Showing posts with label Pelosi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pelosi. Show all posts

Friday, November 26, 2010

Sadly, No Economic Literates at Unintentionally Hilarious Lib Blog

Robin of Berkeley's conversion to conservatism apparently offended more than a few progressives.

Witness the economic geniuses at Sadly, No F'ing Sense, who echo the standard liberal response to Robin's heartfelt article.


Never mind that the system that has enriched and fed more people around the world than any other is the free market -- otherwise known as capitalism, which the crackpottery routinely rejects.

Never mind that the authoritarian and Fabian socialist systems that the left idolizes are collapsing as we speak.

Never mind that we already have Medicaid for the poor. And Medicare for the elderly. And those systems, too, are melting down.

Never mind that 75% of all pharmaceutical and medical innovation -- which the bankrupt NHS and Canadian health care systems freeload upon -- originate in the United States. And that those systems are bankrupt. Just like Medicare and Social Security. And the insanity of ladling on another monstrous entitlement -- a bill that no one read and fewer understand -- is just the ticket for the economic illiterates.

But facts, logic, reason and history have never been strong suits for the Left. Especially the jackasses at Sady, No F'ing Sense.


Linked by: Michelle Malkin and American Power. Thanks!

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Things are tough all over: Nicholas Cage's foreclosed house sells at less than a third of its original listing price

Actor Nicholas Cage lost his Bel-Air estate to foreclosure earlier this year. Two weeks ago, an anonymous buyer grabbed the mansion for $10.5 million in cash, less than a third of its original listing price.

The 1940 Tudor had failed to generate any bids in April when it was offered at the county courthouse steps in Pomona. Six loans totaling $18 million encumbered the house, which the actor had decorated in a style one local real estate agent dubbed "frat-house bordello." Among personalized touches were garish room colors, three dozen bronze wall sconce holders made from a cast of the Oscar winner's arm and hundreds of elaborately framed comic-book covers lining the walls.

...The Colcord-designed house sits on an acre, has a central tower, a custom wine cellar, a 35-seat home theater, six bedrooms, nine bathrooms and a swimming pool.

...May Ormerod Harris, a major USC benefactor, commissioned the home; then it sold to banker Stanley Stalford in the early 1960s, Parsons said. Yuban-brand coffee heirs were the next inhabitants before the estate transferred to a series of celebrity owners: Dean Martin, Tom Jones and Cage...

Although Cage is reported to have earned $40 million in 2009 alone, he's suing his former manager for collecting outsized fees and giving ruinous advice. For his part, the ex-manager claims Cage engaged on a "spending binge of epic proportions", noting that in 2008 the actor had owned "15 palatial homes around the world, four yachts, an island in the Bahamas, a private Gulfstream jet and millions of dollars' worth of art and jewelry."

Doctor Housing Bubble observes that several banks, which had written $18 million in six different loans on the house, took a $7.5 million haircut on the deal.

Which goes to show you that no one -- not you or me, not a Hollywood actor, not even the richest and most prosperous country on Earth -- can spend beyond their means for long.

Which is a lesson the modern Democrat Party apparently never learned.


Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Cloward-Piven Democrats finally succeed in destroying American dream: Minimum wage earner nets more than family making $60K

Got Cloward?

Tonight’s stunning financial piece de resistance comes from Wyatt Emerich of The Cleveland Current. In what is sure to inspire some serious ire among all those who once believed Ronald Reagan that it was the USSR that was the “Evil Empire”, Emmerich analyzes disposable income and economic benefits among several key income classes and comes to the stunning (and verifiable) conclusion that “a one-parent family of three making $14,500 a year (minimum wage) has more disposable income than a family making $60,000 a year.” And that excludes benefits from Supplemental Security Income disability checks...

America is now a country which punishes those middle-class people who not only try to work hard, but avoid scamming the system. Not surprisingly, it is not only the richest and most audacious thieves that prosper – it is also the penny scammers at the very bottom of the economic ladder that rip off the middle class each and every day, courtesy of the world’s most generous entitlement system...

