Thursday, December 29, 2011

The First Honest Assessment

The WaPo ran this piece which stated that the City of Baltimore doesn't expect property tax revenues to increase until 2016, which means they aren't forecasting a housing bottom until 2015. And that children comes from someone who needs to plan for the future and be honest with themselves about the course we are on, as opposed to our extend and pretend politicians or the bulk of the mainstream media whose editorial agendas have a vested interest the party who has spent several trillion dollars bailing out over extended banks and home debtors. In truth, I doubt the WaPo even understood the significance of what they printed, or I am sure that they would have framed it differently.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Oh the Bitter Irony

Democrats like to wail about Goldman Sachs' influence over the government, yet they are the prime offenders when it comes to opening the door for these blood-sucking vampire squid to help drain the financial life out of our country.

Look at all these ex-Goldman employees appointed to office over the last 20 years. All but one are Democratic appointees.

John Corzine: I Stand Corrected

So last week, I gave this clown the benifit of the doubt. My mistake. I really have to stop doing that.

Today Reuters reports that transcripts from the compliance department at MF Global clearly show that he was aware that customer funds were being used in a suspect fashion.

End of story, he's a crook and a perjurer.

Thursday, December 08, 2011

Fact Check

Continuing with my theme of incompetence today ...

While discussing the upcoming expiration of the 2% payroll tax cut the White House released the following statement...
It's simple. If lawmakers don't vote to extend the payroll tax cut, taxes for 160 million Americans will go up on January 1st.

President Obama just left the press briefing room at the White House where he called on Congress to extend the tax cut, pay for it responsibly, and expand it so middle class families get a $1,500 break next year.

He told Congress to put country before party and stop wasting time.

Every day, folks are fighting to make ends meet and businesses are working to keep their doors open. The longer Congress waits to extend the payroll tax cut, the more uncertainty it creates for ordinary Americans. So we've put a clock on every page of the White House website, counting down the days, hours, and minutes until taxes for the middle class increase. In the briefing room, where the President just spoke, that same clock is ticking down as well.

And to make sure you have the information you need to know exactly what this means for your family, we've put together a calculator to show how much of your money hangs in the balance.

This calculator illustrates for you what nearly every independent economist has said: letting this tax cut expire will be a blow to the economy. We can’t let that happen. Now is the time to make a real difference in the lives of the people who sent us here.

Check it out and pass it along:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/taxcut

Thanks,

David Plouffe
Senior Advisor to the President
A couple of things stood out. First off, 160 million American workers is a BS number that somebody pulled out of thin air, because the BLS only claims about 140 million American workers currently employed. So, certainly there aren't 160 million middle class workers out there. $1500 is the maximum benefit from this break, so there is no chance the average American worker who makes $50,000 is receiving $1500. The number is less than $1000.

So, I sit here pondering this statement and I can't help but wonder.

Was someone trying to deceive us? And I am sure it worked on the weak minded 99%
Was someone flat out lying to us?
Was someone just plain incompetent?

On the high side, at least the spelling and grammar were correct, but then again Microsoft Word is pretty good at correcting those kinds of things. Its shame it doesn't work on the truth.

Because any of these circumstances should disqualify someone from working for the President of the United States or most other employers. Can someone perhaps offer an alternate reason why millions of soft minded Americans were sent these untruths?

John Corzine: I Buy Your Story

So today, John Corzine broke his silence and stated that he was shocked that multiple hundreds of millions of dollars were missing. And you know what, I buy it. Its a believeable story.

What I find unbelievable, and quite frankly negligent is this; Why was this ultra experienced senior executive running his firm with such weak compliance and monitoring of trading and accounting? Especially with the history of such scandals over the last decade or so. Remember Barings Bank and Nick Leeson or Jérôme Kerviel and Société Générale. These are repeated failures of compliance and monitoring which have resulted in multiple billions of dollars lost because nobody was watching the till.

In short, I don't necessarily think John Corzine is a crook, but rather an incompotent CEO. At least until proved otherwise.

Thursday, December 01, 2011

Adam Carolla is Spot on WRT OWS

Warning : The language is not safe for work, so please exercise some judgement as to where you play this video and for whom you play this video.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Watching Democracy Fail in Greece

So, the title of this posting might be a little misleading, but what we are watching unfold in Greece, the birth place of democracy, is both amazing and sad.

The people of Greece are faced with a true rock and a hard place dilemma, choosing between challenging cuts and the uncertainly that will come with a likely default on their sovereign debt. The amazing thing is that their prime minister, George Papandreou is poised to give the people a true democratic say in their future. I find it admirable to see democracy at work. To be honest, with a BA in political science I find this fascinating, exciting and I find myself just a little jealous. Jealous because the people of the United States have long since lost their hand on the tiller. The cold, scientific, calculating side of my mind that holds a BS in computer science finds that prospect to be terrifying, because the Greek people are likely to make the "wrong" decision. And by wrong decision, I mean choosing not to accept the austerity measures which will mean true hardships for the common man, but perhaps all classes of Greeks on a more equal basis. I am not going to get in to the fine grained details, because I know that all across the EU and the rest of the world, most people have tougher and perhaps lower or different standards of living compared to Greek entitlements. But I also know that everything is relative, sauce for the goose is not necessarily sauce for the gander.

