Thursday, March 27, 2014
Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, March 27, 2014
Understand, folks, the "entitled class" isn't made up of only those on actual welfare; those employed by government... those whose livings depend upon government contracts... the status quo is good for them... further expansion of government even better for them...
I wish I could say that only idiots would support the likes of a Hillary Rodham Clinton. Unfortunately that's simply not the case. Perceived self-interest is a powerful enticement for most people. "Looking out for number one" is the guiding principle for most folks.
The thing is... it's an illusion. Sure... short term... voting for these scum may seem to make sense. But what of the long term? Look at what these people have done to our country in just the past five years plus?!
This is why I "waste" my time on newsbites. I shouldn't need to make the case - the case makes itself - but I do.
Wake up, people... wake up!
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-26/citigroup-fails-fed-stress-test-as-goldman-bofa-modify-plans.html
* FILE UNDER: "WHAT'S IT MATTER WHEN THE GAME IS RIGGED?"
Citigroup Inc.’s capital plan was among five that failed Federal Reserve stress tests...
* AND YET THEIR DOORS ARE OPEN TODAY!
...while Bank of America Corp. won approval for its first dividend increase since the financial crisis.
* "WON APPROVAL..." (AND YOU THINK THIS IS STILL A CAPITALIST COUNTRY...???)
Citigroup, as well as U.S. units of Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and Banco Santander SA, failed because of concerns about the quality of their processes, the central bank said yesterday in a statement. Zions Bancorporation failed after its capital fell below Fed minimums in a simulation of a severe economic slump.
* AND YET... ALL ARE OPEN FOR BUSINESS TODAY.
* OH... AND BY THE WAY...
Lenders announced more than $60 billion of dividends and stock buybacks after the Fed approved capital plans for 25 of the 30 banks in its annual exam.
(*SHRUG*)
“Things are improving and the banking industry has turned a corner; it just might not be as far along as the market would like,” said Joseph Vitale, a partner at law firm Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP who represents financial firms. “You’ve still got some time to go before the regulators see things as business-as-usual again.”
* THIS... CITIGROUP & COMPANY FAILING THE LATEST FEDERAL STRESS TEST IS... er... "IMPROVEMENT?"
* FOLKS... YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!
The central bank found defects in Citigroup’s planning practices that included areas the Fed flagged before. The regulator expressed concern with the New York-based company’s ability to project losses in “material parts of its global operations” and to reflect all business exposures in its internal stress test. “Taken in isolation, each of the deficiencies would not have been deemed critical enough to warrant an objection, but when viewed together, they raise sufficient concerns regarding the overall reliability of Citigroup’s capital planning process,” the Fed said of the third-largest U.S. bank.
* ...THIRD LARGEST U.S. BANK...
It’s the second time the Fed has failed one of the bank’s capital plans. The last rejection came in 2012 when Vikram Pandit was the CEO and the defeat played a role in Pandit’s ouster later that year a person with knowledge of the board’s discussions said at the time.
“It came as a surprise,” said Michael Scanlon, managing director at Manulife Asset Management in Boston, who helps oversee $3 billion, including shares of Citigroup.
* ANYONE WITH MONEY IN MANULIFE ASSET MANAGEMENT... GET IT OUT! (THEY'RE EASILY SURPRISED!)
(*SMIRK*)
Bank of America and Goldman Sachs saw each of their Tier 1 leverage ratios drop to 3.9% in their original capital plans, below the required 4%. Both firms lowered their requests and were approved, meaning they don’t have to resubmit.
* IMAGE IF THEY'D ACTUALLY PASSED!
(*GUFFAW*)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/report-economic-growth-half-what-president-said-his-policies-would-deliver_786112.html
A new report from the minority side of the Senate Budget Committee finds that "Economic Growth In 2013 Just Half Of What The President Said His Policies Would Deliver."
Here's a chart based on data from the Office of Management and Budget and the Bureau of Economic Analysis showing the committee's findings: http://www.weeklystandard.com/sites/all/files/images/image003_2.jpg
The chart states:
"In 2009, President Obama predicted his policies would produce 4.2% growth in 2013 — more than double the actual, anemic growth rate of 1.9%.
Since making that projection, President Obama has had much of his economic agenda implemented: the $870 billion stimulus bill, Dodd-Frank financial regulations, ObamaCare, restrictions on American energy, $1.7 trillion in higher taxes, unfettered regulation, etc.
Our debt has soared from $10.6 trillion to $17.5 trillion on the promise that this would stimulate the economy and produce prosperity...
* AND YET...
...yet now we’re left with none of the prosperity and all of the debt," the Republican side of the Senate Budget Committee says.
* ABSOLUTELY TRUE!
But this was not a one-time error used to sell bad policies.
* NO?
For 2013, the average of all four white House budget projections from 2009–2012 was 3.9 percent — still almost double the actual growth rate.
* OOPS...
These are not just academic figures — weakened growth means millions of lost jobs and reduced incomes. While debt has grown 64% since 2009, median household income has declined 4.5% — or $2,268 per household.
* FOLKS... FOR GOD'S SAKE, CONNECT THE FRIGGIN' DOTS! REFER TO TODAY'S NEWSBITES FRONT PAGE POST!
The President’s latest budget makes similar unrealistic growth assumptions.
