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2010
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June
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- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, June 30, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, June 29, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, June 28, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., June 26 & 27
- Sarah Palin's "Going Rogue" Left Me Cold
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, June 25, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, June 24, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, June 23, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, June 22, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., June 19 & 20
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, June 18, 2010
- A Good Man Passed On Yesterday
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, June 17, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, June 16, 2010
- I Love the WSJ, But Sometimes I Feel Like I'm Read...
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, June 15, 2010
- Why Has Bob Etheridge Not Been Arrested...???
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, June 14, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., June 12 & 13, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, June 11, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, June 10, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, June 9, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, June 8, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, June 7, 2010
- Back from South Carolina!
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June
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About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
9 comments:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/37982580
For American taxpayers, now on the hook for some $145 billion in housing losses connected to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac loans, that amount could be just the tip of the iceberg. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the losses could balloon to $400 billion. And if housing prices fall further, some experts caution, the cost to the taxpayer could hit as much as $1 trillion.
“Some of us who don’t even own homes are paying to support others and their home ownership, and they ask ‘why?’ said Robert J. Shiller, a Yale University economics professor and co-creator of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices.
* I'M WITH SHILLER!
At the crux of the financial crisis, the government took over Fannie and Freddie to avert possible massive losses for banks, money-market funds and, perhaps, most importantly, foreign institutions that purchased billions of Fannie and Freddie debt because of its implied government guarantee. The Chinese, for example, had invested heavily, and the US decided it didn’t want them to take a loss on their investment.
* YEP. WHEN RESPONSIBLE AMERICANS AREN'T SUBSIDIZING IRRESPONSIBLE AMERICANS - COURTESY OF THE DAMNED POLITICIANS - WE'RE SUBSIDIZING THE FRIGG'N RED CHINESE! GREAT! JUST FRIGG'N WONDERFUL!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703964104575335103325554236.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
With a wink of its left eye, the Obama administration tells its liberal base that a year from now the U.S. will be heading for a quick Afghan exit.
"Everyone knows there's a firm date," insists White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.
With a wink of its right, the administration tells Afghanistan, Pakistan, NATO allies and its own military leadership that the July 2011 date is effectively meaningless.
The notion that a major drawdown will begin next year "absolutely has not been decided," says Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
* HELL OF A FOREIGN POLICY, HUH...
Gen. Petraeus won in Iraq because George W. Bush had his back and the people of Iraq, friend as well as foe, knew it.
By contrast, the fact that [in Afghanistan] we have been unable to secure the small city of Marja, much less take on the larger job of Kandahar, is because nobody - right down to the village folk whom we are so sedulously courting with good deeds and restrictive rules of engagement - believes that Barack Obama believes in his own war.
The vacuum in credibility begets the vacuum in power.
* AND SO IT GOES AS THE AGE OF OBAMA CONTINUES TO UNFOLD...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703964104575335242943136462.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
Give Leon Panetta points for candor. The CIA director has offered the frankest assessment to date from the U.S. intelligence community about Iran's nuclear progress...
Appearing on ABC's Sunday show "This Week," Mr. Panetta buried for good the discredited and politically motivated 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which claimed that Iran halted work on nuclear weapons in 2003.
Now the agency, which helped put together that report, believes the Iranians are close to acquiring multiple bombs.
"We think they have enough low-enriched uranium right now for two weapons," Mr. Panetta said. "They do have to enrich it, fully, in order to get there. And we would estimate that if they made that decision, it would probably take a year to get there, probably another year to develop the kind of weapon delivery system in order to make that viable."
He said Iran also continues to develop missiles and warheads.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704103904575336431436202148.html
The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 268.22 points, or 2.7%, to 9870.30, the measure's worst one-day drop since June 4.
* OH, YEAH... ECONOMIC RECOVERY... HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN...
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
* NOT TO SAY THAT THE MARKET WON'T REBOUND 300 POINTS UP ONE DAY THIS WEEK OR NEXT... BUT THAT'S PART OF THE PROBLEM; A HEALTHY MARKET DOESN'T DOWN HUNDREDS OF POINTS ONE DAY AND UP HUNDREDS OF POINTS THE NEXT.
The euro was recently trading at $1.2189, down from $1.2274 late Monday in New York. The U.S. Dollar Index, which tracks the U.S. currency against a basket of six others, jumped 0.6%.
Crude-oil prices fell for a second straight day, off $2.31, or 3%, to $75.94 a barrel, as investors fretted over how a slowdown in China could impact demand for commodities. The decline was the biggest in both dollar and percentage terms for oil since June 4.
