According to news reports yesterday, over 60% of American taxpayers opposed the $700 billion bailout of the mortgage industry, now an equal number oppose bailing out the auto industry. This is significant because American liberals (and the world in general) have validated Obama's recent victory at 52.3% as a "landslide" (specifically the 349 - 147 electoral college vote) for the president elect; what's good for the Grand Goose is good good for the Geezer Gander.Contrary to their constituent's wishes, their representatives went ahead and passed the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "bailout" scam. Now, ignoring that some of the funds in that scam have been used where not intended (where they've reached the intended target, they've not been disbursed by the recipients according to plan), our "representatives" are poised to pass this auto bailout scam.
Where there's no consequence for performance or behavior, man is prepared to perform and behave as badly as his circumstances will allow him. Since we, the people, have no power or control over the performance or behavior of either the lending or the auto industries, we look to our government to protect us from their bad performances and behaviors. The same principle is true with regard to our national defense; we look to our government representatives to protect us from the performance and behavior of those over whom we have no control.
Our representatives are already using the bailout of the lending industry as justification for bailing out the auto industry ... which begs the question of where we stop the bailing out? This doesn't even address oversight ... an hidden cost of all bailouts.
Nor does it address the subject of "representative" governance.The reason for the American War of Independence was the Crown's failure to provide both representation and protection. The Declaration of Independence was written to tell him his colonialists were through with his failures and intended to set up their own government to do what he would not do. Our current government, the one in WDC, the one under George 44, is worse than the one under George III.
Showing posts with label Bailout. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bailout. Show all posts
Friday, December 05, 2008
TAXATION: Without representation all over again!
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
FINANCIAL CRISIS: Stein doesn't have it all but he's fingered the crime and criminal!
Ben Stein went to Texas to ...... speak to a large group of financial people about how government started this crisis. They started it by mandating home loans to people without credit worthiness, then made it worse by not regulating or banning credit default swaps arranged by people without any insurable interest in the bonds they "insured." [American Spectator; CRIB emphasis]His sollution ...... government can cure the crisis by guaranteeing solvency of inter-bank loans and by sharply curtailing liability under credit-default swaps. They are also going to need a real stimulus package of major size.Not everyone agrees with Stein's views, however, here is where the man on the street (aka: me) agrees with Ferris Bueller's former instructor ...Of course, instead, under that imbecile, Henry M. Paulson, we get state socialism of banks and investment banks. The bailout has morphed from being a help to borrowers in Muncie to being an immense life raft for Paulson's buddies on Wall Street. This is a last, desperate act of rapine against the American people by Mr. Paulson and I do not like it at all.Here is my question all along ...Yes, give them loans they have to repay. Yes, underwrite their loans. But don't buy them and continue to let their executives loot the system. Why on earth should a farmer in eastern Washington state have to prop up Goldman Sachs with his hard-earned money?A dumbed-down public has an impact ...I really do not understand why there is no revolution. The bailout was sold as a way to stabilize the mortgage situation, i.e., money for banks to allow them to keep lending to homeowners. Now it's a rescue package for billionaires in Greenwich. How come no one is even saying, "boo!" about this?The reason there is no revolution is that the la revolution is that almost half of our citizenry have been turned into unquestioning leftists by academia; and unless our MSM media drives a cause it is not a cause as far as the brain-dead public is concerned!Nice work, Henry M. Paulson, for not doing the smart thing right away but instead letting world confidence in financial markets simply vanish. Has there ever been a worse Treasury Secretary than Mr. Paulson? I don't think so.Many of us have tried to warn America of this scam by someone who simply doesn't know what he's doing ... and still doesn't ... yet there are hundreds of wealthy Wall Streeters dancing a jig.
Now the line between private and public has been blurred by a huge intrusion of the government into the private.
Monday, November 17, 2008
BAILOUT: Say what?
Obama administration to control half the bailout!
P. T. Barnum was right, "There were 47 million suckers born in the USA" ... or something like that! And they're all Republicans.
