Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

�

Click here for the Secret Decoder Ring to this issue!

Become a
Paid Mullings Subscriber!

(To join the FREE mailing list or to unsubscribe Click Here

Lumos!

Rich Galen

Friday July 15, 2005

Click here for an Easy Print Version

From The National Roofing Contractors Association
Chicago, Illinois

Lumos - A charm designed to generate a stream of light directly from the end of the wand held by a wizard. The light is turned off by use of the counter-charm, "Nox!"

The sixth in the Harry Potter series is available for purchase beginning at midnight tonight where I would happily line up pretending to be buying a copy for my grandchild if (a) I had a grandchild, and (b) if there were a spell strong enough to get me to stay up that late, and (c) they were selling them at my house.

The US Publisher, Scholastic, has printed and shipped about 10.8 MILLION copies, the vast majority of which are expected to be sold in the ensuing 24 hours which is, as luck would have it, exactly 10,800,000 more books than I have sold. Total.

In Great Britain, analysts (Muggle analysts, we suspect) are predicting two million copies will be sold there on Saturday alone.

With that in mind, I closed my short hit on Fox yesterday morning against former Senator John Breaux (D-LA) with the following: Who do you think will be bigger news this weekend: Karl Rove or Harry Potter?

Which was a clever line, but got me thinking about all the other things going on which, are being under reported, if they are showing up at all, and on which some light should be shed.

So, Lumos!

On the economic front, the Financial Times led its webpage yesterday with these three stories:

"Lower Energy Prices Damp Down US Inflation"
"US Tax Figures Show Sharp Fall in Deficit"
"Bernanke [Chairman of the WH Council of Economic Advisors] Upbeat on Outlook for US Economy"

What? There's good economic news? And steady inflation? And a drop in the deficit?

Surely, if Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Dudley Dursley Dean, knew about the US economy continuing to tick along at a 3.4% growth rate (which is ten times the 0.3 percent growth rate now projected in the Euro Zone (France, Italy & Germany) for the remainder of the year, he would be apologizing for his claims that the US is headed off in the wrong direction.

Certainly, if New York Senator Severus Schumer had been made aware of the drop in the budget deficit of $94 Billion had been attributed to, according to the Houston Chronicle, a "14 percent spike in tax receipts," he would be a champion of not allowing the cuts to expire next year.

Quoting Kevin Hassett, an economist at the American Enterprise Institute, the Chronicle's Jessica Holzer wrote, "tax relief has sparked a 'productivity-driven growth cycle' caused by a surge in business investment."

Obviously, if Massachusetts Senator Gilderoy Lockhart Kennedy had been briefed by his staff on the Financial Times report that the core inflation rate is "hovering at around 0.2 percent;" that "retail sales in June rose 1.7 per cent - a larger-than-expected jump," and that "there have so far been no convincing signs that consumer spending is slowing in the US," he would be orating, this very day, in the US Senate congratulating the Administration for pursuing sound economic policies.

In addition, new figures show the unemployment rate in the US, according to Reuters, dropped to about five percent, "to its lowest since September '01." That number is less than half the unemployment rate in France which, according to Bloomberg, stood at "10.2 percent in May," under the careful guidance of French President Dobby-the-House-Elf Chirac.

So, as you're ferrying your kids and their copies of J. K. Rowling's 670+ page book around this weekend, keep in mind that there is more good news than The Daily Prophet and the other main stream media may be willing to put before you.

Nox!

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A decode of the Harry Potter names; a link to the Financial Times articles; a very excellent Mullfoto and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

Current Issue | Secret Decoder Ring | Past Issues | Email Rich | Rich Who?