Well... on the bright side I picked up this coming weekend's beer supply in anticipation of...
(*DRUM ROLL*)
The Coming of Ted...!
Yep! This Sunday marks the 49th Annual Pearl River, NY St. Paddy's Day Parade! As always, Ted's coming down to join in the festivities!
The world may be in chaos... but we persevere!
5 comments:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/debt-jumped-72-billion-same-day-house-vo
The national debt jumped by $72 billion on Tuesday even as the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution to fund the government for just three weeks that will cut $6 billion from government spending.
If Congress were to cut $6 billion every three weeks for the next 36 weeks, it would manage to save between now and late November as much money as the Treasury added to the nation’s net debt during just the business hours of Tuesday, March 15.
(*HEADACHE*)
At the close of business on Monday, according to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt, the total national debt stood at $14.166 trillion ($14,166,030,787,779.80). At the close of business Tuesday, the debt stood at $14.237 trillion ($14,237,952,276,898.69), an increase of $71.9 billion ($71,921,489,118.89).
Since the beginning of fiscal year 2011- which began on Oct. 1, 2010 - the national debt has climbed from $13.5616 trillion ($13,561,623,030,891.79) to $14.2379 trillion ($14,237,952,276,898.69) an increase of $676.3 billion ($676,329,246,006.90).
Congress would need to cut spending by $6 billion every three weeks for approximately the next six and a half years (338 weeks) just to equal the $676.3 billion the debt has increased thus far this fiscal year.
* FOLKS... I ALWAYS TRY TO CONFIRM CNS NEWS STORIES PRIOR TO POSTING THEM. WHILE I CAN'T FIND ANY MAJOR NEWS ORGAN STRAIGHT OUT REPORTING WHAT CNS IS REPORTING HERE (NOT IN THE SAME DIRECT FASHION AT LEAST), A QUICK GOOGLING SHOWS THAT TREASURY IS INDEED ISSUING ANOTHER $72 BILLION IN BONDS.
http://blog.heritage.org/2011/03/17/morning-bell-how-many-trillions-must-we-waste-on-the-war-on-poverty/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell
[In 1964] the American welfare state was still relatively small, consuming only 1.2% of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP).
[In 1964] the American family was also still intact, with 93% of children born into stable families.
* WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT... (*DRUM ROLL*):
But then President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty happened.
Forty-five years and $16 trillion later, thanks to big government, poverty is winning.
Thanks to over $900 billion a year (over 5% of GDP) of spending on over 70 means-tested welfare programs spread over 13 government agencies, more than 40 million Americans currently receive food stamps, poverty is higher today than it was in the 1970s, and 40% of all children are born outside of marriage.
* ANYONE WANNA TELL ME AMERICA'S NOT IN DECLINE...?
Since he moved into the White House, President Barack Obama has only doubled down on the War on Poverty’s failure. His fiscal year (FY) 2011 budget would have increased spending on programs for "the poor" 42% above FY 2008 levels.
Looking past the current recession, President Obama’s budget would spend over $10.3 trillion on means-tested welfare programs over the next 10 years.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* AND BTW, FOLKS... AS YOU KNOW... I'M ALSO AGAINST MIDDLE CLASS ENTITLEMENT GROWTH; INDEED, MIDDLE CLASS ENTITLEMENTS NEED TO BE CUT.
But didn’t we already “end welfare as we know it” in the ’90s?
* IN A WORD... (*DRUMROLL*):
No.
President Obama’s failed economic stimulus bill completely gutted the 1996 welfare reforms.
* FOR CONFIRMATION OF THIS FACT, SEE: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/02/11/stimulus-bill-abolishes-welfare-reform/ (AND OF COURSE FEEL FREE TO DO YOUR OWN INDEPENDENT RESEARCH.)
If we want to avoid becoming a European-style welfare state, we must abandon President Obama’s [welfare spending] "surge" and return to the type of common-sense welfare reform that proved so successful in the ’90s.
(*NOD*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703386704576186753180847930.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
An unprecedented number of Americans are borrowing against their 401(k)s, canceling their life insurance policies, and forgoing physicals.
