Tag Archives: Business/Econ.

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Slavery? Really?

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson compares NFL owners’ treatment of players to ‘modern-day slavery’ in an online interview

Vikings running back Adrian Peterson compared NFL owners’ treatment of players to “modern-day slavery,” according to an online interview published Tuesday by Yahoo! Sports.

Yahoo’s Doug Farrar, who conducted the interview Friday with Peterson, removed that comment from the story later Tuesday, explaining on Twitter that he wants to give Peterson the chance to provide context.

Peterson, who is known to be thoughtful when speaking with the local media in Minnesota, is in Africa with other NFL players on a goodwill trip and unavailable for immediate comment.

One is tempted to note that it’s one of the Vikings saying something so stupid…but I’ll skip the cheap shot…

NFL owners and players couldn’t agree on a new collective bargaining agreement last week after more than two weeks of federal mediation. Shortly before the players union NFL decertified, Peterson spoke to Yahoo to promote a recent appearance on the online reality show “Double Take.” The NFL declared a lockout when the CBA expired.

“The players are getting robbed. They are,” Peterson told Yahoo. “The owners are making so much money off of us to begin with. I don’t know that I want to quote myself on that.”

If someone were robbing ME, I would at least stay away from them henceforth.

When discussing other players feeling the same way, Peterson said: “It’s modern-day slavery, you know? People kind of laugh at that, but there are people working at regular jobs who get treated the same way, too. With all the money. … The owners are trying to get a different percentage, and bring in more money. I understand that; these are business-minded people. Of course this is what they are going to want to do. I understand that; it’s how they got to where they are now. But as players, we have to stand our ground and say, ‘Hey, without us, there’s no football.’ “

OK. Call an spade a spade here. He says he can understand the owners wanting to make money…because he is concerned with exactly the same thing. So what…but don’t resort to the level of hyperbole that labels one of the most remunerative occupations as being slavery:

Peterson is set to make $10.72 million in base salary in 2011.

Poor baby! How can he survive on that sharecropper-style starvation pay!

On the same page was the following poll:
Do you agree with Peterson’s comparison of NFL owners’ treatment of players to “modern-day slavery?”
Total Votes = 2282
Yes. 2.453 %
No. 96.18 %
I don’t know. 1.358 %
The Chief concurs.

Contrary to Peterson’s assertion…no one is standing there with a whip forcing him to accept that $10.72M paycheck. This IS the US of A, and the 13th Amendment IS enforced. If he doesn’t like the NFL, he’s free to get a real job, in the real world, assuming he can qualify for one.

No sympathy. At all. Sorry.

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News Digest Snapshot Comments

A series of different things going on currently…some related, some not.

Firstly, at the time of T.A.R.P. and the rest of the financial bailouts, we were repeatedly warned by all of the Washington establishment that this was essential in order to prevent a total, and irreparable financial meltdown. But what if the bailouts had never taken place?…

Iceland did not bail out the banks or the bank investors and its economy is thriving, proving that the the US-Irish model of bailing out the banks with taxpayer money was harmful unless you were a wealthy bank investor

What was the ultimate effect?

Today, Iceland is recovering. The three new banks had combined profit of $309 million in the first nine months of 2010. GDP grew for the first time in two years in the third quarter, by 1.2 percent, inflation is down to 1.8 percent and the cost of insuring government debt has tumbled 80 percent. Stores in Reykjavik were filled with Christmas shoppers in early December, and bank branches were crowded with customers.

Meanwhile, there are items relating to the B.O. administration is engaging in apparently betrayal and/or mistreatment of allies and friends abroad:

ITEM:
The American betrayal
Op-ed: Obama’s abandonment of Mubarak shows Israel cannot count on US at times of crisis

…there is one more thing we can learn from the events in Egypt, aside from the fragility of the region we inhabit, and it is something that’s not easy to digest: The Western world’s and mostly America’s treachery. We learned that the way they abandoned President Mubarak and gave him the cold shoulder can happen to us too. Or in other words, we cannot count on the Americans at a time of crisis.

ITEM:
WikiLeaks cables: US agrees to tell Russia Britain’s nuclear secrets

The US secretly agreed to give the Russians sensitive information on Britain’s nuclear deterrent to persuade them to sign a key treaty, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The US, under a nuclear deal, has agreed to give the Kremlin the serial numbers of the missiles it gives Britain Information about every Trident missile the US supplies to Britain will be given to Russia as part of an arms control deal to be signed by President Barack Obama next week.

After his returning the Churchill bust, snubbing Brit leaders, including the Queen, one gets the idea that B.O. REALLY does not like Britain.Along with this, the upside-down policy orientation of B.O. is further illustrated by policies that refuse to recognize those who are our enemies:

Failures by FBI, Pentagon contributed to Ft. Hood massacre, report says

The FBI and the Pentagon are responsible for a “string of failures” in the way they attempted to track a disgruntled Army major in the years before he allegedly opened fire at a crowded Ft. Hood, Texas, deployment center in the worst domestic terror ambush since the attacks of September 2001, two key Senate leaders concluded Thursday.

In addition, Army supervisors repeatedly referred to Maj. Nidal Hasan as a “ticking time bomb,” and FBI agents and the military knew he had become radicalized under the influence of a violent Islamist extremist. Yet the agents never arrested him, and his military superiors never disciplined or furloughed him out of the Army.

In an apparent triumph of political correctness no action was taken lest it offer offense to Islam. The Chief’s response would have been to s–tcan Hasan, and f’em if they can’t take the joke.

Meanwhile, there is also THIS particular bit of craziness:

China Maneuvers for U.S. Defense Contracts

The maker of China’s new stealth fighter jet has teamed up with a tiny, unprofitable California company to try to launch bids for U.S. defense contracts, possibly including one to supply Chinese helicopters to replace the aging Marine One fleet used by the president, according to people involved in the partnership.

Fortunately this one looks to be beyond the reach of even B.O.’s aspirations for playing kissy-face with the ChiComs:

Any Chinese bids for this or another contract under discussion would be certain to meet intense political resistance and would appear to have very little chance of success given mounting U.S. concern about China’s military power and long-term strategic goals, and the often-prohibitive opposition in the past to Chinese attempts to enter other strategic U.S. sectors, such as energy and telecommunications

UNforunately, they may be back for another attempt:

…the two companies have also been discussing putting forward AVIC’s new L-15 trainer jet as a candidate to replace the U.S. Air Force’s fleet of Northrop T-38s, which entered service 50 years ago and on which American fighter pilots learn skills such as how to fly at supersonic speeds.

That contract is expected to be one of the most lucrative military aviation contracts this decade, with the U.S. likely to buy about 400 and other allied countries about 600 more as the jet will become the standard for training pilots to fly the U.S. F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters.

Is it just me, or does anyone else get a really bad feeling about the US becoming dependent on the ChiComs for maintaining our military? Sheeesh!

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Food for Thought

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Pomegranate Market opens Wednesday with focus on local foods

One has to appreciate the optimism, hope, commitment, and enthusiasm it takes to open a new retail business.

