Just how deep does the rabbit hole go?
Archive for August 6, 2011
Silly (not) question of the night.
11 year ago
So to all that read this, just a simple question. Simple to ask but the difficulty to answer will vary from one individual to the next.
The question: Where is your line in the sand?
At what point do you stand up and say enough is enough?
A loss of the First Amendment, so why do we have free speach zones at gatherings and rallies? I could run on threw the other Constitutional Amendments pointing examples to almost all.
So at what point and over what theft of freedom will you say enough is enough?
For whom the downgrade tolls
1Source: http://hotair.com
Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the US government’s AAA credit rating tolls for all of us, of course. However, it tolls for the left in ways they have not fully grasped.
The partisan left — and the establishment media supporting it — naturally seeks a short-term advantage from the event. They will cherry-pick S&P’s explanation of the downgrade for the comments about taxes and Republican opposition to higher taxes in an attempt to place all the blame on the GOP. They will ignore S&P’s rationale for the downgrade is their judgment that “further near-term progress containing the growth in public spending, especially on entitlements, or on reaching an agreement on raising revenues is less likely than we previously assumed” as well as their criticism of the debt deiling deal as envisioning “only minor policy changes on Medicare and little change in other entitlements, the containment of which we and most other independent observers regard as key to long-term fiscal sustainability.” They will hide behind S&P’s curious refusal to identify the Democrats as the chief obstacle to entitlement reform, despite the House GOP’s passage of a bugdet containing serious structural reforms. The undisputed fact that Pres. Obama blew up a larger budget deal in which House Speaker Boehner agreed to $800 billion in revenue will be thrown down the memory hole. The blame battle will have to be fought to blunt the short-term advantage the partisan left wants.
Possible Resignation of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner
01 year ago
in Finance
Just a random thought. Yes, Tim Geithner = POS, but everyone should have expected such based on his history. If not, oh well, you know it now. So maladjusted Timmy says goodbye, then what? The citizens will not be voting in his replacement, hmm, of course those would be same voters I would have to ask “how is that hope and change working out for you now?”. Based on perceived ownership and the presidential connections it will be another failure from Goldman Sachs. I’m sure there must be one person in Obama’s tight circle of economic advisers and policy makers that is not from, or have roots in Goldman Sachs. I would love your feedback. BTW, the WH press Secretary talking about the budget does not count, lol. So who will be next rabbit pulled out of the magical hat?
Global markets crash as congressional job disapproval hits high
0Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com
With the Dow Jones Industrial Average posting its biggest one-day decline since December 2008 on Thursday in lock-step with global market sell-offs, a new poll demonstrated the vast disapproval Americans have for their legislators.
In a new CBS News / New York Times poll released on Thursday, a record 82 percent of Americans surveyed said they disapproved of the work being done by congressional lawmakers, CBS News reported. The 82 percent figure is the highest since polling began in 1977 and marks the first time congressional disapproval numbers topped 80 percent. Congressional job approval ratings have been notoriously low, but the new figures point to the difficulties ahead for incumbent legislators in the upcoming 2011 and 2012 elections. The poll was released under the shadow of a contentious debt ceiling debate between congressional Democrats and Republicans that nearly resulted in a U.S. federal debt default. The agreement to lift the federal debt ceiling is seen by many as having come without meaningful structural reform in spending and in revenue, and it remained unclear if the U.S. would experience a downgrade on its overall debt rating by the leading institutions that monitor the financial health of private and public enterprises. The survey was conducted on August 2 and 3, in the moments after the debt ceiling deal was reached. Global stock markets crashed on Thursday, bringing the U.S. Dow Jones Industrial Average down over 500 points, CNBC reported on Thursday. The broad market downturns reflected a general lack of confidence in the Eurozone economies to rebound after waves of fiscal stimulus. In the U.S., unemployment has remained persistently above the 9 percent mark, and worries continued to circulate that the American housing market remained in a hole. The prospect of a U.S. debt downgrade from the triple A rating the nation has enjoyed for decades is also looming over financial markets. A downgrade would result in significant interest rate increases, further impeding the flow of capital to businesses in need of loans and to residential mortgages. All of these concerns are landing on the doorsteps of the nation’s legislative and executive leaders, as Americans increasingly look to their government to help correct the impact from the anemic economy. “Eighty-four percent of Americans are either dissatisfied (56 percent) or angry (28 percent) with Washington, a record high in CBS News/New York Times polling,” Brian Montopoll reported for CBS News. “Only 14 percent are satisfied with Washington, and just one percent is enthusiastic.”
