Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economy. Show all posts

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Meltdown Replay? "It Sure Looks Like 2008"

Tony Pallotta of MacroStory:

When you think of it in the short term markets are nothing more than a group of people trying to process data and understand what others are doing all under the stress of losing personal wealth... At times like these markets are more about human psychology and less about technical and or macro data...

I believe it is time to fast forward to the fall of 2008. Once again the 2008 market is a road map of how human emotion reacts when credit events happen. When economic data deteriorates at an exponential pace. When the unthinkable becomes reality...

Once again markets are pricing in the unthinkable. In 2008 history witnessed the failure of Lehman, AIG and the GSEs. Today history is bearing witness to sovereign nations on the brink of failure. In 2008 there was the threat of bank runs. Today there is the threat of currency runs. In 2008 there were government bailouts. Today there are central bank bailouts.

Through it all market participants have not changed. They are still a group of individuals trying to process data and understand what others are doing all while real money is on the line. As history has proven once again they will get it wrong. Once again leverage will destroy balance sheets. Denial will get in the way of rational thought. History truly does repeat and the patterns are present in the charts.

Excuse me. I think I have to go to the bathroom now.


Just as successful as Cash-for-Clunkers: Obama MPG demands will add $11,000 to the price of the average car

You didn't have to be Kreskin to see this coming:

The Obama Administration’s new fuel economy standards will result in the retail price of average motor vehicles to increase over $11,000, according to a study conducted by the Center for Automotive Research.

“A fuel economy standard of 37.6 mpg is associated with a price increase of $5,244, 18.1 percent higher than the 2009 National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) average price of $28,966. A fuel economy standard of 40.8 mpg is associated with a price increase of $6,770, 23.4 percent higher than the 2009 NADA price,” says their report called, “The U.S. Automotive Market and Industry in 2025.”


“A fuel economy standard of 44.8 mpg is associated with a price increase of $8,214, 28.4 percent higher than the 2009 NADA price. The fourth fuel economy standard of 49.6 mpg is associated with an $11,290 increase in retail price. It is assumed that manufacturers and dealers will pass on the cost increase in fuel economy and safety technology to the consumer, at a retail price equivalent.”

The Obama administration’s new fuel economy standards would require automakers to produce cars and light trucks with an average fuel economy of 54.5 mpg by 2025. The Center for Automotive Research says their study is “the result of 11 months of effort and investigation by researchers at CAR in 2010-2011.”

...“The Obama administration’s latest fuel economy mandates are an aggressive step away from consumer choice and towards government control,” [Thomas Pyle, the president of the Institute for Energy Research] said in a USA Today op-ed... "Every day, Americans are seeing the negative consequences of the administration’s increasingly aggressive meddling in the economy—more government control and less consumer choice..."

Of course, the President does have one successful jobs program he can claim.

It involves hiring government bureaucrats and regulators, and we simply have to give these people something to do, right?


Hat tip: TrendingRight.

Thought Experiment: Obama's Tragical Misery Bus Tour Visits the Inner City

Of course, in real life, President Obama and his advisers would no more have the cojones to visit real inner cities than they would to visit Abbottabad, Pakistan.

But imagine, for a moment, if the Obama 2012 campaign I Feel Your Pain bus tour actually made stops in the inner cities of, say, Detroit and Philadelphia.

You can just imagine the topics of the President's speech:

36 percent of Michigan children had no parent employed full-time in 2009, which is almost certainly the insidious side-effect of ATMs on society.

In July, the unemployment rate of African-American teens was 39.2 percent, a direct result of the tsunami in Japan.

Overall unemployment of African-Americans was 17 percent, which can be traced back to the riots and economic upheaval in Greece.

Flash mobs are swarming urban centers, destroying retail establishments and assaulting passers-by, the inevitable result of the Internet on civility.

Poor, inner-city kids are locked in horrible public school systems with no way out -- not because of the ACLU and the teachers' unions' repellent war against school choice and vouchers -- but because of the global uncertainty unleashed by the "Arab Spring" revolts.

