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Entry #15
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AceKicka's Blog
- AceKicka's Blog has 15 entries and has been viewed 19,755 times.
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"The America We Knew Has Died"
Doug Casey: America Has Died
Wednesday, July 29, 2009 4:00 PM
As the Obama administration has taken over the car industry, the banking industry, and the insurance industry, some experts now believe that American style capitalism is dead. Doug Casey, a free market capitalist and founder and chairman of Casey Research, is one of them.
“Unfortunately, the idea of America has died and it’s been replaced by another political entity called the United States, which in essence is no different from the 200 other countries spread across the globe,” he says.
In an exclusive interview with Dan Mangru of Newsmax TV and Moneynews.com, Casey tells why he sees American capitalism on the decline and why other countries such as China will eclipse the United States.
"The average entrepreneur in China has a lot more freedom than the average entrepreneur does in the United States. He pays a lot less taxes ... he's got a lot less regulation," says Casey.
Casey goes on to tell Mangru that Communism is a "scam" and is designed to cheat workers.
Casey also believes that the United States has not seen the worst of the economic crisis.
“We’re just starting to see the beginning of what’s going to happen,” Casey says.
The United States has already entered what Casey calls the Greater Depression, one that will be much more serious than the 1930s.
“This depression can be as long and as deep as you can possibly imagine,” he says.
The reason most people don’t realize this is that the majority of those giving economic opinions aren’t economists describing how the world actually works but political apologists describing how they think it ought to work, Casey notes.
“Everyone’s looking to the government for a solution, but all the government does is tax and regulate and inflate the currency,” Casey says.
Trillions of dollars of phony inflationary capital people believed were real assets have disappeared, says Casey.
That’s going to continue to deplete the value of the dollar and guarantee catastrophic inflation in the future.
“If you’re relying on the U.S. dollar, you’re relying on a figment of the U.S. government’s imagination,” says Casey.
“To me, holding U.S. dollars for the long term is about the most stupid thing you can do.”
“Gold is the only financial asset that isn’t someone else’s liability.”
Casey notes that there now are some $7 trillion held outside the United States.
Eventually, Casey thinks foreigners will realize they’re holding hot potatoes and begin trading their dollars for things of real value.
“Those dollars are going to come back to the United States and we’re going to be shipping out wheat and farmland and titles of companies, Casey says.
“Inflation is going to explode in this country and the amount of real wealth is going to diminish.”
“This is a really big problem, this is something of historic proportions.”
Naturally, foreign countries don’t want to see the value of their dollar holdings tank, but they don’t want to hold dollars either, which is why the Chinese and others aren’t selling dollars on the foreign exchanges but using them to buy hard assets instead.
© 2009 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
Entry #14
"IOUSA: America's Money Crisis"@2Pm On CNN
"IOUSA: AMERICA'S MONEY CRISIS"
also showing again on Sunday @3PM - CNN
Entry #13
Cash found in Ohio house's walls becomes nightmare
Cash found in Ohio house's walls becomes nightmare
Sunday, November 9, 2008
CLEVELAND - A contractor who found $182,000 in Depression-era currency hidden in a bathroom wall has ended up with only a few thousand dollars, but he feels some vindication.
The windfall discovery amounted to little more than grief for contractor Bob Kitts, who couldn't agree on how to split the money with homeowner Amanda Reece.
It didn't help Reece much, either. She testified in a deposition that she was considering bankruptcy and that a bank recently foreclosed on one of her properties.
And 21 descendants of Patrick Dunne - the wealthy businessman who stashed the money that was minted in a time of bank collapses and joblessness - will each get a mere fraction of the find.
"If these two individuals had sat down and resolved their disputes and divided the money, the heirs would have had no knowledge of it," said attorney Gid Marcinkevicius, who represents the Dunne estate. "Because they were not able to sit down and divide it in a rational way, they both lost."
Kitts was tearing the bathroom walls out of an 83-year-old home near Lake Erie in 2006 when he discovered two green metal lockboxes suspended inside a wall below the medicine chest, hanging from a wire. Inside were white envelopes with the return address for "P. Dunne News Agency."
