FDIC's New Liquidation Authority Under Dodd-Frank Latest Example Of Obama Fascism

It's not fascism when we do it.

Peter Wallison for Bloomberg.com doesn't come right out and say it, of course, but the FDIC's new liquidation authority under Dodd-Frank is the very embodiment of Obama's fascist vision for America and a crucial instrument for its implementation:

Under the plan, the agency would create a bridge institution to assume the assets and liabilities of a failed firm and could force some creditors to take equity in place of their debt holdings. ...

The powers granted by the liquidation authority to the secretary of the Treasury are unprecedented. With the concurrence of the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, the secretary can seize any financial firm -- not just the largest ones -- if he believes its failure would cause instability in the U.S. financial system.

If the firm’s directors object to the seizure, the secretary can apply to a U.S. district court for an order authorizing him to appoint the FDIC as receiver. The court has one day -- yes, one day -- to decide whether the secretary’s judgment was correct. If the court takes no action within this window, the firm is turned over to the FDIC. It’s a felony to disclose that the secretary has applied for the court order. The constitutional issues here are obvious and breathtaking. ...

Essentially, there’s no appeal. The secretary’s seizure isn’t subject to a stay or injunction, and once the firm has been delivered into the arms of the FDIC, it’s as good as dead.

Read the entire column, here.

Thomas Sowell Agrees With Us: Obama Is A Fascist

Thomas Sowell for Investors.com correctly locates Obama's socialism in the fascist vein:

What President Obama has been pushing for, and moving toward, is more insidious: government control of the economy, while leaving ownership in private hands. That way, politicians get to call the shots but, when their bright ideas lead to disaster, they can always blame those who own businesses in the private sector. ...

One of the reasons why both pro-Obama and anti-Obama observers may be reluctant to see him as fascist is that both tend to accept the prevailing notion that fascism is on the political right, while it is obvious that Obama is on the political left. ...

What socialism, fascism and other ideologies of the left have in common is an assumption that some very wise people — like themselves — need to take decisions out of the hands of lesser people, like the rest of us, and impose those decisions by government fiat.

Read the complete column, here.

Liberal Massachusetts Town Institutes Fines For Public Swearing

The move actually de-criminalizes public swearing in order to remove it from the penumbra of First Amendment applications, as reported here:

Middleborough, a town of about 20,000 residents perhaps best known for its rich cranberry bogs, has had a bylaw against public profanity since 1968. But because that bylaw essentially makes cursing a crime, it has rarely if ever been enforced, officials said, because it simply would not merit the time and expense to pursue a case through the courts.

The ordinance would decriminalize public profanity, allowing police to write tickets as they would for a traffic violation. It would also decriminalize certain types of disorderly conduct, public drinking and marijuana use, and dumping snow on a roadway.

Just another expression of the reactionary impulse and not really a bona fide idea, an irritable mental gesture which only resembles an idea, right?

Americans' Net Worth Drops 40%, 55% For Those Whose Home Is Their Primary Savings

So says the Federal Reserve in a just released report here:

[T]he decreases in median net worth appear to have been driven most strongly by a broad collapse in house prices. ... The decline in median net worth was especially large for families in groups where housing was a larger share of assets, such as families headed by someone 35 to 44 years old (median net worth fell 54.4 percent) and families in the West region (median net worth fell 55.3 percent). ... Although the overall level of debt owed by families was basically unchanged, debt as a percentage of assets rose because the value of the underlying assets (especially housing) decreased faster.

Meanwhile, Obama has focused his laser-like vision on his golf game and mucking with your healthcare while blowing off the real crisis in America. 

So much for not letting a good one go to waste, eh Rahm?

Hey Obama! I Got Your Private Sector Right Here! Jerk.

Wow. Now The Obama "Cool" Is Racist, Too.

What isn't?

Story here:

"There's an ad, talking about [how] the president is too cool, [asking] is he too cool? And there's this music that reminds me of, you know, some of the blaxploitation films from the 70s playing in the background, him with his sunglasses," Rye said. "And to me it was just very racially-charged. They weren't asking if Bush was too cool, but, yet, people say that that's the number one person they'd love to have a beer with. So, if that's not cool I dont know what is.

She added that "even 'cool,' the term 'cool,' could in some ways be deemed racial [in this instance]."

