Morning Journal--War making for losers

Economics

   This Week’s Data

            Weekly jobless claims fell 27,000 versus expectations 0.

            http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2012/12/weekly-initial-unemployment-claims_13.html

            The November producer p[rice index dropped 0.8% versus estimates of a 0.5% decline; ex food and energy, it rose 0.1% versus forecasts of +0.2%.

            November retail sales were up 0.3% versus an anticipated increase of 0.6%.

   Other

            CBO releases Sandy damage estimate: $60 billion (medium):

            http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-12/cbo-releases-sandy-damage-estimate-604-billion-it-would-send-us-over-debt-ceiling

Politics

  Domestic

Victor Hanson’s post election thoughts (medium):

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/335286/ripples-election-victor-davis-hanson

            Taxing the poor (medium):

            http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/12/12/taxing_the_poor

  International

            War making for losers (short):

            http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/335437/war-making-losers-mark-steyn#

            Tensions mount between China and Japan (medium):

            http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-13/japan-scrambles-eight-f-15-jets-chinese-airplane-enters-disputed-island-airspace