"I ripped the corner off of one," Kitts said during a deposition in a lawsuit filed by Dunne's estate. "I saw a 50 and got a little dizzy."
He called Reece, a former high school classmate who had hired him for a remodeling project.
They counted the cash and posed for photographs, both grinning like lottery jackpot winners.
But how to share? She offered 10 percent. He wanted 40 percent. From there things went sour.
A month after The Plain Dealer reported on the case in December 2007, Dunne's estate got involved, suing for the right to the money.
By then there was little left to claim.
Reece testified in a deposition that she spent about $14,000 on a trip to Hawaii and had sold some of the rare late 1920s bills. She said about $60,000 was stolen from a shoe box in her closet but testified that she never reported the theft to police.
Kitts said Reece accused him of stealing the money and began leaving him threatening phone messages. Marcinkevicius doesn't believe the money was stolen but said he couldn't prove otherwise.
Reece's phone number has been disconnected, and her attorney Robert Lazzaro did not return a call seeking comment. There were no court records showing that Reece had filed for bankruptcy.
Kitts said he lost a lot of business because media reports on the case portrayed him as greedy, but he feels vindicated by the court's decision to give him a share.
"I was not the bad guy that everybody made me out to be," Kitts said. "I didn't do anything wrong."
He's often asked why he didn't keep his mouth shut and pocket the money. He says he wasn't raised that way.
"It was a neat experience, something that won't happen again," Kitts said. "In that regard, it was pretty fascinating; seeing that amount of money in front of you was breathtaking. In that regard, I don't regret it.
"The threats and all - that's the part that makes you wish it never happened."
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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What would you have done?
Entry #12
Worse than being a "Re-distributor of Wealth"?...
..."THE RE-DISTRIBUTOR OF DEBT!!!" Of which the present administration has become. Let's not worry about what Obama 'might' do.
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WELCOME to THE 'UNITED SOCIALIST STATES of AMERICA' ~ Bush style!Where DEBT is our greatest product. Shipped to every corner of the globe.
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Well there's only a couple of days remaining before we take control of our country once again and begin to turn this mis-guided ship in a new direction. NO, we will NOT "Stay the course!"
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Remember prosperity? Where have you been for the past 8 years? (Pyramid schemes and bubbles don't count)
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No matter the outcome of tuesday's election - we still have a long way to go. But at least we'll start cleaning house and setting the course for our greatest recovery - EVER! Let's get back to work
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Here's to 
the BEST AMERICA can be. Let there be peace!
Entry #11
Paulson's new 'Global Banking Corp.' IPO 2009
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Paulson's new 'Global Banking Corp.' IPO 2009
Forget Washington, forget Goldman: Our hero has global ambitionsBy Paul B Farrell
Last update: 7:05 p.m. EDT Oct. 6, 2008
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- What if: Hank Paulson doesn't return to Wall Street and Goldman Sachs? Builds a global banking empire? Competes head-on with Goldman, Morgan, and other domestic and foreign banks? What if the money comes from offshore, from Asia and the Gulf? He's a red-hot brand! Expect a mega-IPO in 2009.
Next: What if Oliver Stone updates his 1987 attack on "Wall Street?" With Michael Douglas again? A new script's rumored: Gordon Gekko's out of prison, sets up giant private equity empire in London? Nah, too "yesterday!" Today's news is too hot, too juicy. "Wall Street, the Sequel," needs a new predator! A poster-boy for the arrogance, greed and incompetence of Wall Street and Washington. And "Hank the Hammer" Paulson wins hands down as the archetype of a modern global megapredator.
Years ago I was a Hollywood executive. Films have long lead times.
"Shindler's List" took Steven Spielberg over a decade. Stone's new film "W" was shot fast but years in development. Along the way, you're reworking scripts.
So imagine: You're Stone's screenwriter. Its 2011. You're asking yourself: What happened? Why a new bubble, bigger meltdown so fast? Paulson thought the bailout would work. Congress did too. You're looking back. Your job, sketch the key plot points of Stone's next thriller, based on all we know of the buildup and what we can rationally predict will happen between 2009 and 2011. Start:
1. Opening scene: Paulson and Goldman Sachs, 1974-2006
Harvard M.B.A., 1970. Then a staffer at the Pentagon and with Nixon. Joins Goldman in 1974. CEO in 1999. Paid $38 million in 2005. Federal ethics laws let him sell $484 million in Goldman stock tax-free when he left. Net worth, about $700 million.
