Friday, December 09, 2011

Leading actuarial firm: health care premiums to rise up to 85% thanks to resurgence of deadly Bubonic Plague and Obamacare but mostly Obamacare

Milliman is one of the world's leading actuarial firms. One of its specialties is helping insurers appropriately and competitively price their products. And its latest report on the effects of Obamacare on health insurance premiums is decidedly problematic for "the middle class". And the rich. And, of course, the poor. That is, all Americans, irrespective of class, religion, race, creed or other arbitrary segments Democrats use to divide us.

The report, conducted by Milliman, Inc., projects the impacts of the federal health care reform law starting in 2014, when most of the law's provisions go into effect. The report shows significant changes that will increase premiums while expanding government programs.

Specifically, Milliman's report projects that individual premiums in Ohio could increase by as much as 55 to 85% in 2014, not including the current medical trend which has been an average increase of 7 to 8% nationwide each year. Moreover, some individuals may see their premiums increase by 90 to 130% depending on their current health status...

...In addition to significant changes to premium rates, more than one million Ohioans are expected to join the State's Medicaid rolls in 2014 and more than 500,000 are expected to join the government-subsidized individual exchange. Consequently, as many as half of all Ohioans could be enrolled in some type of government-subsidized health coverage, including Medicare, when the law is fully implemented.

...[Worse still,] small businesses offering health insurance to their employees will see their premiums increase 5% to 15% in 2014 with the Health Insurance Tax (HIT)... The HIT is part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) and will be levied on health insurance companies that operate in the fully-insured marketplace, where nearly all small businesses purchase their premiums. It will reduce take-home pay for the average employee with a family plan by $500 every year over the next decade, impacting the 12 million employees and self-employed who purchase insurance in the individual market and the 26 million employees who are covered by their employer.

I could have imagined it, but didn't the president promise that -- when Obamacare passed -- our health insurance premiums would immediately drop by an average of $2,500 a year?

Or was that only for union bosses?


Larwyn's Linx: Eric Holder’s definition of "lying"

Have a news tip or great story? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Eric Holder’s definition of “lying”: Toldjah
Holder, Blago and Richardson: Triangle of Sleaze: RWN
Santorum's Surge: Tells Palin Supporters, ‘I’m Your Guy’: RSM

Among Independents, Romney, Gingrich lead Obama in OH, FL: WS
A Square Deal in a Round Hole: NoisyRm
Every Word This Guy Writes Is A Perfect Valentine: Ace

Rhodes Cook: The Republican Field May Not Be Closed: Wizbang
Perry, Bachmann Latest to Decline Trump Debate: Malkin
Dem Staffers Tweet About On-the-Job Drinking: NWDM

Economy

Obama To Veto Payroll Tax Extension If Pipeline Comes With It: RS
Obama: Man on a Mission: Goldberg
Governors of CA and NY Encourage Employers to Kindly Leave: ATR

Obama’s economic plan? Back to the ’70s!: Peth
Special Michelle Hawaii Flight Would Cost Thousands: Dossier
Boeing Machinists Ask NLRB to End Complaint: BizWk

Gunrunner & Energygate

A Plot To Undermine The Right To Bear Arms: IBD
Issa vs. Holder: 'Have You No Shame?': Ace
More Video From Holder Hearing: The Mitchell/McCarthy Exchange: Ace

Documents: ATF used "Fast and Furious" to make the case for gun regulations: Attkisson
Gunwalker Goes ‘Legal’: Obama Admin Massively Increased Gun Sales to Mexican Military: Owens
Finally: Holder debunks the “Bush lied” meme: Hot Air

Climate & Energy

Tim Barnett on the hockey stick -- team knew of problems with Mann’s "reconstruction": Watts
Ethics Group Says Government Suppressed Chevrolet Volt Evidence: Truth About Cars
Transportation Secretary: NHTSA didn't hide Chevy Volt fire information: Freep

UN Climate Text Demands 'International Climate Court' to compel reparations for 'climate debt': Depot
Climate Corruption 101: Rosett
EPA Links Shale Gas ‘Fracking’ To Wyoming Water Contamination: IBD

Media

Newt Was Found Innocent Nearly 13 Years Ago – Networks Have Yet To Report It: NB
The Second Coming: That Would Be Carter, Not Jesus: Regan
The RJC 2012 Presidential Candidates Forum--Paulbots need not apply: Times

Chicago Tribune Federal Wiretap Leaker Stands By Blago: Cary
Credit Where It’s Due: Politico’s Ben Smith Exposes Media Matters, CAP as Anti-Israel Democrat Orgs: BigJourn
Obama’s Kansas speech:Three Pinocchios: WaPo

WaPo Super Genius Ezra Klein Figures Out U.S. Deficit Crisis: We Have An “Insufficiently Large Welfare State”: WZ
Anti-Jihad Blogger Announces Official Endorsement for President of the United States of America: Zilla
Republican Experts Need to Get With The Program: Glob

World

Obama's Dream for Iran Becoming a Nuclear Nightmare: Kahlili
"Core institutions" of the president's party turn against Israel.: Taranto
Saudi Prince Calls for Kingdom to Acquire WMDs: OilPrice

L.A. Man to Plead Guilty in Fort Hood Inspired Plot - Non-Terrorist "Workplace Violence" on Rise: Jawa
Indicted Yet Somehow Still Free Terrorist in Norway Calls for Attacks Against US: Jawa
Exclusive: EU bank capital hole deepens to 115 billion euros: Reuters