It's bad enough the Dems will bailout the the automakers (a Dem-union voter stronghold), in Michigan (a Dem-state voter stronghold), and their extended support industries (mostly unionized suppliers and service organizations in the Great Lakes region who traditionally vote Democratic) but to let a Dem President/former community organizer/ACORN buddy/leftist/partisan control 350 billion of the taxpayers money is outrageous.
Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!... congressional officials said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson passed the word over the weekend that he intends to leave $350 billion untouched when the administration leaves office on Jan. 20. That would mean the incoming Obama administration would decide whether and how the funds should be spent. [FOX News]Tell me something: the bailout money comes from all 57 states, RIGHT? All taxpayers regardless of state, party, amount, ethnicity, religion, and personal sexual orientation, RIGHT? So how come one party and a single industry (one not in the original bailout bill) will have so much coming their way?
I sure hope someone saw this coming and got a watchdog busy monitoring an audit trail?
BAILOUT: Who decides who falls on his sword for the party?
Let me see, if I understand this right ... the Postmaster General did it? They're going to have a Franklin heir fall on his sword?
Oh boy! As a taxpayer that makes me feel so secure! No lowly bureaucrat is going to get away with sticking it to the taxpayers that's for sure!
Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!"We're taking it seriously enough that we wanted it reviewed and we didn't want it done internally," the chairman of the Postal Service Board of Governors, Alan Kessler, told The Associated PressThat's admirable; perhaps he could advise the Senate and House Ethics committees, the GAO, the Justice Department, and also Reid and Pelosi on how to accomplish such a feat?
Kessler did not say how much the investigation would cost the Postal Service, which is cutting hours and overtime for its employees after finishing its fiscal year $2.8 billion in the red. He said the board was working to keep costs down.
"But something like this is serious enough where I don't want someone to do a cut-rate investigation," he said. "We want a professional review." [FOXNews]Details of Potter's deal with Countrywide was first reported by Conde Nast Portfolio magazine earlier this summer. The disclosure touched off calls for a Capitol Hill investigation into how prominent lawmakers and others received VIP loans.And is such "a Capitol Hill" investigation being conducted? It's five months since disclosure and I'm not aware of one. The Real Estate Bloggers seem to think one is coming!The victory of the Democrats in the Senate races this past week has been good news for the party, but the lingering trouble over past loans to Senators who were friends of Angelo linger on. Senators Dodd and Conrad are in the cross-hairs of a Federal investigation after taking sweetheart loans personally approved by Angelo Mozilo, then head of Countrywide Home Loans. [Real Estate Bloggers]This from a November 2008 report, so perhaps there is hope ... Obama likes hope.Sens. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., have acknowledged receiving mortgages through the VIP program but have said they were unaware of any favorable treatment. Dodd was instrumental in crafting a $700 billion bailout for the financial industry. [FOXNews]Here's a snippet of the Kevin Rennie article in the online issue of The Hartford Courant ...Since the Dodd story broke in June, the five-term senator has offered contradictory fragments of explanations and intentions. Scheherazade after a six-pack of Red Bull would not have told more desperate tales. Dodd gallops the gamut from calling the allegations of special treatment "outrageous" to pledging repeatedly and specifically to release documents related to the $800,000 in sweetheart deals he got from Countrywide.The piece is not long and worth a visit explaining why Dodd may be in deep doo-doo!
Still claiming "there's nothing there," Dodd refuses to say whether his Senate campaign committee's payments of $60,000 last summer to a Washington law firm, which has a history of representing Democratic senators in trouble, were for his defense in the Senate ethics investigation of his dealings with Countrywide. He suggested, before he fled to his third home in Ireland in August, that Countrywide was not cooperating in providing information. [Courant]
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
BAILOUT: What was a buyout is now a sellout!
The American Main Street is being taken to the cleaners by special interest cabals.
Where is the MSM when you need them?
PETRO DOLLARS: USA consumers apparently funding UK bailout!
If I understand this right, the UK's Gordon Brown (PM) is seeking to influence Saudi Arabia's support of the IMF and the World Bank ... why? Because the Saudis have excess petrodollars lying around and the IMF and the World Bank, due to the seriousness of the global financial crisis, don't! So?
