Jul
28
$500,000,000,000
Filed Under US Government, Economics, Inflation | Leave a Comment
That’s the number that the US government deficit is expected to reach as Bush leaves office. That means that the government will spend half a trillion dollars more than it will take in. Keep in mind that Social Security, Medicare, and most of the Iraq war are not accounted for in the budget! Can you imagine a company that operated the same way that the government does? And just think - Obama and McCain are spending millions of dollars to inherit this mess! That’s outside of the National Debt (approximately $9.5 trillion), which is staggering in and of itself.
Jul
27
I keep harping on this subject, and there’s a reason - it’s to educate people and to let them know that we can’t sit idly by while our money becomes completely worthless. Another AP story detailing rising retail costs just hit the wires, and they put inflation at 5%. Of course, that’s the government number, while real inflation is more than double that. With oil companies expected to record record profits yet again as the price of everything goes up for Joe and Jane Consumer, we can expect a big retraction in consumer spending in the very near future, which will only exacerbate the situation. (Retailers might initially cut prices to entice consumers, but invariably they’ll also stop procuding as much, which will then drive prices higher.)
Jul
27
Over at Yahoo News, there’s an excellent opinion piece by Ted Rall that details how we’ve actually been in a recession for eight years now. (He even mentions the Russian president’s statement that we’re in a depression, one with which I tend to agree.) Of course, anyone who is familiar with how the CPI was “re-adjusted” will know that, and if you need proof, you can visit Shadow Government Statistics and get all the proof you need.
Jul
26
Six And Seventh Bank Failures Of The Year; Fed “Engineers Sales”
Filed Under US Government, Economics, Inflation | Leave a Comment
Two more banks have failed, and the FDIC has “engineered the sales” of the banks to Mutual of Omaha Bank.
Jul
25
Banks’ Fed Borrowing At Highest Levels Ever
Filed Under US Government, Economics, Inflation | Leave a Comment
From the article at cnbc.com:
“Banks stepped up their borrowing over the past week from the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending program, while Wall Street firms didn’t draw such loans.
A Fed report released Thursday said commercial banks averaged $16.4 billion in daily borrowing over the past week.
That was up from $13.9 billion in the previous week.”
The Fed is lending $80 BILLION A WEEK to banks in order to keep the economy going.
Even more interesting is this tidbit: Read more
Jul
22
The Grocery Shrink Ray
Filed Under News, Inflation | Leave a Comment
Over at The Consumerist they are doing an excellent job of keeping up with demonstrating inflation. Using their “grocery shrink ray” they are demonstrating just how products are shrinking in size and yet the prices are staying the same. They smartly bring up the likelihood that after shrinking the items the prices will then go up!
Jul
15
More Government Interference In Markets
Filed Under US Government, News, Economics | Leave a Comment
The SEC is going to regulate short selling of major financial firms. As the government continues to interfere in the market, and continues to print money, things are just going to get worse. I don’t understand how it is that people don’t see this… every time there has been a Central Bank trying to “regulate” markets, the results have been not only disastrous, but predictable well in advance.
Jul
14
The “F” Word
Filed Under US Government, Economics | Leave a Comment
Take your pick today, we’ve got “Fannie”, Freddie”, “Forced”, “F*cked”, “Fallout”, or “Failure”. It’s the last one that I’m going to concentrate on. After spending most of the weekend telling people that he’d rather not see Fannie/Freddie investors get any advantage from a government bailout, Treasury Secretarty Paulson as the frontman for the Bush administration released a plan to shore up both companies, thereby guaranteeing that what he was blathering on about all weekend was bound to happen:
“Fannie Mae shares rose 22 percent to $12.50 and Freddie Mac shares rose 27.1 percent to $9.85.” (This is a direct quote from the previously linked article that is accurate as of the time of this writing, and that’s before Wall Street officially opens.)
What’s even more insidious about this story, though, Read more
Jul
13
ACLU Sues Bush Over FISA Expansion
Filed Under US Government, News | Leave a Comment
According to Wired’s Threat Level blog, “The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Thursday over a controversial wiretapping law, challenging the constitutionality of the expanded spy powers Congress granted to the president on Wednesday.The federal lawsuit was filed with the court just hours after Bush signed the bill into law.
The ACLU is suing on behalf of journalist and human rights groups, asking the court put a halt to Congress’s legalization of Bush’s formerly secret warrantless wiretapping program. The ACLU contends the expanded spying power violates the Constitution’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.”
The ACLU press release can be found here at their site, and this is a link to the complaint in PDF form.
Jul
9
Senate Passes Telecom Immunity Bill; Founding Fathers Rolling In Their Graves
Filed Under US Government, News | Leave a Comment
President Bush will soon have a bill on his desk that will grant retroactive immunity to the telecommunications companies that were complicit in his illegal wiretapping. Since no one really knows the extent of the illegality, no one ever will now, since none of the pending lawsuits will come to trial.
From the article: “This bill is not a compromise. It is a capitulation,” said Sen. Russ Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat. Lisa Graves of the Center for National Security Studies, a civil liberties think tank, said the bill would result in more warrantless spying and enable the National Security Agency to “build the largest database of American communications ever constructed.”