A new grocery store is opening Wednesday in Sioux Falls’ southwest part of town that will focus on offering people as many locally grown products as possible.

The Pomegranate Market, located in the Beakon Centre at 57th Street and Louise Avenue, will be the newest addition to the health foods market in Sioux Falls….The store will have about 9,000 square feet of retail space offering all the things a supermarket has but on a smaller scale including a floral, dairy, produce and meat departments and a bistro with a seating area. In addition it has more than 200 bulk food items and spices.

“We want to be the experts in food,” said Brice Autry, one of the store’s owners.

This is a good thing…and the Chief wishes Brice  Autry & company the best of luck….meanwhile, in another and possibly related item of food news:

Senate Passes Sweeping Law on Food Safety

The Senate passed a sweeping overhaul of the nation’s food safety system on Tuesday, after tainted eggs, peanut butter and spinach sickened thousands of people in the last few years and led major food makers to join consumer advocates in demanding stronger government oversight.

The legislation, which passed by a vote of 73 to 25, would greatly strengthen the Food and Drug Administration, an agency that in recent decades focused more on policing medical products than ensuring the safety of food. The bill is intended to keep unsafe foods from reaching markets and restaurants, where they can make people sick — a change from the current practice, which mainly involves cracking down after outbreaks occur.

This is also a good thing, right? I mean, who can be against safe food? Besides, this sort of thing isn’t really new…it represents an expansion and extension of the power of the FDA which first came into being as one of the “progressive” policies invented by Teddy Roosevelt…and we all know that progressive programs all work well, right?

Oh. Maybe not. In this case there are a few concerns given a hat tip even from The NY Times:

The legislation greatly increases the number of inspections of food processing plants that the F.D.A. must conduct, with an emphasis on foods that are considered most high risk — although figuring out which those are is an uncertain science. Until recently, peanut butter would not have made the list.

OK…we aren’t sure what’s risky…but we still will be able to reduce the (unknown) risk proactively. HUH? That’s science based? It’s not even LOGIC based!

Staunch opposition to the bill by Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma, forced months of delay and eventually required the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, to call a series of time-consuming procedural votes to end debate. Mr. Coburn offered his own version of the legislation. It eliminated many of the bill’s requirements because he said that more government rules would be deleterious and that the free market was working.

In general…we really have a minimal amount of food problems in this country…although when they do occur the media are all over it like flies on a fertilizer pile. Of course, then if there is the perception of a bigger problem, then surely it calls for a bigger government to protect us, right?

Among the Senate bill’s last major sticking points was how it would affect small farmers and food producers. Some advocates for small farms and organic food producers said the legislation would destroy their industry under a mountain of paperwork. Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana, pushed for a recent addition to the bill that exempts producers with less than $500,000 in annual sales who sell most of their food locally.

That provision led the United Fresh Produce Association, a trade [big producer lobbying] group, to announce recently that it would oppose the legislation since small food operations have been the source of some food recalls in recent years.

We are disappointed that the Senate continues to ignore the egregious loopholes allowed in this legislation that will erode consumer confidence in our nation’s food safety system. Now, when going to a supermarket, restaurant, farmers market or roadside stand, consumers will be faced with the question of whether the fruits and vegetables offered for sale adhere to basic food safety standards or not.

To unpack this, what they are actually saying is that Ole Jensen, hauling a load of Forestbut melons to sell in the strip-mall parking lot (or wherever) has to have the same administrative load complete with lab-grade certification of quality as Dole, DelMonte, Cargill, Kraft, etc. Oh, Ole doesn’t have a legal/administrative department to keep up with that load? Oh well, I guess he’ll need to do something else with his land, and time….and the same thing would apply to those selling in a local farmer’s market, or to small specialty retailers like the above mentioned Pomegranate Market.

The House version of the bill does impose this extensive bureaucratic framework, although it is somewhat less obnoxious in the Senate bill, thus causing the unhappiness of the United Fresh group, who apparently would would love to use the regulatory regime to weed out local competition (up to including the eventual enforcement of FDA standards on backyard garden production, strictly for our own good of course.

Unfortunately, instead of adhering to a science- and risk-based approach that was consistently the foundation of the underlying bill, the Senate has chosen to include a provision that will exempt certain segments of the food industry based on the size of operation, geographic location and customer base.

As far as the science is concerned, as noted above, the reasoning here is missing in action. Again, they want NO exception for small local producers…trusting in the wisdom of the bureaucracy to do the right thing…and not co-incidentally eliminate a competing consumer choice.

Frankly, the Chief has more faith in Ole Jensen, and in the local suppliers of Brice’s Pomegranate Market than in some major member of United Fresh bringing in produce from Mexico, Honduras, or somewhere else, where there REALLY are some grounds for concern about food production and quality standards.

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Obamanomics Digest

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A number of items all of which are indicative of the underachievement characterizing Obamanomics:

Jobs, jobs, jobs: missing in action.
Private sector sheds 39,000 jobs in September

Private employers unexpectedly cut 39,000 jobs in September after an upwardly revised gain of 10,000 in August, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday.

That’s OK. Consumer spending will keep things going…right? Ooops!
Middle Class Slams Brakes on Spending

Middle-class Americans made their deepest spending cuts in more than two decades, slashing spending on such discretionary items as restaurant meals and alcohol during the recession.

Households in the middle fifth of the population sliced their average annual spending to $41,150 in 2009, the Labor Department said Tuesday in its annual spending breakdown. That was down 3.1% from 2007 and 3.5% from 2008, the steepest one-year drop since records began in 1984. The drop came even as those households’ after-tax income remained relatively stable over the two years, at an average $45,199.

Looks like folks thing the prudent thing to do given current conditions is to hold onto more cash for…who knows what the B.O. administration will do next…but that’s OK, the poor are doing better now under Obamanomics. Aren’t they?

Meanwhile, the poorest Americans spent more as prices for necessities like food and rental housing climbed. Spending rose 5.6% from 2007 to 2009 for the poorest fifth of consumers, the most of any other income group, despite a 5.5% drop in after-tax income to an average $9,956 a household. In some cases, elderly people and others with low incomes dipped into savings or relied on credit to get by.

“What you’re looking at here is people at the bottom trying to hang on,” said Timothy Smeeding, public affairs professor and director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “You can’t go below a certain level.”

Expenses up, income down. How’d that “Summer of Recovery” thing turn out? Apparently not so hot, which leads to…:

Food Stamp Recipients at Record 41.8 Million Americans in July, U.S. Says

The number of Americans receiving food stamps rose to a record 41.8 million in July as the jobless rate hovered near a 27-year high, the government said.

Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 18 percent from a year earlier and increased 1.4 percent from June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said today in a statement on its website. Participation has set records for 20 straight months.

Unemployment in September may have reached 9.7 percent, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts in advance of the release of last month’s rate on Oct. 8. Unemployment was 9.6 percent in July, near levels last seen in 1983.

