Egyptian unrest!

Photo by AP....

There is so much happening in the world that it is hard to know where to begin!

Egypt has all but exploded into revolution but I do not think it will go that far. Maburak, "President" since 1981, is not going to step down but I don't see him running again when his 5,000th term is up in October. Plus he is getting up there in years.....he is 82 this year so October is the perfect way out for him. He has all ready lined up a successor, a young 74 year old whippersnapper named Omar Moussa.

Moussa is the chief spy for Egypt and hardly what anyone will call a liberal. Will he change Egypt's authoritarian "democracy". He might. Because if he does not, several thousand angry citizens out on the streets of Cairo will.

By the way America...are you watching? I hope you are taking notes. We might have to do this to get control of our increasing totlalitarian government.....

A lot of people fear this is a rerun of Iran in 1979. I can see the parrallels but I do not think the Egyptian Army is going to allow the Moslem Brotherhood to take over the country. Plus the fanatical Brotherhood is not as poplular as people think. Why would you replace one dicatorship with another?

The Suez Canal is in no danger. Any danger to it exists in the mind of the typically unscruploous oil speculators who try to ramp up the price of oil on any rumor. There was a $3. 82 spike in oil yesterday but half of that was lost today in the market.

The danger is having this unrest spread to other Arab countries (not one is a democracy) who do not have a government strong enough to ride out a storm. Ordinarily, that would be a good thing but unfortunatley in the Middle East, dictators follow dictators.

Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State commented on the unrest with the usual Solemn Statement, "Egypt must make the transition to democracy." Sounds a little hollow coming from a government that forces its citizens to be strip searched in airports, attempts to force people who can't afford health insurance to buy it under penalty of law and had no problem shoveling money to Mubarak over the last thirty years.

What's next? Budgetary adivce and how to tame a deficit?