Tuesday Morning News, Links, And Views -- Part III

For the life of me, Microsoft buying most of Nokia makes no sense. Except for Nokia. Thank goodness for them, a white knight came riding by. Meanwhile, Apple knows what it is doing: it's iPhone fingerprint reader means government contracts. [Later: ah, here it is, why Microsoft "HAD" to buy Nokia -- Nokia was getting ready to quit selling Microsoft phones. Wow. Microsoft is now in the phone business making its own phones, just like iPhone, I guess.] This graph about says it all.

WSJ Links

Crude oil supported by encouraging data coming out of China. 

Crude oil turned positive and gold pared overnight losses in London on Monday as encouraging economic data from China provided a tailwind for prices. 

Long-term jobless left out of the recovery. 

More than four years after the recession officially ended, 11.5 million Americans are unemployed, many of them for years. Millions more have abandoned their job searches, hiding from the economic storm in school or turning to government programs for support. A growing body of economic research suggests that the longer they remain on the sidelines, the less likely they will be to work again; for many, it may already be too late.

By most conventional measures, the U.S. economy is healing, albeit slowly. Gross domestic product grew at a 2.5% rate in the second quarter of the year, the government said last week, the best pace since last fall. Payroll figures, due Friday, will likely show that hiring held steady in August. The housing market is rebounding, corporate profits are strong, and households are repairing their balance sheets.

Op-ed: the politics of the Obama  delay on Syria. 

The most telling line in President Obama's Saturday Syria address came near the end, when he (once again) lectured Congress about its duty to rise above "partisan differences or the politics of the moment." Having put America's global credibility at risk, Mr. Obama defaulted to the same political cynicism that has defined his presidency.
The commander in chief is in a box. His desperation to avoid military entanglement in Syria last year—in the run-up to the presidential election—inspired Mr. Obama to fumble out his "red line" warning to Bashar Assad on chemical-weapons use. The statement was a green light to the dictator to commit every atrocity up to that line and—when he received no pushback—to cross it.

Now trapped by his own declaration, Mr. Obama is reverting to the same strategy he has used in countless domestic brawls—that is, to lay responsibility for any action, or failure of action, on Congress. The decision was made easier by the fact that Congress itself was demanding a say. 

The writer provides a number of political aspects to the president's decision and finishes with what I think will be most fun to watch (Nancy Pelosi):

Finally, Mr. Obama is betting that the GOP rift will divert attention from the most pertinent aspect of this debate: the extent to which his own party abandons him. The president's withdrawal from the world stage—his exit from Afghanistan and Iraq, in particular—has nurtured the Democratic Party's worst instincts and left it even more resistant to a call for military action. Mr. Obama is counting on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to corral votes for him, but the liberal Democratic wing is not a sure bet.