George W. Bush liked to play with matches. He was the one president who started and maintained fires all throughout his play dates in the White House. His first fire was to ignore the threat of terrorists planning to fly planes into a major American city. He let a smaller fire grow into a raging fire by pouring gasoline onto what eventually turned into the biggest economic firestorm ever to sweep the nation. He started a horrible fire in Iraq, and then in Afghanistan. He set fire to the Veteran’s Administration, soldier physical and mental health care. He set a nice fire upon American jobs and wages and retirement savings. He gathered brush and let a health care fire burn to a point where 40 million Americans could not get treated for the burns they received from the heat. He decided to take a match to public education by not providing enough funding for his No Child Left Behind fire. He started a huge torture fire. He loved to throw huge piles of money on his debt crisis fires. He threw a firebomb onto civil liberties, American and real free market principles. He gave a fire trench of escape to the banking fraudsters. He threw fire propellants all over the environment, as well. It has become very clear to many, or most, Americans that Little Boy Bush was a pyromaniac.
Now Barack Obama has stepped into these multiple fires of his presidency with a watering can in hand. During his bid for the presidency, he filled arenas all around the country with his message of change—the change that we can all believe in. And, a “Yes We Can”, ‘we must put these fires out’, ‘together we can clear the debris’, or ‘rebuild from the rubble’ message, which has left us waiting for something more than a good speech. A ‘Phoenix Rising’ message with teeth is what was expected. This was not the message from his opponent representing Phoenix, Arizona. The voters called out for a Phoenix-rising-from-the-ashes-of-a-nation-left-to-burn message to be put into play on day one. We are still waiting.
A voting majority was listening intently, with hope in their hearts, since he talked of it everywhere he stopped to speak. His Phoenix Rising message had saturated the Democratic and hopeful Republican psyche. We were expecting it, for crying out loud! He went from swooning a ground swell of loyal stadium-sized supporters, to a rising bunch of folks wondering what the heck happened.
Of course, there were many who were not paying attention. Those who were not listening thought Barack Obama was a Muslim. They instead listened to the Right wing messengers, such as Limbaugh, and O’Reilly. Many of these same people did not know which state of the union KFC—the fried chicken franchise—first came from; or could name a country that began with the letter “U” (such as the United States); or, what is the religion of Israel (the answer is not Israeli); or, what religion are Buddhists; or, who won the Vietnam War (and yes, the U.S. was in that war.); or, who is Fidel Castro; or, how many sides does a triangle have (the answer is not NONE or ONE!); or, what is the currency used in the United Kingdom (the answer is not “the Queen Elizabeth’s money”); or, what country in the Middle East should be invaded next (the answer should not be Italy, France, Brazil, Korea); or, place a marker on the world map showing Iran (placing it on Australia is wrong); or, who is Tony Blair (the answer should not be “I don’t even know”, “Linda Blair’s brother”, or “an actor”); or, what is a mosque (the answer should not be “I don’t have any idea”, nor “an animal”); or, how many kidneys does a person have (the answer should not be one); or, what is collateral damage (the answer should not be “they just made a movie about it, and it must be something to do with what the movie is about”), or; how many world wars have there been (the answer should not be three); or, Star Wars is based on a true story: true or false (the answer should not have been answered “true”); or, what is Hiroshima and Nagasaki famous for (the answer should be Judo-wrestling); or, how many Eiffel towers are there in Paris (the answer should not be “about 10); or, what is Al-Qaeda (the answer should not have been “a suicide group in Israel and the president of it is Yasser Arafat. Everybody knows that.” Or, “a wing of the Masonic Order.”); or, where was the Berlin Wall (the answer should not have been “Believe me. I don’t know the answer to this question, but I am thinking. Israel?”). I cannot make such answers up. These were real people, on a city street in America, giving such answers to a person with a video camera and microphone for all to see on Youtube. They were young, middle aged, and old. This is the intellect of a significant population of this country. Maybe 90 million. Many of these Americans are functionally illiterate, yet able to get by everyday. They are able to work, pay bills, shop for groceries, buy beers, watch Fox News, listen to Limbaugh on their car or personal pocket radios. Some might call them marginalized individuals working for minimum wage, receiving government assistance, and living from check to check.
Such Americans may not know, or understand, what President Obama is trying to do with his “watering can”. But, there are millions of Americans who fully well know that to use a “water can” on dozens of raging fires will have little difference; and, when he eventually realizes that what he needs is an experienced team of firefighters, not afraid of putting on the protective gear and battling the fires and pyromaniacs with the utmost of professional understanding that fire hoses are required and not his useless “watering cans”, it maybe too late. By then, he could easily be dealing with a “Scorched Earth epidemic instead of just major fire damage.
Such a viewpoint can be very defeating. Many Americans had put their hopes in this man who they worked hard to get elected President of the United States--the most important position on Earth. Yet, when he pranced out the likes of Timmy Geithner, and Larry Summers, to just name two people who were fully engaged in the firestorm that Little Boy Bush had emblazoned, all we could do was place our heads in our cupped hands and cry. This president has let millions upon millions of hard working Americans burn badly through foreclosures, bankruptcies, disappearing retirement savings, stagnant wages, vanishing jobs, and more, while the fire starters and pyromaniacs continue to make critical decisions that affect all of us.