The scientific side of my mind compels me to ask why the people of Greece would make the "wrong" choice. I find it very simple to understand why Greeks are making the choices they are making. They are not failing at democracy. Democracy has failed them, and failed them miserably, in much the same way as it has failed people all around the western world. Their elected leaders stopped listening to them a long time ago and so have ours. So as my liberal arts side battles my logical, Vulcan side, I find myself, giving in to the "wrong" decision.

Make no mistake, I am not a Democrat, I never have been. I've always leaned to the right. The contrary son at the Passover Seder who forged his own path of mostly right leaning, but highly pragmatic views. I have voted for Democrats like Jim Moran (D VA-8) and Jim Webb (D VA), but today I can't bring myself to vote them for a littany of reasons. I would urge everyone who reads this posting to consider, regardless of your political leanings to vote against every single incumbent later this month and next year, because there are few if any sitting politicians who are listening to the people they represent. I feel that they are all too busy trying to get reelected rather than fulfilling their responsibilities to their constituencies. It is unfortunate the oath of office for the President, Senate and House of Representatives says nothing about doing the will the of the people they were elected by. Perhaps it should. So, I urge you to put your hand back on the tiller, tell the temporary residents of Washington that they should represent the voters not the donors. Remind the future generations of Washington politicians that true power derives from a mandate from the masses, not the checkbook of special interest.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Kick the Can

I really don't have the fuel for this, so I'll keep it short. The lastest plan to prop up the housing market help get obama reelected just toss another couple hundred million freshly printed dollars on the fire.

As I have said over and over, anything that prevents real price discovery just ups the cost and pushes out the point at which we'll see real recovery.

FAIL.

Just keep foresaking tomorrow for today.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Fear the 99%

No, not the 99% who are currently up against it, when it comes to wealth and power.

No, I am talking about the 99% who parrot back every little theme, idea or misconception fed to them by CNN and Fox. Yes it cuts both ways, we are besieged by morons on both sides of the aisle.

It’s this 99% who brought us the last moron, the current moron and likely the next moron. Having watched some of the Republican debates, I can only expect that we'll get four more years of the current delegator in chief who through one bad economic policy after another will take us to the brink of a true imbecile like Palin, Bachmann or Huckabee. Every 4 years the choices get worse and worse, but I think the bottom is flying up to meet us.

I came across this a couple of weeks ago and I wanted to share with all of you, because I think it’s a good read about what we're experiencing right now.

While I might loathe much of the interests of Occupy Wall St crowed, I do respect the fact that they are likely our best agent for change, at the moment, although I think that they are going about it in the completely wrong way. Let’s face it, if you point a figurative gun at someone's head because of their alleged greed, they aren't going to change their ways. Instead they are going to try and grab as much as they can before the rules of the game change. Instead, what the OWS crowd should be doing, is taking their protest, their efforts and their time to the real seat of power, Capitol Hill. Go March around the Capitol, down K St or past the White House. Make the decision makers see you in person rather than for 30 seconds on CNN. Go March on the ritzy row houses behind the Capitol or in Bethesda MD, Potomac MD or McLean VA where the real power brokers live.

If you're going to go to the effort, at least make it count.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Global Central Bank Bailout = QE 2.5

So here it is, QE 2.5 without a lot of fanfare. Heck the mainstream media is barely covering it, because of course it would look bad for their boy who continues to punish savers and prudent Americans who live within their means in order to bailout the stupid home debtors and greedy bankers who are still taking massive bonuses on profits secured with near 0% loans from the Fed Funds Window.

This isn’t even the QE3 that I am predicting for early next summer in order to prop up the markets and provide Potemkin Village for the uninformed electorate who don’t even know that their tax dollars continue to be used against them in order to get a man reelected who still hasn’t organized anything bigger than midnight basketball. 2.5 years in, our Delegator in Chief continues to campaign for his job while prudent Americans and China's currency reserve continue to take it in the back pocket.

Just watch gold, oil and other hard commodities, they will be all going up as the dollar is devalued along with the Euro, Pound and Yen.

Friday, June 24, 2011

The Party Is Over

I was typing this up as a post on another blog and I figured I would post it here too.