A bit of a time lag to compile the stats, but the picture is unmistakable.
But hey, at least the TARP and other bailouts have the big financial guys looking up now…or not.

Goldman Sachs Says U.S. Economy May Be `Fairly Bad’

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said the U.S. economy is likely to be “fairly bad” or “very bad” over the next six to nine months.

“We see two main scenarios,” analysts led by Jan Hatzius, the New York-based chief U.S. economist at the company, wrote in an e-mail to clients. “A fairly bad one in which the economy grows at a 1 1/2 percent to 2 percent rate through the middle of next year and the unemployment rate rises moderately to 10 percent, and a very bad one in which the economy returns to an outright recession.”

Doesn’t look like the financial capital of the world will lead us out of the economic mire, either:

New Yorkers’ Income Falls for 1st Time in 70 Years+

The recession put a 3.1 percent dent in the personal incomes of New York state residents, who endured their first full-year decline in more than 70 years, according to a report released Tuesday.

Paychecks or net earnings tumbled 5.4 percent, while dividends, interest and rent slid 8.4 percent, to a grand total of nearly $908 billion, the state comptroller’s report said.

Not only did New Yorkers’ personal incomes fall “almost twice” as much as they did in the nation as a whole, but they have yet to recover to pre-recession levels, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said.

The drop occurred even though the job-destroying recession was milder in New York than in the rest of the country.

Hmmm 70 years. That goes back to 1940, just before WW-II finally bailed the country out of the Great Depression.

Meanwhile, it’s 27 days until election day….

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Mortgage Sanity Outbreak Across the Pond

Bank plans to cap risky mortgages

What a RADICAL concept: tightening up on mortgages to prevent bubbles, defaults, etc. Shocking! This is the way it used to be done here too, before the rigging of Fanny May by the Pelosi/Frank/Dodd team to push home purchasing whether or not the “customer” could afford it – at ANY rate. Result: claims of helping the poor, but actually resulting in the continuing housing market bust.

Mortgage lending would be “capped” to stop borrowers taking out risky loans under radical Bank of England plans to prevent a repeat of the credit crisis, a senior official has disclosed.

Charlie Bean, the Bank’s Deputy Governor, said “direct constraints” may be needed to restrict access to credit, and that homebuyers could be forced to put down sizeable deposits before being granted a mortgage by their banks or building societies. This would mean that prospective buyers would have to put down between 10 per cent and 25 per cent of a property’s purchase price as a deposit before being able to obtain a loan.

It is the first time that a senior official has indicated that the Bank may intervene directly with new rules on so-called “loan to value ratios” to stop risky lending.

No signs of sanity on this side of the pond, with more noises in Washington about MORE easy money to “stimulate” the housing market. When will they ever learn?

National Insecurity, Obamunism

Economic Recovery? Really?

Remember, the economy is on the way to recovery.  B.O. says so!

Stock market time bomb?

Even the world’s most savvy stock-market giants (e.g., Warren E. Buffett) have warned over the past decade that derivatives are the fiscal equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) – potentially lethal. And the consequences of such an explosion would make the recent global financial and economic crisis seem like penny ante. But generously lubricated lobbyists for the unrestricted, unsupervised derivatives markets tell congressional committees and government regulators to butt out.

While banks all over the world were imploding and some $50 trillion vanished in global stock markets, the derivatives market grew by an estimated 65 percent, according the Bank for International Settlements. BIS convenes the world’s 57 most powerful central bankers in Basel, Switzerland, for periodic secret meetings. Occasionally, they issue a cry of alarm. This time, derivatives had soared from $414.8 trillion at the end of 2006 to $683.7 trillion in mid-2008 – 18 months’ time.

The derivatives market is now estimated at $700 trillion (notional, or face, value, not market value). The world’s gross domestic product in 2009: $69.8 trillion; America’s, $14.2 trillion. The total market cap of all major global stock markets? A mere $30 trillion. And the total amount of dollar bills in circulation, most of them abroad: $830 billion (not trillion).

One of the Middle East’s most powerful bankers conceded recently that even after listening to experts explain the drill, he still does not understand derivatives and therefore doesn’t trust them and won’t have anything to do with them. And when that weapon of mass destruction explodes, he explained, “Our bank’s customers, from all over the world, will be saved from the disaster.”

Keep those numbers in mind as you consider this:

Today’s massive new derivatives bubble is driving the domestic and global economies, far outstripping the subprime-credit meltdown.

Hopefully not belatedly, Congress is considering legislation to curb the use of derivatives and other methods that artificially boost returns. But 13 members of Congress or their wives used derivatives to magnify their daily moves.

“We have met the enemy and he is us!”

And one measure proposed by Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas Democrat, would bar banks from trading in derivatives. This, in turn, would push almost $300 trillion beyond the reach of regulators. Derivatives would become still more opaque. Some say abolish derivatives trading in the U.S. and push it offshore.

Possible results?

The now-bloody Greek tragedy over its debt crisis is echoing through the Federal Reserve and the halls of Congress. Greece’s public debt exceeds 100 percent of its economy versus 90 percent (at $13 trillion) for the United States. If you add unfunded U.S. liabilities for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the long-term shortfall is $62 trillion, or about $200,000 for each American. At least that’s the estimate of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. And Peter Peterson himself says he’s now in the business of promoting awareness about public borrowing.

With probable trader error plunging the Dow Jones into a 1,000-point tailspin and back up in 16 minutes, economic and financial prognostication made astrology look respectable. Could Greece be a harbinger of ugly things to come for the rest of the world? Prominent investor Marc Faber, hedge fund manager Jim Chanos and Harvard’s Kenneth Rogoff told Bloomberg China’s economy will slow and possibly “crash” within a year as the nation’s property bubble is set to burst.

Meanwhile the economic recovery continues apace, with the unemployment rate moving back to 9.9%, or 17.1% if ALL of it is counted.

This sort of progress can easily result in recovering the experience of the 1930.

Maybe that’s what B.O. means.  Isn’t Obamunism marvelous?

Culture Wars

Counter-intuitive Copy Policies

Doing business The Grateful Dead way

The Grateful Dead was famous for letting their fans tape their live shows….

The Dead recognized that allowing fans to record for free widened their audience and the band became one of the most profitable groups in history. The band’s lyricist, John Perry Barlow, went on to become an Internet guru.

Barlow wrote in Wired in 1994 that in the information economy, “the best way to raise demand for your product is to give it away.” He explained to Joshua Green of the Atlantic: “What people today are beginning to realize is what became obvious to us back then–the important correlation is the one between familiarity and value, not scarcity and value. Adam Smith taught that the scarcer you make something, the more valuable it becomes. In the physical world, that works beautifully. But we couldn’t regulate [taping at] our shows, and you can’t online. The Internet doesn’t behave that way. But here’s the thing: if I give my song away to 20 people, and they give it to 20 people, pretty soon everybody knows me, and my value as a creator is dramatically enhanced. That was the value proposition with the Dead.”