The “Shared Sacrifice Bitter Pill” that President Obama demands working Americans to swallow without complaint, has been discarded by the very financial corporate thieves and CEOs, as well as government officials who should, instead, be making the greatest “shared sacrifice” for all. Unfortunately, this is not Barack Obama’s agenda. His agenda is for Americans to suspend belief and support his illusion act which takes taxpayer’s wealth, hands it over to the largest financial banking entities when their own net worth just prior to the bailout panic attack was far less than what had been given to them by the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve pretending that they were made solvent by their own accounting magic when in reality they were actually owned by the U.S. government and taxpayers. This is what is called crony capitalism. President Obama has elaborated on the Bush version of crony capitalism, which has now been made bigger and more corrupt. ‘My crony capitalism is bigger than your crony capitalism!’
Any Credit Card Bill of Rights will not be in place until 2010 allowing the credit card companies to launch their final assault upon the working American. There will be no investigation championed by this president to peel away the layers of lies and war crimes committed by the last administration. There will be no hurried round-up of corporate tax dodgers stuffing their wealth in undisclosed and protected off-shore bank accounts located in “Tax Haven” countries. There is no earth-shaking outcry or heated body-checking against the army of lobbyists hired to take down any government created health care plan endorsed by this president, let alone the American people. There has been little lecturing of the Democratic Party congressional leadership to act tough on behalf of working Americans. Now, this president speaks in support of Little Boy Bush’s complaint that Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson should not take their lawsuit against the government to a higher court in order to seek justice against the wrongdoing that was done to them by the Boy Bush administration.
All of this has been done in less than 200 days as president. The track record does not look good. The Change That We Can Believe In has been diluted down by his flimsy watering can to read The Occasional Sorta Change That We Might Be Able To Try And Believe In.
Barack Obama was given a huge mess by the outgoing regressive administration. I will grant him that. He has been trying to repair the damage done, and put out the raging fires, which are overwhelming in scope, but it cannot be done with a dime store watering can.
"Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population." Albert Einstein.
thanks for reading, jerry
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Congress Fails To Help Working Americans Hold On To Their Homes
If you think Ben Bernanke or Tim Geithner really believes that the recession is coming to a close, think again. These two shills for the Wall Street financial crime syndicate, and mouthpieces for the economic recovery plan designed by President Obama are just performing their clumsy magic act. We are very far from a bottom in the market, or an economic recovery, for that matter. They know what is going on in every market, in every country, and with every central bank. It is clear, just from doing a fraction of the research their teams engage in all day long that the world economy is slowing down day by day, and will continue to do so for a long time into the future. More and more Americans are falling into hard times, and unless help is on the way, there will be long lines at unemployment offices, food banks, welfare services, and legal aid offices all around the country. The nation’s commerce will not be able to sustain itself on the shrinking number of solvent and employed workers. As the nation’s tax base shrinks, those solvent and working Americans will pull back on their own spending in order to have a larger personal cash reserve. Unfortunately, our federal government has not woken up to this grim fact. They continue to wait for a new bubble to inflate the economy in some magical way. And as the world’s commerce shrinks, as we are witnessing today, there will be fewer goods and services bought and sold.
Let me share what I have read from a terrific site called Bomlat .
“Total cargo volume at the [India] 12 gateway ports dropped to 45 million tons, from 46 million tons in the same month the previous fiscal year.”
“Consumer prices fell, [in China] 1.5 percent in the year to April, marking the third consecutive month of deflation after a 1.2 percent fall in the 12 months to March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.” Bomlat says from graph charts he posted on his site that manufacturing production is suffering. Inflation is low; therefore no one wants to purchase treasuries when there are virtually no interest returns paid. He went on to say that inflation is negative, and the Chinese leadership is freaked out because all of this is happening during a time when they have committed to monetary expansion. After the injection of China’s central bank capital into their economic expansion, it may all just deflate. It is something like if air was being blown into a balloon representing expansion capital, and the balloon got really big, but then suddenly, China let go of the balloon, and let it loose to blast about, the balloon would no longer be filled with capital. All the capitalized-air would empty out of the balloon. The Chinese economic stimulus would fizzle, and inflation would begin to become realized.
Bomlat went on to discuss Volvo truck sales and how their sales have dropped 50-60% and production dropped 70-80%. He wrote that because many manufacturers around the world were producing product in 2007, and now, they are stuck with inventory that is hard to sell, it might take several months, or longer, to begin to reduce that excessive inventory to a point where production can resume, once again. But, in the meantime, workers are getting laid off, their spending is shrinking, and their budgets become fragile.
Here are a couple facts from the American Railroad data regarding tonnage miles for May 9, 2009: down 25.2%. Railway loads of vehicles and equipment were down 49.5%.
Bomlat went on to write about U.S. deflation. “The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.2% in April before seasonal adjustment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported.” “This index has fallen 0.7% over the last 12 months due primarily to a 25.2% drop in energy prices. The year-over-year declines in March and April are the first since 1955.” Bomlat said, and I paraphrase, we have to point to housing, which became 1% more expensive during the last 12 months. I [Bomlat] think we can see the problems with this inflation calculation methodology because we have experienced, around the world, a big fall in housing prices, as well as a fall in rental prices, but they are trying to convince us that there has been an increase in the cost of housing/shelter.