You can do as well working one week a month at minimum wage as you can working $60,000-a-year, full-time, high-stress job.

First outlined by Columbia Professors Cloward and Piven in their blueprint for the destruction of American capitalism, the Democrat Party's dual policies of limitless welfare and open borders have finally succeeded.

America stands on the brink of economic catastrophe. The 2010 elections were a hopeful beginning, but only a beginning. We must unwind the treasonous policies of the progressive left and leave them no more a political force than the Whigs.


Hat tip: RightNetwork's Jim Hoft.

Saturday, November 20, 2010

The federal health care database that will hold all of the most sensitive, personal medical data for 300 million Americans

In August of 2008, a Consumer Reports investigation revealed that the federal government is among the worst offenders when it comes to data breaches.

CR analyzed records of publicly reported data breaches compiled by the nonprofit Privacy Rights Clearinghouse and found that more than 230 security lapses by federal, state, and local government from 2005 through mid-June 2008 resulted in the loss or exposure of at least 44 million consumer records containing Social Security or driver license numbers and other personal data.

In late 2006, the House Committee on Government Reform issued a report entitled "AGENCY DATA BREACHES SINCE JANUARY 1, 2003". The conclusion of the report was as disturbing as it was terse.

Taken as a whole, the agency reports outline hundreds of instances of data breaches involving sensitive personal information since January 1, 2003. The reports show a wide range of incidents, involving employee carelessness, contractor misconduct, and third-party thefts. The number of individuals affected in each incident ranges from one to millions. However, in many cases, the agency does not know what information was lost or how many individuals potentially could be affected. Few of these incidents have been reported publicly, and it is unclear in many cases whether affected individuals have been notified or whether remedial action has been taken.

Data held by Federal agencies remains at risk. In many cases, agencies do not know what information they have, who has access to the information, and what devices containing information have been lost, stolen, or misplaced. In addition, in almost all of the reported cases, Congress and the public would not have learned of each event unless the Committee had requested this information.

Finally, each year, the Committee releases information security scorecards. This year the scores for many departments remained low or dropped precipitously. The federal government overall received a D+.

Among the incidents the report described:

• A laptop containing personal information on 30,000 applicants/LEADS, recruiters, and prospects fell off a motorcycle belonging to a Navy recruiter.

• A CD containing 30,000 veterans’ names and addresses was lost by a Government Printing Office subcontractor.

• A thumb drive containing personal records on approximately 207,570 enlisted Marines who served between the years of 2001 to 2005 was lost. A notification letter was sent to the affected individuals and the Marine Corps.

• A systems administrator discovered potential unauthorized access to the Air Force Personnel Center Assignment Management System containing personal information on 33,000 military members.

Other, more recent incidents of note include:

Sensitive information on about 1,000 patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military hospitals was exposed in a security breach, sparking identity theft concerns and an investigation by the Army.

The IRS hired a firm that had experienced several serious data breaches of customer information to manage and secure sensitive data.

Not to worry. That ObamaCare database of sensitive health care information that the Democrats are creating will be, I'm certain, protected with fortress-like security. It will never, ever be used to punish political enemies or reward political friends.


Great News: After Number of Federal Workers Earning $150K a Year Rose 1,300%, White House Panel Proposes 3-Year Wage Freeze... For Military

The growth in salaries for federal workers during the Great Dempression is something that must be seen to be believed.

The number of federal bureaucrats earning over $150K annually grew 1,300% -- that's more than an order of magnitude -- while those making $180K or more rocketed by 2,100%.

But those Americans who serve and those in harm's way are in for quite a different salary treatment.

A presidential commission on reducing the deficit has recommended freezing basic military pay and housing allowances for three years starting in 2011, according to a draft report of the commission’s recommendations posted online Wednesday.

“A three-year freeze at 2011 levels for these compensation categories would save the federal government $7.6 billion in compensation and tax expenditures, as well as another $1.6 billion in less retirement accrual, or $9.2 billion total discretionary savings in 2015,” it said.