Under Obama, Federal Government Hiring Actually Is Up 0.85 Percent, State/Local Down

Calculated to date from February 1, 2009, federal hiring under Obama is actually up almost 1 percent even though federal tax revenues are broadly down.

State and local governments have cut payrolls by 2.2 and 3.5 percent to date from Feb. 1, 2009, respectively, in an environment of declining revenues due to income stagnation, massive unemployment in the private sector, and declining property tax revenues due to the implosion of housing values.

View the data here, here, and here.

It doesn't make sense that state and local governments are doing their fair share while the federal government is not.

Obama should practice what he preaches.

John Tamny Exposes National Review's Conservatism As Monetarist Currency Devaluation

For Forbes.com, here:

Beckworth and Ponnuru . . . seek money creation to achieve economic growth, or to quote them directly, “central banks would be required to try to keep nominal spending growing at a certain rate” through 5% annual money growth. They bemoan “nominal spending” that “is currently far below the pre-crisis trend”, and remarkably they believe the Fed can remedy this by virtue of gunning the money supply.

Of course missed by the writers is that all demand in any economy results from the provision of supply first (Say’s Law, as one would expect, merits no mention in their manifesto), so to boost the demand, you don’t devalue the currency as they would like to; instead you stabilize the currency so that liquid investors feel comfortable offering up capital to producers. Schumpeter understood that there are no entrepreneurs (and no production) without capital, but if the desire is to devalue the currency then investable capital is naturally going to dry up; that or migrate toward the inflation hedges of yesterday as it did in the ‘70s and since 2001.

An Historicist Explanation Of Fascism Which Unintentionally Describes America

Seen here:

"Fascism resulted from the mobilization of mass armies, the creation of command economies, and the problem of reintegrating veterans into war-torn societies."

Is there a better explanation than this for what happened in America since The Great Depression, whose presidents have drawn their inspiration, now more, now less, from the strong men of Europe as mediated through the legacy of FDR?

In America the creation of the command economy preceded the mobilization for the world war, but the twin developments set the conditions for the state's new role in American life. 

American-style fascism bloomed in The Great Depression and Second World War and then grew through the post-war cult of education, with its original GI Loan Program writ ever larger year by year with newer names and until finally nationalized under Barack Obama, who owes his political success not to the Marxist socialists who inspired and bank-rolled his education but to Chicagoans whose financial success in real estate depended upon government planning, cooperation and exploitation of the poor. He is the epitome of the strangely blended system. 

The proliferation of American fascism occurred through the decades-long expansion of minor educational institutions, cow colleges and junior colleges into degraded and degrading universities which came to elevate the promise of mere vulgar employment to the status of an educated person's learned and wise perspective. A Bachelor's Degree in Physical Education became the equivalent of one in mathematics, and the sixth grade teacher seriously asks the students today to bring an empty white business "envelop" to the next class.

If an education no longer results in gainful employment, we are told, a sin has been committed against education's one and only commandment: Thou shalt get a credential for a job. From fund-raisers who call university alumni to the Rush Limbaughs and Dave Ramseys of the world, an education in a traditional department of human knowledge which fails to lead to employment is useless and worthless.  

Today there are hopeful signs of acute crisis in this consensus even as it reaches its zenith.

Participants graduate with crushing loads of debt in a new environment of depressed wages, long before they have good jobs, spouses, homes, cars and children.

And while the fields of graduates are white unto harvest and they continue to be recruited on-site by big businesses, many of which are responsible for key program funding for the system itself, the number of available jobs has shrunk dramatically as low American GDP resembles present day Europe more than it does its own much more vibrant past. It's as if the system has reached its limit to perpetuate itself.

The lesser products of the universities end up as functionaries in government union shops in the public school system or as media mouthpieces whose job it is to promote the jobs message, but declining tax revenues in the states and diffusion of media due to technology change the calculus for career-minded teachers and "information" workers. As we've seen in Wisconsin, the people who must pay and pay and pay again have had enough. And today's pad will doubtless become yesterday's laptop.

Those not yet quite up to the college experience who can't get an assembly line job because there aren't any may hope to join the military with the promise of money for education later, after the tour of duty. But the prospects for duty look less likely to include personnel-rich adventurism going forward as drone-war proliferates. Out-of-shape teenagers and malcontents in any event will find it increasingly difficult to join a shrinking all-volunteer military.