On the Bomlat site, there was a CNN Money article that said “February’s retail imports, such as clothes, shoes, and home furnishings dropped to the lowest level in seven years.” Bomlat wrote the following, “expect [a] continued [drop in] business for global supply chain providers well into 2010. Ocean, air, TL, LTL, brokers, freight forwarders, distribution center operators, as well as air and ocean ports all need sustained retail volume. Retail business is a critical component [for a] supply chain industry turn-around.”
Bomlat posted a Reuters report which read, “China’s steelmakers are facing low demand and potentially disastrous oversupply, supporting their insistence on a 40% cut in benchmark iron ore prices. China’s steel industry, the world’s biggest, traditionally set a global benchmark…” Mr. Shan Shanghua, secretary general of the China Iron and Steel Association said…this year [there is] too much supply and too little demand.” The secretary general went on to say, “I have not seen any fundamentals to support a sustainable steel price recovery. Major steel mills have cut their production of steel coil remarkably in China and steel mills have already seen their exports falling sharply.”
Bomlat wrote about April’s new big truck orders and how they are down and projected to remain depressed. “North American new truck orders for April ’09 are quoted by FTR to be 7,935—down 9% from March and down 57% from April ’08.” This follows January numbers of a bit over 10,000 units, and February was at 6,200 units, while March was around 8,600 units. He projects that the truck industry will show recovery in 2010.
Then he wrote about furniture imports taking a hit, too. He wrote that furniture imports have been down by 50% from a year ago, due to weak US demand. This decline affects the trucking industry, too.
The biggest shock came from his reporting on the US container import business, which dropped by 15% year-over-year. “Import cargo at the nation’s major retail container ports fell 15% in March, compared to year-earlier numbers.”
It was written in a Journal of Commerce article written by Thomas Gallagher, March 6, 2009, that “retail container traffic at the nation’s ports sank 14.6% in January….This year’s numbers are going to remain well below last year because sales are still slow and most economists aren’t seeing a recovery before the second half of the year at the earliest..”
Bomlat posts all types of American and Chinese commerce figures daily. His data shows that the economy’s of China, and the U.S. are slowing and will likely remain slow. All sectors of industry, of which he reports on, shipping, rail, auto manufacturing, heavy industry, industrial metals, energy, furniture, etc. are demonstrating declining sales, over-capacity in inventory, and reduced consumer spending, as a whole. At the bottom of the post will be a shocking Youtube of thousands upon thousands of empty cargo containers stacked up on idle ports.
General Motors will likely cut 47,000 jobs worldwide this year, and dealership numbers will shrink, too. We will probably find 2600 fewer GM dealers in America reducing their network by a third. What will that do to inventory? Where will all those unsold cars and trucks end up? Will further layoffs occur due to excessive inventory?
The financial sector will end up shrinking their ranks, as well. And, there are now fewer newspapers. Fewer jobs lead to lower wages, less consuming, and a drop in skilled labor jobs. As was seen in the 1981 to 1982 recession, unemployment climbed almost reached 11% with a loss of 3 million jobs. This recession is worse than that. This is worldwide. This recession has leaked into all sectors, especially housing and the ability to hold onto one’s retirement investments. One-third of all mortgages are underwater!!!! That is very scary.
According to the research done by the Columbia University economist Till von Wachter, the economist Jae Song of the Social Security Administration, and another economist Joyce Manchester of the Congressional Budget Office wrote that a typical 40-year old man who found himself unemployed during the 1981-82 recession went on to suffer a 20% loss in lifetime earnings. “People losing their jobs now in permanently downsized industries have to be aware that they’re particularly at risk of pretty large losses” to lifetime wages, says von Wachter, who briefed staff at the Fed and the European Central Bank last month of the effects of mass layoffs. (“Great Recession Will Redefine Full Employment as Jobs Vanish”, Matthew Benjamin and Rich Miller; Bloomberg 5-4-09. Bernanke and Geithner are not being honest with the American people.
President Obama when speaking about the fall of Chrysler Corporation emphasized the “shared sacrifice” that has to be made by the UAW in order to guarantee that the automaker can emerge from bankruptcy stronger, more competitive and viable as it joins forces with Fiat Corporation. What is the president talking about? Firstly, there is no guarantee that the new Chrysler will emerge successfully as he has suggested. Secondly, what is the “shared sacrifice” the Wall Street financial banking industry has had to make? They have made none! They have gotten all of the government bail-out money they wanted at zero percent interest, and with no sacrifice, such as new regulatory rules, new chief operational officers, limitations on their pay, and indictments from short selling their competitor's stock, or even betting against their own demise. The Wall Street financial crime syndicate even strong-armed 12 Democratic Senators to vote against the 'Shared Sacrificial' American people who would have benefited from a law allowing judges to assist desperate homeowners to write down (cram-down) the principal of their mortgage loans in hopes that they might be able to hang on to them instead of losing them.