Consider: the White House had no problem whatsoever in jamming through about $100 billion in payouts to the UAW auto companies.

And $860 billion in "Stimulus", tens of billions more in "Cash-for-Clunkers", "Weatherization" programs, "Green Jobs" and every other sort of boondoggle imaginable.

But when it comes to $9.2 billion -- total -- from 2011 to 2015 to pay for wage and housing increases for our men and women who serve, well that's just too damn much.

The Democrats can't afford it, you see. They've got other, higher priorities. Like amnesty and chain migration to bring in millions of new voters, the impact of which could reach the trillions of dollars.

But that's the modern Democrat Party in action. Trillions for illegals; nothing for the U.S. military.


Friday, November 19, 2010

What's Really Behind Bernanke's 'Quantitative Easing II'?

It's clear that Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke is out of control. His latest gaffe: blaming China for the failure of QE2 to spur anything but fear.

In speeches before a European Central Bank conference in Frankfurt, Ben Bernanke went on an unprecedented attack, accusing China of throwing a monkey wrench into the global recovery, blaming China for slow global growth and a potential "End to the Tepid U.S. Recovery".

He also said "The current international monetary has a structural flaw" calling on the "global community, over time, to devise an international monetary system that more consistently aligns the interests of individual countries with the interests of the global economy as a whole."

Finally, he put up a misguided defense of Quantitative Easing that is sure to not go over well in the global community.

If Bernanke was trying to spook the markets, provoke China, cause a currency war, and get Congress to launch an extremely foolish set of tariffs, he would have been hard pressed to deliver a more powerful speech.

Blaming China for America's out-of-control spending is a little like pinning Michael Moore's ever-expanding gut on Ronald McDonald.

Bernanke said that China’s decision to undervalue the yuan has essentially thrown a monkey wrench into the global economic recovery... The result could be slow growth ahead “for everyone,” he said.

...“On its current economic trajectory, the United States runs the risk of seeing millions of workers unemployed or underemployed for many years,” Bernanke said.

Monetizing the debt -- which simply means the United States is being forced to conjure money from thin air to fund the operation of the government -- is an ominous sign by itself. Combined with harsh rhetoric against the country's biggest creditor, the Fed's policies are well nigh suicidal.

Andy Kessler, writing in The Wall Street Journal, explains the likely rationale behind Bernanke's erratic behavior.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's $600 billion quantitative easing program has been roundly criticized in this country and around the world. So why is he doing it? Does he know something the rest of us don't?

...I have [an] explanation for the Fed's latest easing program: Without another $600 billion floating through the economy, Mr. Bernanke must believe that real estate (residential and commercial) would quickly drop, endangering banks...

...Mr. Bernanke is clearly buying time with our dollars. If real estate drops, we're back to September 2008 in a hurry. On Wednesday, the Fed announced that all 19 banks that underwent stress tests in 2009 need to pass another one. This suggests central bankers are nervous about real-estate loans and derivatives on bank balance sheets...

Rather than use his bully pulpit to harangue the President and Congress into sane spending policies, Bernanke instead is attempting a triple-reverse handspring off the high-beam. Odds are it ain't gonna work.

Only when we excise the cancerous lesions -- Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the other market-distorting entities -- can we return to a level of predictability and stability. But don't hold your breath. Facts, logic and reason have never been the Democrats' forte.


Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Harry Reid focuses on jobs by luring cheap labor (and new Democrat voters) from Mexico with promises of amnesty

Runner-up headline: Hack 'Journalist' Jon Ralston nowhere to be found as unionized workers discover Harry Reid screwed them again

Yesterday's Las-Vegas Review Journal shredded Harry Reid for behavior unbecoming -- no, not a Senator -- a human being.

Anyone who thought Harry Reid would respond to his bruising re-election campaign and huge Democratic losses nationally by moving to the center, away from President Obama's agenda and toward a new focus on economic growth, is about to be proved wrong.