In addition, the President will continue to blame the overall economic downturn on a string of "bad luck", as all presidents do in tough times.


Hat tips: Mark Levin and Sandy.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

The Presidency hits its all-time economic nadir: Obama blames Internet and ATMs for high unemployment

Following up on his assertion that ATMs cause unemployment, the President today claimed that the Internet is behind the nation's rampant unemployment.

One of the challenges in terms of rebuilding our economy is – businesses have gotten so efficient, that, uh, when was the last time somebody went to a bank teller? Instead of using an ATM. Or, used a travel agent instead of going online. A lot of jobs out that that used to require people now have become automated.

Apparently you have to be an economic illiterate to be a Democrat.

Since the dawn of recorded history, scientific and industrial advances have raised the average standard of living, not lowered it.

• In 1712, the invention of the steam engine touched off the Industrial Revolution, providing an inexpensive mechanical power source to replace manual and animal labor.

• In 1733, the invention of the flying shuttle allowed a weaver to produce a wider band of cloth. This facilitated faster production of textiles for fabric, clothing and other uses.

• In 1769, James Watt added a crank and flywheel to other steam engine improvements, providing efficient rotary motion for a wide variety of industrial uses.

• In the early nineteenth century, the invention of the power loom -- a steam-powered, mechanical cloth-making machine -- allowed women to replace men in many textile manufacturing facilities.

• In 1830, the invention of the sewing machine facilitated the "ready-made clothing" industry.

All of these advances created brand new industries and began to free mankind from routine, manual labor. The sewing machine, for example, required hundreds of parts. These parts, made of many different materials, had to be manufactured and machined, often by dozens of suppliers. New companies arose to source these parts, new industries -- like repair services -- were created, and massive economic value was achieved through the creation of end products.

Such is also the case -- multiplied by orders of magnitude -- with ATMs and the Internet.

It's truly a shame and an outrage that we have leaders in Washington who no more understand general economic principles than they do quantum physics.

Fortunately, the American people know what's going on: a new low of only 26% approve of Obama's handling of the economy.


Related: "The Progressive and the Pencil".

Image hat tips: The Corliss Engine.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Oh, My: Obama's Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Says Giving Away Food-stamps Is a Stimulus Program Which Puts People Back to Work

One in seven Americans (another Obama record!) is now on food stamps. Asked how the federal government might alleviate those high numbers, Obama Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack proclaimed that food stamps are "putting people to work".

No s***. He really said that.

Well, obviously, it's putting people to work. Which is why we're going to have some interesting things in the course of the forum this morning. Later this morning, we're going have a press conference with Secretary Mavis and Secretary Chu to announce something that's never happened in this country -- something that we think is exciting in terms of job growth...

...I should point out, when you talk about the SNAP program or the food stamp program, you have to recognize that it's also an economic stimulus. Every dollar of SNAP benefits generates $1.84 in the economy in terms of economic activity. If people are able to buy a little more in the grocery store, someone has to stock it, package it, shelve it, process it, ship it. All of those are jobs. It's the most direct stimulus you can get in the economy during these tough times.

Bask in the sheer genius of Tom Vilsack, peons: the government taking money from you hard-working Americans -- and giving it to others, without regard for their ability to work -- stimulates the economy!

Why didn't we think of this before?

In fact, let's put everyone in America on food-stamps! That'll be the ultimate Stimulus!

Ultimate, I say!

As an aside, my fellow Tea Party terrorists, Vilsack's wife is running against Rep. Steve King of Iowa, a true fiscal conservative.

Do we need another economic illiterate in Congress? I think not. Therefore I urge you to give $5, $10, whatever you can spare to Steve King's campaign.

We need exactly zero Vilsacks in office in 2012.


Related Fun: So the Democrats Finally Want Fiscal Responsibility? Great. Let's End Their Disastrous "War on Poverty"


Hat tip:
Real Clear Politics.

