Economy

Obama’s Job Plan! We are saved! Oh wait……

tiredoflibbs13 Comments

We’ve all been waiting with anticipation for the obAMATEUR to return from his vacation and explain to us his grand jobs plan … right?

Oh yeah!  We’re saved!

The smartest man ever to become president, has a plan!  Or does he?  Finally, almost three years in office, Our “sort of a god”, the “rock star”, the “one”, the savior of the world, president who had to “step down” into the office of the presidency is going to step forward and present his plan so Americans can go back to work.

But no.  Once obAMATEUR left for “his so well deserved” vacation, his dog washers are making excuses and down-grading (just like our credit rating) the expectations of his jobs plan.  It was down-graded to a jobs outline.  So from a specific plan with details on job creation, we are now to expect an outline!

Okay…okay…that could work.  But wait…. an outline is asking too much from this pResident.  Now, according to deputy spokesman Josh Earnest,  we can anticipate “some reasonable ideas that can have a tangible impact,”

Who is he kidding?  The American people feel more negatively about our economy than they’ve felt in decades … and that’s because the American people know that we have a man in the White House that has no clue in the world what he is doing.  He’s a freaking community organizer and leftist activist, – not a brilliant economic mind.  This man doesn’t have the knowledge or experience to run a lemonade stand, yet there he sits on his godly throne telling us that he is going to save our economy with some “reasonable ideas”.

We have heard it all – We were going to get a plan AFTER his vacation (after saying “I will not rest until….”), then an outline and now a list of “reasonable ideas”.  Who gets to define “reasonable”?

We are going to be blessed with Stimulus II, or III or whatever, more “green jobs”, weatherization,  you know, more from the oh so successful Stimulus I that was going to keep unemployment under 8%.

The drones, of course, will be waiting with baited breath for their tweets to regurgitate the dumbed down talking points.  This will be nothing but a bad plan, so obAMATEUR can have a campaign issue – “see, the Republicans don’t want a recovery.  They are fighting me at every turn.”   or some such nonsense.

Germany Increasingly Worried About Bailouts

Mark Noonan9 Comments

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in the Telegraph:

German President Christian Wulff has accused the European Central Bank of violating its treaty mandate with the mass purchase of southern European bonds.

In a cannon shot across Europe’s bows, he warned that Germany is reaching bailout exhaustion and cannot allow its own democracy to be undermined by EU mayhem.

“I regard the huge buy-up of bonds of individual states by the ECB as legally and politically questionable. Article 123 of the Treaty on the EU’s workings prohibits the ECB from directly purchasing debt instruments, in order to safeguard the central bank’s independence,” he said…

Little late there, Wulff, old boy – the European Central Bank has been burying the European Union in bogus debt for three years.

This does, though, point to the end of German patience – after all, Germany can start printing Deutschmarks tomorrow and they would probably be at par with the British pound, and possibly higher.  European money would start to flood in to Germany as people seek a safe haven from the coming Euro-collapse.  It is time to call a halt to this before the entirety of Europe is brought down because the ECB wants to bail out banksters who idiotically loaned money to places like Greece, Italy and Spain.  It can’t be done – and either the PIIGS bondholders will go under, or everyone will.  If I were German, I’d be saying “bondholders go under”.

Will Germans discover a backbone and send the ECB packing, or will lingering guilt over WWII (to be sure, that is something to be guilty about) cause German’s to sacrifice their own prosperity in order to be “good Europeans”?   Time will tell…

Wall Street Expects Fed Money Printing

Mark Noonan21 Comments

From Bloomberg:

Stocks surged on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq up more than 2 percent, as buyers emerged before a highly anticipated address by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke later this week.

Technology and other growth stocks drove much of the market’s gains, with the S&P Information Technology Index .GSPF up 2.4 percent.

A weaker-than-expected reading of the U.S. housing sector was the latest in a string of discouraging data that has raised expectations the Fed will take measures to prop up the economy…

Also hoping for a bit of Fed printing would be Obama and his Democrats…because only a boatload of “free” money can keep our financial system from falling apart over the next month or two, leading to a pretty bad recession.  Thing is, I don’t know if it would work – or, at least, work well enough to keep us out of official recession through the 2012 election.  A lot of observers are figuring that Bernanke has shot his bolt…all he can do by printing at this point is massively stoke inflation by killing the value of the dollar.  And, of course, even if Bernanke and the Banksters keep things afloat through 2012, it would be just scheduling a massive recession for 2013…that wouldn’t bother Obama, of course, because by then he’ll never have to face the voters again.

We’ll see how it comes out – but do note with care the sickness of our financial elite….hoping that the government will essentially steal your money via inflation in order to bail them out.  Gigantic reforms need to be undertaken to create a free, transparent market where Wall Street gamblers are replaced by careful investors.