The Senate majority leader from Nevada intends to use the lame-duck session that begins Monday to push for passage of the Dream Act, a form of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

...Did Sen. Reid make passage of the Dream Act the centerpiece of his re-election campaign? Of course not. He might have lost if he did. No, Sen. Reid told anyone who would listen that it was his job to create jobs, that he was fighting to put Nevadans back to work. The Dream Act does neither of these things. Rather, it only injects more competition into the labor pool, preventing unskilled Americans from gaining entry-level work and leaving them dependent on government aid to survive.

Harry Reid got reelected the way most Democrats do. He lied. He lied continually, consistently and with utter abandon.

He portrayed himself as a "moderate" concerned with jobs.

Nevada suffers from 14.4% unemployment and underemployment approaching 22%.

If this egregious law passes (in a lame-duck session, no less!), it will serve as a Stimulus plan for illegal immigration. We will have so many people streaming over the borders illegally, hoping for some sort of pathway to citizenship, that the entire concept of being an American will cease to matter.

Hey, members of Culinary Union Local 226, this should really help you out! I'm sure jobs will be much easier to come by when underemployment gets driven to 30% or more.

And forget about English as our common language. Forget about teaching American history, the Constitution, civics and integration into the civil society.

Harry Reid is a flat-out menace to this country. He and this egregious lame-duck Congress must be stopped. If that means pulling their pensions, de-funding their staffs, relocating their offices into basements, so be it.

They must be stopped and we expect Republicans to issue the edict. Now.


Update: Stop the illegal alien student bailout: DREAM Act target list; Plus: Sen. Sessions’ critical alert

Hat tip: The Mark Levin Show.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Bonus Quantitative Easing Chart o' the Day

I like to call it "money-printing", but the Fed calls it "QE2". That is, the recently announced second round of quantitative easing. Also known as monetizing the debt.

And a "huge list of investors and economists" are decrying the policy, going so far as to publish an open letter in today's WSJ.

We believe the Federal Reserve’s large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called “quantitative easing”) should be reconsidered and discontinued. We do not believe such a plan is necessary or advisable under current circumstances. The planned asset purchases risk currency debasement and inflation, and we do not think they will achieve the Fed’s objective of promoting employment...

We subscribe to your statement in the Washington Post on November 4 that “the Federal Reserve cannot solve all the economy’s problems on its own.” In this case, we think improvements in tax, spending and regulatory policies must take precedence in a national growth program, not further monetary stimulus...

...We disagree with the view that inflation needs to be pushed higher, and worry that another round of asset purchases, with interest rates still near zero over a year into the recovery, will distort financial markets and greatly complicate future Fed efforts to normalize monetary policy...

In other words: Stop using monetary policy to dictate fiscal policy! Use your bully pulpit and tell the President and his minions to slash the five trillion they've added since Pelosi took over the budget!

At least that's how I read it.

Your bonus hyperinflation chart o' the day is below. It depicts the price of gold in Reichsmarks during Germany's fateful five-year run ending in hyperinflation and economic destruction.

The red marks a linear scale ($400 to $1500) for the last five years, illustrating the price of an ounce of gold in U.S. dollars.

If the dollar does indeed melt down, I propose we call the new currency the quatloo (as in "I bid 50 quatloos on the newcomer"). Or the bernanke.


HHS Buries 111 Waivers Issued For Its Disastrous One-Size-Fits-All Health Care Reform Bill, Affecting Nearly 1.2 Million 'Workers'

If you hadn't heard, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has already been forced to issue 111 one-year waivers to the ObamaCare socialized medicine program.

In early September, ...Obamacare promoter and Democrat Rep. Ron Wyden [pushed] for a special state waiver from the very federal mandate he advocated for everyone else... A few weeks later, McDonald’s finagled its own Obamacare waiver after warning federal regulators that it could be forced to drop its affordable health insurance plan for nearly 30,000 restaurant workers unless it got a pass.

In early October, the Obama administration announced it had granted waivers not only to McDonald’s, but also to several other firms and labor unions.

Now comes word that Torquemada HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has approved a whopping 111 waivers for businesses of all sizes, along with more unions and other providers of health insurance. The escapees include employers of many low-wage and part-time workers whose health insurance plans would otherwise be dropped, including Darden Restaurants — the parent company of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster and other chains, which employ some 34,000 people.

