Thursday, December 1, 2011

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, December 1, 2011


Ho! Ho! Ho!

Merrrrrry December...!

Merrrrrry December...!!!
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5 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204012004577072002296732474.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection

The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose...

(*BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE WALL*)

* HERE WE GO AGAIN! "UNEXPECTEDLY." YEAH... RIGHT...

(*SMIRK*) (*SNICKER*)

* FUNNY HOW ALL THE BAD NEWS IS ALWAYS "UNEXPECTED."

(*SMIRK GROWING BIGGER*) (*SNORT*)

December 1, 2011 at 3:06 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/11/29/morning-bell-how-the-epa-may-cost-you-thousands/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

The cost of a new car in America is set to explode, skyrocketing by thousands of dollars, all thanks to a new regulation proposed by President Barack Obama’s EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

(*SIGH*)

Under a new 893-page proposal unveiled last week, automakers must hit a fleet-wide fuel economy average of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025 - double today’s 27.3 standard.

* ONE QUESTION: I NOTE THE WORD "PROPOSAL." IS THE REGULATION A DONE DEAL OR NOT?

The government says it would cost automakers $8.5 billion per year to comply, which means a spike in sticker prices of at least $2,000 to $2,800, according to official projections. (Other estimates peg the added costs at $3,100, and that could go even higher.) As The Wall Street Journal writes, “Vehicles that currently cost $15,000 or less will effectively be regulated out of existence.”

Apart from increased costs, Heritage’s Diane Katz warns, "In past years, the structure of the regulations induced automakers to dramatically downsize some vehicles to meet the standard, which increased traffic fatalities by the thousands. The new standards would require downsizing to both small and large models, which the government contends will neutralize the risk."

"However," Katz continued, "the NHTSA and the EPA disagree on the extent of the risk, while outside experts say that the danger would be heightened by the extreme stringency of the proposed standards."

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

While consumers struggle to pay the price of higher cost vehicles, U.S. automakers would likely take a hit as well. They would be forced to change the lineup of vehicles they offer in order to meet their fuel efficiency targets, and they would produce cars and trucks that Americans don’t even want. The Wall Street Journal explains: "The only way Detroit can hit these averages will be by turning at least 25% of its fleet into hybrids. But hybrid sales peaked in the U.S. two years ago at 3% of the market and are declining."

The EPA’s $157 billion price tag includes only the estimate of what manufacturers will have to invest in new technology, not the billions more that will hemorrhage when nobody buys their EPA-approved products.

(*SHRUG*)

* I'VE GOTTA SAY... I'M HAPPY WITH THE 29-PLUS MPG THAT MY NEW (2011) HYUNDAI SONATA 2.0T GETS.

December 1, 2011 at 4:12 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/girl-pummeled-inside-detroit-school-bathroom-20111130-ms

* LITTLE SAVAGES BECOME BIG SAVAGES... JUST SAYIN'...

A teenage girl is battered and beaten inside a Detroit school restroom while other girls watch and record the whole thing. However, this isn't the first time this girl has been assaulted at school. Her family says administrators know about the fighting and chose to look the other way.

* GOD BLESS OUR... er... EDUCATORS. PERHAPS RAISES ALL AROUND ARE WARRANTED?!

(*SMIRK*) (*SNICKER*)

School is supposed to be about reading, writing and arithmetic, but inside the walls of Detroit's Ludington Middle School a bathroom has been used as a backdrop for brutal teenage brawls.

It's a game called "30 Seconds," but no one is playing. One eighth grader pummels another while a group of girls stand by egging it on - taping and timing it.

* AH... DETROIT... THAT LIBERAL MECCA OF PROGRESSIVE GOVERNMENT!

"This happened during school at eight o'clock in the morning. Where was security, the staff, teachers? You do not notice that 15 of your kids are gone out of a classroom?" said Arletha Newby.

* TO PARAPHRASE AL GORE, "AN INCONVENIENT QUESTION."

(*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)

December 1, 2011 at 5:29 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/exchequer/284557/fed-pursuing-our-interest-or-banks-interests

The Fed signals that it intends to hitch our national wagon to Europe just as Europe is going over the edge, and the Dow jumps 4%. Maybe I’m missing something.

* NOPE. JUST BUSINESS AS USUAL. OLIGARCHY FOR THE OLIGARHS; KLEPTOCRACY FOR THE KLEPTOCRATS!

All that Bernanke & Co. did yesterday was to lower the dollar-financing cost for banks in Europe, where inter-bank lending is locking up - for good reason.

* YEP! IN OTHER WORDS, THE "LOCKING UP" IS THE SYSTEM TRYING TO HEAL ITSELF IN LINE WITH ACTUAL FINANCIAL REALITIES; THE BERNANKE "FIX" IS MEANT TO ALLOW EUROPE TO KICK THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD!

Europe’s problem is not its banks and their access to dollars. Europe’s banks are in trouble because European government bonds are in trouble, and European government bonds are in trouble because European governments are in trouble. European governments are in trouble because they spend too much money.

The Fed can’t change that, and hasn’t tried.

* AH... BUT THE FED CAN ENRICH EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN BANKERS AND FINANCEERS BY POURING GASOLINE ON THE FIRE!

The question is: What is the Fed thinking? Is it looking out for the United States, or is it looking out for the banks?

* COM'ON... RHETORICAL QUESTION!

The ungenerous interpretation of the Fed’s action goes like this: Everybody knows the jig is up, but lo these many years after the 2008 crisis, trillions in bailouts later, the banks are still in weak shape, we haven’t really reformed our financial rules, there’s insufficient transparency to really know what kind of shape everybody is in, and the world’s biggest banks just got downgraded on Tuesday. We’re buying time and hoping for the best, and giving all our favorite bankers an extra little margin of error to get their acts together before the big kaboom gets heard ’round the world.

[H]ere is what is beyond debate: Europe has not solved its fiscal problems. Europe shows no sign of being on the verge of solving its fiscal problems. Europe shows no sign that it wants to solve its fiscal problems. If Ben Bernanke is having “in for a penny, in for a pound” thoughts, he needs to think again; we do not have the resources to bail out Europe, and nobody has the resources to bail out the United States.

Congress should make it clear - today- that the Fed’s mandate does not extend to bailing out Europe’s banks and Europe’s governments. This is especially true after the secrecy and unaccountability with which it conducted the $7.7 trillion shadow bailout on top of TARP.

* THE AUTHOR IS CORRECT... BUT TO NO AVAIL. CONGRESS WILL NOT ACT.

December 1, 2011 at 6:17 PM
Mike D said...

"In past years, the structure of the regulations induced automakers to dramatically downsize some vehicles to meet the standard, which increased traffic fatalities by the thousands. The new standards would require downsizing to both small and large models, which the government contends will neutralize the risk" - Well, I guess this would work if everyone had to buy a new vehicle. I sure wouldn't want to be in one of the new "small models" and run up against a 2012 Denali or F250. It's all well and good if it is just a city vehicle, but at highway speeds... at least you could be buried in it as it would end up the size of a coffin.

December 1, 2011 at 9:44 PM

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