2. U.S. Treasury Secretary, 2006-2008
Goldman was a big derivatives player under Paulson. His decisions at Treasury reflect 24 years as a Wall Street insider. He was protecting his old Wall Street buddies when he and the Fed chairman insisted in mid-2007 the subprime-credit meltdown was "contained."
3. Paulson suddenly flip-flops and hits panic button, Sept. '08
After years of denial, two weeks ago Paulson flip-flops. Using a classic Reaganomics "disaster capitalism" gimmick, he pushed the panic button, asked Congress for a $700 billion blank-check bailout bonanza for Wall Street. Nothing for Main Street. A one-sided Ponzi scheme, imperial powers, complete with Iraq War-type threats of "economic mushroom clouds." Conservatives were screaming "nationalization! socialism!"
4. Paulson's panic triggers 'feeding frenzy' for lobbyists, 2008
While baffled Republicans wondered why Hank pushed the panic button, his panic set off a scene rivaling "Jaws." Washington is run by 42,000 lobbyists. They smelled blood in this $700,000,000,000 ocean. Add my bank! Foreign banks! Hedge funds! Money markets! S&Ls! Auto loans! Bankruptcy relief! Sharks on a feeding frenzy.
5. Flashback: Paulson warned the president, but failed us, 2008
Yes, he saw this crisis coming years ago. Bloomberg Markets reports that back in August 2006 Paulson spoke to the White House staff at Camp David: "Paulson held up over-the-counter derivatives as an example of financial innovation that could, under certain circumstances, blow up in Wall Street's face and affect the whole economy." Yet he withheld this information from America, didn't tell us till his recent panicky flip-flop.
6. Paulson's conflicts of interest favor his old buddies, 2008
Paulson owes a lot to Goldman; 24 years almost made him a billionaire. An analyst told Bloomberg News that Goldman and Morgan Stanley may be the two "biggest beneficiaries" of the Bailout Bonanza: They've already "written down the value of their holdings." So they have much junk to dump on taxpayers, thanks to Paulson their, "inside man." And he wanted no oversight. With several former Goldman staffers working with him at Treasury now, you wonder: Did they give their old buddies early hints of the bailout?
7. Uncle Warren also gets priority before taxpayers, 2008
Main Street may be overlooked, but not old friends like Warren Buffett. Earlier as Goldman's CEO derivatives made Paulson one of the chief architects of today's "Economic Pearl Harbor," as Warren Buffett calls it (a strange comment since back in 2002 Buffett warned derivatives were "weapons of mass destruction"). Flash forward: Buffett offers Goldman $5 billion, spinning it as a show of confidence in the bailout. But in a Portfolio piece, "Salvation or Swindle?" we learn: "Saint Warren is buying $5 billion worth of Goldman's perpetual preferred stock. This stock pays a 10% dividend and is callable at any time at a 10% premium." Imagine, $500 million after taxes annually. Plus "Saint Warren also receives warrants with the right to buy $5 billion of Goldman's common shares at $115 per share over the next five years. That is 8% below Tuesday's closing price. ... This has nothing to do with saving the financial system."
8. Paulson's triumphant return to a 'New Wall Street,' 2008
Here's another sneaky script subplot from The Huffington Post: First Goldman pays Paulson megabucks, then "lends" him to Bush, a virtual Trojan Horse. Now Paulson's preparing the way for his grand march back into private life by throwing billions of taxpayer dollars to his old buddies. So Goldman gets billions, and taxpayers get a pile of illiquid junk. Scam? Yes, and a classic case of moral hazard: Freed of risky liabilities, Wall Street dances off into the sunset, laughing at the stupidity of the American taxpayer. If Paulson did return to Goldman, his future bonuses would likely more than double his net worth. In short, his 30 months in government will undoubtedly make him a billionaire while costing taxpayers a trillion in new debt as a result of his inaction and incompetence.