Moody's Downgrades French Banks Again Citing Significant Deterioration in Liquidity and Funding Conditions: Mish
China's Pollution Data Shrouded in Official Fog: Fox
Saudi Arabia: Australian man faces 500 lashes for blasphemy: News AU

Sci-Tech

Four Romanians Indicted for Hacking Subway, Other Retailers: Wired
AT&T throttles speeds for heavy data users: CNet
Why Twitter is becoming more like Facebook: CNet

Cornucopia

Roads to Leesburg: Mudville
Yikes! MythBusters Misfire Sends Cannonball Bounding Into Neighborhood: Marfdrat
Pardon Me Waiter, There’s a Fly in My Soup: MOTUS

Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Rick Santorum for President

QOTD: "Also we have applied a completely artificial adjustment to the data after 1960, so they look closer to observed temperatures than the tree-ring data actually were." --Climate 'scientist' Tim Osborne

Thursday, December 08, 2011

The Two Funniest Quotes From Climategate 2.0

HAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAH... HAHAHAHHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHA... HAHAHAHAHHAHAH *cough* HAHHAHAH *gasp* (need oxygen... can't breathe...)

Oh, my:

Tim Osborne 4007

Also we have applied a completely artificial adjustment to the data after 1960, so they look closer to observed temperatures than the tree-ring data actually were


Tim Osborne #2347

Also, we set all post-1960 values to missing in the MXD data set (due to decline), and the method will infill these, estimating them from the real temperatures – another way of “correcting” for the decline, though may be not defensible!


After these revelations, any member of the Leftist media that refers to a climate "denier" needs to do a mandatory, eight-hour documentary on the science of Alchemy.


Hat tip: Soylent Green (NSFW)

It's another Obama record! Feds run deficit for 38th straight month

Of course, when you blow $840 billion on a "Stimulus" package -- and then never pass another budget -- this news really can't come as much of a surprise.

The federal government ran a $139 billion deficit in November, marking the 38th straight month in the red, according to a preliminary estimate the Congressional Budget Office released Wednesday.

...That suggests the deals President Obama and Congress struck in April and again over the summer to limit spending are not having much effect in actually reducing outlays.

Interest payments on the debt continue to rise at the fastest rate of any category of spending, jumping 12.4 percent this year. Social Security and Medicare spending were also up.

Meanwhile, defense spending is down nearly 7 percent, driven by lower procurement. And spending on unemployment benefits is down markedly, nearly 26 percent lower at this point than it was last year. Education spending also has declined after the expiration of parts of Mr. Obama’s 2009 stimulus.

...The government hasn’t run a surplus since September 2008 [Bush!], just before the Wall Street collapse near the end of the Bush administration. That is by far the longest streak in records dating back to the 1980s. Before the current streak, the government had never gone an entire year without running a surplus in at least one month.

I have a few questions for John Boehner, Mitch McConnell and our other feckless GOP leaders.

How freaking hard is it for you to share the above chart, which depicts the Democrats' calamitous spending plans?

How hard is it to mention a shocking, double-digit rise in interest payments -- a sure recipe for disaster -- every time you open your mouths?

How hard is it for you to discuss this outrageous monthly deficit record in every single press conference?

Folks, if we don't elect the most conservative candidates possible in 2012, men and women who believe in and honor the Constitution, I fear the grand American experiment may be at its end. Not from Nazism, Communism, Islamism or any other external enemy, but from within -- at the hands of insidious counter-revolutionaries dedicated to dividing us by race, income, religion and class.


Investment Tip: Make 343% On Your Money With Easy-to-Buy, Low-Risk Greek Bonds*

*Of course, I'm not an investment professional, so your mileage may vary.

Word from Europe is that its central bank (the ECB) is prohibited from buying the massive amounts of PIIGS debt that will soon need refinancing, the latest rumour-o-the-week (gratuitous limey spelling) that had ramped equity prices.

The main news in today's European roundup is the reiteration by ECB president Mario Draghi EU Treaty Prohibits "Monetary Financing":

At a news conference in Frankfurt, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said on Thursday that the European Union treaty prohibits "monetary financing." He was responding to a reporter's question about why the central bank doesn't ramp up its bond-buying program...

...The market has rallied for weeks on expectation the ECB would eventually get around to a massive bond buying program. The irony is Draghi personally fueled rumors the CEB would step up purchases...

So Draghi got out of this what he wanted: A big plunge in Italian and Spanish debt yields, by doing nothing more than yapping.

The second irony is that Draghi is in essence a liar. He cannot come out and say the ECB is providing "monetary financing" with its bond purchases, even though that is exactly what the ECB is doing.

The bond market is saying that the PIIGS' debt -- incurred by the massive social welfare states that the Obama Democrats are duplicating here -- will never be paid back.

The equity markets have yet to admit defeat.

One is wrong and one is right. I leave that choice as an exercise for the reader.


Tragedy for Legacy Media: 'Income Inequality' Straw-man Transformed Into Smoldering Pile of Ashes By Cato's Alan Reynolds

Over the past few months, you've probably read a series of propaganda pieces articles describing America's increased 'income inequality'. You know the template: the rich keep getting richer at the expense of everyone else; America has a static class structure in which no one moves up or down; and zero-sum economics idiocy promoted by the likes of the execrable Paul Krugman. A series of propagandists, including Krugman, have used this chart to illustrate how the top 1% are ripping everyone off.

But the Cato Institute's Alan Reynolds wondered, "Why did the report stop at 2007?"

A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office says, "The share of income received by the top 1% grew from about 8% in 1979 to over 17% in 2007."