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/309962#ixzz1UJ6UiPLv
Rand Paul Calls for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to Resign
0Source: http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com
Sen. Rand Paul today issued a statement calling for the resignation of U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner from his cabinet post, effective immediately, for his gross mismanagement of federal economic policy and for his role in the first-ever downgrade of United States debt.
“Secretary Geithner assured everyone that raising the debt ceiling without a plan to balance the budget would not result in a downgrade to our debt,” Sen. Paul said. “He was clearly wrong. Our debt has been downgraded for the first time in history, and now American taxpayers will have to suffer the consequences”
Businesswoman Amilya Antonetti: Obama Needs to Apologize for Economy
01 year ago
This was the first interview I had seen of Amilya Antonetti, I will look for more and will share. Quite impressed, on various levels.
World leaders confer on debt crises this weekend
01 year ago
in Finance
Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank
Source: http://www.reuters.com
Global leaders on Saturday arranged a round of emergency calls to discuss the twin debt crises in Europe and the United States that are causing turmoil in financial markets.
After a week that saw $2.5 trillion wiped off global stock markets, they are under pressure to show political leadership and reassure markets that Western governments have both the will and ability to reduce their huge and growing public debt loads.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who chairs the G7/G20 group of leading economies, conferred with Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron ahead of a call planned for this weekend by G7 finance ministers and central bankers.
“They discussed the euro area and the U.S. debt downgrade. Both agreed the importance of working together, monitoring the situation closely and keeping in contact over the coming days,” a spokesman for Cameron said.
Standard and Poor’s deepened the urgency for action late on Friday by stripping the United States of its top-tier AAA credit rating, a move that over time could ripple through markets worldwide by pushing up borrowing costs and making it more difficult to secure a lasting recovery.
It cited the acrimonious debate in Washington on raising the debt ceiling and near political paralysis over the best way to reduce the its $14.3 trillion debt, which on the current trajectory could climb above 100 percent of U.S. national output this decade.
President Barack Obama called on lawmakers once again on Saturday to set aside partisan politics and work together and to put the nation’s fiscal house in order and stimulate the stagnant economy.
But the most immediate concern for financial markets was the debt crisis in the euro zone, where yields on Italian and Spanish debt have soared to 14-year highs on political wrangling and doubts over the vigor of budget cuts.
The European Central Bank was scheduled to hold a rare Sunday conference call. Markets are anxiously looking for the central bank to start buying Italian and Spanish debt on Monday to stabilize prices, a move that has split the ECB governing council.
Investors saw the ECB’s failure to include Italy and Spain in a relaunch of its bond purchases late last week as a sign of the depth of political divisions over the role of the euro zone currency. German officials want to see stiffer austerity programs in place before the ECB would shoulder more Italian and Spanish debt. The danger is that further pressure on Italian and Spanish bonds could undermine an already damaged European banking system and lock Italy, the world’s eighth largest economy, out of the market.
Ron Paul to Congress: Stop Stealing from the American People
0Source: http://tulsachange.com
Imagine you had a pesky neighbor who somehow took out a mortgage on his house in your name and by some legal trickery you were obligated to pay for it. Imagine watching this neighbor throw drunken parties, buy expensive cars, add more rooms to the house, and hire dozens of people to wait on him hand and foot. Imagine that he also managed to take out several credit cards in your name. One by one, he would max them out and then use your good name and credit to obtain another credit card, then another and then another. Each time, this neighbor would claim that he needed the new credit card to pay interest on the other maxed out credit cards. If he defaulted on those cards, your credit score would be hurt and when you wanted to buy something for yourself, it would be more difficult to get a loan and the interest you paid would be higher. Imagine that you mulled this over, and time after time, said nothing as he filled out more credit applications so he would not have to default on the other debt taken out in your name. Meanwhile, another shiny new Mercedes appears in his driveway. At what point do you think you might get tired of this game? And, even though you are left with no really good options, do you think you might eventually tell him to go ahead and default, just stop spending your money!