* AND THIS IS GOOD! AGAIN, THOUGH... AS I'VE NOTED TIME AND AGAIN, A "HEALTHY" TRADING RANGE FOR OIL WOULD BE BETWEEN $45-$60/BARREL.
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2010/06/28/study-nearly-one-in-five-mortgage-defaults-are-strategic/
A new report estimates that nearly one in five mortgage defaults through the first half of 2009 were “strategic,” where borrowers who appeared to have the capacity to pay their mortgages stopped doing so.
* INSTEAD OF OFFERING BAILOUTS TO DEADBEATS, THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD BE ENSURING THAT SUCH "STRATEGY" IS ILLEGAL AS WELL AS SIMPLY UNETHICAL.
[T]he report finds that strategic default remains heavily concentrated in California, Florida, and western states that have seen the biggest run-up and decline in home prices. Strategic defaulters in California were nearly 80 times higher in the first two quarters of 2009 versus 2005.
* I SAY WE PUT CALIFORNIA ON THE MARKET... PERHAPS CHINA WOULD BUY IT...
(*AMUSED SNORT*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703964104575335480132152948.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_newyork
Gov. David Paterson [of New York] on Monday vetoed hundreds of millions of dollars of spending on education that had been approved hours earlier by Democratic lawmakers.
The governor threatened to reject as much as $1 billion of spending, including politically valuable earmarks for nonprofits, unless lawmakers yielded on several key areas. Topping the list is the governor's demand that lawmakers account for the likelihood that Washington won't bail out the state with extra Medicaid money that had been counted on by Albany.
"It breaks my heart to do it. The only reason why I'm doing this is, otherwise, we're proverbially kicking the can down the road," Mr. Paterson told reporters in Albany, after signing a veto. "But the reality is the day of reckoning for this state has come."
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* WOW... A DEMOCRAT WILLING TO FACE UP TO REALITY... GOD BLESS PATERSON! (NOTE OF COURSE THAT HIS "OPPONENTS" ON THIS ARE HIS FELLOW DEMOCRATS...)
(*SHRUG*)
Since Senate Republicans are signaling they won't supply votes needed for an override, which requires a two-thirds majority in both houses, it appears Democrats will have to bargain with the governor to secure the education money.
All told, spending by the state will probably top off at around $136 billion this year, 1% to 2% more than last year.
* AT A TIME WHEN IT SHOULD BE DOWN 1% TO 2%. (*SIGH*) STILL... GOD BLESS PATERSON FOR HAVING THE BALLS TO FIGHT HIS OWN IRRESPONSIBLE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703964104575334942693439322.html?mod=WSJ_hps_editorsPicks_3
A leading Mexican gubernatorial candidate was killed early Monday in a state bordering Texas, in the highest-level assassination of a politician here since President Felipe Calderón declared war on drug cartels in 2006.
The killing of Rodolfo Torre, who was seen as a shoo-in for governor in Tamaulipas, represents an escalation of the drug traffickers' war against the Mexican state.
"This is an attack not only against one citizen, but against all society; an attack not just on one politician, but against all politicians and our political institutions," Mr. Calderón said in a televised address.
Although lower-level politicians have been killed by drug gangs, the killing of a gubernatorial candidate is a sign that cartels are increasingly willing to fight back against the government.
Mexico's warring cartels have killed 23,000 people since President Calderón took power in December 2006...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704103904575337090621912512.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLEForthNews
Federal regulators on Tuesday denied a request by the Obama administration to withdraw an application for the first national nuclear-waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.
A three-judge Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel said that Energy Secretary Steven Chu doesn't have the power to withdraw the application because 1982 law "does not give the secretary the discretion to substitute his policy for the one established by Congress."
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* WOW... THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION FORCED TO ABIDE BY THE RULE OF LAW - WHO WOULD'VE THUNK IT...?!?!
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-accepts-international-apf-4104246595.html?x=0&.v=2
The United States is accepting help from 12 countries and international organizations in dealing with the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
* AFTER 70 DAYS OF REFUSING HELP...
(*SIGH*)
[Hillary Clinton's] State Department said in a statement Tuesday that the U.S. is working out the particulars of the help that's been accepted.
* SO IN OTHER WORDS... NOTHING HAS PHYSICALLY CHANGED YET.
(*SIGH*)
The identities of all 12 countries and international organizations were not immediately announced.
* AND THIS IS SURPRISING TO WHO...?
(*SMIRK*)
One country was cited in the State Department statement - Japan, which is providing two high-speed skimmers and fire containment boom.
More than 30 countries and international organizations have offered to help with the spill. The State Department hasn't indicated why some offers have been accepted and others have not.
(*SMIRK*0
* FOLKS... YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!
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