This news caused quite a stir, feeding the left's obsession with inequality. Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, for example, said this "jaw-dropping report" shows "why the Occupy Wall Street protests have struck such a nerve." The New York Times opined that the study is "likely to have a major impact on the debate in Congress over the fairness of federal tax and spending policies."

But here's a question: Why did the report stop at 2007? The CBO didn't say, although its report briefly acknowledged—in a footnote—that "high income taxpayers had especially large declines in adjusted gross income between 2007 and 2009."

No kidding. Once these two years are brought into the picture, the share of after-tax income of the top 1% by my estimate fell to 11.3% in 2009 from the 17.3% that the CBO reported for 2007.

The larger truth is that recessions always destroy wealth and small business incomes at the top. Perhaps those who obsess over income shares should welcome stock market crashes and deep recessions because such calamities invariably reduce "inequality." Of course, the same recessions also increase poverty and unemployment.

The only thing I can conclude is that crackpots like Paul Krugman want more stock market crashes and deep recessions. Which perhaps explains his affection for Barack Obama.

And why he must believe that countries with the least income inequality -- like North Korea -- are just swell.


Hat tips: TaxProf and Mark Levin.

Naughty or Nice: Administration Hands Iran a Christmas Gift [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

After reading this story, and watching the embedded video, you’ll be asked to participate in a brief survey and asked a few simple questions. 1) Do you smell something fishy? 2) Based on President Obama’s decision in this case, do you still think there’s a chance in Hell he’d ever attack Iran to stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons?

December 08, 2011 | FoxNews.com

Official Confirms Authenticity of Iranian TV Images Showing Lost U.S. Drone


A senior U.S. official has confirmed to Fox News that images aired by Iranian state television do in fact show the secret U.S. drone that went down last week in eastern Iran.

"Yep, that's it," the official told Fox News. "And it's intact."

U.S. officials had been expecting the video to appear. The footage, which shows the aircraft intact, confirms the Iranians have custody of the drone but appears to refute Iranian claims that it shot down the RQ-170 drone.

With early knowledge that the aircraft had likely remained intact, the senior U.S. official also told Fox News that President Obama was presented with three separate options for retrieving or destroying the drone. The president ultimately decided not to proceed with any of the plans because it could have been seen as an act of war, the official told Fox News.

Among the options the U.S. considered were sending in a special-ops team to retrieve the drone; sending in a team to blow up the aircraft; and launching an airstrike to destroy it.

NATO initially said the drone may have been one that was flying a mission over western Afghanistan before operators "lost control" of it. Officials have since acknowledged that the drone was part of a joint CIA-military reconnaissance mission.

One official told Fox News on Thursday that the incident is a huge loss and makes the top-secret helicopter tail lost during the Usama bin Laden raid in Pakistan "look like a pittance." The official said there are real fears the Iranians will share this technology with the Russians and the Chinese, in addition to using it themselves.

There's a good reason that the Democrat Party has, since the days of James Earl Carter, been known as The Party of Weakness™.


Good News: Saudi Prince Calls for Six Additional Arab Countries to Acquire Nukes

More evidence of 'the Arab Spring':

On 5 December Prince bin Turki al Faisal, speaking at the “The Gulf and the Globe” conference in the Saudi capital Riyadh urged the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to become a powerful regional bloc by establishing a unified armed force and defense structure.

While bin Turki’s call for the GCC to pool its military resources is nothing new, his idea of supporting Gulf countries acquiring weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) if Israel and Iran do not constrain their nuclear programs represents the edge of a precipitously slippery slope.

Bin Turki told his audience, "Why shouldn't we commence the building of a unified military force, with a clear chain of command. But, if our efforts and the efforts of the world community fail to bring about the dismantling of the Israeli arsenal of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and preventing Iran from acquiring the same, then why shouldn't we at least study seriously all available options, including acquiring WMDs, so that our future generations will not blame us for neglecting any courses of action that will keep looming dangers away from us."

...Bin Turki’s comments should not be dismissed lightly... [he is] the son of the late King Faisal, is a grandson of the late King Abdul-Azizz, brother of Foreign Minister Prince Saud and Prince Khalid, Governor of Mecca province and a nephew of the current King Abdullah... Bin Turki is currently a co-chair of the C100 Group, an organization set up to foster understanding between Islamic countries and the West and is head of the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies.

All praise due to Obama.


Photo: Sarah Palin meets Valerie Bertinelli

@WolfiesMom (Valerie Bertinelli) tweeted this photo the other day:


Hat tip: Don Surber.

Larwyn's Linx: FDR's Class Warfare: A Tutorial For Obama

Have a news tip or great story? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

FDR's Class Warfare: A Tutorial For Obama: AmSpec
Reining in the Feds: Rubio
POTUS cancels Hawaii trip after getting blasted by Romney: Hill

ACORN Visits Obama White House: Vadum
Obama Pursues Rich and Poor, Not White Working Class: Barone
Hillary Campaign Conspicuously Emerges: USN

Obama Promises to Save the Middle Class by Enslaving It: Reason
2008 Presidential Primary Election Fraud Probe Heats Up: Ace
Chart of the Day: Food Stamp Recession Curve: Mish

Economy

Obama Gives SEIU A $4B Christmas Present: S&L
Congress should stop subsidizing Buffet's health care: Foundry
How the economy would change under Newt Gingrich: Yahoo!