The failure of faith in the cult of education will necessarily precede the demise of the system, and it appears to be accomplishing this all by itself by not delivering on its promise. It wouldn't be the first time, but you'd need a useless degree to appreciate that. 

Romney Will Say Anything To Get Elected, Whether It's 1994 Or 2012

Not our guy in 1994. Not our guy in 2006. Not our guy now.

Not our guy ever.

Obama's All Wee-Wee'd Up Because Total Government Employment Is Down 1.03 Million

Government employment at all levels reached its zenith in 2010 at 22.997 million, spiking up dramatically very briefly under Census hiring between April and May 2010, after which it steadily declined. Today it stands at 21.969 million, a drop of 1.028 million from that one-off peak, or 4.5 percent.

More to the point, today's level of government employment was reached for the first time just a few years ago, in 2006, so what's happened is not much of a contraction compared to what happened in private employment, the recent nadir of which was 106.8 million at the end of January 2010.

That level of private employment last prevailed way back in 1998, and from peak to trough is a 7.6 percent decline, over 1.5 times worse than what happened in government jobs.

Private employment today stands at March 2005 levels, no thanks to Obama, but when it comes to shared sacrifice, government today could actually stand to give up some more jobs, say 229,000 more, all things being equal, to match where the private sector stands historically, which is still behind.

But you won't be hearing that from the Whiner In Chief About Fairness. 

Obama Lies About Private Sector: 4.6 Million Without Jobs Aren't Doing Fine

Private sector employment has plummeted from its peak in late 2007 by 4.6 million. Back then, 115,647,000 worked in the private sector. Today just 111,040,000 do.

Since the recent nadir of private employment in January 2010, 4.2 million have re-entered the work force.

Unfortunately since the beginning of 2008, part-time employment has skyrocketed from 4.9 million to 8.1 million today, calling into question how good are the jobs recovered over the entire period. As recently as September 2011, part-time employment was as high as 9.3 million.

In any event, private employment is back to 2005 levels, which for its time was no achievement. The growth trend in jobs first reached that level back in 2000 and 2001, only to suffer the slings and arrows of the dotcom bubble and 911.

America has not really recovered from that time, otherwise private employment would be far in excess of 120,000,000 today.

The current president has no imagination, despite not being named Bush.

Sean Hannity's Libertarianism Is Stupid

The radio ad for Sean Hannity's program runs incessantly, featuring him saying, "Society doesn't need to put its seal of approval on the choices people make."

This in reference to same sex marriage.

He obviously doesn't appreciate how the government already puts its seal of approval on people's choices, and has done so for a very long time.

The most obvious social example is marriage itself, which receives a healthy tax preference in the form of the tax code's filing status "married filing jointly" . . . since the end of the Second World War! This isn't just a seal of approval. It's actually a financial encouragement to marry.

Or consider the child tax credit, which you aren't going to get without having children. With it, the government encourages the having of children.

Or the earned income credit, which you don't get unless you have some earned income. It's government's way of encouraging people who don't work at all to get a job and get work experience, on the assumption that they will move up the ladder eventually to positions which pay too much to receive the credit.

All of these things the government encourages to promote social stability in the form of nuclear families, home ownership, work, and population growth, all of which are essential to . . . tax revenue.

Giving same sex partners the same rewards as heterosexual unions ignores the fact that the former are naturally incapable of growing the population. Government has no interest in promoting the ineffectual.

"Be it then, as Sir Robert says, that anciently it was usual for men to sell and castrate their children, Observations, 155. Let it be, that they exposed them; add to it, if you please, for this is still greater power, that they begat them for their tables, to fat and eat them: if this proves a right to do so, we may, by the same argument, justify adultery, incest and sodomy, for there are examples of these too, both ancient and modern; sins, which I suppose have their principal aggravation from this, that they cross the main intention of nature, which willeth the increase of mankind, and the continuation of the species in the highest perfection, and the distinction of families, with the security of the marriage bed, as necessary thereunto."

-- John Locke

New Evidence Proves Obama Was Member Of Socialist Third Party In 1996

And lied about it in 2008 to get elected president.

So claims Stanley Kurtz for National Review:

Recently obtained evidence from the updated records of Illinois ACORN at the Wisconsin Historical Society now definitively establishes that Obama was a member of the New Party. He also signed a “contract” promising to publicly support and associate himself with the New Party while in office.