This analogy demonstrates the position we are in with our government and the debt ceiling. The government has run up a huge debt in the name of the American people, who are sick and tired of being on the hook for it. There are no really good options left. Defaulting on a portion of the debt may not be without costs, but it is better than handing the government yet another credit card.
The government is using the usual scare tactics to strong-arm the people into going along with more spending. Remember the rhetoric surrounding the big bailout of October 2008? We were told, not that this would be calamitous for the banks, but for the people, who would continue to experience massive job losses and foreclosures. We were told that the economy would sink into a deep recession if this money was not handed out to too-big-to-fail corporate cronies. So, after much hand-wringing, leaders from both parties, against unprecedented public outcry, agreed to shower money on the banks and increase the debt. The banks learned nothing, except that Washington will come to their rescue, no matter what. The people, however, continued to lose their jobs and houses anyway, and here we are, still in a deep recession.
When you read the above example, your first reaction might have been to dismiss the neighbor’s debt as illegitimate and in no way your responsibility or your problem. You would be right. No fair-minded legal system would hold you responsible for such a debt, and would instead cart your thieving neighbor off to jail. Yet Congress can impose liabilities on you, your children, and grandchildren without your consent, and even without your knowledge. This is another example of government holding itself above the law. Much like the TSA claims the right to molest us, yet arrested a woman who turned the tables last week, stealing somehow becomes legitimate when the government does it.
We supposedly live in a nation of laws. For once, government needs to heed the law regarding the debt ceiling.
See if Ron Paul is consistent. Check Ron Paul’s Record
Geithner: “No Risk” of Downgrade
0Source: http://www.ronpaul2012.com
In April, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said there was “no risk” the U.S. would lose its top credit rating.
Yesterday, Standard & Poor downgraded America’s AAA rating for the first time in history.
The so-called “experts in “Washington” told us that stimulus would work. They were wrong. They told us the bailouts would work. Wrong again. Bernanke, Geithner and company thought printing new money was a good solution. False. The entire political class told us that if we didn’t raise the debt ceiling we would damage our nation’s credit. Yesterday America’s financial standing was downgraded because we raised the debt ceiling.
Said Ron Paul today: “the old crowd of elites still refuses to budge on doing everything it takes to get us out of this hole they’ve dug. Instead of real substantial budget cuts, we get minor or ‘fake’ cuts and budget tricks that may or may not happen far off into the future… The American people realize that our nation can no longer afford to stay on this same path of reckless spending and follow the status quo of Washington. They will not tolerate any further ineffective stimulus schemes that do nothing to help our economy and actually do the opposite to the tune of trillions of dollars in money being spent and printed, and millions of people remaining unemployed and without much economic stability or security.”
Paul added: “If Washington refuses to take heed, there is little cause for optimism.”
Everything Washington “experts” tell us continues to be wrong. Every economic prediction Paul has made continues to come to fruition.
We need leaders who comprehensively understand the crisis we face, not simply self-important micromanagers content to kick the can down the road until that road runs out.
Geithner promised there would be “no risk” that this country would have its credit downgraded. Time and again, America’s greatest risk continues to be putting its future in the hands of men like Geithner and his friends.
This is a work in progess, a self learning tool and fun little project. Please excuse the slow development as it seems the needed proper time is always lacking. It is my hope that the combination of content and links to other sources of information in this simple blog may help awaken a few of the sleeping masses and encourage and inspire others to initiate their own research, ultimately for each person to be a light to help awaken others. Opinions expressed belong to me, myself and I. Also, a big thank you to all that take the time to visit, it is appreciated :)