No “shared sacrifice” allowed for the Wall Street banksters who were responsible for the economic collapse. The way this banking crime syndicate thinks is that property, mortgage property, remains to be their most treasured collateral which they hope will save their toxic “legacy” debt teetering on the brink of further devaluation. As the bank’s collateral falls in value, their debts rise bringing them closer to insolvency. President Obama, regressive Republicans, and the 12 key Democrats who voted against Senator Durbin’s “Helping Families Save Their Homes In Bankruptcy” amendment, obviously felt that further rescue of the banks took priority over any legislation that would benefit the suffering working American.
What they seem to have NOT realized is that they voted for more foreclosures, more bankruptcies, and ultimately, more bank failures. This amendment would have placed a bottom on collapsing home prices, which would have considerably slowed mortgage defaults. Instead of administering simple rescue breaths and chest compressions to the failing heart of the economic crisis, they decided to just kill the patient.
A mountain range of shipping containers
thanks for reading, jerry
Let me share what I have read from a terrific site called Bomlat .
“Total cargo volume at the [India] 12 gateway ports dropped to 45 million tons, from 46 million tons in the same month the previous fiscal year.”
“Consumer prices fell, [in China] 1.5 percent in the year to April, marking the third consecutive month of deflation after a 1.2 percent fall in the 12 months to March, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.” Bomlat says from graph charts he posted on his site that manufacturing production is suffering. Inflation is low; therefore no one wants to purchase treasuries when there are virtually no interest returns paid. He went on to say that inflation is negative, and the Chinese leadership is freaked out because all of this is happening during a time when they have committed to monetary expansion. After the injection of China’s central bank capital into their economic expansion, it may all just deflate. It is something like if air was being blown into a balloon representing expansion capital, and the balloon got really big, but then suddenly, China let go of the balloon, and let it loose to blast about, the balloon would no longer be filled with capital. All the capitalized-air would empty out of the balloon. The Chinese economic stimulus would fizzle, and inflation would begin to become realized.
Bomlat went on to discuss Volvo truck sales and how their sales have dropped 50-60% and production dropped 70-80%. He wrote that because many manufacturers around the world were producing product in 2007, and now, they are stuck with inventory that is hard to sell, it might take several months, or longer, to begin to reduce that excessive inventory to a point where production can resume, once again. But, in the meantime, workers are getting laid off, their spending is shrinking, and their budgets become fragile.
Here are a couple facts from the American Railroad data regarding tonnage miles for May 9, 2009: down 25.2%. Railway loads of vehicles and equipment were down 49.5%.
Bomlat went on to write about U.S. deflation. “The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) increased 0.2% in April before seasonal adjustment, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported.” “This index has fallen 0.7% over the last 12 months due primarily to a 25.2% drop in energy prices. The year-over-year declines in March and April are the first since 1955.” Bomlat said, and I paraphrase, we have to point to housing, which became 1% more expensive during the last 12 months. I [Bomlat] think we can see the problems with this inflation calculation methodology because we have experienced, around the world, a big fall in housing prices, as well as a fall in rental prices, but they are trying to convince us that there has been an increase in the cost of housing/shelter.
On the Bomlat site, there was a CNN Money article that said “February’s retail imports, such as clothes, shoes, and home furnishings dropped to the lowest level in seven years.” Bomlat wrote the following, “expect [a] continued [drop in] business for global supply chain providers well into 2010. Ocean, air, TL, LTL, brokers, freight forwarders, distribution center operators, as well as air and ocean ports all need sustained retail volume. Retail business is a critical component [for a] supply chain industry turn-around.”
Bomlat posted a Reuters report which read, “China’s steelmakers are facing low demand and potentially disastrous oversupply, supporting their insistence on a 40% cut in benchmark iron ore prices. China’s steel industry, the world’s biggest, traditionally set a global benchmark…” Mr. Shan Shanghua, secretary general of the China Iron and Steel Association said…this year [there is] too much supply and too little demand.” The secretary general went on to say, “I have not seen any fundamentals to support a sustainable steel price recovery. Major steel mills have cut their production of steel coil remarkably in China and steel mills have already seen their exports falling sharply.”
Bomlat wrote about April’s new big truck orders and how they are down and projected to remain depressed. “North American new truck orders for April ’09 are quoted by FTR to be 7,935—down 9% from March and down 57% from April ’08.” This follows January numbers of a bit over 10,000 units, and February was at 6,200 units, while March was around 8,600 units. He projects that the truck industry will show recovery in 2010.
Then he wrote about furniture imports taking a hit, too. He wrote that furniture imports have been down by 50% from a year ago, due to weak US demand. This decline affects the trucking industry, too.
The biggest shock came from his reporting on the US container import business, which dropped by 15% year-over-year. “Import cargo at the nation’s major retail container ports fell 15% in March, compared to year-earlier numbers.”
It was written in a Journal of Commerce article written by Thomas Gallagher, March 6, 2009, that “retail container traffic at the nation’s ports sank 14.6% in January….This year’s numbers are going to remain well below last year because sales are still slow and most economists aren’t seeing a recovery before the second half of the year at the earliest..”