Central-Planner-In-Chief Tells Automakers: Stop Building SUVs and Trucks

Our beloved central-planner-in-chief has some management advice for automobile manufacturers:

The country’s automakers should ditch their focus on SUVs and trucks in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, President Obama said Monday.

You can’t just make money on SUVs and trucks,” Obama said during a town hall forum in Cannon Falls, Minn. “There is a place for SUVs and trucks, but as gas prices keep on going up, you have got to understand the market. People are going to try to save money.”

...Obama was speaking at the start of a three-day bus tour of the Midwest. He will visit Decorah, Iowa, later in the day.

Of course, gas prices might not be quite so high if the president would simply heed the rulings of multiple federal judges, including those who have found his administration in Contempt of Court for its illegal drilling bans.

And no word on what kind of mileage President Subprime McDowngrade gets on his three, armored Deathmobile buses.



Monday, August 15, 2011

Exclusive: Layout of President Obama's Tragical Misery Tour Bus

Our enterprising cub reporter Biff Spackle has located a tippity-top secret schematic of President Obama's campaign Recovery Summer™ tour bus.

As you could have expected, the President is making do with spartan quarters that provide only the basic necessities of life.



The Reason I Detest the Left [Mark Levin]

Mark Levin:

Obama and the Democrats are trying to turn us against each other. They are trying to create hate. And at some point they're going to unleash mayhem. I truly believe this. They're playing with political fire; playing with societal fire. They're also creating the conditions of societal anxiety. People are worried about their own security, the stability of their lives, whether it's jobs, housing, transportation.

This is what happens when you devolve from liberty into tyranny. And what's clear to me now is that, based upon what the liberals are saying, what they've said over the last week, whether it's on the cable shows or in the liberal press, they're setting up the Tea Party, Fox News and talk radio for that which they are fomenting.

We have the Tea Party being called terrorists by a Congressman and the Vice President... other language being spewed about the Tea Party, so they really want to create hatred, negative images, strawmen. But the Tea Party is nothing more than the American people. That's what the Tea Party is.

Look at what happened in Wisconsin. The citizens of Wisconsin, in the various state elections, they beat back the forces of big government and their allies. We're not the minority!

We are the majority. But these people have been given things, taken from you and given to them, such that they believe they have a greater right to your private property -- your income, your labor -- than you do!

And they're not going to allow you to escape from this enslavement, from their perspective. I want you to think about this:

When Obama talks about "...this group deserves this...", he is saying that the government has the power to take your labor from you -- your work, your income, from you and your family -- that you have legitimately earned. And they take that from you for whatever reason he says... food-stamps, unemployment, medical care, highway construction, more federal bureaucracts... they have the right to take your labor, which is finite.

You only live so long. What you earn, taken from you and your family, and given to someone else for some other cause. And if you say no, they are arguing that the person they want to give it to -- who has not earned it -- and the cause they want to support... is a greater priority than you!

If you start looking at things this way, this is your labor, your work. You get up in the morning, put in a long day, go home in the evening -- maybe you have two jobs -- Obama is saying that your labor belongs to the government to give to somebody else! The government tells you what you get to keep!

Say your tax rate is 30%. That means 30% of the time you spend working for the government. You're not working for your family or yourself. And if Obama and the Democrats tax you the way that they want to, some states like New York and California, when you add in all of the various taxes, a typical person will be working over 60% of the time for the government!

So if you put in a 10-hour day, six hours of your day is going to the government to benefit someone else -- so they can buy their votes. So they can create these hostilities against you -- the taxpayers! Who make this system work!

We deserve thank you letters! Do we get thank you letters from the government? From any welfare recipient? From anyone? No! We're hated! "Oh, the Tea Party--we hate them!"

Why? Because we want to spend a smaller percentage of our lives working for somebody else -- as opposed to working for our own family? You know, there was a time in this country when that was considered the right thing! Self-sufficiency, independence, family.