Every further dime spent on propping up housing is probably a dollar down the drain tomorrow. The thing which I think escapes most analysts of the situation is that there isn't a single asset for sale today that isn't over priced. Real price discovery needs to occur across the board. A massive deleveraging, on an unimaginable and very painful scale must occur before our economy can function with any semblance of normal. The Irish are finally looking at their bankers to take some losses. That needs to happen here in the US and Europe as well. US Debt holders around the world are going to have to take in the back pocket too. We're paying China something like $340 billion a year in interest, and that number is probably also low considering how much debt we've floated in the last 2 years.

Its time to face the music. You can't just put it on the rich to pick up the tab. 100% of the top 2-3% of earner's income is a drop in the ocean. The rich are going to have to pay a lot more. The middle class is going to have to pay more, the poor are going to have to get by with fewer entitlements. The military is going to have to get better at stretching a dollar, the Federal government is going to have to cut a gigantic portion of it workforece and expenses. From my experience as a contractor, you could cut 1/3 of the Federal government's staff and still have plenty of waste to go around. The loopholes that allow businesses to pay little to no tax are going to have to be closed.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Whats In This For Me?

The NY Times is running a piece on how low taxes are right now and am just not buying it. The writer is throwing the Republican candidates under the bus, however, from my point of view, its deeper than that.

I don't know who is getting the breaks, but it’s not me and my middle class salary. I feel that I am paying more and more while reaping fewer and fewer benefits. I don't really care to continue picking up the tab so that Goldman Sachs bankers can borrow money at 0% and make 10% on it so that at the end of the year they can take home 6 or 7 figure bonuses. I don't really care to continue to pick up the tab so that my neighbors can keep their overpriced ill financed homes. I don't really care to continue to pick up the tab so that Obama, Bernake and Turbo Tax Timmy can keep their jobs for another 4 years.

What’s in this for me? Selfish? Perhaps. Absurd? Not in the slightest bit.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Investigating Gas Prices ... Huh

Our naked emperor is having the Justice Dept investigate why gas prices are so high.

He's the goddam mother f---ing cluprit. Printing a couple trillion dollars was bound to be inflationary. Common sense for crying out loud. What an epic dickbag. I really wish this pack of carpetbaggers would go back to Chicago already.

Of course he knows he has the media in his back pocket. Nobody is going to ask him a tough question and for sure the American people are as dumb as a stump. Mark my words, in a month or two, they will lay blame on the oil companies and the Republicans who take all their doantions, instead of blaming Keynesian economic theory that failed in less than 2 years. There might have been some failings in Reganomics, but most of that as I see it are a failure regulation which the Whine-o-crats are just as much if not more responsible for relaxing through the Clinton years. Remember all those Youtube clips of Maxine Watters, Barney Frank, Athur Davis and a host of Democratic stooges defending Fannie Mae while grilling regulators who were trying to enforce the law?

Like sheep headed to the slaughter the American people are being sold out by their false messiah.

And then there is this from Market Ticker
Obama Directs Holder To Indict Obama And Bernanke

This case will require 15 seconds to solve. My evidence is below:

The chart is oil, the white line the dollar.

The dollar has collapsed as Bernanke and Obama have together conspired to demand QE2 to support Obama's insane borrowing and spending in the economy.

There is a near-perfect inverse correlation between these two charts.

Please surrender at the nearest FBI office for your arrest Mr. Bernanke and Mr. Obama.

Case CLOSED.
ROTFLMFAO

Somewhere GWB is sitting in a chair, smoking a cigar, prolly Cuban, sipping expensive scotch watching his legacy get better and better.

Then he looks over at Jimmy Carter and says, "this ain't so bad eh Jimmy-bob, your off the hook as worst President ever".

Monday, April 11, 2011

Thomas Jefferson Rolls Over in His Grave

It costs $2 billion dollars to run for President.

The idea of a government of the people, for the people and by the people is dead. Stone cold and long since in the ground. In December 2010, a Democratic House, a Democratic super majority in the Senate and a Democrat in the White House passed and signed the tax cuts that instill the lowest tax rate for the wealthiest 500 earners in this countries since the 1930s.

To sit here and listen to the rhetoric of the Democrats calling the Republicans the part of the rich and big business is becomming laughable. At least the Republicans don't pretend to be the party of the people or identify with the common man, because there is no way someone who went to the finest private school in Hawaii, Columbia and Harvard Law could identify with a guy who has a high school diploma and a $25/hour job, regardless of his humble roots.

Neither party give's a damn about the people. And we're all far to domesticated to consider putting it all on the line in a revolution. Instead we'll march along like the sheeple that we are as both parties spend our country into the ground.

Thursday, March 03, 2011

For the Workers in Wisconsin

Here is a small piece of advice for the protesting workers in Wisconsin and perhaps a suggestion for the governor, if he would care to evaluate this thought I had ...
A smaller pay check is orders of magnitude better than an unemployment check. Especially when the smaller paycheck still comes with a ton of vacation, better retirement benefits than private sector workers enjoy as well as better healthcare insurance than most working people get.