Bomlat posts all types of American and Chinese commerce figures daily. His data shows that the economy’s of China, and the U.S. are slowing and will likely remain slow. All sectors of industry, of which he reports on, shipping, rail, auto manufacturing, heavy industry, industrial metals, energy, furniture, etc. are demonstrating declining sales, over-capacity in inventory, and reduced consumer spending, as a whole. At the bottom of the post will be a shocking Youtube of thousands upon thousands of empty cargo containers stacked up on idle ports.
General Motors will likely cut 47,000 jobs worldwide this year, and dealership numbers will shrink, too. We will probably find 2600 fewer GM dealers in America reducing their network by a third. What will that do to inventory? Where will all those unsold cars and trucks end up? Will further layoffs occur due to excessive inventory?
The financial sector will end up shrinking their ranks, as well. And, there are now fewer newspapers. Fewer jobs lead to lower wages, less consuming, and a drop in skilled labor jobs. As was seen in the 1981 to 1982 recession, unemployment climbed almost reached 11% with a loss of 3 million jobs. This recession is worse than that. This is worldwide. This recession has leaked into all sectors, especially housing and the ability to hold onto one’s retirement investments. One-third of all mortgages are underwater!!!! That is very scary.
According to the research done by the Columbia University economist Till von Wachter, the economist Jae Song of the Social Security Administration, and another economist Joyce Manchester of the Congressional Budget Office wrote that a typical 40-year old man who found himself unemployed during the 1981-82 recession went on to suffer a 20% loss in lifetime earnings. “People losing their jobs now in permanently downsized industries have to be aware that they’re particularly at risk of pretty large losses” to lifetime wages, says von Wachter, who briefed staff at the Fed and the European Central Bank last month of the effects of mass layoffs. (“Great Recession Will Redefine Full Employment as Jobs Vanish”, Matthew Benjamin and Rich Miller; Bloomberg 5-4-09. Bernanke and Geithner are not being honest with the American people.
President Obama when speaking about the fall of Chrysler Corporation emphasized the “shared sacrifice” that has to be made by the UAW in order to guarantee that the automaker can emerge from bankruptcy stronger, more competitive and viable as it joins forces with Fiat Corporation. What is the president talking about? Firstly, there is no guarantee that the new Chrysler will emerge successfully as he has suggested. Secondly, what is the “shared sacrifice” the Wall Street financial banking industry has had to make? They have made none! They have gotten all of the government bail-out money they wanted at zero percent interest, and with no sacrifice, such as new regulatory rules, new chief operational officers, limitations on their pay, and indictments from short selling their competitor's stock, or even betting against their own demise. The Wall Street financial crime syndicate even strong-armed 12 Democratic Senators to vote against the 'Shared Sacrificial' American people who would have benefited from a law allowing judges to assist desperate homeowners to write down (cram-down) the principal of their mortgage loans in hopes that they might be able to hang on to them instead of losing them.
No “shared sacrifice” allowed for the Wall Street banksters who were responsible for the economic collapse. The way this banking crime syndicate thinks is that property, mortgage property, remains to be their most treasured collateral which they hope will save their toxic “legacy” debt teetering on the brink of further devaluation. As the bank’s collateral falls in value, their debts rise bringing them closer to insolvency. President Obama, regressive Republicans, and the 12 key Democrats who voted against Senator Durbin’s “Helping Families Save Their Homes In Bankruptcy” amendment, obviously felt that further rescue of the banks took priority over any legislation that would benefit the suffering working American.
What they seem to have NOT realized is that they voted for more foreclosures, more bankruptcies, and ultimately, more bank failures. This amendment would have placed a bottom on collapsing home prices, which would have considerably slowed mortgage defaults. Instead of administering simple rescue breaths and chest compressions to the failing heart of the economic crisis, they decided to just kill the patient.
A mountain range of shipping containers
thanks for reading, jerry
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
America's Stormy Weather
The future of America will never look like the past. What America is going through now will give us a peak into the future. The past life will be referred to as the “Good Old Days”. “You remember when…”, will be barstool talk. The average American spending money on $2000 or more week long family vacations to child-friendly locations will only be experienced by only a fraction of those who can afford them. The others will only be able to share such memories from their dog-eared pages of the bygone family vacation scrapbook.
A new American paradigm is rapidly evolving. It is just as I have been describing it in my past postings. I am not the only one writing about it, but, unfortunately, many are not planning for it. My neighbor, at the age of 65, has been told by his wife that she wants to put an addition on their house, even though she has saved very little for her retirement. In a year or so, it will be only the two of them in their comfortable home. So why a new addition only after fully gutting the entire home around 10 years ago and a new double car garage just 5 years ago? The reason is his wife cannot change her consumerism ways of thinking.
The new question America will be facing in only a few months will be this--- what will be the new un/under-employment equilibrium level for the nation? I, as others, feel before we find that spot the percentage will reach, at least, 20% nationwide. Michigan and California are nearly there now!
Americans trained in auto assembly, or retail, or construction work, or finance and business are finding themselves asking the federal government for relief in the form of unemployment compensation.
The stock market’s casino winnings are separate from the “real” economy. Those winnings, or losses, are only for those who can afford them. More and more Americans no longer can take the risk with their evaporating incomes. The only risky decision they might make could be either to take the family out for dinner two nights in a given week, or, instead, to just leave it at one.