The Chief has always liked the Grateful Dead from the time of his first acquaintance with them at the time he first entered active Naval service at the (then) Treasure Island Naval Station in the middle of the ‘Frisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in 1967. This is one more reason to appreciate how they operated.

SciFi publishing house Baen Books has gone in the same direction, with a “free library” on many titles available for free download in Mobipocket and other handy e-book formats, with no DRM or restriction on free distribution. On their site they explain their reasoning which runs much the same as Barlows. They also noted that after they put books by an author into the free download library, there was inevitably an distinct increase in sales for that author. They also have very reasonable prices on titles for paid download ($5-$6 typical), especially compared to other sources of e-titles. The Chief uses them on his PDA…who needs a Kindle?

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Oil Shieks Out of Cash?

Dubai default threat rattles world stocks

Global stock markets tumbled Thursday on mounting anxiety over a debt default request by Dubai and tighter lending conditions in China, analysts said.

London lost 1.86 percent to 5,264.97 points in late morning trade but was suspended at about 1030 GMT owing to a technical issue.

The London Stock Exchange said it was investigating the “root cause” of the problem and would update investors when it had further information.

Elsewhere, Frankfurt dived 1.80 percent to 5,698.99 points and Paris plunged 1.89 percent to 3,737.06 points at the half-way stage.

In Asia, Beijing nosedived 3.62 percent, Tokyo fell 0.62 percent and Hong Kong closed 1.78 percent lower. Chinese shares were also hit by the prospect of tighter banking rules and worries about monetary policy next year.

New York markets is closed Thursday for the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the United States.

Happy Thanksgiving to all those turkeys over there!

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Jobs R-not Us

There’s bad news, and at least locally, some not so bad news.

The ‘Real’ Jobless Rate: 17.5% Of Workers Are Unemployed

As experts debate the potential speed of the US recovery, one figure looms large but is often overlooked: nearly 1 in 5 Americans is either out of work or under-employed.

According to the government’s broadest measure of unemployment, some 17.5 percent are either without a job entirely or underemployed. The so-called U-6 number is at the highest rate since becoming an official labor statistic in 1994.

The number dwarfs the statistic most people pay attention to—the U-3 rate—which most recently showed unemployment at 10.2 percent for October, the highest it has been since June 1983.

One wonders how the alleged bail-out is working economic wonders, just the Change that The One promised that we can believe in.

Instead, it’s turned into “Change – Believe it or Not”…would you believe not, except change for the worse.

As far as the better news goes, recently the Chief saw a map on TV with different colors indicating the levels of states’ unemployment: South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska all were the same color, which represented the lowest unemployment rates in the country.  We’re (still) a long way from Detroit (so far).

China Watch, National Insecurity

B.O. Middle East Disarray

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The B.O. administration seems unable to get itself organized in the middle east, with the resulting development of serious economic consequences, as illustrated by the unfortunate pattern of the following articles found online today…as contradictory as they are.

White House angry at General Stanley McChrystal speech on Afghanistan

At the time that General McChrystal was appointed, B.O. pledged to take care of the needs of the force as communicated by the commanding general…that WOULD be McCrystal. Ooops! When he says something that B.O. doesn’t want to hear, it’s a different story. Support for the war apparently only goes so far now that the election is over.

According to sources close to the administration, Gen McChrystal shocked and angered presidential advisers with the bluntness of a speech given in London last week.

Truth is a bitch!

The next day he was summoned to an awkward 25-minute face-to-face meeting on board Air Force One on the tarmac in Copenhagen, where the president had arrived to tout Chicago’s unsuccessful Olympic bid. In an apparent rebuke to the commander, Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary, said: “It is imperative that all of us taking part in these deliberations, civilians and military alike, provide our best advice to the president, candidly but privately.”

This ignores the situation that McChrystal’s requests were made weeks ago, with hardly a “Howdy do?”  In reply. B.O. doesn’t seem able to realize that military combat doesn’t operate according to the whims of his attention…or rather, inattention.

Less than perfect decisive action is generally better than no action at all, which has been the White House pattern of late.

If there was an incipient plan to cut out and abandon the effort (without commenting on the merits of THAT), then there MAY be some rationale to the non-response from Washington, but…that’s NOT what they are insisting:

White House: Leaving Afghanistan not an option

The White House said Monday that President Barack Obama is not considering a strategy for Afghanistan that would withdraw U.S. troops from the eroding war there. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that walking away isn’t a viable option to deal with a war that is about to enter its ninth year. “I don’t think we have the option to leave. That’s quite clear,” Gibbs said.

If that’s really the case, not to put a fine point to it, then it’s past time for B.O. to s–t or get off the pot!

In addition, to completely have two opposite trends at the same time, comes SECDEF Gates

Taliban Afghan momentum due to lack of U.S. troops

The Taliban has the momentum in Afghanistan now because of the inability of the United States and its allies to put enough troops into the country, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Monday.

HUH?

Firstly, Gates essentially is agreeing with McChrystal that we do not have enough troops in-country to successfully do the job: so now both the Commanding General AND the Secretary of Defense apparently don’t buy into B.O.’s pusillanimous inaction.

Secondly, is the United States Secretary of Defense REALLY saying that this is due to the “INABILITY of the United States and its allies to put enough troops into the country” [emphasis added]?  We are UNABLE to carry out a policy that would enable winning the war in Afghanistan?

Anyone else remember B.O. proclaiming that AFGHANISTAN was the “central front” of the war on Islamoterrs, in contrast to Iraq? Apparently that was then (campaign mode) and this is now (Administration mode).

However it plays out, our allies and so-called allies are betting that the United States uner B.O. is a paper tiger, so they are getting together behind our back and planning to slip it to us financially and economically, apparently with no fear of possible effective response:

The demise of the dollar

In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar. Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars.

The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.

Our reaction thus far is in any practical sense, ineffectual, as we slip towards an expansion of Cold War II.

The Americans, who are aware the meetings have taken place – although they have not discovered the details – are sure to fight this international cabal which will include hitherto loyal allies Japan and the Gulf Arabs. Against the background to these currency meetings, Sun Bigan, China’s former special envoy to the Middle East, has warned there is a risk of deepening divisions between China and the US over influence and oil in the Middle East. “Bilateral quarrels and clashes are unavoidable,” he told the Asia and Africa Review. “We cannot lower vigilance against hostility in the Middle East over energy interests and security.”

This sounds like a dangerous prediction of a future economic war between the US and China over Middle East oil…

God help us…we’ll need it if we don’t start to get our sh… er… stuff together.

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Dismal Obameconomy Continues

A couple of items relating to this:

Jobless rate reaches 9.8 percent in September

The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent in September, the highest since June 1983, as employers cut far more jobs than expected.

The report shows that the worst recession since the 1930s is still inflicting widespread pain and underscores one of the biggest threats to the nascent economic recovery: that consumers, worried about job losses and stagnant wages, will restrain spending. Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation’s economy.