(*SIGH*)
One Reuters columnist observed that “the Office of Management and Budget… maintains that the U.S. economy will be 2% points bigger in 2024 than it will be in the CBO’s projection.” It should also be noted that OMB’s forecasts through 2017 are significantly higher than the private forecasts from the respected Blue Chip Economic Indicators.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Yet, the White House proposes more of the same: a spending increase of almost $1 trillion, a tax increase of more than $1 trillion, and a cumulative debt increase of $8 trillion. The result? By 2024, using their own optimistic projections, debt will rise from roughly $17 trillion to $25 trillion and annual interest costs for taxpayers will nearly quadruple, to $812 billion. Such a plan would have predictable consequences: more weak growth, more low wages, and more economic stagnation.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/mar/26/irs-says-it-will-take-years-produce-tea-party-targ/?page=all#pagebreak
The Internal Revenue Service’s tea party targeting program is still withholding approval of 19 organizations’ nonprofit status, nearly a year after the scandal was revealed, the agency’s commissioner testified Wednesday to Congress...
* IS THERE NO STATUTORY TIME PERIOD SPECIFIED WITHIN WHICH AN IRS DECISION MUST BE MADE?
John Koskinen, the man President Obama tapped to clean up the embattled agency, also said it will take years to respond to all of the document requests from Congress. He told Congress that even complying with a subpoena for emails from just a handful of key employees couldn’t be done before the end of this year because it takes time to have attorneys delete protected taxpayer information.
* FOLKS... IMAGE A PRIVATE CONCERN ANSWERING A LEGAL SUBPOENA THUS!
Republicans signaled that they are moving ahead with plans to hold former IRS employee Lois G. Lerner in contempt of Congress.
* THEN DO IT!
The IRS continues to face scrutiny after an internal audit by its inspector general last year found the agency had improperly singled out conservative and tea party nonprofit applications for special scrutiny and had delayed many of those applications — in some cases for three years. Nearly a year after the targeting and delays were revealed, however, some groups are still awaiting approval.
Three applications were formally denied, and 25 others dropped their applications or had them canceled when petitioners didn’t respond to IRS questions.
“The 19 cases still open generally fall into one of two categories: either the taxpayer has asked for and received additional time to respond to our questions, or the case is being litigated,” Mr. Koskinen said in his prepared testimony to the committee. “None of these 19 organizations opted to accept the self-certification procedure used by 43 organizations to obtain prompt approval of their applications.”
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304418404579465194267080878?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLESecond&mg=reno64-wsj
Democrats in Sacramento are giving their counterparts in Albany and Springfield a run for their money - literally.
The FBI on Wednesday arrested California state Sen. Leland Yee (D) of San Francisco in connection with an international gun-trafficking sting.
Two other Democratic state senators are already on leaves of absence due to criminal charges.
In January, Roderick Wright (D) of Inglewood was convicted on eight felony counts relating to voter fraud, while Ron Calderon (D) of Montebello was indicted on 24 charges of corruption. But Mr. Yee, a candidate for secretary of state this November, has outdone both with his alleged international gun-running operation.
According to the 137-page affidavit, an FBI agent posing as a New Jersey gangster offered to help Mr. Lee pay off debt from his 2011 campaign for San Francisco mayor in return for the senator introducing him to an international arms dealer with access to military-grade weapons and explosives. "Do I think we can make some money? I think we can make some money," the senator allegedly told the agent. "Do I think we can get the goods? I think we can get the goods."
Mr. Yee allegedly sought to acquire up to $2.5 million of munitions from a Muslim separatist group in the Philippines and accepted more than $40,000 in cash or campaign contributions from the undercover agent. Twenty-five others, including San Francisco's former school board president Keith Jackson, were also charged in the racket.
* WHATCHYA WANNA BET JACKSON IS A LIB-DEM AS WELL?
State Senate President Darrell Steinberg has exhorted the senator to resign or face suspension (with pay).
(*CHUCKLING*)
Mr. Yee was one of the legislature's most stalwart proponents of gun control and campaign-finance disclosure laws. Had the senator been elected secretary of state, which was not a long shot, he would have overseen the state's campaign-finance apparatus.
(The indictment is a major embarrassment for the state's Fair Political Practices Commission, which has been targeting "dark money" from undisclosed conservator donors but somehow missed Mr. Yee's shady operation.)
* YES... "SOMEHOW."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/new-un-climate-report-casts-doubt-on-earlier-extinction-predictions-a-960569.html
Global warming is said to be threatening thousands of animal and plant species with extinction. That, at least, is what the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has been predicting for years.
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
But the UN climate body now says it is no longer so certain.
(*SMIRK*)
In 2007, the IPCC predicted that rising global temperatures would kill off many species. But in its new report, part of which will be presented next Monday, the UN climate change body backtracks. There is a "shortage of evidence," a draft version claims.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD IN AMUSEMENT*)
The second part of the IPCC's new assessment report is due to be presented next Monday in Yokohama, Japan. On the one hand, a classified draft of the report notes that a further "increased extinction risk for a substantial number of species during and beyond the 21st century" is to be expected. On the other hand, the IPCC admits that there is no evidence climate change has led to even a single species becoming extinct thus far.
* NOT... A... SINGLE... SPECIIES...
(*PAUSE*)
* HEY... FOLKS... REMEMBER THE POLAR BEARS...??? (READ ON!)
[E]ven the icons of catastrophic global warming, the polar bears, are doing surprisingly well. Their population has remained stable despite the shrinking of the Arctic ice cap.
The draft report includes a surprising admission by the IPCC -- that it doubts its own computer simulations for species extinctions. "There is very little confidence that models currently predict extinction risk accurately," the report notes. Very low extinction rates despite considerable climate variability during past hundreds of thousands of years have led to concern that "forecasts for very high extinction rates due entirely to climate change may be overestimated."
* "OVERESTIMATED." NICE.
(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)
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