Americans are feeling the pinch. As more people are finding themselves in need of support from their Uncle Sam in Washington, they could be faced with tough decisions, such as to take that lesser paying job, now, instead of waiting and hoping for that dream job to come along tomorrow; or, to take that part-time job, instead of waiting for a full-time job to drop in their lap. They know they have to save more money, and spend less. Americans realize that they need to increase their savings and pay down debts. This is now where their consumer dollars are being channeled. This is the new economy.
This negatively impacts the GDP of the nation. Less consuming means fewer customers. Fewer customers lead to retail, service, and manufacturing job cuts, wage and benefit reductions, and the trimming of weekly work hours. This all leads to decreased industrial production and capacity. Bankruptcies and foreclosures follow. There will likely be 8 million foreclosures during this 2009 year.
As Americans watch their families and friends and co-workers suffering, they also angrily observe those inside Wall Street demand from the U.S. government, and with Obama’s Blessing, the blatant transfer of the nation’s wealth right into the Banksta’s balance sheets. The more assistance the top tier financial Wall Street banks need and want from the Treasury and Federal Reserve, they get. The Stress Test was really the Scam Test.
Since 2007, we have watched billions and trillions of dollars pledged, promised and issued to the Bankstas. They are so full of liquidity they continue to plan to issue more bonuses and fatter expense account spending limits. But, the truth is there still remains $3.2 trillion in non-performing mortgage loans sitting on their books, being ignored, ready to tear open their balance sheets. The coming foreclosures will blow down their house of card banking façades. Timmy Geithner will be left holding the empty Private-Public Investment Program Goodie Bag. President Obama will have trashed the nation’s balance sheet when he begins to wipe the Banksta’s Swine Flu Flux from his face and proclaims it is time to nationalize the banks and take them into receivership. I sure hope the Bankstas have not transferred the government’s gifts into off-shore accounts.
The nation’s Treasury has a zero balance sheet. There is now a diminishing revenue stream, as TimmyG and Bernie-Nakie promise $11 trillion to the financial economic recovery plan. The nation has now realized that there are fewer products being purchased, therefore fewer sales receipts coming in. There are fewer capital gains, and payroll taxes finding there way into the Treasury, as well as state and local governments. Our GDP is shrinking. And China is now waking up to the fact that they cannot continue to buy zero interest Treasury bonds.
China might actually find themselves in the same economic predicament the United States is now in. China was able to expand as a result of Americans buying cheap stuff from them. As a result of trillions of US dollars entering their central bank, a massive economic surplus was formed. That surplus brought wealth to the Chinese middle class. Jobs were created, buildings were constructed, condominiums sprouted up, and factories were built. Services came along with this growth. But now, this boom is slowing. Jobs by the tens of millions are disappearing. Unemployment is rising. The wealth boom is coming to an end. The cities are filled with major land development projects that might not be completed, but the Chinese central bank has made a commitment to further fueling development.
Who will buy their manufactured over-capacity? The U.S. consumer is dried up, even at deflated prices. The Chinese may actually end up with a huge over-capacity, and a slowing GDP because of it. The Chinese might find their middle class unable to keep up with over-inflated housing prices, therefore, going into foreclosure, and bankruptcy. Credit card users might go into default. The Central Chinese government might find that their massive central banking injections into their development expansion was a bad idea. 20-30 million, and growing, Chinese finding themselves unemployed and in need of food, medicine, housing and health care could easily overwhelm the nation and shift them into crisis-mode.
As the world’s economic engines grinds to a halt, President Obama, confused and bewildered, and realizing that the citizens of this nation have seen their wages eroded while the bankstas are doing pretty nicely-thank you very much!—have stolen the country’s treasure. And then, there are the two wars draining the budget, as well. Two wars with little to show for all the blood and cost invested in them.
President Obama knows what he is doing. He knows he is shifting wealth away from the “real” economy into a “non-functioning” fictional economy. Geithner is just a zombie himself. He was taken over by Goldman Sachs vampires a long time ago. To believe that by stuffing the banker’s pockets now, and that come December or next July or November the economy will percolate up and the beaten down American will begin to spend and spend further, re-inflating the dead housing market, or auto industry, or entertainment industry, instead of trying to replenish their deflated retirement nest-egg stolen from them, must have been waterboarded too many times. It just won’t happen!!
To answer my question of what will be the new equilibrium level of un/underemployment that will be part of this New American Paradigm, I might answer by saying how about 10%? Where will the money come from to rebuild a nation’s industry and work force that had been shipped overseas and outsourced? A new American paradigm is heading our way, and it looks more like stormy weather than a sunny day.
thanks for reading, jerry
A new American paradigm is rapidly evolving. It is just as I have been describing it in my past postings. I am not the only one writing about it, but, unfortunately, many are not planning for it. My neighbor, at the age of 65, has been told by his wife that she wants to put an addition on their house, even though she has saved very little for her retirement. In a year or so, it will be only the two of them in their comfortable home. So why a new addition only after fully gutting the entire home around 10 years ago and a new double car garage just 5 years ago? The reason is his wife cannot change her consumerism ways of thinking.
The new question America will be facing in only a few months will be this--- what will be the new un/under-employment equilibrium level for the nation? I, as others, feel before we find that spot the percentage will reach, at least, 20% nationwide. Michigan and California are nearly there now!