In total, Sebelius' waivers granted thus far affect nearly 1.2 million workers.

Let's not beat around the bush here: by issuing all of these waivers before the full effects of the law are even felt, the administrative state has admitted that its one-size-fits-all health care reform is a failure. Which any thinking person knew and predicted ahead of time (by definition, excluding all liberals who supported the bill).

Who gets hurt the most? Small- and mid-sized businesses who don't have the corporate attorneys and lobbyists to beg Washington for relief. Consider the amount of power that this fourth branch of government possesses: who gets health care, when, how and what treatments. This unelected body of masterminds -- who believe that they can control hundreds of millions of individual, rational decisions and one-sixth of the entire U.S. economy -- have already proven themselves a disaster.

And this is only the beginning.

Furthermore, when you put the power in the hands of unelected bureaucrats to decide who must obey the law and who is above it, you've eviscerated the entire rationale for the law.

This disastrous pile of manure disguised as "health care reform" must be repealed.


Sunday, November 14, 2010

Nice: Charlie Rangel Broke House Ethics Rules by Paying Defense Lawyers With PAC Money In His Trial for Breaking House Ethics Rules

The ethics trial of Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is slated to begin tomorrow. Curiously, the Democrat leadership scheduled it to begin just after his reelection and just before control of the House flips over to the GOP in January.

Rangel is accused of violating more than a dozen ethics rules including failure to report huge financial transactions, failure to pay thousands in taxes, and drowning a woman at Chappaquiddick. Oh, wait -- that last one was a different Democrat. My mistake.

Rangel tapped his National Leadership PAC for $293,000 to pay his main legal-defense team this year. He took another $100,000 from the PAC in 2009 to pay lawyer Lanny Davis.

Two legal experts told The Post such spending is against House rules... "It's a breach of congressional ethics," one campaign-finance lawyer said... Washington, DC, political lawyer Cleta Mitchell said there is "no authority for a member to use leadership PAC funds as a slush fund to pay for personal or official expenses."

..."Accepting money or payment for legal expenses from any other source, including a PAC, would be a gift and is barred by the House rules," the lawyer said.

On top of the $393,000 in PAC funds, records show Rangel yanked $1.4 million from his campaign coffers in 2009 and 2010 to pay the firm Zuckerman Spaeder, his main legal-defense team, and $100,000 in 2009 to pay Davis' firm... He also spent $147,577 for Washington, DC, lawyer John Kern and $174,303 for Watkins, Meegan, Drury & Co., a firm that offers forensic accounting and legal services...

Rangel probably figures the ethics trial on these new charges won't take place until mid-November 2012, at which point he'll already have been reelected for the 75th time in a row.

We call this phenomenon Schadenfraud (translated: "Nancy Pelosi's 'most ethical Congress evah'").


Linked by: Michelle Malkin. Thanks!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Oh, This is Rich: HuffPo Nut Can't Remember When Members of Congress Ever Met With Foreign Leaders Against the Will of the White House

Some crackpot named Amanda Terkel, writing at the execrable Stuffington Roast, is shocked -- shocked! -- that a member of the the House majority met with the Israeli P.M.

Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday during a meeting in New York that the new GOP majority in the House will "serve as a check" on the Obama administration, a statement unusual for its blunt disagreement with U.S. policy delivered directly to a foreign leader...

...Ron Kampeas from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency news agency found Cantor's comments extremely surprising, writing, "I can't remember an opposition leader telling a foreign leader, in a personal meeting, that he would side, as a policy, with that leader against the president. Certainly, in statements on one specific issue or another -- building in Jerusalem, or somesuch -- lawmakers have taken the sides of other nations. But to have-a-face to face and say, in general, we will take your side against the White House -- that sounds to me extraordinary."

What a tool.

It's certainly easy to forget this meeting of Democrat Chris Dodd (D-CT) with Syrian dictator-slash-Iranian-terror puppet Bashar Assad against the wishes of the Bush White House.