9. New president, same old lobbyists, same old greed, 2009
Some things never, never change, no matter who's president. America is run by 42,000 lobbyists, not our 537 elected officials. And Wall Street's the biggest political campaign donor. For example, USA Today reports that since 1989 Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking, received $43 million. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, got $7.8 million. No wonder they voted for Paulson's Bonanza.
10. Paulson resigns, creates own bank-holding company, 2009
No, he's not going to stay. He's already the de facto president, an uncrowned king, the messiah of global finance. He raised hundreds of billions to "save" America and the world from collapse. So forget Goldman. What then? He's a former president the Nature Conservancy, a $5 billion global environmental charity. Bloomberg reports he's already working on a "$10 billion international fund under the auspices of the World Bank that would help emerging-market countries avoid investments in heavily polluting infrastructure." He's even lined up "$6 billion in informal commitments [and] Congress is considering the administration's request to kick in $2 billion." Get it? Not only is he bailing out his old buddies. Not only is he preparing for his return to private wealth. But he's also finagling more taxpayer money for his pet cause. All while being paid to work for U.S. taxpayers. Next, a new Paulson Global Bank Holding Corp.? An IPO? You bet, in 2009. But not retail, probably a private placement with $25 billion minimums.
11. Warning: Same old cycle: Bailout-Bubble-Bust, 2009-2011
"Wall Street's dead?" No way! The Street's alive, will survive and thrive. Paulson's Bonanza sets up the greatest "moral hazard" in world history. Our bad boys got away with a scam. Taxpayers are stuck with their toxic waste. Once freed, Wall Street comes roaring back with a new bull next year. The financial sector lost almost half its stock value since last summer's peak, $1 trillion. Our greedy financial geniuses must quickly invent new tricks to satisfy shareholders who lost billions and are now demanding higher earnings and stock prices. Banks must start blowing a newer, bigger, more lethal bubble.
12. Hot new aggressive competition among banks, 2009-2010
Yes! Paulson and his competition, J.P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Barclays, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Goldman, are revving up to Nascar speeds: Heavy trading, high leverage, risky derivatives to meet demanding quarterly expectations. Investors have short attention spans, want a new bull. The Fed, Treasury and SEC will look the other way, creating de facto deregulations to get the markets back on track. Who loses? Homeowners and taxpayers. But also small depositors in the bank-holding companies: Expect more excessive fees and commissions as all banks siphon off more to raise new cash for their same old high-risk gambling bets.
13. Armageddon: Bubble pops, global economic meltdown, 2011
Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela and others are already praying for America's demise. Now staunch allies like Germany join the chorus: The German finance minister blames the current crisis on Wall Street's "insane drive for higher and higher profits ... Wall Street will never be what it was ... The global financial system will become more multipolar." To protect itself before and after the 2011 collapse, Paulson's new global banking empire will likely be headquartered in multiple locations in Asia, Europe and the Gulf. But the moral hazard created by Paulson's 2008 bailout will eventually backfire. We relieved Wall Street of the consequences of its costly, stupid blunders. But we also released them to chase a new raging bull in 2009 ... and blow a bigger more lethal credit bubble that'll bring down the global economy before the end of the next presidential term.
Comments? My advice to Stone: Forget recasting Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko. Start planning, plotting and writing a new script now for a 2011 released date. Get Clint Eastwood as Hank the Hammer. Then we get an IPO, you guys get a couple Oscars!
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Entry #10
Alaska's largest newspaper endorses Barack Obama
Alaska's largest newspaper endorses Barack Obama
~Sunday 10/26/2008~
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – The Anchorage Daily News, Alaska's largest newspaper, has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president.
The newspaper said Sunday the Democrat "brings far more promise to the office. In a time of grave economic crisis, he displays thoughtful analysis, enlists wise counsel and operates with a cool, steady hand."
The Daily News said since the economic crisis has emerged, Republican presidential candidate John McCain has "stumbled and fumbled badly" in dealing with it.
"Of the two candidates, Sen. Obama better understands the mortgage meltdown's root causes and has the judgment and intelligence to shape a solution, as well as the leadership to rally the country behind it," the paper said.
The Daily News said Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has shown the country why she is a success as governor. But the paper said few would argue that Palin is truly ready to step into the job of being president despite her passion, charisma and strong work ethic.
