about their water. Look for environmentalists to switch the debate just to get the toxic global warming regulation they want.

With all that is going on, it’s interesting to look at Obama’s approval rating. Nate Silver hypothesized he would get a bump from Libya. Has he? Here is a link to a compilation. It looks like he got a bump from people surveyed by Fox News. You would expect the people surveyed by CNN and CBS to give him the traditional bump. Traditional pollsters have him trending down.

Which Final Four Team has the best coach?

Read more at Points and Figures