* THIS OP-ED IS PENNED BY MORT ZUCKERMAN. WHILE HE DOESN'T PROVIDE CITATIONS, I'M ASSUMING THE PROPER FACT-CHECKING WAS PERFORMED. IN ANY CASE, THAT'S MY ASSUMPTION.
* CONTINUING...
And that isn't all. The American consumer today is fearful of the impact of higher food prices, higher gasoline prices, higher insurance costs, higher everything. The inflation of food and fuel alone has absorbed the December tax cuts agreed to by Congress and the administration.
* AND WE AIN'T SEEN NOTHING, YET, KIDS! THE REAL INFLATION IS YET TO REALLY HIT THE CONSUMER PIPELINE!
[H]ouseholds are still carrying far too much debt on their balance sheets.
Relative to income, debt today is approximately twice as high for families as it was in the 1980s.
Total borrowing in relation to disposable, personal after-tax income leaped to approximately 136% in the first quarter of 2008 from 60% in the early 1980s before it began to recede. It has now declined to 117% of income compared to the pre- bubble norm of 70%.
[D]ebt-to-asset ratio in relation to household assets is currently 20%, but the pre-bubble norm was 12.5%.
The savings rate, which had averaged 8.6% during the 1980s and 5.5% in the 1990s, dropped to an alarming 2.8% in the 2000s.
* I JUST GOOGLED THE CURRENT PERSONAL SAVINGS RATE; IT'S BETWEEN 5% - 6%.
In a survey taken towards the end of last year by Javelin Strategy & Research, only 45% of households used credit cards in 2010, compared to 56% in 2009, and 87% in 2007.
* THAT'S ACTUALLY GOOD NEWS. (EXTRAPOLATING THAT MOST CREDIT CARD USERS ARE MORONS WHO KEEP BALANCES ON THEIR CARDS...)
[R]eal median household incomes are down over 4% from the 2000-2009 decade, according to recent research conducted by David Rosenberg of the wealth-management firm Gluskin Sheff
[A] recent poll taken by the Pew Research Center [notes that] 9% [of American consumers] have moved in with their families [and that] roughly 25 million unemployed or partially unemployed Americans are focusing on basic necessities. (These 25 million Americans are part of the 42 million Americans on food stamps.)
Job gains for the past three months averaged just 135,000; we need 150,000 a month just to keep pace with population.
(And government figures don't take into account the two million plus discouraged workers who've dropped out of the labor force over the past year and a half and are still unemployed. If counted, the jobless rate would have been 11.5% in February.)
* NOW... HAVING READ THIS, FOLKS, SIT DOWN... TAKE A DEEP BREATH... (IN FACT, POUR YOURSELF A DRINK!)... AND TAKE NOTE OF OLIGARCH ZUCKERMAN'S CLOSING "CAUTION":
Government programs may have provided an early, if minor, lift to the economy...our increasingly anemic recovery may yet require the jolt of a substantial new stimulus.
* FOLKS... YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP! THESE BASTARDS WANT TO CONTINUE SCAVENGING OFF THE ROTTING CORPSE OF OUR ONCE GREAT NATION TILL IT COLLAPSES... (*SIGH*)... BUT AFTER THE OLIGARCHS HAVE TAKEN THEIR PLUNDER OVERSEAS.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703899704576204383282043422.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Almost 30 months after its birth, TARP is far from dead.
More than 550 banks, AIG, GM, Chrysler and others still have approximately $160 billion of taxpayer money outstanding.
* AND YET...
Treasury Secretary Timothy ["the Tax Cheat"] Geithner has called TARP the "most effective government program in recent memory."
(*CONTEMPLATING HOMICIDE*)
* HEY, KIDS... GET A LOAD OF THIS:
Treasury's view is misleading. First, it hides the full story of the government's financial crisis effort, of which TARP is but a minor part. Moreover, Treasury has not been content using rhetoric alone to try to put TARP in the best light. The Special Inspector General for TARP criticized Treasury in October for inadequately disclosing a change in its valuation methodology that reduced a $45 billion loss in AIG to $5 billion, making TARP losses appear smaller than they really are. This data manipulation is only part of a much larger problem with Treasury's representations regarding the supposed success of the bank bailout payments that lie at the heart of TARP.
* FOLKS... IN A SANE WORLD TIM GEITHNER WOULD BE IN PRISON. (THAT SAID... KEEP READING...)