"Gov. Palin's nomination clearly alters the landscape for Alaskans as we survey this race for the presidency — but it does not overwhelm all other judgment. The election, after all is said and done, is not about Sarah Palin, and our sober view is that her running mate, Sen. John McCain, is the wrong choice for president at this critical time for our nation," the paper said.
"Like picking Sen. McCain for president, putting her one 72-year-old heartbeat from the leadership of the free world is just too risky at this time," the paper concluded.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
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Entry #9
J Mac disses Bush "and I couldn't agree with him more!"
Seems like Johnny "Cheating 5" McCain has finally come to his senses and faced reality. It's been BUSH all along that's screwed up everything in this country and has screwed up Mac's chances.
Now he's having to run like Hell from the one that he supported over 90% of the time. You're right J-Mac, but it's a little bit late in the game, don't you think?
Entry #8
The Egg Trick
On a lighter note while we're waiting. Anybody here know the principles of the egg trick? You know, the one where you could stand an egg on its' end on the first day of fall.
I can verify that's it's true. Had a few standing at the same time for hours. Even did it the next day - although I could tell that my powers were waning. What's the deal?
Entry #7
"BAILOUT!": The REAL Deal
The Bailout Is a Band-Aid: Housing Crisis Needs to Be Fixed |
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Yesterday Sen. Orrin Hatch was hitting the airwaves. The subprime crisis, he said, was the fault of the Clinton administration, who he said created the subprime mortgage crisis.
Other Republicans have been laying blame on the financial crisis on minorities and illegal immigrants who got mortgages they simply couldn’t pay. They offer no statistical proof on this point.
Nor does the usually sensible Senator Hatch offer evidence when it comes
to pointing the finger at the Clinton administration. The attempt to deflect blame for the crisis is not simply wrongheaded; I think it will compound Republican political woes and bring us disaster again in November.
Doesn’t Hatch and Co. know that Bill and Hillary Clinton voters in the swing states will decide who becomes the next president? They are wary of Obama, but love the Clintons and remember the good economic times of the’90s.
As a conservative Republican of the Reagan type, I find myself in this odd place cheering on some of the sensible things I hear from Democrats.
Barack Obama said any bailout to Wall Street must not be simply a cash payout or a loan, but be treated like an equity investment in these firms. We want our money back and then some. Yes to that, I say.
And demands by House Democrats that the secretary of the treasury alone not be given a blank check for more than a trillion dollars of our money, and that we have complete transparency in the transactions, I say yes to that, too. Fiscal responsibility, transparency and accountability — aren’t these things Republicans believe in?
The Democratic complaints about the Bush plan shows that our government is working. The executive branch tried to put a gun to the head of Congress and told them, “Sign this check or the whole U.S. banking system will collapse.” Congress didn’t blink.
Don’t get me wrong. I am for a bailout, but one that is sensible and is a win-win for Wall Street, Main Street investors and taxpayers like you and me. But remember the government bailout plan proposed by the president and modifications supported by the Democrats won’t fix the underlying problem: the housing market collapse. Home prices are continuing to fall, and fewer people are buying homes than ever. Foreclosures will continue.
Unless this underlying problem is fixed, the economic symptoms will continue. There are some remedies. But before I get to them, let’s review what has happened:
The Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan gave the U.S. economy shock treatment back in 2001 and 2002 when it lowered interest rates to 1 percent — the lowest Fed Funds rate in recent history.
By pushing the pedal to the metal and backed quietly by the White House, the Fed injected massive liquidity in the U.S. economy, creating the largest asset bubble in history, according to the Economist magazine.
Incredibly low rates by the Fed were accompanied by an acceptance of the central bank for all sorts of exotic mortgage loans. No down payments. Interest only. No job and income verification. Get the picture? Compounding this irresponsibility was then the “greed factor” that kicked in at several levels.
First were the local banks and mortgage companies that pushed mortgages, notably adjustable rate ones that offered extremely low introductory rates, and gave them to buyers who would not be able to pay back once the rates adjusted up.
Well rates have adjusted up and the crisis hit. Many mortgage providers also encouraged loan applicants to lie about incomes and qualifications to approve these mortgages.