Five Big Lies in Obama's Economic Fairness Speech: IBD
How to Ruin Your Life: Mead
ObamaCare Rule May Bar HSAs, Low-Cost Health Plans: IBD

Gunrunner & Energygate

New e-mails: ATF officials discussed using Fast & Furious to … push gun control: Hot Air
Sen. Grassley Calls for Assistant A.G.’s Resignation from Senate Floor over ‘Fast and Furious’: BigGovt
What Does Sec. of State Clinton Know About Fast and Furious (and El Paso)?: BigGovt

Holder Testifies at 10AM ET on "Fast and Furious": C-SPAN
'Obama Blamed US Guns for Mexican Violence – Then He Set Out to Prove Himself Right': GWP
New Fast and Furious Memo Backs Up Whistleblower Testimony: AT

Climate & Energy

Oil-rich America?: Hanson
Eight Warning Signs of Junk Science: Armed & Dangerous
Priorities: Your DHS Now Fighting For Environmental Justice: Ace

Media

Lib media journos punked by fake SEIU press release: Malkin
David Brooks and the Cost of Regulation: Ricochet
GOP Strategist Laughs in Chris Matthews' Face, Mocks His View of 'Sophisticated Voters': NB

Krauthammer slams Panetta for attacking Israel over no peace process: Scoop
Channeling Milton Friedman to a conservative victory: Wolf
Alec Baldwin Kicked Off Plane (Delaying Flight For Everyone Else) For Refusing To Turn Off Electronic Device: Ace

World

The Covert Intelligence War Against Iran: Stratfor
West has new, hardline martyr-in-waiting to fear: Creeping
German Politician: Euro Downgrade Is an American Plot: WklyStd

W.H. Classifies Nidal Hassan's Terrorist Attack on Ft. Hood as... ... ... "Workplace Violence": Ace
The Republican Jewish Coalition Presidential Candidates Forum Winner Is…: PJM
Terrorist-Linked CAIR Peddling Islam in Tampa Bay, FL High Schools: Creeping

Sci-Tech

AT&T rated worst cell phone carrier for second year in a row: CNet
$100 tablet now shipping with Android 4.0: CNet
Mercedes C- and E-Class coupes to get AWD option next year: Autoblog

Cornucopia

Remembering Pearl Harbor (and here): Ace
What Do Shoplifters Steal Most During the Holidays?: Marfdrat
The Best Quotes From “Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty”: RWN

Image: iOwnTheWorld
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Vote for Ben Howe as WBT's Next Top Talker

QOTD: "This year alone, 772 regulatory documents have been deemed “significant” under the president’s definition, heaping an estimated $230 billion in new compliance costs on the struggling economy. A staggering 76,292 pages of regulations have been added to the Federal Register, and the expected paperwork burden for businesses stands at 119.4 million hours per year. Regulations based on sound science that keep the American people safe are an important function of the federal government, but it is quite clear that our runaway regulatory system must be reined in to help foster private-sector job creation. An estimate from the American Action Forum finds that passage of the REINS Act could yield regulatory cost savings of over $40 billion and save 55,000 jobs." --Sen. Marco Rubio

Wednesday, December 07, 2011

'Income Inequality' is just another form of diversity: so why do liberals hate diversity?

President Obama's speech in Kansas yesterday was breathtaking for its level of dishonesty. Over and over, with a cadence not dissimilar to that of a used-car salesman, the president decried the lack of "fairness" in our society.

The word "fairness" and its derivatives were mentioned by the president more than a dozen times.

But life itself is unfair. And no one and nothing on Earth can change that, even if you tried to create a totalitarian police state like North Korea's.

• It's not fair that I don't play basketball like LeBron James.

• It's not fair that I can't play a guitar like Eric Clapton.

• It's not fair that I didn't invent Google like Larry Page.

• It's not fair that I haven't invested as well as Warren Buffet.

• It's not fair that I've never worked as hard as Tesla.

• It's not fair that I'm taller than most people.

• It's not fair that most people sing better than me.

• It's not fair that Al Gore invented the Internet first.

To be human is to be unique, to be different than everyone else. It is your uniqueness that makes you special, whether Barack Obama thinks that is unfair or not. For liberals to place you -- a unique, wonderful individual with God-given talents and shortcomings -- in some sort of bucket, in some made-up class, so he can manipulate you or secure your vote, well, it's not just cynical. It's un-American.

And what is "fair" when it comes to society as a whole?

Say I am a businessman about to invent a cancer-fighting drug, but the money I was going to use for that research was ripped from me by the government in the name of "fairness"; how is that fair for the people who could have been saved by that drug?

Is it fair for the government to steal money and claim they're able to use it more efficiently than thousands upon thousands of entrepreneurs, businesspeople, investors, scientists and engineers?

Is it fair for the government to create arbitrary classes of people based upon their income -- and then decide who should have their money confiscated and who should receive that money as gifts to buy their votes?

And who are these geniuses -- these masterminds of humankind -- who can decide what's "fair" and what's "unfair" for all of humanity?

They are Marxists, following the template of all of the failed Statists who've come before them, dividing us, building straw-men and, ultimately, obliterating the civil society. Which is why we must crush them and their vessel -- the Democrat Party -- at the ballot box in 2012.


Hat tip: Mark Levin.

Report: How Open Borders Policies Led to the Mortgage Meltdown

A little-publicized article in the Norfolk Crime Examiner two years ago featured a startling interview with a mortgage auditor. This man "personally audited thousands of sub prime loans."

The auditor found that "[o]ver 50% of the subprimes were for cash-out refi’s. Regardless of the loan criteria used to pull random samplings for audits, the majority of the last names were Hispanic. The loans I audited were primarily in CA, NV, AZ, FL, CO, compare those to the states with the highest number of foreclosures [and] illegal aliens."