Or this meeting between the pathetic John Kerry (D-MA) and Assad.

Or the time that the disgraceful Bill Nelson (D-FL) met with Assad.

And who could forget this meeting between Stretch Pelosi and Assad?

Not only did Democrat leaders meet with the head of the terror-state; not only did they fly across the globe to meet; but they also did so in the midst of the Iraqi conflict in which:

Syria was secretly building its own nuclear facility (later destroyed by the Israelis, thankfully)...

• Credible military reports stated that Assad was (and is still) holding Saddam Hussein's WMDs...

• And, worst of all, Syria was actively exporting weapons to Iraq's insurgents during the war that were used to kill American troops.

In a late update to the article, however, Terkel happens to remember one of many visits by Democrat leaders to express support for Syria's terror-state, but only to attempt to point out GOP "hypocrisy".

Yes, dimwit, because Syria -- a puppet of Iran -- was and is a known terror-state and avowed enemy of the U.S. Its support for Hezbollah, for instance, was also instrumental in the bombing that killed 241 U.S. Marines.

Not that you'd remember any of that, "Terkel" -- if that is your name.


Hat tip: Memeorandum.

What does the market know about California's finances that the rest of us don't?

The bond markets are depicting some very ugly goings-on in California

Over at The Big Picture, Barry Ritholz focuses our attention on the meltdown of California's municipal debt obligations. Translated for progressives: the market believes that something very bad -- Greece-like, in fact -- is happening in the Blue State Utopia of windmills, unicorns and Jerry Brown.

California Muni Bond Fund Shellacking


Since so many of you have asked: These funds are getting mangled on expectations of — All Aboard! Munis and California joining Ireland on the default train... Even the general Muni funds have lots of California Exposure...




Sure, the Governor declared a "fiscal emergency" a few months ago. True, the state wants to sell $14 billion in new debt instruments to any suckers interested parties it can find.

But we already knew all of this. Everyone in America already was aware that Cali is an economic train wreck.

Everyone, that is, except for Paul Krugman who has yet to compare his insane national policy prescriptions with what is already unfolding in the Democrat Utopia of California.

So what's really going on? Your guess is as good as mine, though if you believe in "The Wisdom of Crowds", you may want to batten down the hatches.


Hat tip: Mish.

Friday, November 12, 2010

Democrats doing awesome job with Stimulus oversight: spot-check in New Jersey shows only about 10% being lost to scams and waste

The two-word phrase starting with 'cluster' comes to mind.

Contractors billed New Jersey $27 for light bulbs, and ran up tens of thousands of dollars in other “unreasonable costs” on a $119 million weatherization program funded with U.S. stimulus money, the state auditor said...

Out of $613,600 in charges reviewed, $54,000, or 8.8 percent, was deemed unreasonable by [the] Auditor...

...About $5 billion in stimulus funds were provided to the weatherization program, according to the Energy Department’s website...

Yes, it's true: the Democrats can't even run a weatherization program without rampant fraud.

Say, wasn't Joe "The Genius" Biden supposed to be watching over this program with his hawk-like attention to detail?

Really, don't fret, folks: I'm sure nothing can go wrong with the Democrats' plans to nationalize one-sixth of the economy. Really -- it's only your health care, after all.


Thanks, Democrats: One of Nation's Largest Sellers of Long-Term Care Insurance Announces It's Exiting the Market

There may not be an official "public option" in the Democrats' health care bill, but that isn't helping the dozens of private insurers wounded by the bill. The thousands of pages of law, regulations and dictates have removed all predictability for insurers and have forced many to reconsider their presence in the health insurance business.

One of the country's largest purveyors of long-term care insurance announced earlier today that's it is leaving the market altogether.

MetLife announced it’s discontinuing the sale of new long term care insurance coverage (LTCI) on Thursday. The decision comes after an extensive review of the business but will have no impact on existing insureds’ coverage as long as premiums are paid on time.