The focus on repayment fails to consider the huge taxpayer costs from non-TARP programs that directly and indirectly enabled many of the large banks to repay their TARP funds. These intertwined programs, operated by the Treasury and the Federal Reserve, dwarf the size of TARP and lack its accountability.
* REMEMBER WHEN GM "REPAID" TARP... USING... er... OTHER TARP FUNDS...?
TARP banks own billions of dollars worth of mortgage backed securities and have remained liquid in part because the Federal Reserve has bought more than $1.1 trillion of these GSE-guaranteed MBS in the securities markets - all outside TARP.
* IN OTHER WORDS, THE GOVERNMENT PAID REAL MONEY - OUR MONEY - FOR WORTHLESS SECURITIES. BASICALLY WE'RE TALKING MONEY LAUNDERING.
The Fed purchased the mortgage backed securities at fair market value, but this value reflects Treasury's bailout and continued support of the GSEs - also done outside of TARP with taxpayer money. ... [T]axpayer-backed government-sponsored entities [Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac] enable the Fed to prop up the market with taxpayer funds, in turn allowing the TARP banks to "repay" their TARP funds.
* HEY, FOLKS... HAVE ANY OF YOU EVER PLAYED THREE CARD MONTY?
(*SNORT*)
TARP was never where the real action was happening. In fact, other Fed and FDIC programs added another $2 trillion of taxpayer money at risk to the 19 stress-tested banks alone, on top of the $1.1 trillion of mortgage backed securities purchased by the Fed. TARP is but one-eighth of that total.
* THE AGE OF BUSHBAMA... (*SIGH*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703818204576206482220073322.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird
The federal rescue of the financial system in 2008 has provided large financial institutions with an unfair advantage in the form of cheaper access to credit, a bailout watchdog warned Thursday.
* THE FOX GUARDING THE HENHOUSE... OLIGARCHS FOR OLIGARCHS. (*SIGH*)
"Absolutely and unambiguously the financial markets believe more than ever that the United States government will step in and save the 'too big to fail' institutions should there be another financial shock," Neil M. Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee.
* WAY TO GO DEMS!
The financial-system rescue plan, known as TARP, was launched by the Bush administration in fall 2008...
* NO NEED TO REMIND ME! YEP... BUSH... SUPPORTED BY OBAMA, PELOSI, REID, GINGRICH, BOEHNER, MCCAIN... AND ON AND ON AND ON...
* AMMO, FOLKS! GUNS AND AMMO! STOCK UP WHILE YOU STILL CAN!
Mr. Barofsky announced in February that he would be leaving his position as the special inspector general for TARP on March 30.
(*SIGH*)
* TIM - THE TAX CHEAT - GEITHNER REMAINS... NEIL - THE HONEST MAN - BAROFSKY STEPS DOWN.
* AGAIN, FOLKS... TELL ME WE'RE NOT A NATION IN DECLINE.
The government safety net provides the motivation to take greater risks than they otherwise would in search of ever-greater profits, Mr. Barofsky added.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD IN DESPAIR AND DISGUST*)
Credit-rating firms are giving these too-big-to-fail institutions higher ratings based on the government's implied guarantee, Mr. Barofsky said. As a result, he said, lenders can give these institutions loans "at a price that does not fully account for the risks created by their behavior."
* SOUND FAMILIAR, FOLKS...???
* FOLKS... TELL ME AGAIN HOW "CRAZY" IT IS TO BELIEVE THERE ARE THOSE IN THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF POWER IN WASHINGTON DELIBERATELY SETTING UP "THE SYSTEM" FOR ANOTHER FALL. CONVINCE ME IT'S "JUST" STUPIDITY.
That effective government subsidy, he said, enables big profits and allows the largest institutions to grow larger while putting small banks at a disadvantage.
* PERHAPS SMALLER BANKS HAVEN'T BEEN CONTRIBUTING ENOUGH TO DEMOCRATIC COFFERS?
The Treasury Department's acting assistant secretary for financial stability, Tim Massad, said TARP has brought stability to the financial system and made the economic recovery possible...
* ECONOMIC RECOVERY...???
* FOLKS... I'M CRYING TOO HARD TO LAUGH.
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