 

Economy Open Thread

Mark Noonan12 Comments

As I write this (8:36 pm EDT, Sunday), the market futures have been swinging from negative to positive and back to negative.  Rumors abound – some saying the Bernanke will print up bags of free money for the banksters, others holding that the end of the Libyan civil war will lower oil prices…but, meanwhile, gold continues its skyrocket towards $1,900.00 an ounce.  So, mixed bag.  Who in heck knows what will happen tomorrow?

Given this mystery, I can’t think of anything particular compelling to write…its all so messed up and so unpredictable that if I wrote something now, then by 9 am in the east, Monday, everything I said might be nonsense.  So, an open thread…watch what happens this glorious Monday…and feel free, even, to comment about non-economic things, if that is what you’d like here.  We’re really just along for the ride, anyways…

Crony Capitalism

Mark Noonan4 Comments

From Bloomberg:

…Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s unprecedented effort to keep the economy from plunging into depression included lending banks and other companies as much as $1.2 trillion of public money, about the same amount U.S. homeowners currently owe on 6.5 million delinquent and foreclosed mortgages. The largest borrower, Morgan Stanley (MS), got as much as $107.3 billion, while Citigroup took $99.5 billion and Bank of America $91.4 billion, according to a Bloomberg News compilation of data obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests, months of litigation and an act of Congress…

Describing it as an effort to stave off depression is being overly generous…though, giving the benefit of the doubt, Bernanke, himself, might have thought that is what he was doing.  The reality is that a bunch of well-connected banks gambled, lost and then were bailed out by the taxpayers.  The whole effort, in reality, was to ensure that those at the top of the financial industry heap didn’t pay the price of their folly…and they managed to get all that money because, as I’ve said, Big Government and Big Corporation are two sides of the same coin…they are run by the same people and have the same basic worldview:  the people are lunch.

We have to ensure that in the future no one ever falls for “too big to fail”.  If a corporation has screwed up, then let it fail.  In this, there is a gigantic issue we Republicans can run on because, right now, Obama and his Democrats are hip deep in this nonsense.  There was no fundamental difference between the bail out of GM and the bail out of Morgan Stanley…both were run by idiots who deserved to lose and both were bailed out because of excellent political connections.

We can tie the whole nauseating mess in to a neat, little package and explain to the American people that the “Bigs” have to go, because both of them are bad.  Thing is – do we have the courage to do it?

Obamunism! Failing America’s Youth

Mark Noonan6 Comments

From the LA Times:

…Call it Generation Vexed — young Americans who are downsizing expectations in the face of an economic future that is anything but certain. Career plans are being altered, marriages put off and dreams shelved.

“You can’t reach for the stars at this point,” Thomas said.

Fewer than half of Americans believe that the current generation will have a better life than the last, according to a Gallup poll this spring. It was the most pessimistic showing for that barometer in nearly three decades.

Another poll, of Americans ages 18 to 29, found that three-quarters of them expect to delay a major life change or purchase because of economic factors…

So, just how is that hopey-changey thing working out for you?

Sorry, liberals, fake money and debt just don’t do it…they allowed us to pretend for a while, but now the piper has to be paid.  We can provide a future for these young people, and those who are children, today…but only if we build and economy based upon hard work, thrift and careful investment.

2012 really can’t get here fast enough.

Germany Not Interested in Bailing Out Europe

Mark Noonan2 Comments

From Bloomberg:

Germany on Saturday rebuffed renewed calls that euro zone countries should issue joint euro-denominated bonds and have a joint finance minister, arguing that would only be possible if fiscal policy were collective already.

“As long as we don’t collectivise financial policy we also cannot have a uniform interest rate level. The different rate levels are the incentive to run a solid economy or the punishment if you are not running it properly,” Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, speaking at his ministry’s open day…

Really, it is the only way for Germany to act right now – the Eurobonds proposals, as they are, really amount to nothing more than bankrupt nation like Spain and Italy transferring a substantial part of their debt to German taxpayers.  Not only would this be political suicide for Germany’s ruling party, it would also be economically disastrous.  It wouldn’t actually stop the default, it would just delay it…and would ensure that when it came, it took Germany down with it.

Germany has tried very hard since World War Two – with great success – to put to rest the aggressive, wicked Germany of the two world wars.  They have gone way above and beyond the call of duty in being “good Europeans” and making things work.  But it is too much to ask that hard working, sensible Germans should have their economy killed off simply because Eurozone bureaucrats and profligate foreigners don’t want to pay the piper.