...According to the Wall Street Journal, MetLife is among the bigger sellers of the coverage, with about 600,000 policyholders, or about 8%, among the eight million who have long-term-care insurance in the U.S., according to the company and an industry trade association.

The announcement comes as a surprise and at a time when companies like John Hancock Financial are asking state regulators for an average 40% increase for most of its long term care policyholders...

Gee, I've been out of the country for a while. How's that whole ObamaCare thingie working out?

Unlike those evil health insurers, the federal government is a real monopoly from which there is no escape and no appeal. That's why the average wait for a specialist in Britain is about 18 weeks (that's more than 4 months for you Democrats), at which point many needing specialized care could be dead.

But don't worry, folks: our beloved leaders in Congress aren't subject to the same requirements that us little people are. So they'll be around for a really, really long time. Kinda like the old Soviet Union.


Thursday, November 11, 2010

World's dumbest blogger not sure why deficit reduction is needed

Matthew Yglesis is one of the country's top progressive bloggers and is also highly confused by all of the talk about deficit reduction. Which actually says quite a lot about the progressive movement. But I digress.

All the hot bloggers and think tanks are working on their long-term deficit reduction plans, but I have to say I’m a bit confused as to why. It’s definitely true that in principle a country should always have a specific plan for returning to long-term balance. But does that ever actually happen?

...Today we have serious economic problems, but none of them are caused by the deficit. Inflation is below the Fed’s target....

Oh, geez. Flatline isn't just a character from The Transformers, it also describes Yglesias' neural activity.

Here's a news flash for the world's dumbest blogger: inflation is a problem and it is being exacerbated by the out-of-control fiscal policy of the Federal Reserve. You've heard the term "monetizing the debt", genius? Do you know what that means?

It means we're intentionally devaluing the dollar in an ill-fated attempt to kick-start the economy because the government is flat broke.

So inflation isn't a problem?





This is what passes for informed commentary on the left. Inflation isn't a problem, yet the price of oil, gas, food, commodities and every other tangible necessity is skyrocketing.

Gold is quickly becoming the world's reserve currency as the dollar's value becomes closer and closer to that of the Zimbabwean dollar.

We're about to open the door on the Weimar Republic and the leftists don't have a freaking clue. But that really shouldn't surprise me, given their exceptional track record of fiscal destruction.


Hat tips: Memeorandum and GoldPrice.org.

Warning Labels for Voting Machines

Given their love of warning labels and the current state of the hard left Democrat Party, I would propose placing at least one of the following warning stickers on every voting machine in America.








Hat tips: Left Coast Rebel and Mark Levin.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Curiously, California Auditor Discloses Extent of Democrats' Fiscal Havoc Just Days After Elections in Which Democrats Retain Power

Tyler Durden captions California's latest dilemma as the state disclosing a "Huge $25.4 Billion Budget Hole, [and Asking] If It Should Pass The "Huge Challenge" To "Future Californians""

The California Legislative Analyst's Office has just released the latest fiscal outlook. It's not pretty. The state discloses a $25.4 billion budget "problem" which consists of a $6 billion deficit for the remainder of 2010-2011, and a $19 billion budget deficit forecast for 2011-2012, thanks to a $8 billion plunge in revenues for the general fund, as temporary tax increases adopted in 2009 expire...

Furthermore, as the state admits: "One major reason to stop passing the state’s problems to future Californians is that the state’s long-term fiscal liabilities—for infrastructure, retirement, and budgetary borrowing—are already huge. The costs of paying down these liabilities already are reflected, to some extent, in the state’s recurring deficits, but these costs will only grow in the future. By deferring hard decisions on how to finance routine annual budgets of state programs to future years, the state risks increasing further the already immense fiscal challenges facing tomorrow’s Californians."

Based on the current rate of emigration from the state, tomorrow's Californians may consist entirely of illegal immigrants, Steven Spielberg and the Schwarzenegger family.


Tuesday, November 09, 2010

I didn't think Housing Wire was a horror website. Until today.

You wouldn't normally think of Housing Wire magazine as a horror periodical, but given the multi-decade rape of Fannie Mae by connected Democrats, you'd be wrong.