Are these figures plausible? It appears so. A June 2007 MarketWatch article confirmed that "...[m]ore than half of subprime loans are actually cash-out refinance loans... we see subprime offers all-over the place: 'consolidate your debts' or 'tap you home's equity,' the ads read. As Lee puts it, why not pay off credit cards with 18% annual interest rates with a 9% loan?"

"Cash-out refi's" -- for those unfamiliar with the term -- are situations where a loan is refinanced and cash taken out of excess equity in the home. The excess equity could have been provided by a massive run-up in prices or simply a fraudulent appraisal.

The auditor observed that, "[o]ne borrower stole the [social security number] of a retiree and took out $3.5 million in loans, turned around and did cash-out refi’s, then fled the country. The retiree was left with ruined credit, $3.5 million in loans and trouble with the IRS."

Interestingly, cash-out refi's hit a 16-year high in late 2006.

Because subprime cash-out refi's were known to have higher default rates well before this, a reckoning could have been predicted by regulators.

"During the bailout, I called my Congressman and other leadership including Barney Frank and asked if there was a provision within the Bill that prohibited illegal aliens from being bailed out…..the answer was no. I asked if there was a provision in the Bill that helped homeowners that did not take out subprimes but are faced with losing their home due to the negative impact of subprimes and was told... no. So in other words, those that committed crimes to obtain the loans will get a helping hand to bail them out, compliments of the US [t]axpayer!"

"Of course, we all know that, on October 26, 2001, President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act. However, I would wager to say that almost no one knows that contained in section 326(b) of the USA Patriot Act is a provision that allows US banks to accept Mexican Matricula Consular cards (MCCs) as a valid form of ID for opening bank accounts."

"It should be noted that while... Congress ordered American banks to recognize these Mexican-issued cards, there is not one Mexican bank which accepts their own government’s Matricula Consular card as a valid form of ID, because the bearer’s identity is basically untraceable."

In fact, members of the House Judiciary Committee confirm that Mexican banks do not accept Matricula Consular cards as valid identification.

In 2004, a Congressional effort to limit the use of MCCs was defeated by a consortium of financial institutions, immigrants’ rights groups, consumer groups, and many others. These organizations had formed a loose coalition to defeat, again, limitations on the use of consular ID cards by banks, credit unions, thrifts and other financial institutions.

By a vote of 222 to 177, the House passed a bipartisan amendment (HA 754), introduced by Representatives Barney Frank (D-MA), Pastor (D-AZ), Hinojosa (D-TX), Oxley (R-OH) and Kolbe (R-AZ). It prohibited the Treasury Dept. from implementing regulations regarding the acceptance of FCCs by financial institutions.

But prior to that hearing, the FBI was adamantly opposed to the use of MCCs as valid identification. Assistant Director Steve McCraw's testimony before Congress in 2003 was blunt: "...consular ID cards are primarily being utilized by illegal aliens in the United States. Foreign nationals who are present in the U.S. legally have the ability to use various alternative forms of identification -- most notably a passport -- for the purposes of opening bank accounts..."

The FBI identified a variety of problems with MCCs:

* There was no centralized database of MCCs
* There were no interconnected, local databases of MCCs and, therefore, no way to authenticate the validity of a card
* MCCs could be obtained with little -- and sometimes -- no documentation whatsoever
* MCCs were easily forged (90% in circulation had no security features at all)

In 2003, Gabriel Manjarrez, Senior Vice President and Hispanic Marketing Executive of Bank of America testified before the House Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit. He explained, "...The first program I want to discuss is our initiative to accept the use of the Mexican consulate ID, the Matricula Consular. We developed this initiative [in 2001] because we wanted to make it easier for Mexican citizens living in the USA to have access to banking services from Bank of America... Today, every single Bank of America banking center recognizes the Matricula Consular as a valid form of identification."

At least a dozen U.S. banks and mortgage insurers offered home loan programs targeted at illegal aliens.

And anecodotal evidence would appear to confirm alarming abuse of the system; the infamous $720,000 mortgage to two pairs of illegal immigrants with a combined annual income of less than $50,000 comes to mind.

Consider the findings of the auditor: "Over 50% of the sub primes were for cash-out refi’s. Regardless of the loan criteria used to pull random samplings for audits, the majority of the last names were Hispanic. The loans I audited were primarily in CA, NV, AZ, FL, CO, compare those to the states with the highest number of foreclosures & illegal aliens."

* * * * * * * * *

Those who have supported open borders policies -- on either side of the aisle -- seem to have contributed mightily to the mortgage crisis. And someday we might actually get legacy media to tell the entire story of the mortgage meltdown.


Larwyn's Linx: Obama: Capitalism Has "Never Worked"

Have a news tip or great story? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Obama: Capitalism Has "Never Worked": Ace
Obama embraces liberal fascism in Kansas speech: Greenroom
Ixnay on Cordray: Not another Obama czar: Malkin

Ten Years to Greece: Stossel
RNC: Let’s not personally attack Obama next year: Hot Air
The Stupid Party: Walsh

Kings of Crony Capitalism: Power Line
Corzine-Bubba Twist: MF Global hired Clinton’s group: Post
Karen Harrington- “A Two-State Solution is Already in Place”: Shark

Economy

Then and Now: American Digest
Obama vs. Capitalism: Harsanyi
Obama's New Villain on Job Losses: The Internet: Ace

President Obama’s Inane Payroll Tax Campaign Ploy: Motley
Obama Union Goon: “Obama the only choice for the 99%”: JWF
Hoyer: More Unemployment Payments Reduces Unemployment: CNS