Looks like the porkulus bill money didn’t provide all that much stimulus.

Of course, as the financial sector improves, unemployment will too, Right?

Oooops:

Banks With 20% Unpaid Loans at 18-Year High Amid Recovery Doubt

The number of U.S. lenders that can’t collect on at least 20 percent of their loans hit an 18-year high, signaling that more bank failures and losses could slow an economic recovery.

…even more than it already is?

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Economy Recovering or Not so Fast?

Probably not…First the optimism:

Recovery Rally Rolls On

Bernanke, Data Boost Stocks

The markets received a rhetorical lift from Bernanke, who after giving a speech said, “the recession is very likely over at this point.”

“He’s a man who is very cautious in his commentary. He tends to really avoid extreme statements,” said Kenny. “If he’s saying we’re out of the recession, then we’re well out of the recession. This is the most positive he’s been.”

How solid is this? Apparently not too solid.

…Bernanke also warned that “it’s still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time.”

Meanwhile, on a less optimistic note, are these reports from across the big pond of some things that are contra-indicators of an incipient economic boostsomehow overlooked in the US government-affiliated mainstream media:

US credit shrinks at Great Depression rate prompting fears of double-dip recession

Professor Tim Congdon from International Monetary Research said US bank loans have fallen at an annual pace of almost 14pc in the three months to August (from $7,147bn to $6,886bn).

“There has been nothing like this in the USA since the 1930s,” he said. “The rapid destruction of money balances is madness.” The M3 “broad” money supply, watched as an early warning signal for the economy a year or so later, has been falling at a 5pc annual rate.

Similar concerns have been raised by David Rosenberg, chief strategist at Gluskin Sheff, who said that over the four weeks up to August 24, bank credit shrank at an “epic” 9pc annual pace, the M2 money supply shrank at 12.2pc and M1 shrank at 6.5pc.

“For the first time in the post-WW2 [Second World War] era, we have deflation in credit, wages and rents and, from our lens, this is a toxic brew,” he said.

And the point is?

US banks are cutting lending by around 1pc a month. A similar process is occurring in the eurozone, where private sector credit has been contracting and M3 has been flat for almost a year.

Mr Congdon said IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is wrong to argue that the history of financial crises shows that “speedy recovery” depends on “cleansing banks’ balance sheets of toxic assets”. “The message of all financial crises is that policy-makers’ priority must be to stop the quantity of money falling and, ideally, to get it rising again,” he said.

He predicted that the Federal Reserve and other central banks will be forced to engage in outright monetisation of government debt by next year, whatever they say now.

Debt monetisation is basically using newly created money to pay of previously existing debts. In other words, HIGH inflation.

Another more obscure sign that the U.S. and global economy both are all not operating up top speed, and will not be for a while yet:

Revealed: The ghost fleet of the recession

The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination – and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year.

You have to see this article to get a real feel for what they’re talking about, so take alook.

The photos of the laid-up ships looks like the D-Day invasion fleet, which impression is reinforced by satellite position location charts.

This is interesting, and the logic is inescapable…if the goods aren’t being shipped NOW, they won’t be in the stores for Christmas, and if they aren’t in the stores for Christmas, then obviously they won’t be sold. Doesn’t look too good for consumer demand. This CANNOT change…the orders haven’t been placed, and the ships are out of service as a result.

Worth noting once again that none of this is being currently covered in the US state-influenced Main Stream Media.

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Economy Improving? Yeah, right!

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In spite of the optimistic spin on the current economy from the B.O. administration, and others of their ilk in D.C. and the state-directed media, everything is far from hunky-dory.

1,000 Banks to Fail In Next Two Years: Bank CEO

The US banking system will lose some 1,000 institutions over the next two years, said John Kanas, whose private equity firm bought BankUnited of Florida in May. “We’ve already lost 81 this year,” Kanas told CNBC. “The numbers are climbing every day. Many of these institutions nobody’s ever heard of. They’re smaller companies.”

Failed banks tend to be smaller and private, which exacerbates the problem for small business borrowers, said Kanas, who became CEO of BankUnited when his firm bought the bank and is the former chairman and CEO of North Fork bank.

“Government money has propped up the very large institutions as a result of the stimulus package,” he said. “There’s really very little lifeline available for the small institutions that are suffering.”

…not exactly a sign of a roaring recovery, is it? And thern there is this:

Real US unemployment rate at 16 pct: Fed official

The real US unemployment rate is 16 percent if persons who have dropped out of the labor pool and those working less than they would like are counted, a Federal Reserve official said Wednesday. “If one considers the people who would like a job but have stopped looking — so-called discouraged workers — and those who are working fewer hours than they want, the unemployment rate would move from the official 9.4 percent to 16 percent, said Atlanta Fed chief Dennis Lockhart….

Lockhart pointed out in a speech to a chamber of commerce in Chattanooga, Tennessee that those two categories of people are not taken into account in the Labor Department’s monthly report on the unemployment rate. The official July jobless rate was 9.4 percent.

Lockhart, who heads the Atlanta, Georgia, division of the Fed, is the first central bank official to acknowledge the depth of unemployment amid the worst US recession since the Great Depression.

Again…it ain’t that pretty at all.

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SD Bank Busted

The bum economy is evidently making an appearance in South Dakota.

BankFirst of Sioux Falls, South Dakota closes

U.S. bank regulators closed BankFirst of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Friday, the 55th U.S. bank to fail this year as the struggling economy and falling home prices take their toll on financial institutions.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said BankFirst had $275 million in assets and $254 million in deposits. The failure is expected to cost the FDIC deposit insurance fund an estimated $91 million.

Alerus Financial, National Association of Grand Forks, North Dakota, agreed to assume all of the deposits of BankFirst, whose two branches will reopen on Monday, the regulator said.

The FDIC said BankFirst’s Sioux Falls location will operate as a branch of First Dakota National Bank of Yankton, South Dakota.

Sign of the times – it ain’t that pretty at all.

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The Soprano Administration

Gangster government gave Chrysler to the UAW

Give President Obama credit – he at least made the proverbial offer Chrysler’s secured creditors couldn’t refuse. The way Obama strong-armed creditors who rightfully expected to be treated justly under the law was right out of Juan Peron’s playbook. Like the Argentinian strong man, Obama muscled the owners and creditors out of a productive private company and gave it to union leaders, who will then fill his campaign coffers in gratitude for his generosity. The Examiner’s Michael Barone – who has forgotten more about American government and politics than most Washington political experts know – was correct to dub Obama’s Chrysler heist “an episode of Gangster Government.”

Another example of this that comes to mind is the “aristocracy of pull” described by Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged.

Forget what anybody in the White House or what is left of the Chrysler executive corps claims to the contrary because the UAW effectively owns the company now, holding 55 percent of its stock. True, the union doesn’t get an explicit controlling majority of the board of directors, but who needs that when you’ve got the White House guaranteeing your work and the U.S. Treasury Department making sure you never have to worry about the bottom line. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger’s place in Big Labor’s Hall of Fame is now secure. He found a sugar daddy with an endless supply of cash. So UAW members and retirees can keep right on drawing those pay and benefits so excessively generous they made it impossible for the old Chrysler to compete with Toyota and Honda.