It seems Brown, like most of the rest of the world, needs tons of pounds to bail the English economy out, and the UK doesn't want to be seen going hat in hand to Arab Gulf states; normally the only source of those funds is the IMF and the World Bank.
Where did the Saudis get all this hard cash? From petrodollars ... the recent rise in crude prices filled Arab States coffers. Where do the petrodollars come from? Well, something shy of 25% of every petrodollar comes from the American consumer (this assumes US petroleum consumption and US energy consumption track).So if the Saudis agree to fund the IMF and the World Bank, and the UK obtains bailout funds from them, about 20 cents of every dollar borrowed by the UK would come from an American purse!
So, the American taxpayer is not only bailing out AIG, the national banking system, and soon the automakers, but theoretically any nation or group that relies on Saudi funding; blend in ongoing funding of the UN (22% of annual budget), the consumer's indirect involvement in any UK bailout, the fact that Arabian petrodollars go to support terrorist organizations, and a web of self-destructive global financing begins to appear before our eyes.
What a mess! If we factor in the bankrupt Social Security and Medicare systems it gets even messier.
American taxpayers need immediate action from their representatives.
Bailout, IMF, Medicare, Petrodollars,
Politics, Saudi Arabia, Social Security,
Terrorism, UK, UN, World Bank
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Wednesday, October 15, 2008
BAILOUT: My previous fears are becoming my present reality!
As the financial crisis slogs on we're now aware of a nagging subconscious thought: "These guys don't know what they were doing!"
Like Agent Gibbs on NCIS, my gut told me we were being milked! Dumb us! They were right, you know? But at least we're not alone ... or are we?... there’s clear evidence, reported with stunning casualness by CNBC, that Paulson & Co. threatened the big banks in some way to force them to “accept” Uncle Sam’s preferred equity investments: Even if they didn’t want it?Paulson is a democrat but you know who's going to get the blame? You've got it!Watch the video; the answer is “yes” — thereby ensuring that the government has a stake in all the major banks. [...]
So what did Paulson threaten to do if they said “no”? (Yes I know he wasn’t holding real guns. Come on now.) We don’t know, but whatever it is, the opening sections of the pork-loaded “bailout” bill with the made-up $850 billion price tag probably gave him the power to make the threats credible.This “bailout” was originally advertised as being targeted towards troubled loan situations, principally mortgages. Instead, Paulson, Bernanke, and Bush have turned it into a de facto, no good deed goes unpunished (i.e., responsible lending) tool for partial [bank] nationalization.
How many Congresspersons, or presidential candidates, thought this was what they were voting for, or that this is what the people wanted? Two weekends ago, I wrote that the whole saga shows that the whole saga proves that Washington doesn’t really care what we think.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
FINANCIAL CRISIS: The link that keeps on linking!
Three weeks ago I posted on Fox News' report that the Dems did it (caused the mortgage banking/US economy meltdown); now a Clinton administration fellow, Arthur Levitt, confirms they did.Thaz 'nuf for this conservative!As the world financial system implodes, Democrats have blamed the Bush administration's lack of regulation for creating the conditions for collapse. But a top Clinton regulator acknowledges that he and his colleagues a decade ago "beat back" regulatory efforts that could have prevented credit markets from becoming so precariously balanced they were “milliseconds” from disaster.
“That was a point in history when perhaps we should have anticipated something like where we are today, at least the possibility,” says Arthur Levitt, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1993 to 2001.
Sunday, October 05, 2008
BAILOUT: First California, now Massachusetts! Two of the bluest states in Union!
Mass. Asks About Federal Loan Amid Market Worries | FOXNews
California Would Like Some Bailout Billions, Too | Wonkette
For bailout to work, housing market needs to mend - right? | Yahoo!
Did anyone know that this socialist, anti-capitalism program, called a "bailout, (which is really a buyout, which is really a screw up) was to be used to bolster Democratic states in the midst of an election cycle?