How many cases are there where families are really on the edge? Where if they didn't have to pay those high taxes, they'd have a little bit more money to buy higher quality food, a better car, a better education, maybe a vacation... everybody talks about Obama having a right to take a vacation... well, does everybody else who actually works for a living have a right to take a vacation?

Maybe if you could keep a little bit more of your money, you could take a vacation? It is stunning what we accept in this nation. It happens gradually, but it happens. We have a new tax in place: 3.8%. So if you sell your house and you still have equity -- if you're lucky enough to have muscled throug this market, a market which blew up thanks to the Community Reinvestment Act, another government policy -- you've made a little profit, maybe you want to live off it, pass it on to your children, well, that's going to be taxed at 3.8% now.

Why? Obamacare! Obama said, "I'm not raising taxes on the middle class." Well, we're talking about the middle class! Your presciption drugs, they're very expensive, right? They're taxed! Medical devices, wheelchairs, whatever... taxed! More taxes, new taxes!

Now here's the grift: they're going to spend as much as they want. They're going to keep borrowing money, spending money. Taxes can't keep up with their spending, they never can and they never will! So it's almost gratuitous... the government wants to control a certain percentage of your life, your working life. You have got to look at taxes that way. A 30% tax rate is 30% of your work effort!

When you add in your property taxes, local income taxes, excise taxes, state income taxes, gas taxes, and when you add in the federal income taxes, you have no idea what percentage of your life, your labor, you are delivering to bureaucrats in government! And, of course, they never have enough! They always want more! I'm not talking about millionaires and billionaires! I'm talking about you! I'm talking about you.

The reason I detest the Left so much, and believe me I detest the Left, is because they believe they have a moral claim on you! Literally, you! They believe they have a moral claim on your physical and intellectual labor! They have a moral claim -- they believe, they insist -- on a part of your work day!

And when they say you have to pay your "fair share", they're saying you have to work longer and harder for the government. There is no fair share! They don't have a claim on your life! They don't have a claim on your intellectual and physical labor!

No! They have to operate within the Constitution. We fund them within the Constitution, under our rule of law, no more and no less. Anything more is illegitimate. It's a liberty issue, ladies and gentlemen. Your liberty! Don't allow the way you think to be controlled and dictated by the Left, their language and their propaganda.

When they say "tax increases" or they use regulations to control you, to increase your expenses or limit your lifestyle, that is you that they are taking from. Your life. Your liberty.


Hat tips: Transcribed by Biff Spackle from the Mark Levin Show, 8/11/2011.


Time Magazine Nails It: The Cause of S&P's Downgrade of the U.S.

With their usual attention to detail, the crackerjack reporters at Time Magazine have finally discovered the root cause of S&P's downgrade of U.S. debt instruments.

I'm glad they cleared that up, because I was truly confused.

So it wasn't a Democrat refusal to address entitlement reform. It wasn't the Democrats' repudiation of every single suggestion by the Obama "Deficit Commission". It wasn't a failure of the Democrat-controlled Senate and President Obama to proffer a budget for more than 800 days. Oh, and it wasn't a "one-time, emergency Stimulus", the most aggressive spending increase in world history, that is now built into the baseline budget.

It also wasn't a refusal to acknowledge the repeated failure of Keynesian economics. It wasn't passing the most expensive entitlement program ever -- Obamacare -- which passed in the dark of night so Americans could "find out what's in it". Furthermore, it wasn't a massive, command-and-control takeover of the financial industry -- Dodd-Frank -- with a bill so immense and complex that even today no one can predict exactly what it will do to banks and insurers.

And it certainly wasn't the thousands upon thousands of bureaucrats in the EPA, the Interior Department and the National Labor Relations Board, which are shuttering businesses large and small.

No, none of those things were responsible for the debt crisis and downgrade. This was:

Thank goodness we still have true journalists at Time who are willing to cut through all of the clutter, confusion and misinformation to report upon the real culprits of the deficit debacle.



Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Only Chart You Need To Whip Out When Liberal Kooks Claim the Deficit Was Caused by the Bush Tax Cuts

The federal deficit problem was caused by the Bush Tax Cuts? Really, drones?

The Bush Tax Cuts ("Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003") were signed into law on May 28, 2003, just months before the start of the 2004 fiscal year.

The results -- in terms of real revenue to the U.S. government -- were stunning.

According to the OMB's own figures, the Bush tax cuts resulted in an explosion of revenue to the U.S. government.

That's not to say Bush wasn't a profligate spender -- he was. But in virtually no cases were Democrats arguing that he spend less (unless you count national security).

In fact, fiscal conservatives opposed Bush's absurd policies on spending, amnesty and the expansion of Medicare.

But no one in world history has ever spent money like Barack Obama.

These statements are indisputable.

Which is why they are certain to be rejected by the diminishing cadre of Obama-Democrat drones, who appear to be completely immune to facts, logic and reason.


Hat tip: Caller Steve from Los Angeles on the Mark Levin Show, 7/18/2011.


Saturday, August 13, 2011

Mark Levin: Obama's Hypocrisy Is Off the Charts @MarkLevinShow

Mark Levin:

The president, by God, he's got resolve on one thing: he's going to Martha's Vineyard whether you like it or not!

Nine days! He "wants to be with his children."

Really? Aren't they in the White House? Listen to these idiotic arguments.

No, he wants to be on Martha's Vineyard with the beautiful people; the millionaires and the billionaires. And the private jets and the yachts! This is what kills me: the hypocrisy of how this man lives!

He lives a life of luxury, which you and I subsidize... while he attacks a life of luxury by people who pay for themselves!

He takes the biggest corporate jet in the world -- in terms of its cost, operation and construction -- Air Force One, there's gonna be yachts, millionaires, billionaires. They're going to be eating all kinds of food with salt, fat and all the rest of it, wonderful desserts, cheesecake, chocolate, mousse -- you and I, were supposed to act like we're living in hovels.

The children on the Left enjoy screeching about corporations, "the wealthy" and the high-achievers who have made something of themselves.

What they fail to understand is that the biggest, most powerful, most corrupt and lawless "corporations" in the world are governments.

Case in point: Democrats have constructed the most gigantic Ponzi schemes in world history: Social Security and Medicare, to name but two. Had they done this in the private sector, they'd be serving life sentences in a cell, sharing a bunk with Jethro.

But somehow it's noble if they're in government and they're bankrupting your children and grandchildren with lawless, unconstitutional and mathematically impossible schemes!

No, they're not noble. They're all hypocrites. Every last Democrat.


Linked by: Ace o' Spades. Thanks!


Friday, August 12, 2011

Top 10 Obama Excuses for the Failing Economy

[Hat tip to Keith Koffler for the inspiration]

10. Tsunami in Japan completely disrupted arugula supply chain

9. Entire nation thrown into emotional abyss by Casey Anthony acquittal

8. Blockbuster Congressional movie Barney Frank & Friends tanked at box office

7. Unexpected collapse of massive, doddering European welfare state (which, by the way, doesn't hold any lessons for our own massive, doddering welfare state)

6. Export of heavy weapons to Libya well below forecast

5. Decision to film new season of Jersey Shore in Italy sucked millions from East Coast economy

4. Republicans filibustered my plan to invade Fort Knox

3. Oprah totally bailed on her pledge to give every American a Chevy Volt

2. Repairing the economies of all 57 states proving more difficult than anticipated

1. I've always said that the economy would be back to normal by 2016 and the start of my third term


Court Pimp-Slaps Obamacare: "A Stunning Victory for the Constitution"