Gunrunner & Energygate

Video: US approved large escalation of legal gun sales to Mexico: Hot Air
Fast & Furious Cover Up Coming Apart Fast and Furious: Ace
Gunwalker’s Cousin: ‘Moneywalker’?: Owens

Climate & Energy

CO2 ... The World's Savior?: Wolf Howing
Great News: DHS drafts 'environmental justice strategy: Exam
New hurricane record – 2232 days since major Hurricane made landfall in USA – most since 1900: Watts

Media

Snared in the Soros Web: NoisyRm
Survey of Conservative Bloggers On The 2012 GOP Primaries: RWN
Former NRA Chairman: Sharon Bialek was terminated before Herman Cain was even hired: Nice Deb

Bob Woodward: Gore Told Me That the Public Knows Just 'One Percent' of Clinton's Dealings: NB
Transcript of Newt Gingrich interview: Beck
Santorum on Trump: Couldn't Be Any Worse 'Than What We Get from the Mainstream Media': NB

The 5 Best Paul Krugman Meme Pics: RWN
It's Time To Give Up On Mainstream Economics: Martenson
Hollyweird distraction of the day: Alec Baldwin booted off plane: Malkin

World

Obama’s new gay rights strategy? FAIL. Check out MY new gay rights strategy.: Zombie
NAACP begs United Nations to block US voter ID laws: Toldjah
Obama to Iran: Enjoy Your Nukes!: Simon

Jerusalem Post: the U.S. is an ally no more: JPost
Islamic ascendancy intensifies US appeasement: Word From Jerusalem
Experts: Nuclear Iran Would be Game Changer: CBN

Pregnant Gang Rape Victim to Be Lashed 100 Times After She Delivers Baby: GWP
Perry on Obama Administration’s Use of Gay Rights to Make Foreign Aid Decisions: Rick Perry
China begins to admit 'fog' is really smog: MSNBC

Sci-Tech

Verizon blocks Google Wallet on Galaxy Nexus: CNet
Verizon Blocks Google Wallet on New Smartphones: WSJ
Mark Zuckerberg's private pictures leaked after security breached on Facebook: Post

Cornucopia

Iowahawk Geographic: The Secret Life of Climate Researchers: IowaHawk
The Ultimate Hamburger: American Digest
President Obama stops at We B Smokin Barbecue: Dossier

Image: Lars Larson
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: “If we’re training cops as soldiers, giving them equipment like soldiers, dressing them up as soldiers, when are they going to pick up the mentality of soldiers?

If you look at the police department, their creed is to protect and to serve. A soldier’s mission is to engage his enemy in close combat and kill him. Do we want police officers to have that mentality? Of course not." --Arthur Rizer

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

It begins: bank runs break out in Greece, following the contours of the sovereign debt crisis

Following the path of the sovereign debt crisis, the Eurozone's bank runs have begun.

Anxious Greeks Emptying Their Bank Accounts


Many Greeks are draining their savings accounts because they are out of work, face rising taxes or are afraid the country will be forced to leave the euro zone. By withdrawing money, they are forcing banks to scale back their lending -- and are inadvertently making the recession even worse.

Georgios Provopoulos, the governor of the central bank of Greece, is a man of statistics, and they speak a clear language. "In September and October, savings and time deposits fell by a further 13 to 14 billion euros. In the first 10 days of November the decline continued on a large scale," he recently told the economic affairs committee of the Greek parliament... the outflow of funds from Greek bank accounts has been accelerating rapidly. At the start of 2010, savings and time deposits held by private households in Greece totalled €237.7 billion ... [but] the Greeks today only have €170 billion in savings -- almost 30 percent less than at the start of 2010.

...Nikoloudis has detected a further trend. At first, it was just a few people trying to withdraw large sums of money. Now it's large numbers of people moving small sums. Ypatia K., a 55-year-old bank worker from Athens, can confirm that. "The customers, especially small savers, have recently been withdrawing sums of €3,000, €4,000 or €5,000. That was panic," she said.

For those who insist it couldn't happen here, a word of caution: it can and it has, as recently as 2008.

The 2008 financial crisis displayed characteristics of a classic bank run, but people holding bank accounts weren't the ones scrambling to get their cash. It was lenders demanding their money from other financial institutions.

Indeed, today's panics are more likely to involve major financial institutions and are largely hidden from plain sight until they are severe enough to trigger plunging stock prices, bankruptcies, layoffs and rising unemployment. And the current European crisis is a reminder that some of the vulnerabilities exposed in 2008 still exist.

These panics often originate in the shadows of the banking system, where major financial institutions do business with one another... [and] the size of shadow-banking activities [are] roughly $60 trillion as of 2010—a sum that represents 25% to 30% of the total global financial system.

At best, shadow banking offers financial institutions a source of funding and liquidity on a day-to-day basis. At worst, it allows the buildup of leverage and systemic risk, as the 2008 financial crisis revealed. Gary Gorton, a Yale University professor and leading researcher in this field, has documented that the crisis was effectively "a run by banks and firms on other banks."

...Given the speed that Europe's debt crisis is unfolding, however, any measures that could help fend off future shadow-banking panics risk coming too late.

The propagand-conomist Paul Krugman -- a proponent of the debt-ridden European social welfare state -- hardest hit.


Oops! Chart Proves Obama's Housing Policies Have Been a Complete and Utter Cluster-Fail

This is why the President runs around the country -- when he's not golfing or vacationing -- talking about how great the future will be if only Congress would stop blocking his agenda. Because, like all liberals, he can never, ever look back at the past, the results of his previous decisions, which are uniformly disastrous.

