Comments on: Economic Report Card Worse Than Expected

Flurry Of New Reports Paint Bleak Picture; Confidence Lagging As Economy Shrinks

[longtree-2009]

wondering if wall street is going forward with awarding some 12 billion in bonuses this year. the nation is so corrupt these days that one wonders if there is an end in sight. all of our institutions, businesses and et al, seem to be corrupt as well as the legislative and judicial branches of government. heck, might as well toss in the executive branch too. the same seems to apply at not only federal but state, county, city levels. we the people are just so hosed.

[wardoglrs]

One of the most ungodly and fraudulent institutions ever perpetrated on the American people and the world, is the Federal Reserve System which through deceit became the central bank of the United States in 1913. The idea came about on a meeting in Jekyl Island off the coast of Georgia in 1910. The bankers in this country, especially J.P. Morgan, created a currency panic in 1907 in order to get the American people to accept the idea of a central bank.

[whitemale08]

EVERYBODY....CALL CONGRESS AND TELL THEM TO STOP THE BAILOUTS AND DECLARE THE PRIVATE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM ''BANKRUPT''!!!!!

CALL CONGRESS AND TELL THEM TO STOP THE BAILOUTS OF WALL STREET NOW!!!!!!!

PUT THE SYSTEM THROUGH BANKRUPTCY NOW BEFORE HYPER-INFLATION EATS US ALIVE!!!!!!!!!

CANCEL ALL DERIVATIVES NOW!!!!!!!

DO IT NOW!!!!!!

[wardoglrs]

upside down economy. By continuing to subsidize our reckless and outsized consumption, the world merely delays the inevitable re-balancing and exacerbates the underlying problem at the root of the current global financial crisis.

If Washington bails out General Motors, the funds will never be recovered. GM will simply burn through the bailout money and then be back for more. Talk of designing a new fleet of "green" cars that will pave the way to profitability by spurring a new buying spree is simply delusional. Given the staggering "legacy" costs of health care and pensions for millions of current and former workers, Detroit cannot produce cars profitably. Unless these costs are seriously brought down, and there is very little chance that they will be, Detroit will remain a bottomless money pit.

[wardoglrs]

Similarly any money that the world lends to America to finance more consumption will never be repaid. We will simply blow through it, and be back, hat in hand, begging for more. As we painfully learned in the housing bust, lending people money that they cannot pay back makes no sense. This applies equally to foreign central banks lending to America as it does to commercial banks lending to homeowners.

So for the same reasons that Washington should not bail out General Motors, the world should not bailout America. Like GM, our economy is in desperate need of a restructuring. Spending must be replaced with savings, and consumption with production. The service sector must shrink and manufacturing must expand to fill the void. The dollar must fall, wages in America must be brought down to a competitive level, and hopefully government spending and burdensome regulation can be reduced.

This transformation will not be fun, but it is necessary. Our standard of living must decline to reflect years of reckless consumption and the disintegration of our industrial base. Only by swallowing this tough medicine now will our sick economy ever recover. By accepting a lower standard of living today, we will eventually be rewarded with a higher one tomorrow.

For a more in depth analysis of our financial problems and the inherent dangers they pose for the U.S. economy and U.S. dollar denominated investments, read my new book %u201CCrash Proof: How to Profit from the Coming Economic Collapse.%u201D

[wardoglrs]

Just How Much Is the Bailout?
Posted by Lew Rockwell at November 25, 2008 02:01 PM

Thanks to Steve Berger:

If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars. People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let%u2019s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.

Jim Bianco of Bianco Research crunched the inflation adjusted numbers. The bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures %u2013 combined:

%u2022 Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
%u2022 Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
%u2022 Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
%u2022 S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
%u2022 Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
%u2022 The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
%u2022 Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
%u2022 Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
%u2022 NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

[wardoglrs]

On November 20th, 2008 it was announced that Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bought up shares of Citigroup (NYSE: C) increasing his holdings to 5% of the total outstanding shares. The move seemed quite daring at the time as Citigroup%u2019s shares were in freefall dropping 25% in the previous trading day alone (down over 90% in the past year).

Today the US Government announced that it would bailout Citigroup in a deal that will result in the cash injection of $20 billion as well as a guarantee of over $300 billion of Citi%u2019s toxic debt. The news of the proposal sent Citigroup%u2019s shares soaring over 50% for the day.

The Saudi Prince, being the largest shareholder of the company, was the biggest beneficiary of the announcement. One has to wonder if his superb market timing was merely a coincidence or something more?

Does anyone believe, for a second, that the Saudi Prince didn%u2019t receive assurances from his long time friend and business associate George W. Bush before making a deal with Citi? Of course he did. The problem, of course, is that trading on non-poublic information is a crime. No one in the mainstream media will go near this issue eventhough it is standard procedure for the SEC to investigate major stock purchases ahead of a big announcement. If you or I did it, we%u2019d be indicted. This is just another example of our government enriching their cronie friends at the cost of the taxpayers.

[wardoglrs]

JFK said it best"
%u201CWe are opposed...by a ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence--on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.

Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the [war] with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match...%u201D John F Kennedy, 1961.

[mytoosense]

It''s amazing the economic damage the middle class can create when it collectively says...

ENOUGH!!!!!!


...and Rush Limbaugh suffers from inflamed hemorrhoids of the lips and gums.

[cheetah-man7]

Rush needs to keep popping those pills and making more of an idiot of himself. Geez.... don''t these morons ever wake up and realize they are wrong? I guess if we ask O''Reilly and Hannity we will find that they truly believe they are correct. Scary!

[eggy1620]

The economy is stuck in a positive feedback loop. The newly unemployed are not spending money. The remaining employed have more work responsibilities as a result and are working too much to go out and shop, thus weakening the economy and creating more newly unemployed.

[nikosk11]

Acording to Russ - windbag - Limbaugh, we are having an ''Obama Recession." Gee, maybe we should live George in office to fix things for us. LOL, LOL.