This afternoon the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a stunning rebuke to Obamacare. Two Democrat appointees and one Republican delivered what I like to call "The Pimp-Slap Heard 'Round the World"; the Court handed the victory to 26 states and the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which had challenged the constitutionality of the massive bill. The decision reads, in part:

...the individual mandate contained in the Act exceeds Congress’s enumerated commerce power... The power that Congress has wielded via the Commerce Clause for the life of this country remains undiminished. Congress may regulate commercial actors. It may forbid certain commercial activity. It may enact hundreds of new laws and federally-funded programs, as it has elected to do in this massive 975- page Act. But what Congress cannot do under the Commerce Clause is mandate that individuals enter into contracts with private insurance companies for the purchase of an expensive product from the time they are born until the time they die.

It cannot be denied that the individual mandate is an unprecedented exercise of congressional power. As the CBO observed, Congress “has never required people to buy any good or service as a condition of lawful residence in the United States.” CBO MANDATE MEMO, supra p.115, at 1. Never before has Congress sought to regulate commerce by compelling non-market participants to enter into commerce so that Congress may regulate them. The statutory language of the mandate is not tied to health care consumption—past, present, or in the future. Rather, the mandate is to buy insurance now and forever...

The decision makes it all but certain that the Supreme Court will hear the case.

The decision ... puts to rest the canard that justice regarding Obamacare is just a partisan enterprise, in which Republican-appointed judges rule one way, and Democratic-appointed judges rule another. Today’s decision was co-authored by Judge Frank Hull, a Clinton appointee both to the district court and to his current position on the court of appeals.

...it is [also] much more likely with today’s ruling that the High Court will hear the case in its next term which starts on October 3, with a decision likely to be handed down by the end of June 2012... [In spite of the Obama administration's stall tactics,] with a split between the Eleventh Circuit and Sixth Circuit, the High Court will have little choice but to take the case and resolve the fate of the forced-purchase mandate.

The decision is a delight for those who love and appreciate the Constitution:

[T]he individual mandate is breathtaking in its expansive scope. It regulates those who have not entered the health care market at all. It regulates those who have entered the health care market, but have not entered the insurance market (and have no intention of doing so). It is overinclusive in when it regulates: it conflates those who presently consume health care with those who will not consume health care for many years into the future. The government’s position amounts to an argument that the mere fact of an individual’s existence substantially affects interstate commerce, and therefore Congress may regulate them at every point of their life. This theory affords no limiting principles in which to confine Congress’s enumerated power.

The federal government’s assertion of power, under the Commerce Clause, to issue an economic mandate for Americans to purchase insurance from a private company for the entire duration of their lives is unprecedented, lacks cognizable limits, and imperils our federalist structure.

As Ilya Shapiro writes, "Today is a great day for liberty."

Chris Christie, who refused to join the fight on behalf of New Jersey, could not be reached for comment.



Graph: Winning The Future™, Martha's Vineyard Edition

As President Subprime McDowngrade jets off to another well-deserved vacation, Tyler Durden alerts us to this chart, which appears eerily reminiscent of one James Earl Carter.

America's WTF (certainly not to be confused with Winning The Future) economy summarized in one easy chart.

Conclusion: go long the WTF economy by shorting BAC which is a proud sponsor (courtesy of not having received one cash payment for hundreds of billions in inversely overwater mortgages) of the WTF spread.

It turns out that Michelle Obama has vacationed for six full weeks over the past year, so at least she's doing her part to stimulate the economy.



Thursday, August 11, 2011

The Obama Hockey Stick: The Only Graph You Need to See

So the Democrats want more taxes revenue? Seriously?

[This week] for the first time in history U.S debt was downgraded. The Left still denies that President Obama has a lot of responsibility for this situation, instead laying blame on Republican refusal to raise taxes on the rich.

As I have written previously, it is dishonest to give voters the impression that tax increases on the rich is a solution to the deficit. In the latest projection by the Congressional Budget Office, the ten year deficit is estimated at 13 trillion dollars. By contrast, Obama’s various tax increases on the rich will only bring in 1 trillion in the same period.