The bad news here – because Germany is unwilling to sign off on Eurobonds, there is not much the European Central Bank can do to sustain European banks and markets. Could be a rocky Monday in Europe…

Obamunism! Goldman Cuts Q3 and Q4 Growth Prediction

Mark Noonan33 Comments

From Zero Hedge:

…From a just released report by recent addition to the Goldman economics team (supposedly Jan was too busy elsewhere) Zach Pandl: “In light of the downshift in the data this week, we are cutting our second-half growth forecasts further. We now expect GDP growth of 1.0% in Q3 and 1.5% in Q4, both down from 2.0% previously. These changes reduce our forecasts for full-year 2011 GDP growth to 1.5% from…

This is very closing the barn door after the horse escaped – people who weren’t Ruling Class/Bankster cheerleaders made this sort of prediction months ago and some weeks ago moved towards figuring we’re already in a recession.  Goldman is just backing and filing and hoping that no one remembers that once upon a time they predicted strong growth in 2011.

The bottom line, though, is that the economy is clearly in a downward spiral.  Those still trying to keep faith in Hope and Change are saying that the recent stock market drop is based on “fear”, implying that rational people know that things aren’t so bad.  But, they are – it is fear moving the market down…fear of being the last fool out of the market.

We can expect, I believe, some gyrations in the market over the next couple months…maybe even as much as 10% swings either direction.  But the writing is on the wall: Obamunist Keynesianism has failed, just as predicted.  All that is left to do is beat Obama next year, and then pick up the economic pieces in 2013.

Europe Goes in to Financial Crisis

Mark Noonan9 Comments

Not a good sign – from the AP:

European bank stocks tanked Thursday as fears mounted about their exposure to the region’s debt crisis and weakening economy.

The stock prices of Britain’s Barclays and France’s Societe Generale led the way down, falling 11.5 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Germany’s Commerzbank fell 10 percent.

Analysts said the plunge was partly a reaction to evidence that European banks are being forced to pay more for the short-term loans they need to finance day-to-day operations…

That means that credit is freezing up – no one wants to loan money because no one knows what comes next and better hold on to what you’ve got.  But, meanwhile, without easy access to short term loans, the financial system goes in to acute crisis.  And this financial crisis is starting to spread to US banks.  As Mish puts it:

The global financial system is bankrupt. There is no way loans that have been made can be paid back. That statement applies to the Eurozone, the US, the UK, China, Australia, Canada, and for that matter nearly everywhere one looks.

Perhaps something will be done to loosen things up – some more money printing by the European Central Bank, or the Federal Reserve, or maybe China will dip in to its foreign reserves and bail out the European banks.  But even if they nip it here, it just delays the inevitable.  Mish is right – the global financial system is bankrupt.  Fundamentally, a crash is the only way out – it will kill of that which must economically die and let us know which banks, if any, are solvent.  Once that is done, we can start to rebuild knowing where we stand.

Bachmann Promises $2 a Gallon Gas

Mark Noonan57 Comments

Putting herself in stark contrast to Obama’s “prices will necessarily skyrocket” proposal – from The Hill:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) vowed Tuesday that, in her presidency, gasoline prices would fall back to less than $2 per gallon.

Bachmann, speaking to a town-hall meeting in South Carolina, said she would pursue energy policies that send pump prices down to levels not seen since early 2009, at the thick of the U.S. recession.

“Under President Bachmann you will see gasoline come down below $2 per gallon again,” she said in Greenville. “That will happen.”…

The thing is, the trick can be done – and done rather easily.  All it takes is “drill, baby, drill” and a bit of extra effort in building refineries.  Just the announcement that we were abandoning Obama’s “permatorium” on offshore drilling would probably drop a barrel of oil by 10 or 20%.  Add to that the knowledge that the EPA would not try to regulate out of existence such promising new technology as “fracking”, and we could see a barrel of oil going for half or less what it is today by the end of a Bachmann first term…and that would go a long way towards lowing the price of gasoline to the $2 a gallon range.

The United States cannot become oil-independent.  We just use too much of it – but given what we know is there and with the existing and developing technology we have, we can certainly reduce our demand for foreign oil by quite a lot.  My guess is by about half (so we’d be importing about a third of our oil needs).  That kind of a slackening of demand on the global market will, in turn, drop oil prices everywhere.  It works out, in the end, to a gigantic tax cut on wealth creation…not only in the direct savings on energy costs, but on the follow-on effects of people having more money to spend on things besides energy.

If we couple such a flat-out development of our oil resources with further development of “clean coal”, nuclear and other alternative energy sources, we can get past the “oil chasm” in our economic history…reaching for a time when our overall demand for oil starts to drop year by year as new energy supplies come on line.  The additional benefit – and it is massive – is that the fewer dollars we’re sending overseas for oil means less wealth for our enemies to use against us.

This is a gigantic and easily understood advantage for the United States and whole world.  Naturally, Obama and his liberals are opposed to it – perversely, because they feel the United States needs to be punished for being so wealthy, powerful and free.  Carrying such a positive, American message is just what we need to do in 2012…as Obama keeps talking about wind and solar, we’ll be talking about what people know, and what can work today.  The rest of the GOP field can do no better than to follow Bachmann’s lead…and if it irks them to have to do so, then the suggestion is to come up with something equally bold to restore American prosperity and greatness.