Neither did I! Welcome to Paulson's bridge to nowhere!
I was told it was for the credit market! I was told it was for Main Street! Now it's to be used to pay for entitlement programs in "blue" states with socialist legislatures, who redistribute wealth through government largess!
Oh the milking of the public cow ... it feels soooooooooooooooooooooooo good!
Who will be next! Pick the bluest states with the biggest and most liberal socialist programs and there you will find the federal spicket and your hard earned dollars flowing to their empty coffers!Why? Because the system wants to forcibly violate you; this system run by the very liberals who got us into this mess in the first place.
Why? Because they can't violate their own citizens any more, so they've come for you!
Now that captialism has been mugged you can expect more! Buck up me hearty, you are an American taxpayer, it is your "patriotic" duty to pay through the ying yang!
Friday, September 26, 2008
FINANCIAL CRISIS: Let the evidence speak for itself!
News busted by NewsBusters causes sever headache at the paper of record - The New York Times; Congressional Democrats are having sympathy related stress.Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending - NYT
HT - '99 NYT Article Reveals True Cause of Current Crises | NewsBusters
Surely they knew it would all come out (after Fox traced the affair for us; includes video)? Maybe that's why the Democrats were in such a rush to go on campaign recess?
From the eight year-old Business section article ... [CRIB emphasis]In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.Then there is this ...The action ... will encourage ... banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans.Perhaps that is why they are called conventional loans; perhaps instead of calling them subprime, they should have been called subconventional?Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people ....That's a good idea looking for a crisis!In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans ....As a friend said, "Pressure is what pressure is!"''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''More pressure from the guy who walked away with $90 million!
And the author of the article warned ...In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.And a expert in the field gave this prophetic and dire warning!''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''Wow! But you know what? Slick Willie and the Democratic choir will skate on this too! Why? Because, I predict, mainstream media won't go after it!
They would rather see the country fail than see their leftist friends have to admit fault! Which is the greater sin: greed or standing by and watching your neighbor or brother suffer when you have the ability to help him?
FINANCIAL CRISIS: German minister gets ahead of the game!
Sometimes we (Americans) deserve criticism; this is one of those times."The world will never be as it was before the crisis," [German Finance Minister Peer] Steinbrueck told the Bundestag lower house of parliament.But sometimes critics get ahead of the game; like leaving the stadium before the game is over.
"The United States will lose its superpower status in the world financial system. The world financial system will become more multi-polar," he said."Give me a U, give me a S, give me an A; give me a USA!"
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
QUIZ: McCain - Bush administration say "fundamentals of the economy are fine"!
I might ask then, why the bailouts? Opie over at Maggie's place shows me why the economy is just fine and really why they shouldn't bail the Wall Street crazies out!
Answer the following quiz, then get the answers from Opie at Maggie's!1. Which of the following countries had the highest economic growth since 2000?Go figure!
1. France2. Which of the following countries has the highest GDP per capita?
2. Japan
3. Germany
4. U.S.A.
1. U.K.3. Which of the following countries had the highest household consumption in 2005?
2. Germany
3. Japan
4. U.S.A.
1. U.K.4. Which country spends the most per capita on health services?
2. Canada
3. France
4. U.S.A.
1. U.K.5. What percentage of the U.S.A.’s population is covered by health insurance?
2. Germany
3. Canada
4. U.S.A.
1. 55%6. In which of the following countries does the richest 20% of households have the highest share of national income?
2. 65%
3. 75%
4. 85%
1. U.S.A.7. Which of the following countries had the highest investment per capita in fixed assets in 2005?
2. U.K.
3. Israel
4. 65 other countries
1. Germany8. Which period had the lowest unemployment rate?
2. U.K.
3. China
4. U.S.A.
1. Euro Zone (2000 – 2008)9. Which period had the lowest debt interest payments as percentage of GDP?
2. Reagan Presidency
3. Clinton Presidency
4. Bush Presidency
1. Euro Zone (2001 – 2008)
2. Reagan Presidency
3. Clinton Presidency
4. Bush Presidency
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