Minutes of the meeting on January 11, 1996, of the New Party’s Chicago chapter read as follows:

Barack Obama, candidate for State Senate in the 13th Legislative District, gave a statement to the membership and answered questions. He signed the New Party “Candidate Contract” and requested an endorsement from the New Party. He also joined the New Party.

Consistent with this, a roster of the Chicago chapter of the New Party from early 1997 lists Obama as a member, with January 11, 1996, indicated as the date he joined.

Knowing that Obama disguised his New Party membership helps make sense of his questionable handling of the 2008 controversy over his ties to ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). During his third debate with John McCain, Obama said that the “only” involvement he’d had with ACORN was to represent the group in a lawsuit seeking to compel Illinois to implement the National Voter Registration Act, or motor-voter law. The records of Illinois ACORN and its associated union clearly contradict that assertion, as I show in my political biography of the president, Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism.

Why did Obama deny his ties to ACORN? The group was notorious in 2008 for thug tactics, fraudulent voter registrations, and its role in popularizing risky subprime lending. Admitting that he had helped to fund ACORN’s voter-registration efforts and train some of their organizers would doubtless have been an embarrassment but not likely a crippling blow to his campaign. So why not simply confess the tie and make light of it? The problem for Obama was ACORN’s political arm, the New Party.

The revelation in 2008 that Obama had joined an ACORN-controlled, leftist third party could have been damaging indeed, and coming clean about his broader work with ACORN might easily have exposed these New Party ties. Because the work of ACORN and the New Party often intersected with Obama’s other alliances, honesty about his ties to either could have laid bare the entire network of his leftist political partnerships.

Although Obama is ultimately responsible for deceiving the American people in 2008 about his political background, he got help from his old associates.

Read the whole story here.

Sweden's Economic Miracle Partly Due To Cutting Spending By 20 Percent Of GDP

So says Anders Aslund for Bloomberg.com:

Not so long ago, Sweden could claim world leadership in unmitigated Keynesian economics, with a 90 percent marginal tax rate and a welfare state second to none.

Now Swedes look at the conflict between the U.S. and German examples over whether more spending or more austerity is the key to financial salvation, and for them the choice is easy: Germany was right. Northern Europe harbors no sympathy for the spendthrifts of Southern Europe.

Americans still think of Sweden as a tightly regulated social-welfare state, but in the last two decades the country has been reformed. Public spending has fallen by no less than one-fifth of gross domestic product, taxes have dropped and markets have opened up.

The situation is similar in the other Scandinavian countries, the Baltic nations and Poland. But no turnabout has been as dramatic as Sweden’s.

Read the rest, here.

"The Banking System Is Incompatible With Public Safety And Prosperity"

So wrote Thomas Jefferson to Richard Rush, in 1819.

Read why here.

NAACP's Endorsement Of SS Marriage Causes Leader From Iowa To Resign

Yah man! Hallelujah!

Story here.

EU's Equivalents Of US FDIC Can't Cover Even 1 Percent Of Eligible Deposits In Bank Failure

According to a March 2011 policy brief from the European Credit Research Institute, here:

The [European] Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) collected data from all DGS [Deposit Guarantee Schemes] in the EU to examine the ability to handle payouts (JRC, 2008). It revealed that the coverage ratio in most countries is not even sufficient to protect 1% of eligible deposits . . ..

. . . [T]he JRC carried out a ‘stress-testing’ exercise, which confirmed the weaknesses of EU DGS to handle payouts. Three different scenarios were tested, taking into account the availability of funding (ex ante, ex post and borrowing of funds):

•Small-impact scenario: €100 million average financial burden

•Medium-impact scenario: €2.18 billion average financial burden

•High-impact scenarios: €8.69 billion average financial burden

Results showed that all EU DGS could cover a small-impact bank failure. A medium-sized failure could be borne by seven EU countries with the highest coverage ratios using only ex ante funds. Six member states would not be able to reimburse depositor claims in the medium-impact case, even if they used all available funding, including ex post funds and additional borrowing. No member state was well-equipped to cope with a large failure using only ex ante funds.

To date in the current crisis, the US FDIC has paid out in excess of $88 billion. It appears the EU equivalents can't pay out even 10 billion euros. All guarantee schemes are individual member country responsibility.

