As long as we’re talking about monthly periodicals, we might as well offer a comment on one of the maritime magazines we just received. On its editorial page this month was the statement that, “there are signs that the U.S. economy is improving, albeit not as quickly as everyone would like. I’m no economist,” the writer admits, “and I don’t play one on TV, so I’m not going to talk to you about global macroeconomic trends. But the biggest threat to the fragile economic recovery in the U.S. and the global economy is the European debt crisis.

“That’s not just my opinion,” he states, “but also that of a lot of people who are smarter than me, including a recently released UN report, World Economic Situation and prospects 2012. The report says that even if further deepening and spreading of the euro area’s debt crisis can be avoided, ‘economic activity in the European Union is projected to stagnate in 2012. The outlook is not as somber in the United States and Japan, although in both countries output growth continues to be constrained by ongoing deleveraging and policy uncertainty.’ …”

So the “biggest threat to the fragile economic recovery in the U.S.” is not our unemployment crisis after all, it’s “the European debt crisis”. Does he really believe that his readers will buy that?

And “output growth (?) continues to be constrained by deleveraging (?) and policy uncertainty”? Does he really understand what the authors of that UN report are talking about? It’s jibberish. It’s double-talk, and it shouldn’t be seen on an editorial page. Well, at least the editor is accurate when he admits he’s not an economist

But it gets worse. In yesterday’s mail we received an invitation from this same editor to attend the “Global GreenShip 2012 MarineLog Conference & Expo”.

“Dear Marine Professional,’ the letter begins, and the hogwash follows. “The shipping industry is coming under increasing environmental regulatory pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and onboard waste discharges. To comply with these regulations, shipping will need to invest billions in new equipment systems, training and technology. For example, it is estimated that shipping will need to invest $ 34.1 billion over the next decade in ballast water management systems alone …”

Are you getting the picture? The shipping industry is losing its shirt, yet “regulatory pressure” require that billions of dollars must be diverted to the promoters of this latest environmental scam. And the source of those billions of dollars? Guess. It can only come from sheeple like us.

If it’s not one diversion, it’s another. It’s smokescreen after smokescreen. Those who are supposed to be creating jobs for the unemployed are the very ones who brought us those unemployment miseries in the first place They hide their failures behind scams like global warming, climate change, greenhouse gases, CO2 emissions, and the latest – ballast water management.

But they can go to the well just so often.