What next? One shudders to consider the possible (probable?) course.

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Creeping – no, Galloping Fascism

Every picture tells a story…and it ain’t that pretty at all:

Il Duce, Redux?

Trying to handle the crisis, the Fascist government nationalized the holdings of large banks which had accrued significant industrial securities. The government also issued new securities to provide a source of credit for the banks and began enlisting the help of various cartels…. The government offered recognition and support to these organizations in exchange for promises that they would manipulate prices in accordance with government priorities. A number of mixed entities were formed… whose purpose it was to bring together representatives of the government and of the major businesses.… This economic model based on a partnership between government and business was soon extended to the political sphere, in what came to be known as corporatism.… The Fascists began to impose significant tariffs and other trade barriers.… Various banking and industrial companies were financially supported by the state.… [The national leader] created the [New Governmental Entity]….[which soon] controlled 20% of [the nation’s] industry through government-linked companies.… [The national leader] also adopted a Keynesian policy of government spending on public works to stimulate the economy.… Public works spending tripled to overtake defense spending as the largest item of government expenditure.

As much as that description sounds like U.S. government policy begun under George W. Bush and now greatly expanding under Barack Obama, the above passage of course describes the economics of fascist Italy in the 1930s, as summed up by Wikipedia. (A quick Google search produces plenty of similar summaries of “economic fascism.”) Furthermore, “The Fascist conception of life,” Mussolini wrote, “stresses the importance of the State and accepts the individual only in so far as his interests coincide with the State. It is opposed to classical liberalism [which] denied the State in the name of the individual; Fascism reasserts the rights of the State as expressing the real essence of the individual.”

Entered as a case in point about the direction B.O. is taking us:

U.S. Plans Key Role In Naming GM Board

The Obama administration will play a key role in reshaping General Motors’ board of directors over the next six months, potentially giving it even greater control in the management of the storied American manufacturer.

The president’s auto task force plans to consult with the company as it replaces a majority of its board, a White House official said. The board today largely consists of the current and former chiefs of major U.S. corporations such as Coca-Cola, Ernst & Young, Pfizer and Eastman Kodak. It is not known which of the 12 board members will leave.

The president said Monday that “the United States government has no interest in running GM.” But in practice it is already exerting tremendous influence over it, a situation that has triggered fierce debate over how much power the government should wield over the companies that it aids.

Is there a connection between the involvement of the Chrysler rescue with a deal with the Italian Fiat? That’s a rich potential source of grist for the mills of the blogosphere. Surely there couldn’t REALLY be anything but coincidence here…could there?

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Russia now a “Gold Bug”

Russia backs return to Gold Standard to solve financial crisis

Historical notes: The “Gold Bugs” were McKinley supporters, who, along with the President were strong advocates for the gold standard.

Russia has become the first major country to call for a partial restoration of the Gold Standard to uphold discipline in the world financial system.

Arkady Dvorkevich, the Kremlin’s chief economic adviser, said Russia would favour the inclusion of gold bullion in the basket-weighting of a new world currency based on Special Drawing Rights issued by the International Monetary Fund.

Admittedly, Russia has it’s own interests in mind, as a major gold producer, but still, it’s richly (pun alert!) ironic that the former and still quasi-Red state is in a position to instruct the U.S. on how to manage a stable currency in a world market system.

One has to wonder whether Marx, Lenin, McKinley, or Hamilton are spinning in their grave faster.

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New Plan, Bad Plan

Geithner rescue package ‘robbery of the American people’

The US government plan to free beleaguered banks of up to $1 trillion (£690bn) of toxic assets will expose American taxpayers to too much risk, leading economist Joseph Stiglitz has cautioned.

The Nobel Prize-winning economist, speaking a day after the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by almost 7pc in support of the novel public-private partnership (PPIP), said that the plan is “very flawed” and “amounts to robbery of the American people.”

Professor Stiglitz on Tuesday led a list of well-known economists and high-profile industry figures who have said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s toxic asset plan may not be as successful as it first seems.

Based on the record, why should anything BUT this be expected?

Constitution Watch

B.O. Moves to Tighten the Ratchet of Power

U.S. Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms

The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.

The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.

Giving the Treasury secretary authority over a broader range of companies would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process. The Treasury secretary, a member of the president’s Cabinet, would exercise the new powers in consultation with the White House, the Federal Reserve and other regulators, according to the document.[Emphasis added]

B.O. and company are nothing if not consistent. The overarching theme of the administration thus far has been an unrelenting series of policies and edicts aimed at increasing the arbitrary power of the executive at the expense of anyone or anything that could possibly get in their way, and to hell with the trivialities of observing the Constitution.

What adds the true touch of surrealistic quality is the accompaniment of B.O.’s best Alfred E. Neuman “What, me worry?” grin, and giggles while being interviewed on 60 Minutes (among other venues), about the continuing monetary soap opera.

Unfortunately, the joke’s on us, since we’ll get to pay for it all, one way or another.

Constitution Watch

Congress: “We don’t need no steenkin’ Constitution!”

House passes bill taxing fat AIG and other bonuses

Denouncing a “squandering of the people’s money,” lawmakers voted decisively Thursday to impose a 90 percent tax on millions of dollars in employee bonuses paid by troubled insurance giant AIG and other bailed-out companies.

In some cases the bonuses might be taxed 100 percent leaving the recipients with nothing.

So, what’s wrong with this picture?

From TechLawJournal.com

Bill of Attainder

Definition: A legislative act that singles out an individual or group for punishment without a trial.

The Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 9, paragraph 3 provides that: “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law will be passed.

“The Bill of Attainder Clause was intended not as a narrow, technical (and therefore soon to be outmoded) prohibition, but rather as an implementation of the separation of powers, a general safeguard against legislative exercise of the judicial function or more simply – trial by legislature.” U.S. v. Brown, 381 U.S. 437, 440 (1965).

“These clauses of the Constitution are not of the broad, general nature of the Due Process Clause, but refer to rather precise legal terms which had a meaning under English law at the time the Constitution was adopted. A bill of attainder was a legislative act that singled out one or more persons and imposed punishment on them, without benefit of trial. Such actions were regarded as odious by the framers of the Constitution because it was the traditional role of a court, judging an individual case, to impose punishment.” William H. Rehnquist, The Supreme Court, page 166.

“Bills of attainder, ex post facto laws, and laws impairing the obligations of contracts, are contrary to the first principles of the social compact, and to every principle of sound legislation. … The sober people of America are weary of the fluctuating policy which has directed the public councils. They have seen with regret and indignation that sudden changes and legislative interferences, in cases affecting personal rights, become jobs in the hands of enterprising and influential speculators, and snares to the more-industrious and less-informed part of the community.” James Madison, Federalist Number 44, 1788.