Americans trained in auto assembly, or retail, or construction work, or finance and business are finding themselves asking the federal government for relief in the form of unemployment compensation.
The stock market’s casino winnings are separate from the “real” economy. Those winnings, or losses, are only for those who can afford them. More and more Americans no longer can take the risk with their evaporating incomes. The only risky decision they might make could be either to take the family out for dinner two nights in a given week, or, instead, to just leave it at one.
Americans are feeling the pinch. As more people are finding themselves in need of support from their Uncle Sam in Washington, they could be faced with tough decisions, such as to take that lesser paying job, now, instead of waiting and hoping for that dream job to come along tomorrow; or, to take that part-time job, instead of waiting for a full-time job to drop in their lap. They know they have to save more money, and spend less. Americans realize that they need to increase their savings and pay down debts. This is now where their consumer dollars are being channeled. This is the new economy.
This negatively impacts the GDP of the nation. Less consuming means fewer customers. Fewer customers lead to retail, service, and manufacturing job cuts, wage and benefit reductions, and the trimming of weekly work hours. This all leads to decreased industrial production and capacity. Bankruptcies and foreclosures follow. There will likely be 8 million foreclosures during this 2009 year.
As Americans watch their families and friends and co-workers suffering, they also angrily observe those inside Wall Street demand from the U.S. government, and with Obama’s Blessing, the blatant transfer of the nation’s wealth right into the Banksta’s balance sheets. The more assistance the top tier financial Wall Street banks need and want from the Treasury and Federal Reserve, they get. The Stress Test was really the Scam Test.
Since 2007, we have watched billions and trillions of dollars pledged, promised and issued to the Bankstas. They are so full of liquidity they continue to plan to issue more bonuses and fatter expense account spending limits. But, the truth is there still remains $3.2 trillion in non-performing mortgage loans sitting on their books, being ignored, ready to tear open their balance sheets. The coming foreclosures will blow down their house of card banking façades. Timmy Geithner will be left holding the empty Private-Public Investment Program Goodie Bag. President Obama will have trashed the nation’s balance sheet when he begins to wipe the Banksta’s Swine Flu Flux from his face and proclaims it is time to nationalize the banks and take them into receivership. I sure hope the Bankstas have not transferred the government’s gifts into off-shore accounts.
The nation’s Treasury has a zero balance sheet. There is now a diminishing revenue stream, as TimmyG and Bernie-Nakie promise $11 trillion to the financial economic recovery plan. The nation has now realized that there are fewer products being purchased, therefore fewer sales receipts coming in. There are fewer capital gains, and payroll taxes finding there way into the Treasury, as well as state and local governments. Our GDP is shrinking. And China is now waking up to the fact that they cannot continue to buy zero interest Treasury bonds.
China might actually find themselves in the same economic predicament the United States is now in. China was able to expand as a result of Americans buying cheap stuff from them. As a result of trillions of US dollars entering their central bank, a massive economic surplus was formed. That surplus brought wealth to the Chinese middle class. Jobs were created, buildings were constructed, condominiums sprouted up, and factories were built. Services came along with this growth. But now, this boom is slowing. Jobs by the tens of millions are disappearing. Unemployment is rising. The wealth boom is coming to an end. The cities are filled with major land development projects that might not be completed, but the Chinese central bank has made a commitment to further fueling development.
Who will buy their manufactured over-capacity? The U.S. consumer is dried up, even at deflated prices. The Chinese may actually end up with a huge over-capacity, and a slowing GDP because of it. The Chinese might find their middle class unable to keep up with over-inflated housing prices, therefore, going into foreclosure, and bankruptcy. Credit card users might go into default. The Central Chinese government might find that their massive central banking injections into their development expansion was a bad idea. 20-30 million, and growing, Chinese finding themselves unemployed and in need of food, medicine, housing and health care could easily overwhelm the nation and shift them into crisis-mode.
As the world’s economic engines grinds to a halt, President Obama, confused and bewildered, and realizing that the citizens of this nation have seen their wages eroded while the bankstas are doing pretty nicely-thank you very much!—have stolen the country’s treasure. And then, there are the two wars draining the budget, as well. Two wars with little to show for all the blood and cost invested in them.
President Obama knows what he is doing. He knows he is shifting wealth away from the “real” economy into a “non-functioning” fictional economy. Geithner is just a zombie himself. He was taken over by Goldman Sachs vampires a long time ago. To believe that by stuffing the banker’s pockets now, and that come December or next July or November the economy will percolate up and the beaten down American will begin to spend and spend further, re-inflating the dead housing market, or auto industry, or entertainment industry, instead of trying to replenish their deflated retirement nest-egg stolen from them, must have been waterboarded too many times. It just won’t happen!!
To answer my question of what will be the new equilibrium level of un/underemployment that will be part of this New American Paradigm, I might answer by saying how about 10%? Where will the money come from to rebuild a nation’s industry and work force that had been shipped overseas and outsourced? A new American paradigm is heading our way, and it looks more like stormy weather than a sunny day.
thanks for reading, jerry
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
The $11.3 Trillion Dollar Financial Bailout Heist
$11.3 trillion blueprint for recovery: (Listed In billions). “This is what the government has pledged. So far, about one-quarter of the money has been used. Below are the initiatives launched since late 2007—from largest to smallest-to rescue the economy, the financial system, and big firms. Taxpayer’s final bill depends on whether loans and investments go bad.”