A few days ago we presented an analysis by ConvergEx showing that due to the very close historical correlation between home prices and employment, it is the Fed's view that the only way to stimulate employment (aside from such BLS shennanigans as pretending that despite the natural growth of the labor force by 90k a month to keep up with population, those willing to work are in fact declining) is to raise home prices. Raising home prices by definition means either reducing supply - an event which is proving impossible with shadow inventory in the millions and rising, even as thousands of new delinquent mortgages appear each day... or increasing demand. It is the latter that the Fed targets, by attempting to make mortgage rates ever cheaper via LSAP, Operation Twist or other Treasury curve interventions that attempt to push down long-dated yields ever lower. This works in theory. In practice, however, as the chart below demonstrates, the Fed's entire [Zero Interest Rate] policy over the past several years has been one abysmal failure (for everyone expect those with immediate access to the Fed's zero interest rate capital - i.e., the Primary Dealers)...

...What appears very clearly on this chart is that despite ever declining mortgage rates, there is simply no interest in home turnover, and sales are at record low levels due to lack of demand, and lack of desire to sell into a bidless market, in essence causing the entire housing market to halt.

...And this makes intuitive sense: the bulk of home owners who can take advantage of cheap credit are those who already have a mortgage and at best will refi into a cheaper one. For everyone else, either the bank's admissions criteria are too stringent, or the potential borrower is simply convinced that a year from today, the 30-year mortgage rate will be another 1% lower (most likely with 100% justification). As such there is absolutely no drive to naturally restart the housing market (one can commence here a discussion of how central planning destroys every market it infect like a lethal virus, but we will spare that for another, more preachy night). For now we will leave you with this chart which proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the Fed's primary mandate: to lower the unemployment rate (by boosting home prices) has been a failure...

Oh, for the love of...! Now I'm gonna have to add another item to The Complete List of President Obama's Historic Firsts™.


Beautiful: Chevy Volt Safety Issues 'May Have Been Suppressed' (plus, the Top 12 Chevy Volt Slogans!)

Gee, it seems so surprising that a government-owned auto company would use the instrumentalities of government to suppress safety findings.

Top 12 Chevy Volt Slogans

12. Fight global warming by driving an electric car that bursts into flames!
11. The money you will save at the pump helps you pay the deductible on your homeowners insurance.
10. If you have friends push it around while making ***vroom vroom*** noises, it's a lot like driving a car.
9. Reducing our dependence on foreign oil while reducing our garage to a pile of ashes.
8. We call it the “Volt” because the name "Chevy Coal" didn’t test well.
7. Ask us about our Sail option!
6. The Chevy Volt, the $41,000 before-tax-credit, four-seater that you might as well buy because you’re paying for it anyway car
5. Forward, into the futu-- AGGGHHH!!! AGGGHHH!!! PUT ME OUT!!! ROLL ME AROUND ON THE GROUND!!!
4. Got Squirrel?
3. The Kia of Golf Carts
2. I coulda had a V-8
1. Why pollute around you with exhaust when you can pollute far away with coal?
Following on from the announcement that GM is looking at redesigning the Chevrolet Volt’s lithium-ion battery system in the wake of several highly publicized fires resulting from test crashes, comes further news that both the automaker and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration delayed disclosure of their original findings by months.

Apparently, way back in June, General Motors heard about a Volt fire that happened three weeks after said vehicle was crash tested, yet it wasn’t until November that the company, or NHTSA disclosed there was a potential problem, urging both dealers and customers to drain the battery pack immediately following an accident.

As a result the public relations nightmare surrounding Chevy’s halo vehicle appears to be deepening, though a good deal of the blame in this case also rests with NHTSA.

Joan Claybrook, a former adminstrator at NHTSA believes part of the reason for the delay was the “fragility of Volt sales.” Yet she also believes that “NHTSA could have put out a consumer alert, not to tell them [customers] for six months makes no sense to me.”

GM designed a complex cooling system for the Volt’s lithium ion battery pack to help regulate its temperature (lithium-ion units are known for overheating), yet until July it hadn’t finalized a standard proceedure to power down the battery system, the Volt had already been on sale in the US for six months at that juncture.

The Insurance Institute of Highway Safety, which crash tested a Volt back in February reported no incidents of fire as resulting from the accident, yet when a second crash test was performed in August, General Motors sent a technician to power down the battery.

General Motors is certainly blazing a path to a clean energy future!

Can I get a rim-shot?


Hat tips: Biff Spackle, IMAO, Michelle Malkin, The Other McCain, Cruze Forum and Greg Gutfeld.

Presidents Behaving Strangely [Dan from NY]

Dan from NY:

At some point (like now) it’s appropriate to ask Barack Hussein Obama “what can you be thinking?”

12/6/11

'Obama urging US lawmakers to soften Iran sanctions'


By REUTERS

Senator Mark Kirk, co-author of proposal approved 100-0 by Senate to penalize foreign financial institutions that do business with Iran's central bank, says Obama administration trying to undermine sanctions.

Dan, I beg to differ. This isn't 'strange' behavior on the part of President Obama.

He's doing precisely what he was taught to do.


Larwyn's Linx: Wargaming the Electoral College

Have a news tip or great story? Drop me an email. Bloggers: you can install a Larwyn's Linx blog widget!

