Virtually all of the reputable, respected scientists accept the reality of mankind's devastating impact on the environment. The deniers tend to work for the greedy polluters who don't give a damn about anyone or anything except money.

Pollution is real. Man-made global warming is not.

Science itself doesn't give a damn what "reputable, respected scientists" decide to agree on. Their agreement means nothing and as time continues to prove them wrong, their reputations will mean even less.

As for the greed argument, the true polluters are the academic landfills perversely known as US colleges and universities. Yes, the same ones that thrive on trillions of dollars of nondischargeable student loan debt while they credential the incompetent goofballs behind global warming with all sorts degrees to show the world how smart they are.

Without due consideration of philosophy you end up with force when the stress of austerity and change is upon one. This is why Donald Trump is so popular. There are particles of truth in some of the things he says, but partial truths are historically never adequate and always end up blowing back at us. Both Progressives and the Right need to be aware of this, and offer a truly practical and complete philosophical alternative to Trumpism. If they don’t at worse they may end up with the rule of Nixon’s “silent majority”, and at best we’ll get the corporate and financial kabuki theater of Clinton or the well intentioned but incomplete and unworkable reforms of Bernie Sanders. Again, Trumpism is a dark side reflection of the power of hope to move the electorate except it is mere brashness where the clarity of Wisdom and the power of grace/graciousness is what is actually called for. Let us have the complete philosophy that can bring actual functionality to our temporal systems and guide and align policies that can bring true economic hope to the individual.

Recession coming? Hahaha! It feels worse than 2008. Last crash there was a lag from when the recession started and our factory's business slowed down. Now we’re already dead in the water along with the rest of our industry(PVF). Massive government stimulus moved up projects by 10-15 years so there’s nothing left to build now. There’s only one fact in this matter that can’t be disputed. Government is full of morons!

For some reason, establishment economics still use antique measurements of productivity to assess market conditions, GDP for example. Consider this article from a few days ago "EconomySweden holds rates, notes 'somewhat stronger' economy". The Swedish central bank has magnanimously decided not to further change its interest rate from minus 0.35% because the economy outperformed its economist's predictions.

That alone is insanity, but if you were to read the report, you would learn that the 'economic growth' in question was actually a marginal rise in GDP as byproduct of unplanned government spending on the refugee crisis. I kid you not. Any fool could tell you that tent cities packed with young men from the third world are not engines of productive or healthy economic activity and growth. Any fools except those who are actually running the show, apparently.

When nonsense is the underlying thinking, is it any wonder that most of the economic models and advice driving government decision making is increasingly at odds with reality? This is like the Vietnam kill counts all over again; Our political leadership and their sycophantic mandarins proudly report killing 1000 of the enemy whilst only sustaining a loss of 50 of our guys, meanwhile the battle lines move closer and closer to Saigon each passing day.

minus 0.35%? Whoever set that interest rate should be locked up in a padded room!

You always have to give Zell credit for exiting most of his biggest investment - real estate - about the time of the peak during the last decade. Of course, he did go and buy some newspaper afterward - Chicago Tribune, I believe - but even billionaires must want to buy toys once in a while.

Billionaire's like to control the message.

Yeah but nobody really pays attention to newspapers anymore. What message did Zell want to send?

I think he got the Chicago Cubs as part of the Tribune deal, but as you say, a billionaire needs a few toys. Real estate is about timing and he times his exits pretty well. I think he made some good points about currency stability, too.

Jeff Bezos -> Washington Post
Rupert Murdoch -> Wall Street Journal and Fox News
Sam Zell -> Chicago Tribune
Jared Kushner (Donald Trump's son in law) -> New York Observer
Michael Bloomberg -> Bloomberg news and BusinessWeek

Newspaper business is not a profitable business. It leads to profits in other businesses.

Carlos Slim - NY Times

You've got it. If you are super rich, buying a media platform is a method of pushing and normalizing your ideological views. It is not a direct money making enterprise.

O/T: The 'outrageous prediction' of Saxo that oil would reach $100/bbl next year, which Mish reported yesterday, is Market Watch's headline as I write.

Essen!

Zell proves one point ... not all billionaires are complete dopes.

He's certainly a rarity.