The UK Guardian Savages Obama As An Authoritarian and Killer

Here:

[T]he three major policies of the Bush war on terror – rendition, military commissions and indefinite detention – continue to this day. But Mr Obama has also presided over a massive expansion of secret surveillance of American citizens by the National Security Agency. There is a ferocious crackdown on whistleblowers. He has made more government documents classified than any previous president. And he has become a true believer in drones. ...

[T]his administration is highlighting the fact that its president is a killer. In this new age of secrecy, three dozen current and former advisers are allowed to talk to the New York Times about the president's role of personally overseeing the shadow war with al-Qaida. Mr Obama has not been shy about the role he personally played in Osama bin Laden's death. His counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan makes speeches defending drone strikes as legal, ethical and wise. This administration is not on the defensive about its summary executions. It positively seeks to advertise them.

Wisconsin's Walker Ahead By 9 Points After 85 Percent Counted, CNBC Calls Victory Narrow

Maybe Sarah Jessica Parker Supports Marrying Anyone You Want For A Reason?

. . . here at SarahJessicaParkerLooksLikeAHorse.com.

Does she look more like her Mom, or her Dad?

Spikes In European Irrational Stock Market Exuberance Visualized From The Mid-1990s

Total Consumer Debt Has Barely Budged Since Late 2010

Americans continue deep in debt at $11.44 trillion in Q1 2012, which is $.04 trillion higher than in late 2010, according to this and the latest chart from the New York Federal Reserve:

As of December 31, 2010, total consumer indebtedness was $11.4 trillion, a reduction of $1.08 trillion (8.6%) from its peak level at the close of 2008Q3, and $155 billion (1.3%) below its September 30, 2010 level.

What's The Difference Between A Light Bulb And A Rear End?

You can unscrew a lightbulb.

The Queers Are Only 2 Percent Of The Population

Not 10 percent, and certainly not 25 percent of the population.

They just make up for their small numbers by being loud and by otherwise acting like pricks.

Story at The Atlantic, here.

AP Obama and CNBC.com Team Up To Poo-Poo All That "Obama Is A Socialist" Stuff

What else would you expect from the ideological nexus of media and academia?

Honesty?

These people can't even acknowledge we've experienced a minor economic depression let alone the utter failure of the predictions of their analysts and economists. Instead of failed 5 year plans as in the former Soviet Union we are treated to weekly, monthly and quarterly misses of an astounding variety so routine no one bothers to remark them any more except the gluttons for punishment in the blogosphere.

Remember the green shoots of recovery gibberish that went on and on for months after the so-called recession ended? Or the jobs created or saved nonsense? Or the bottom in housing? Before all that it was how bad was Bush's economy, an economy which Obama now only wishes he had so he could boast about it, which is why he must continue to denigrate it four years removed.

The regulation of American business by government is so massive it is a joke to call this a capitalist economy. Designed to pick the winners and the losers, the revolving door between the two carries a veritable freeway of crony traffic a 1930s fascist would envy.

It's almost pathetic the article spends most of its time quibbling about definitions from the left when Obama's is a socialism of the right.

The whole point is to obscure this fact.

Socialism is a wonderland, Alice, where words mean whatever they say they mean.     

Part Time For Economic Reasons Up Almost 400,000 During March and April

Data and graph here.

The all-time high in this metric was reached on 9-1-10 when 9.25 million were part-time for economic reasons.

The most current reading puts 7.98 million part-time.

It was in late 2008 when the measure reached above 7 million for the first time, and the lowest below 8 million we've fallen since 2009 was in March 2012 when 7.58 million were part-time.

Long Term Investors In Japan Down Over 15 Percent . . . Since 1984!

Housing Prices Need Not Increase, Just Remain Stable, For Economic Recovery

So says Harvard's Edward Glaeser for Bloomberg.com here:

The 1990s offer us one upbeat message. Housing prices stayed static for six long years after 1991, and in real terms, housing prices were no higher in 1998 than they were in 1991. Yet real GDP grew an impressive 28 percent between 1991 and 1998. It’s a myth that the housing market must recover before the larger economy can surge.

Not quite.

The average Case Shiller Home Price Index for 1991 was 125.55, and was 125.10 for 1998, but the chart for the period was flat to slightly declining, until the provisions of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 helped begin the housing bubble. Prices reached a nadir for the period in 1996 at 117.64, a decline of over 5 percent from 1991.