Two recent articles highlight the trouble we're in.

1. One In Five Distressed Homeowners At Risk of Losing Home:
Laurie Goodman, senior managing director at Amherst Securities, believes one in five distressed homeowners in the U.S. are facing, or may face, foreclosure... The analyst adds that little may be done to stem the tide of foreclosures without greater government intervention or significant principal reduction. Currently, she said 11.5 million home loans are non-performing or highly distressed.

...Goodman spoke at Thursday's State of Housing webinar today, hosted by HousingWire. Several charts produced during the event paint a picture of a highly distressed housing market.

2. Mortgage delinquencies are in 'serious trouble,' says LPS analyst:
Kyle Lundstedt, managing director of the applied analytics division at Lender Processing Services, said the housing market remains in "serious trouble" as current mortgage delinquencies are above 7 million distressed homeowners... Perhaps most alarming to Lundstedt is the rise in prime mortgage delinquencies. "The prime markets are the place we've seen the most increase in foreclosure," he said

..."It's shocking the 13% of mortgage in Florida are in foreclosure," he said. "Not delinquent, not in default, but in foreclosure."

Anyone have Franklin Raines' number? Or Jamie Gorelick's?

I've got a few choice words for them, which I can't repeat in polite company.


The Simple, Two-Color Pie-Chart That Perfectly Illustrates the Fiscal Suicide of the United States of America

Democrats can blame Bush, Greenspan, Reagan, Millard Fillmore and James Madison. But this year's deficit is on their heads alone.

Karl Denninger is using this chart to speak some truth to power: in a nutshell, the Democrats' era of vast unfunded, unconstitutional social engineering experiments -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Department of Education, the Department of Labor and hundreds of other bureaucracies -- is drawing to a close, like it or not.

The Pelosi-Obama-Reid Democrats just hastened their demise.

And don't blink, but given Bernanke's QE2, the end may come quicker than any of us can possibly imagine. The only choice is to slash the government -- slash it wide and deep as fast as possible. The pie-chart doesn't lie.


Monday, November 08, 2010

Are Ben Bernanke and Paul Krugman Running California, Too?

Ben Bernanke and Paul Krugman must love California's economy.

Like Bernanke's game-plan of monetizing the debt by printing money, California is stamping out IOU's to make its payments. As for adhering to Krugman's Utopian vision of unchecked deficit spending, well, California appears to have set the record.

But don't have either of them try to explain any of these fun facts from the world's largest Democrat-controlled nuthouse:

• One of every eight workers in California is jobless.

• The state is borrowing $40 million a day from the federal government to pay unemployment benefits, but won't change any of the formulas used to calculate and fund those benefits.

• Cali's debt on unemployment benefits alone is projected to hit $10.3 billion this year and $16 billion by 2012. Last year, the state paid out $11.3 billion while collecting only $4.2 billion.

• The interest on that debt alone will require a $362 million payment to DC in little more than nine months.

• Fixing the imbalance requires doing one of two things: paying out less benefits or raising employer contributions. California's Democrat legislators have resisted doing either despite massive increases in benefits paid.

Of course, the delightful voters of California decided to reelect the very same nincompoops who got them into this mess, so relief is unlikely to come anytime soon.

Next year's budget deficit has been estimated at $12 billion on the low side and $19 billion on the high side... [observers question] if he will be willing to make state employees work longer to earn their full pensions, especially since they spent $30 million to get him elected.

Brown has promised to make the "budget process transparent..." [but nothing] about this first two days has been transparent. Will he stand up to unions, restore cuts made to schools and universities and where will he find the money to invest in green jobs?

Maybe he'll conjure some unicorns out of thin air... and the unicorns will poop diamonds and green jobs and food stamps and windmills and fairy dust! I mean, this is Cali-freaking-fornia!

Oh, I forgot. Brown also has to deal with a $500 billion unfunded pension liability which has some calling California "America's Greece".

I think they're being far too kind. Greece is Europe's California.

Democrats: if they weren't in power, they'd be good only as comic relief.