Wall Street as a whole had little role at this stage. But later, Wall Street took these mortgages, which had been rolled up into collateralized debt instruments, better known as mortgage backed securities, and sold them off to investors globally.
Wall Street failed to compute the risks involved in these securities. It was a failure, not a crime. But many Wall Street firms, hedge funds and other investments took incredible, unwarranted risks using these securities. These firms would borrow money at low rates — say 4 percent — and invest in CDOs paying 6 to 7 percent. This small difference in rates of 2 to 3 percent, the arbitrage, would throw off enormous returns, especially considering little or no money had been placed on the table to buy the securities.
I have been told that Lehman and AIG played this leveraging game, investing only $1 for every $30 they held in such toxic suggestions. Again, what they did was not a crime. They took enormous risk and reaped huge returns — for a while.
Now they want us to pay for the huge losses that ultimately fell upon them. Washington played a role in the mess too. The White House pushed for easy money and easy lending practices, many weighted in favor of the banks and lenders and against the consumer.
Congress, dominated largely by Republicans from 1994 to 2006, did an awful job in oversight. This is especially true after President Bush took the oath of office. When Bill Clinton was president, the Republicans acted beautifully, working diligently to keep President Clinton on a center-right economic course. The results were great. This seems like ancient history, but it’s important to have a clear picture of how we got into this mess. It may help us get out of it.
First, we need to know the “crisis” the Bush administration presented to us just last week is not a crisis that just popped up. It was apparent to many two years ago the real estate market was in a bubble and would bust. And when the Fed moved in 2004 and raised rates from 1 percent to 5.25 percent by 2006 — a more than 400 percent increase in two years, it also led directly to those adjustable mortgages re-adjusting at very high rates. Homeowners got struck hard — with monthly mortgage payments on medium size homes mushrooming literally overnight.
The Fed increase rates started the credit crisis. The first tremors were apparent over a year ago when the Fed took emergency steps to give banks liquidity. It’s important to remember that most adjustable mortgages created in the boom years still have not reset – and will continue doing so through 2011. This problem will worsen unless Washington tackled the underlying problems.
The first thing the Fed must do to reduce the continuance of the problem is drop rates. It doesn’t have much wiggle room, because the dollar needs to be protected, but a small decrease in rates could have an enormous impact on those readjusting mortgages.
The second-most-important thing to do is for Congress to give a significant tax credit for new home buyers. Congress just passed a $7500 tax credit for new home buyers, though it’s not actually a credit but a loan at no interest.
The famed economist Edward Leamer of UCLA’s Anderson School says a $25,000 tax credit to new home buyers would put an immediate end to the fall in home prices. He suggests it would spur economic activity and government tax revenues would grow, more than covering the cost of the program.
Already home prices have fallen to reasonable prices and it should be a buyer’s market. But government can spur home buyers who keep staying on the sidelines think prices will fall more. If this is done, home prices will stabilize and likely begin rising. All of the sectors that relate to the housing market will find relief.
And, most important, the value of those mortgage backed securities will increase as the underlying mortgages become current. Foreclosures will also abate. The key to solving the financial crisis is not to simply send a blank check to Wall Street, but to get consumers buying homes again.
© 2008 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
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Entry #6
What's In A Name?
WHAT'S in a name? There's a lot of political correctness surfacing all of a sudden. Oh nooooo, don't call it a "bailout". Well that's EXACTLY what it was when presented by Paulson & Co.
On a 2 page "ransome note" he was essentially pleading to save Wall Street. With NO details, whatsoever, the rest of the country or economy didn't matter. "$700 BILLION!! ALL UP FRONT!! (NO DYE PACKS,PLEASE)WITH NO OVERSIGHT!! NO COURT CAN INTERVENE!! OR IT'S CURTAINS FAH YA!!"
I can see Bush behind that curtain now, "Psssst, hey HANK...remember... THEY HAVE 24 HRS!!" LOL
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Hey Folks, it really IS serious. The BAILOUT PLAN is NOT a be all - end all. There won't be any overnight fixes. Did you read my special commentary in my previous entry? It's gonna be rough.