The Constitutional standard is clear…what’s not understandible to the Chief is the brazen disregard of that standard by a majority of the legislative lawmakers lawbreakers.

The House, and (probably soon the Senate) has pretty effectively demonstrated either their total ignorance of the Constitution (that they are allegedly sworn to uphold) or their total lack of concern for it’s provisions in the midst of their overwhelming desire to indulge in a legislative tantrum to impress the voters that they’re looking out for the little guy. The Chief isn’t sure which, if either of these, is worse than the other.  Either one is a poor commentary on the current state of our national legislooters.

Hey, I don’t like the bonus deal either…but let’s be real about this: if we really want to punish those evil executives – LET THEIR COMPANIES GO BANKRUPT! If the government didn’t give out the bailout money to start with, this whole situation would be non-existent. THAT would be a market system at work, not the fascistic pattern of government-corporate incestuous politics, favors, special interests, insider deals, etc. that has evolved over the last century

This is NOT a partisan issue. Many GOP’ers are just as bad as a lot of the Donkey Party denizens. On the other hand, there are some on both sides of the aisle (not enough these days!) that are still capable of reading the Constitution.

The Chief sends kudos to those who are still trying to uphold the Constitution, and would invoke the curses of heaven and hell upon the heads of the others.

F.E.T.E.

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Signs of the Times: Obamaville Settlements

Sacramento tent city is just one of dozens in an ailing America

A revival of a part of the not-so-good old days of the Depression of the 1930’s. “It ain’t that pretty at all!”

Across America, from Washington State to Nevada, Georgia and even Florida, homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the biggest rise in homeless encampments in a generation, as the US economy takes a spectacular plunge….

The economic figures behind her call for community action have been relentless. The recession, which began as a crisis of homeowners unable to pay their mortgages but has spread to every part of the economy, took away 650,000 Americans’ jobs for a record third straight month in February as unemployment climbed to a 25-year peak of 8.1 per cent. Around 12.5 million people are looking for work – more than the population of the state of Pennsylvania. No one is immune: the jobless rate for college graduates has hit its highest point.

The result is a proliferation of tent cities, such as the one in Sacramento. While it is the best-known shantytown in America – thanks mostly to an Oprah Winfrey special on the “new faces of the homeless” last month – it is only one of dozens. California, with its milder weather, has always attracted its fair share of people living on the streets. But the Golden State is being hit hard by the recession. In February it had the highest number of repossession filings – 80,775 – of anywhere in the US, up 51 per cent in a year according to the website RealtyTrac. Auction sale notices almost tripled to 18,831.

The outcome of the various bail-out and stimulus porkulus efforts may alleviate the situation in the short term, but reality will once again raise its ugly head and rub our noses in the harsh reality that we cannot, on an individual or national level, continually live beyond our means. The inevitable inescapable correction will be worse, the longer it is staved off.

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ChiCom Econ Blues with Blowback to U.S.

China nears deflation trap as rail freight collapses

Economic travails are not just an American phenomenon.

Railway freight in China’s Shanghai region plunged 31pc in January and industrial production fell 12pc, dashing hopes that Beijing’s stimulus policies will soon begin to fuel recovery.

The country’s central bank said the economic outlook was going to bad to worse was still gathering pace, rains the risk that China could tip into a Japan-style deflation trap.

“External demand is shrinking, some sectors have overcapacity, and urban unemployment is rising. Downward pressure on economic growth is increasing. There exists a big risk of deflation,” said the bank. Factory gate inflation has dropped to minus 3.3pc. Emphasis added.

…uh…NEGATIVE inflation…that sure looks like deflation to me.

And Hilary was just there begging them to keep on buying U.S. bonds?  Yeah. Right.

We’d be better to “batten down the hatches and rig for heavy seas”, to apply an appropriate bit of naval terminology…the Chief is guessing that under the circumstances the ChiComs just might have other things on their mind than propping up our deficit spending.

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Change – You better believe it!

Consumer confidence plummets to new low in Feb.

A private research group says consumer confidence sank to new lows in February as Americans grow more fearful over massive job cuts and shrinking retirement accounts.

The New York-based Conference Board says its Consumer Confidence Index, which had decreased slightly in January, plummeted in February to 25, down from a revised reading of 37.4 last month.

That was well below the 35.5 level economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected. The reading is again at its lowest point since the index began in 1967.

A year ago, the index stood at 76.4.

“Every picture tells a story, don’t it?” ’nuff said.

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Change – Can You Believe It?

The Day the Muzak Died

Not really political – except that almost anything economic can be political at some level – but surely this deserves some recognition as being a sort of cultural watershed of some kind.

There were mixed feelings when Muzak Holdings LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this month. Most reactions ranged from surprise (does Muzak still exist?) to snobbish relief (they should have driven a stake through its canned heart long ago). But some of us felt a real pang, as memories flooded in on the wave of news about the possible disappearance of yet another pipeline to the past.

Not to fear…the probable reason for the demise is the massive inundation of background noise, far in excess and variety compared to Muzak. This is NOT necessarily an improvement…a thought that is noted in the cited article also.

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Schumer Hoist on Own Petard!

1 Comment

Schumer’s Second Thoughts (Or: This Is Why Reading Legislation Before Voting Is a Good Idea)

Sen. Schumer has pledged to undo a provision included in the stimulus package that will make it nearly impossible for New York’s banks to hire foreign workers through the H-1B visa program….

According to a report released last year by the Partnership for New York City, roughly 13,000 workers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are here on H-1B visas. The top visa sponsors in the area are the very same banks that have received TARP money. Those banks also have significant overseas operations, says Kathy Wylde, and this provision will hurt most when the economy turns around and the banks look to hire talent to tap new markets.

“When they require someone with a language or other skill who they feel is the best person for the job, if they can’t bring them to New York, they will move the function,” says Wylde. “That’s what’s happened in the past when we’ve had a shortage of the H-1B visas.”

Too bad. Schumer outsmartassed himself this time! His karma ran over his dogma.

National Insecurity

More Financial Follies

1 Comment

Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown

With Americans from President B.O. on down focused on our own fiscal and economic woes, it’s easy tio forget about what might be transpiring in the rest of the world. Unfortunately, dire circumstances across the pond can impinge severely on what can happen here.

Like it or not, the United States has always been involved in global economics, even before the turn of the century – of 1800 no less – with Yankee traders actively involved in trade with China, Europe, the Mediterranean (remember the bit about the North African Barbary pirates?), and Africa. The more things change, the more they stay the same, and U.S. business is still up to its eyeballs in international trade.

As a result, severe problems overseas inevitably will have a kickback to us here, so the possible critical mass chain reaction setting up from Eastern Europe into the heart of the E.U. could do nothing at all beneficial for our own situation. Just what we need…something else to be worried about…not even that we are in a position to DO anything to help the situation.

So what’s it mean to South Dakota?  Anyone ever hear of ag exports?

