Scientists have reported the discovery of the oldest black hole in the universe which developed 470,000,000 years after the big bang making it about 132 billion years old. When you get to those numbers, a few hundred million, or even a few billion seems inconsequential. What will this tell us? It will give us more insight into the development of the universe, which adds to our growing knowledge base, and may well lead to other types of scientific discoveries. At worst, it’s incredibly interesting.
WeWork filed for bankruptcy as a result of declining use of office space throughout major cities in the US. For landlords, this is very significant because WeWork will likely be allowed to walk away from some of its leases further exacerbating the economic stress on big city landlords.
Trump, while serving food to soldiers and police, complained there was nothing left for him. Seems to me, it doesn’t look like he needs a meal.
There is proof in the trees that the Vikings came to North America 500 years before Columbus. The importation of native Canadian tree species to Greenland provides the proof. Apparently, the seeds can’t swim that far. By the way, St. Brendan, an Irish monk, was here 300 years before the Vikings.
Inflation eased showing prices are 3.2% down over the year ending in October. That is down from 3.7%, in September. This was a good trend and it should cause the Fed to pause and not push interest rates higher. We also saw something of a decline in 30-year mortgage rates over the last several weeks, also a good sign for the economy, as well as home buyers and sellers.
The house on November 14th passed a plan to avert a shutdown in a bipartisan move, although a substantial number of Republicans voted against it and Mr. Johnson, (he voted against the last one,) had to rely on Democrats for passage. This is a further demonstration of Republican hypocrisy. The Senate passed the bill on a bipartisan basis, 87 to 11. There is much irony in this process as, of course, Mr. McCarthy was ousted for a similar outcome, and an even more conservative speaker seems to be able to survive using a similar playbook to Mr. McCarthy. We will see how long this honeymoon lasts, as I do not believe Mr. Johnson has the experience to work his way through this process for multiple serious votes.
There are reports that seniors are choosing pot over pills. In fact, they are the fastest growing user group. This seems like a splendid idea. Less side effects, and brings joy along as well.
The Biden administration is slightly changing its tone relative to Israel at Gaza, and is stepping up its warnings to Israel about the mounting innocent civilian casualties in Gaza. The Israelis need to demonstrate to the world that the Al-Shifa hospital did, in fact, have a tunnel system underneath it that was protecting Hamas, if that turns out not to be true that is going to be very problematic, and certainly will cast further aspersions on the Israelis Security Service and IDF. Mr. Netanyahu could have a George Bush II breakdown when the US went forward in Iraq based upon the presence of weapons of mass destruction, and then we couldn’t find any.
The cease-fire has held, and prisoners exchanged, all of which is good for everyone involved. Brian Mann reported from the West Bank that the released prisoners were met by throngs shouting anti-Israeli slogans. As I noted recently, Israel may not be eliminating Hamas but rather growing a new generation of terrorists. Qatar played an important role, hopefully the Arab world will develop a Marshall plan to rebuild Gaza and create a thriving economy.
Does the U.S. Air Force have a new spy plane? According to Skunk Works it does. The pictures are futuristic, apparently heralding in a new technology for reconnaissance, -spying- since the Mach 3 SR-71 Blackbird.
Bill Owens is a former member of Congress representing the New York 21st, a partner in Stafford, Owens, Piller, Murnane, Kelleher and Trombley in Plattsburgh, NY and a Strategic Advisor at Dentons to Washington, DC.
The views expressed by commentators are solely those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views of this station or its management.