You should hear what they're saying about us overseas. What? You don't care?? Well I think that we better START caring - we can't do this alone. We'll STILL need major foreign investors. But since we have infected the whole world's economies, will they still be there?
Many things are based on the rapidly inflating US BUCK. I wonder...what would our govMINT be doing if this wasn't an election year? hmmmm?
Entry #5
More "SHOCK & AWE" 4ya
Here's more SHOCK & AWE for ya - Did you know that the House just approved a $630 BILLION spending bill to run the gov through the spring. Let's see...this includes a $25 BILLION loan to the automakers & also a record setting $488 BILLION for Defense.
Oh BTW, it's loaded with about 2,500 "pet porkers"! Seems to me that they would've cut the PORK out of their diets while they're looking for us to be the guinea pigs in this bailout plan!
Check this out: 700 BILLION in "C-Notes" weighs about 15 MILLION pounds. And laid end to end in "Singles" would reach around 70 MILLION MILES - Long enough to reach our neighbor ---- MARS!!
FYI, the $700B figure comes from the same brainiacs that guesstimated that the total damage caused by sub-prime would total a staggering 50-100 BILLION. (OH, IS THAT ALL? I think they were off by "just a hair"!)
Let's attempt to get a running total of all this liquidity:
700B - Hank/Bush/Wall St Bailout
29B - Bear Stearns (It's contained!)
85B - AIG (where the guy's just sitting 'round thinking about butterflies!)
200B - for the step children Fannie & Freddie
150B - for SLIM-ulus checks and let's not forget...
438B - a projected DEFICIT in the Fed's "BUDGET" for '08.
+____
$1,602 BILLION or 1.6 TRILLION! Didn't they just raise the national debt ceiling a few weeks ago, again? This time it'll have to be adjusted to $11.3 TRILLION, give or take a few bucks! Talk about INFLATION!!
Look at it like this - the national debt will be over 70% GDP. H*ll, the national debt "only" reached 44% of GDP during the *GDY.
*Great Depression Years
Entry #4
Shining like NEW MONEY
How many of you have seen the new pennies? They're coming out with a few different versions to celebrate "Honest Abe". WHAT DA H*LL?
Ole Abe should be spinning in his dusty old grave right about now!
When it already costs 10 cents to make a nickle (I'm not kidding), what Einstein came up with this? This is how our govMINT wastes our money.
"Just do anything because it's a new idea." I actually have a brilliant idea to save some money with our currency. But our govMINT is not interested in saving anything!
Entry #3
Why R "Frick & Frack" the ONLY main witnesses?
What kind of hearings has this been? Where were the independent economists and researchers? Where were the charts and actual figures of what's needed?
With only a 2-page "plan" they expected to take the money and hit the door without filling in any details. $700 BILLION? $1 TRILLION? I don't keep that kind of cash just lying around ya know.
Just because 2 puppets (beggars) come to you with a sad tale, does that mean that you must play by THEIR rules? These clowns knew long ago what was coming down the road.
Actually I might ease up on them a bit. Who else would even take their jobs? After all, I think that Ben is MUCH better than Alan "Mr. Bubble" Greenspan. I just may give them a little credit for trying.
Something THIS important should've had ALL the trimmings. Instead it's the Paulson & Bernanke show produced by the Bush Corp.
Entry #2
Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention
Attacks, praise stretch truth at GOP convention
By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press WriterWed Sep 3, 11:48 PM ET
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth.
Some examples:
PALIN: "I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending ... and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress 'thanks but no thanks' for that Bridge to Nowhere."
THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a "bridge to nowhere."
PALIN: "There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it's easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate."
THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation.
PALIN: "The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars."
THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama's plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain's plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded.
Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families.
He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise.
MCCAIN: "She's been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America's energy supply ... She's responsible for 20 percent of the nation's energy supply. I'm entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America," he said in an interview with ABC News' Charles Gibson.
THE FACTS: McCain's phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she's no more "responsible" for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population.
MCCAIN: "She's the commander of the Alaska National Guard. ... She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities," he said on ABC.
THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under "federal status," which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska's national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations.
FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin "got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States."
THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor's election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries.
FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: "We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin."
THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a "conservative" Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate.
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