The unfolding debt drama in Russia, Ukraine, and the EU states of Eastern Europe has reached acute danger point

If mishandled by the world policy establishment, this debacle is big enough to shatter the fragile banking systems of Western Europe and set off round two of our financial Götterdämmerung.

It’s worth noting that there is an alternate way to communicate the concept involved in Götterdämmerung – Armageddon.

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RINO Joins Socialist Caucus

Sen. Graham Open to ‘Nationalizing the Banks’

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina of the Senate Budget Committee said today on “This Week” that he is open to “nationalizing the banks.”

“I think if you put most of our major banks under a ‘stress test,’ they’re going to fail,” Graham told me.

“This idea of nationalizing bank is not comfortable but I think we have got so many toxic assets spread throughout the banking and financial community throughout the world that we’re going to have to do something that no one ever envisioned a year ago, no one likes,” he said.

“To me banking and housing are the root cause of this program,” Graham said. “I would not take off [the table] the idea of nationalizing the banks.”

With RINOs like Sen Lindsey Graham-cracker, who needs Donks?

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Note from a Republican in Exile

Governor Romney’s Remarks to the House Republican Conference Retreat

This was presented by the Governor to the House GOP, right after they said “Thanks, but no thanks!” to B.O.’s & the Donk Congs’ bloated bailout bill.

Just a few highlights:

This is a time of hardship and uncertainty for millions of Americans. The question is: whose leadership and ideas will turn things around. And in such a moment, it’s our job to offer the clear answers, the proven solutions, and resolute leadership that will make this country strong again.

The new President and the Congressional majority are having a difficult time doing that. After all, they have a lot of campaign rhetoric to make good on. And they’ve got plenty of special interests to pay back. As the opposition party, we’re entirely free to do what is right for the country. There are certain advantages to that kind of freedom, and I suggest we make the most of them….

That begins with a clear analysis of what’s needed to get the economy moving again. Predictions that we are almost out of the woods, based on the length of prior recessions, are wishful thinking. Americans have lost some 11 trillion dollars in net worth. That translates into about 400 billion dollars less annual consumer spending in the economy.

There’s something else people don’t talk much about: The pool of investment capital—all the money available for new investments, business start-ups, business expansions, capital expenditures, and new hiring. The size of that pool has shrunk by trillions of dollars. This was a huge loss in value, and the effect could be felt for years—in businesses that don’t start up or grow, in jobs that don’t get created….

We’re on an economic tightrope. That’s why it is so important to exercise extreme care and good judgment. So far, the Democratic leadership hasn’t shown a great deal of that. They’ve passed 355 billion in infrastructure spending, 60% of which won’t be spent by the end of 2010. Billions for electronic medical health records—it’s a fine idea, but it won’t produce jobs for years and years.

Even worse are the liberal payoffs—50 million dollars for the National Endowment for the Arts, hundreds of millions of dollars to the states for STD prevention and education. Until your loud protests got it dropped from the bill, there even was 200 million dollars for the DC Mall. That might have grown some grass, but it wouldn’t have grown the economy. And they’re doing this when the economy is on a tightrope….

We need to stimulate the economy, not the government. (emphasis added) A true stimulus package, one that respects the productivity and genius of the American people, could lift this country out of recession. And experience shows us what it should look like.

First, there are two ways you can put money into the economy, by spending more or by taxing less. But if it’s stimulus you want, taxing less works best….

Second, any new spending must be strictly limited to projects that are essential. How do we define essential? Well, a good rule is that the projects we fund in a stimulus should be legitimate government priorities that would have been carried out in the future anyway, and are simply being moved up to create those jobs now….

Third, sending out rebate checks to citizens and businesses is not a tax cut. The media bought this line so far, but they’ve got it wrong. Checks in the mail are refunds, not tax cuts. We tried rebate checks last year and they did virtually nothing to jump-start the economy….

Fourth, if we’re going to tax less and spend more to get the economy moving, then we have to make another commitment as well. As soon as this economy recovers, we have to regain control over the federal budget, and above all, over entitlement spending. This is more important than most people are willing to admit….

Fifth, we must begin to recover from the enormous losses in the capital investment pool. And the surest, most obvious way to get that done is to send a clear signal that there will be no tax increases on investment and capital gains….

And finally, let’s exercise restraint in the size of the stimulus package. Without restraint, it may grow as the days go by. Last year, with the economy already faltering, I proposed a stimulus of 233 billion dollars. The Washington Post said, and I quote: “Romney’s plan is way too big.” So what critique do they have for the size of the Democrat’s package? I’m afraid they’ve caught a bad case of liberal laryngitis. It’s everywhere these days.

In the final analysis, we know that only the private sector—entrepreneurs and businesses large and small—can create the millions of jobs our country needs. The invisible hand of the market always moves faster and better than the heavy hand of government.

The difference between us and the Democrats is this: they want to stimulate the government, and we want to stimulate the economy.

Sounds a LOT better to the Chief than most of what spews forth from the banks of the Potomac these days.

The Governor goes on and also comments on other issues…healthcare, the union card-check scam, abortion funding, and the status of GITMO and the war on Islamoterrorism.

Too bad that Romney wasn’t carrying the banner in November instead of The Manchurian Candidate.

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B.O. Bail Out B.S.

10 Reasons to Whack Obama’s Stimulus Plan

Some people are going to oppose President Obama’s ginormous stimulus package just because they’re on a different political team. But when you look at the economic evidence, it sure seems like an economic recovery package that’s heavy on government spending and light on tax cuts is just the opposite of what we should be doing right now.

Following are the 10 reasons noted…all from economics heavy hitters…including from within the B.O. administration. But is B.O. listining? From all evidence to date, not really, all’s the worse for the country.

SD Politics

Under the TARP

Senators switch stances on federal bailout

Three months after splitting their votes on the $700 billion bank bailout, South Dakota Sens. Tim Johnson and John Thune are poised to swap sides on whether to release the second $350 billion installment to the U.S. Treasury.

Thune, a Republican, originally voted in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) while Johnson, a Democrat, originally voted against it.

A couple of thoughts on this:
Firstly, Johnson won his re-election, so he can climb back on board the Obamanation juggernaut of state without fear of the consequences, in spite of the poor record racked up by the previous applications of “bail-out” funding.

Thune on the other hand is showing the possibility that he is educable…inclining at least in the direction of John Maynard Keynes observation about changing one’s mind when the facts change.

But after seeing how the Bush administration spent the first half, Thune said he’s leaning against letting President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming administration spend the rest.

Thune said he’s unhappy that President Bush loaned $17.4 billion from the fund to Chrysler and General Motors to help them avoid bankruptcy.

Others have complained that the TARP fund has been used to recapitalize financial institutions rather than buying their troubled assets as initially planned. Banks have used the money to bolster their bottom lines, not to make more loans.

Sen. Johnson is no doubt beyond hope, but the Chief hopes that Sen. Thune continues to move into the opposition to what IMHO has turned out to be corporate welfare on the grandest, and most abusive scale in the history of the Republic.