The 13 trillion dollar deficit which the President helped create and long terms entitlement deficits are the main reason why S&P downgraded U.S debt, not the 1 trillion in tax increases which Republicans prevented...

...As a response to the economic crises and based on ideological conviction, President Obama decided to expand federal non-defense spending more than any President in recent history. This unprecedented expansion of government can perhaps be justified by orthodox Keynesianism. But we should not allow the left to deny the magnitude of expansion itself, which they are trying to do.

...What emerges is what I refer to as the Obama Hockey Stick, parallel to the IPCC global warming Hockey Stick. While federal Non-defense spending was quite constant previous to Obama, it has risen rapidly under his administration...

Spending is the problem. Spending is the only problem.


Hat tip: Greg Mankiw.


Only in Washington...

In a particularly poignant piece by Jack Wakeland at Real Clear Markets ("The Peculiar Madness of Paul Krugman"), the mathematical reality facing U.S. taxpayers is used as a blunt instrument to pound sense into Democrats. Metaphorically speaking, of course, since drones run away from inconvenient truths like arithmetic, logic, facts, reason, statistics and history.

Reading that the new debt limit coming out of the "debt reduction deal" is $16.8 trillion, I got my pen out and jotted down some numbers:

2nd Quarter 2011 GDP: $15.00 trillion/yr.
Current national debt: $14.3 trillion
(self-cancelling) internal debt: $4.6 trillion
Net debt: $9.7 trillion
65% of GDP

Of the $4.6 trillion in internal debt, about $2.6 trillion is the Social Security 'trust fund' (which is 'invested in' U.S. treasury bonds) and about $0.3 trillion is the Medicare 'trust fund.' There are lots of other 'trust funds' beyond these (e.g., the Highway 'fund') The thing all of these trust funds have in common is that their balances are falling.

If I assume that the rate of deficit spending is about $1.6 or $1.7 trillion/yr., we'll reach the new $16.8 trillion debt limit right around inauguration day, January 20, 2013. If the economy grows at about 2%/yr. between now and inauguration day (assuming no new recession), it will be operating at $15.45 trillion/yr.

That means the debt to GDP ratio will have deteriorated dramatically:

1st Quarter 2013 GDP: $15.45 trillion/yr.
Current national debt: $16.8 trillion
(self-cancelling) internal debt: $4.4 trillion
Net debt: $12.4 trillion
80% of GDP

Only in Washington could a plan to increase the national debt from 65% to 80% of GDP in less than a year and a half be called a "debt reduction" deal.


And for the RINO leadership -- who are today leaders because of the resurgent conservative movement -- to negotiate with themselves when confronted with deficits that are well nigh insurmountable... well, it points to one thing:

We need new leadership in the House and the Senate.

How does the combination of Speaker Allen West and Senate Majority Leader Marco Rubio sound to you?



Unicorns that poop gold nuggets fail to materialize for Moonbeam; California tax revenues plunge more than 10% below projections

California's twice- (soon to be thrice-) failed Governor -- a man named Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown -- allegedly closed the state's yawning budget deficits this year by forecasting tax revenues well above the level a sane person might call "reasonable".

The result was... too. Easy. No, no, no: Too! EASY! To predict:

California’s tax revenues plummeted in July, falling more than 10% below expectations and making it more likely that deeper cuts to public schools built into the state budget in case of a stalled economic recovery will occur... Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers patched up the final $4 billion of California’s budget shortfall this year by hoping for a windfall economic recovery. Those hopes are now fading fast.

Tax collections in July were $538.8 million below budget forecasts.. sales and corporate collections lagged by a combined nearly $210 million. But the biggest drag was from the unidentified $4 billion that budget writers had banked on.

...Worse, the sagging tax collections were reported before the recent stock market turmoil. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged by more than 600 points on Monday. California relies very heavily on capital gains taxes from the stock taxes.


