The violence in Ukraine, during which 75 were killed, nearly 600 injured, is over - for now.  President Viktor Yanukovich, who ordered the crackdown, has agreed to early elections, and to a return to the constitution of 2004, which has a weaker presidency. Yanukovich made the concessions after the widely televised brutality of the crackdown - including snipers shooting down unarmed protesters -- bled away critical political support. * * * * With Ukraine descending into chaos, Venezuela already there, the situation bleak in Afghanistan, bleaker in Syria, Secretary of State John Kerry has his attention focused squarely on...climate change.  It's the "most fearsome" weapon of mass destruction of them all, he said in Jakarta Sunday. * * * * Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell lied to Congress about Benghazi, say Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee.  * * * * President Obama's proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour (from $7.25) would cost half a million jobs by 2016, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday (2/18). The White House and prominent Democrats responded to the CBO report as you might imagine.  Even NBC's Chuck Todd says the White House response was "petty." * * * * In what the Detroit Free Press called a "devastating defeat" for the United Auto Workers, workers at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee voted against union representation, 712-626. Volkswagen management was officially neutral, in practice sorta kinda supportive of the union organizing effort. The liberals at In These Times asked: How could the UAW lose an unopposed campaign? Michael Barone, the Labor Union Report and National Review's John Fund provide answers. * * * * Slow Joe Biden signaled this week Obamacare signup numbers will fall well short of predictions.   To boost the numbers, the Obamunists are pursuing the uninsured the way they did lofo voters in Broward County, Florida, but aren't having much success.  Slightly less than one percent of those contacted have signed up. * * * * Common Core is now so unpopular, even liberals are dumping on it.

"Beware the Ides of March," the soothsayer warned in Shakespeare's play "Julius Caesar." A Roman religious holiday, the Ides (15th) of March was the day on which Roman consuls assumed office -- and the day Caesar was assassinated. For the United States, and the world economy, the Ides will be around March 4, Grady Means predicted in October of 2012. Mr. Means isn't a doomsayer who's predicted 11 of the last two recessions.  He isn't trying to sell gold, silver, or freeze-dried food.  He was Managing Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an assistant to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, wrote well regarded books on international finance. And he isn't alone.  The decline in manufacturing orders in January was the steepest in more than 30 years, the latest evidence the U.S. economy is "exhausted," said David Goldman, who headed bond research at the Bank of America. A little nudge could push it into recession. Obamacare could provide that nudge -- in March.  Here's why.

All of us think about what's going to happen in the future.  The more accurately we can estimate what is likely to happen, the more effective we can be in navigating the course ahead. There is a downside, however. Since we can anticipate what may happen in the future, this also allows us to worry about the future. And we tend to give our imaginations more credit than they deserve. Anticipating events to come so that we can take effective action is invaluable. But worry is a different animal; worry is what we do when we don't know what to do, when we don't have enough information, or when events are outside of our control.  Here's how to worry more effectively.

Among the general public, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and their lesser known younger sibling, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), have reputations far exceeding their actual achievements. The OECD was originally set up as an organization to promote trade among the developed countries and to build statistical databases. It has now morphed into an organization whose principal goal appears to be the collection of more taxes for its member governments. Last week, Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the OECD, said it was the "duty" of international companies to stop employing tax-reduction strategies -- aiming some of his comments directly at Apple and Google. Mr. Gurria seems to think the purpose of business is to pay taxes. Not so. The purpose of a business is...

I don't think it's hard to understand Obama's foreign policy.  Although there's a lot we don't know about him, his basic impulses are clear enough.  He's told us what they are (although, to be sure, he often misleads and obfuscates), and his actions are in keeping with his announced impulses.  Furthermore, there's nothing unique or surprising about them - you can hear them in our classrooms and our college dorms, and read them in the establishment press every day.  He's an establishment member in high standing. Voilá: He believes that most of the serious problems in the world are the result of past American actions.  Call it imperialism.  Call it meddling.  Call it arrogance (as the Iranians do).  Whatever you call it, it means that pre-Obama policies were bad. Ergo, it's mostly Bush's fault. (Shorthand for "before me, they didn't understand.  Anything.")  It follows that the single most important action to ensure good policies is...

The big news this week was the announcement by our caudillo-in-chief that for the 27th time, he's going to make a unilateral change in Obamacare.  This is both outrageous and amusing. * * * * Firms must certify to the IRS that ObamaCare was not and is not a factor in their staffing decisions, even though it is obvious that many employers of economic necessity are trimming staff and reducing hours due to the burden of ObamaCare's mandates.  Call this Omertacare, says Jim Taranto of the Wall Street Journal. * * * * It was jump the shark week for Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis, who told the Dallas Morning News Tuesday that hey, maybe she could support a ban on abortions after 20 weeks.  * * * * The director of the Obamacare health exchange in Colorado has been placed on administrative leave after she pled guilty in a U.S. District Court in Montana Feb. 6 to eight counts of theft and fraud from a nonprofit housing agency in Billings. * * * * Guess what CBS blames for the cold spell we've been having. * * * * The hero of the week is is Billy Heroman of Heroman's Flowers in Louisiana who says - the IRS be damned - he's cutting jobs because of Obamacare.