Nation

Wargaming the Electoral College: Vodkapundit
The Orwellian American Left: DLim
Ten Reasons To Love Rick Perry : CDNews

Battlefield Main Street: Daily
Pelosi retreats from Gingrich insinuations: Lane
Newt fires back at Pelosi: Bring it on!: Scoop

Economy

Dodd-Frank Rules Will Crush Employment, Banks Warn: IBD
On Payroll Taxes, Milton Friedman and TANSTAAFL: AllAm
Jesse Jackson: "Christmas Should Be Poor People’s Holy Day": WZ

Congressional Insider Trading and the Media: Schweizer Speaks: NB
New Signs Of “Invisible” Bank Run in Southern Europe: WorldCrunch
Fed may give loans to IMF to help euro zone: paper: Reuters

Gunrunner & Energygate

Justice Dept. Caught In Lie About 'Fast And Furious': IBD
Friday 'Document Dump' Reveals DOJ Misled Congress: PJM
Hey, Guess Who Else Profited From Corzine's Debacle?: Ace

Climate & Energy

Climategate 2 Emails Loaded with Bombshells : Heartland
A loophole in the incandescent light bulb ban?: WyBlog
Science of Public Choice Reveals Government is Motivated by Politics and Not by Science: Hayek

Media

Iran, Orwell & The Enigma Of Greenwald: Wolf Howling
Another Liberal Talk Radio Failure; San Fran Lib Station Replaced With Conservative Talk: Loesch
My Affair With Herman Cain: Riehl

Drudge headline that cost Newt 1,000,000 votes: Surber
Disgraced CNN Journalist Who Accused U.S. Troops of Atrocities to Produce GOP Debate: NB
GOP Moderator Donald Trump: Yeah, Obama's Birth Certificate Looks Pretty Fake To Me: Ace

Pedophilia Rampant In Hollywood, And Everyone Looks The Other Way, Charge Former Child Stars: Ace
Glenn Reynolds: Let’s put colleges on the hook for loans that their students can’t repay: Hot Air
Does Liberal Media Ever Identify Anyone as 'Liberal'?: ChicagoNow

World

A dubious death in Dubai: Officials tight-lipped over Iranian expat’s ‘suicide’: Timmerman
'Israel biggest loser from Brotherhood Egypt win': JPost
Despite Massive Fraud, Putin Loses Seats: PJM

Three Slaps and You're Out?: Baehr
Report: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Put On “War Footing” After Explosions Rock Key Nuclear Installations: WZ
Chavez Price Caps Spark Panic Buying of Coffee, Toilet Paper: Bloomberg

Report: UN to tax Americans for Green Climate Fund: Bruce
Egypt’s Rising Salafi Party Says Christians Will Be Better Off Under Sharia Law: WZ
The Arab Spring: Lancing The Boil: RWN

Sci-Tech

Could HTC phones be banned from the U.S.? (FAQ): CNet
Potentially Earth-Like Planet Has Right Temperature for Life: Wired
Yahoo lesson: Don't get comfortable, it'll kill your business: smh

Cornucopia

17 Days of Fun, Fun, Fun ~ The Obama Hawaii Vacation: GJ&JK
Kennedy Center Tributes: Sapphires, Diamonds & Salvation: MOTUS
New Bumper-Sticker Idea: Looking Spoon

Image: The Daily: Battlefield Main Street
Today's Larwyn's Linx sponsored by: Senate Conservatives Fund

QOTD: "One thing that emerges from the new emails is that, while a large number of scientists are working on separate, detailed nodes of climate-related issues (the reason for dozens of authors for every IPCC report chapter), the circle of scientists who control the syntheses that go into IPCC reports and the national climate reports that the U.S. and other governments occasionally produce is quite small and partial to particular outcomes of these periodic assessments. The way the process works in practice casts a shadow over one of the favorite claims of the climate campaign​—​namely, that there exists a firm “consensus” about catastrophic future warming among thousands of scientists. This so-called consensus reflects only the views of a much smaller subset of gatekeepers." --Steven Hayward

Monday, December 05, 2011

A picture from President Obama's post-Constitutional America

I'm shocked. SHOCKED, I say.

I was strolling around the waterfront fish market in DC on Saturday, admiring the whole octopi, the squid, lobsters, jumbo crab legs and Maryland blue crabs for sale.

Imagine my surprise when I spotted this sign above a pile of crabs.

...But this is all good news, according to this administration. Remember, food stamps stimulate the economy!

Say, did someone mention another Obama record?

...according to the latest update from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), some 423,000 Americans found their way to minimum way subsistence, courtesy of Food Stamp handouts from Uncle Sam. Since the start of the Second Great Depression, food stamp participation has increased by 18.7 million, and is now at an all time higher 46.3 million.

All Bush's fault, or something. At least the chart below appears to be plateauing... Actually, sorry, no. It isn't.

Not to worry, folks.

At least the USDA has an excellent handle on how food stamps are being used.

Sorry. I couldn't restrain my chortle.


Hat tip: Occam's Razor X.

County Approves Display of Crucifixion of Santa Claus; Ten Commandments, However, Still Off Limits

I guess this is the kind of cultural shift that President Obama was talking about when he spoke about 'fundamentally transforming America'.

A skeleton, dressed as Santa Claus and nailed to a cross, was torn down by an enraged woman outside of the Loudoun County Courthouse.

The display was legally there, with the consent of the county, officials said.

Mary Zenecki, a county resident, wasn't having it. Piece by piece and bone by bone Zenecki took Skele-Claus off the cross and laid him on the courthouse's lawn. "You don't think this is offensive?" she asked.

The display was put there by Jeff Heflin. He applied for approval with the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors to put up his anti-Christmas Season display.

"It depicts how society's materialistic obsessions and addictions are killing the season's peace, love, joy and kindness," Heflin said.

How about we strive for separation of stupidity and state?


Hat tip: The Quinton Report.