(Source documented below.)
• $1800 commercial paper funding facility 10-7-08 lending to corporations by buying their short-term debt. How much used $249.9B
• $1800 commercial paper funding facility 10-7-08 lending to corporations by buying their short-term debt. How much used $249.9B
• $1450 Buy mortgage securities 11-25-08. Invest to ease long-term interest rates. How much used: $290.3B
• $1400 Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program 10-14-08. Insure newly issued bank debt. How much used: $268.7B
• $1000 Term Asset-Backed Securities Lending Facility TALF 11-25-08. Lend to help revive stalled securitized lending to consumers and businesses. How much used: $290.3B
• $787 Stimulus, Obama 2-17-09. Spend and cut taxes to revive economy. How much used: $787B
• $600 Term Auction Facility TAF 12-12-07. Lend to banks against a wide variety of collateral. How much used: $467.3B
• $540 Money Market Investor Funding Facility (MMIFF) 10-21-08. Invest in commercial paper, bought from money-market funds to bolster their liquidity. How much used: $0
• $500 Public-Private Investment Program 3-23-09. Lend for purchase of bad assets from banks. How much used: $0.
• $400 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Rescue 9-7-08. Invest to keep key mortgage firms operating. How much used: $0.
• $300 Buy Treasury Bonds 3-18-09. Invest to ease long-term interest rates. How much used. $33.6B.
• $300 Hope for Homeowners Program 7-30-08. Spend to reduce strain on housing market. How much used: $0.
• $250 Capital Purchase Program 10-14-08. Invest in banks to maintain confidence and lending. How much used: $198.8B.
• $234.3 Citigroup Rescue 11-23-08. Insure risky assets at a major bank. How much used: $0.
• $200 Term securities Lending Facility TSLF 3-11-08. Lend to investment banks against variety of collateral. How much used: $85B.
• $168 Stimulus, Bush 2-13-08. Spend and cut taxes to revive economy. How much used: $168B.
• $112.5 AIG Rescue 9-15-08. Lend to prevent collapse of nation’s largest insurance firm. How much used: $88B
• $100 Consumer and Business Lending 3-25-09. Invest in Fed’s TALF to stimulate lending. How much used: $100B.
• $100 Public-Private Investment Program 3-23-09. Invest to remove troubled assets from banks. How much used $0.
• $87.2 Bank of America Rescue 1-16-09. Insure risky assets at a major bank. How much used: $0.
• $70 AIG Rescue 9-15-08. Invest to prevent collapse of nation’s largest insurance firm. How much used: $40B.
• $60 Student Loans 1-16-09. Lend to keep college credit available. How much used: $0.
• $58 Primary and Secondary Credit Programs (predates crisis). Lend to prevent a freeze up in short-term funding for banks. How much used: $58B.
• $50 Money-Market Fund Guarantees 9-19-09=08. Insure to prevent a run on cash accounts. How much used: $0.
• $29 Bear Stearns Merger 3-14-08. Lend against risky collateral to JPMorgan Chase (to enable its purchase of Bear Stearns). How much used: $29B.
• $27.5 Bank of America Rescue 1-16-09. Invest and insure assets to stabilize a key bank. How much used: $20B
• $25 Citigroup Rescue. 11-23-08. Invest and insure assets to stabilize a key bank. How much used: $20B.
• $24.9 GM, Chrysler Rescue 12-19-08. Lend to prevent auto industry collapse. How much used: $24.5B.
• $18.3 Primary Dealer Facility 3-16-09. Lend to investment banks against broad collateral. How much used: $18.3B.
• $15 Small Business Credit 3-16-09. Lend to revive economy. How much used: $0.
• $10 Citigroup Rescue 11-23-08. Insure risky assets at a major bank. How much used: $0.
• $6.1 Money Market Liquidity Facility 9-19-08. Lend to banks to buy commercial paper from money-market funds. How much used: $6.1B.
• $5 Auto Supplier Aid 3-19-09. Lend to auto suppliers and insure payment on some bills they’re owed. How much used: $0.
• $2.5 Bank of America Rescue 1-16-09. Insure risky assets at a major bank. How much used: $0.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor.com---US government agencies. Research: “Where Did All The Bailout Money Go?”, Mark Trumbull, The Christian Science Monitor, 4-26-09. Originally read from HuffingtonPost.com.
Source: The Christian Science Monitor.com---US government agencies. Research: “Where Did All The Bailout Money Go?”, Mark Trumbull, The Christian Science Monitor, 4-26-09. Originally read from HuffingtonPost.com.
So, where does the taxpayer fit in? NOWHERE! So, where does the working middle class American fit in? REALLY-NOWHERE! So, where do the hardworking Americans who lost half there retirement savings fit in? NOWHERE! This transfer of wealth continues to remain in the hands of the richest Americans who destroyed the economy of this nation!
This is a Wall Street Financial Crime Syndicate takeover of wealth.
thanks for reading, jerry
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