On a related note, Brown's multi-million dollar search for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow also, sadly, came up dry.


Top 10 British Looter Photoshops

Given the scale of death and destruction, I'd normally be loathe to make light of the riots in Britain. But these events help illustrate the lunacy of the Left: these riots are, after all, the toxic product of political correctness, easy access to welfare, and tolerance of intolerant cultures. In other words, the complete failure of the Left's policies. Furthermore, they serve as a warning for the U.S.: this is what comes next if we don't crush the Marxists that today run the Executive and the Senate in 2012. Because we're on the precipice right now.

Back to the Photoshops: the fine pholks at PhotoshopLooter have an entire gallery. These are my ten favorites:










But make no mistake: if we don't throw the Democrats out of office in 2012, what's going on in the U.K. will look like a picnic compared to what could happen here. After all, everyone here has firearms.



Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Grim milestone: record 73% of Americans believe country headed in wrong direction as President Obama prepares to leave on another vacation

It's another Obama record!

[The] latest poll from Reuters/Ipsos [indicates that] a record number of people or 73% of all Americans, believe the economy is headed in the wrong direction. This is the highest number measured since the poll started its survey in February of 2009. Only 21% believe the US is on the right track: we assume these are the few people who actually made money in the stock market in the past few months, in other words those long various precious metals [/sarcasm]...

...Additionally, 47% of respondents believe the worst is yet to come for the economy, the highest since the March 2009 low when the number was 57%. Furthermore, Obama's approval rating dropped from 49% to 45% over the past month. Perhaps it is time to kill Osama for the 3rd (or is that 4th?) time. Bottom line: pessimism is now at or near fresh all time highs. And this is the environment in which the true viceroy of the Americas, Goldman Sachs, has now decreed will proceed with QE3? If the American revolution was deferred back in November when QE2 was enacted, we fail to see how it will be avoided this time around when people realize that gasoline is headed for $9/gallon. Or roughly what Europeans pay today.

Not to worry, rabble: the President's Lightning Response Team sprung into action today. Recognizing that the Commander-In-Chief is literally spent from his non-stop fundraising, golf, and teleprompter-reading, the Obama family is officially slated to take another long vacation.

We bring you this special announcement courtesy of the White House which has informed that American plebes that following a fantastic job well done, in which the market is now back to pre-QE2 levels, unemployment is near record highs, delays for presidential press meetings compare with Newark airplane take offs, pessimism is at record highs, America's credit rating has just been downgraded, the country was nearly bankrupted, and sales of end-of-the-world provisions are through the roof (not to mention ammunition), President Obama is taking a well-deserved vacation at Martha's Vineyard at the end of the month...

...Press secretary Jay Carney defended Obama's plans to take a break even as he's pledged urgent action on those issues. "I don't think Americans out there would begrudge that notion that the president would spend some time with his family," Carney said." Spot on, Jay, spot on.

Well, we always said he was historic.


Tuesday, August 09, 2011

Top 20 #ObamaBusTourNames

As usual, I missed the Twitter hashtag meme from a few nights ago. It solicited names for President Obama's bus tour of battleground states that will operate at -- what else? -- taxpayer expense. My favorites?

20. Downgrade One
19. BusT Tour
18. 57 States
17. We have to ride it to know what's in it
16. Spinning the Future
15. Obama, the Bachmann Slayer
14. Rolling Blunder
13. The "Bus-driver acted stupidly" tour
12. Debt Race 2012
11. Titanic on wheels
10. StimuBus
9. America Under the Bus Tour
8. The "Not a Corporate Jet" Tour
7. Tragical history tour
6. Sputnik Moment
5. Blunderbuss
4. Blame Bush Tour
3. Barackisalosa 2012
2. The "McDonald's Is Hiring" Tour
1. The "Free iPods for the Battleground States" Extravaganza

Important note: the second bus is for Michelle's clothes and servants.


Update: Just thought of another one: Continental Failways.