Crude Is Down Nearly 25 Percent In 3 Months, Gasoline Is Falling

On February 25th I reported that gasoline prices had spiked in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from $3.13 to $3.48 in about one week's time, an 11 percent jump.

On June 1 I filled at $3.55 the gallon. Today the cheapest price is already $3.38 the gallon, a 5 percent fall.

The top price I paid this season was $3.89 the gallon, so we've fallen only 13 percent overall . . . so far.

Obama Blames High US Unemployment On . . . Europe!

Betcha thought he blamed Bush again, right?

The story is here:

Obama, speaking at a Chicago fundraiser on June 1 as he bids for re-election in November, said that a report showing the slowest month of U.S. employment growth in a year was in large part “attributable to Europe and the cloud that’s coming over from the Atlantic.” The “whole world economy has been weakened by it,” he said.

With this guy the buck always stops somewhere else.

Vehicles Sales At 14.4 Million Units Annualized Through March 2012

The chart is here and the data here.

Total auto loans outstanding in Q1 2012 came to approximately $686 billion, or 6 percent of the $11.44 trillion total household debt, according to the May 2012 report of The New York Federal Reserve.

The Shiller p/e Will Have To Get Much Lower Than This Before We Can Talk Of Capitulation

Capitulation means a multiple between 5 and 10, and assumes a complete lack of interest in stock investing. Tonight's multiple is still quite elevated above 20:

(This post replaces a previous one containing erroneous information about the Shiller p/e and has been deleted).

Misspelled Words Have Become Routinized At The Atlantic

As seen here, where the writer evidently thinks "routenized" is built off of "route", or something:

Gold To Oil Ratio Vaults To 19.5

Gold surged on US economic weakness and euro fears to $1,622 the ounce today, while oil has tumbled to $83 the barrel, elevating the gold to oil ratio 30 percent off the 15 level.

Average Unemployment: Pick A Year . . . Any Year

2001 4.7 percent

2002 5.8 percent

2003 6.0 percent

2004 5.5 percent

2005 5.1 percent

2006 4.6 percent

2007 4.6 percent

2008 5.8 percent

2009 9.3 percent

2010 9.6 percent

2011 9.0 percent

2012 8.2 percent (five months to date).

As soon as Obama takes credit for a year, you'll know it's no longer George Bush's fault.

Moral Hazard In Pictures

US Federal Reserve

European Central Bank

Bank of England

People's Bank of China

German Bundesbank

Bank of Japan

Banque de France

Swiss National Bank

The British Knee Is On The March!

“It’s quite impossible that the man who had invented Sir Roderick Spode in 1938 was prey to any covert sympathy for fascism.”

-- Christopher Hitchens on P.G. Wodehouse, quoted here

Deposit Insurance In Spain Is Meaningless

If you want to know why 100 billion euros have fled Spain in the first quarter of this year, here's why:

In Spain there are about 800 billion euros of insured deposits, but the deposit insurance fund has assets of just 7.9 billion euros, and 5.3 billion has already been committed to troubled savings bank Caja de Ahorros del Mediterraneo (CAM), Barclays analysts estimated.

Unemployment Rate Climbs To 8.2 Percent Despite Weasel Words From Bureau Of Lies And Statistics

Obama's Laser-Like Focus On Jobs

The report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics may be found here. PDF here.

Notice the attempt to weasel out of the fact that the rate actually increased 0.1 from last month by stating the rate was "essentially unchanged":

Nonfarm payroll employment changed little in May (+69,000), and the unemployment rate was essentially unchanged at 8.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in health care, transportation and warehousing, and wholesale trade but declined in construction. Employment was little changed in most other major industries.

The Obama regime is presiding over an employment catastrophe above 8 percent for his entire presidency: 3 years and 4 months.

GDP Revised Down For Q1 2012 From 2.2 Percent To 1.9 Percent

You talkin' to me?

Way to go, Brownie!

Here's the story from the horse's mouth:

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the first quarter of 2012 (that is, from the fourth quarter to the first quarter), according to the "second" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the fourth quarter of 2011, real GDP increased 3.0 percent.

The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the "advance" estimate issued last month. In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was 2.2 percent (see "Revisions" on page 3).

The increase in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected positive contributions from personal consumption expenditures (PCE), exports, residential fixed investment, private inventory investment, and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by negative contributions from federal government spending and state and local government spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, increased.

The deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected a deceleration in private inventory investment, an acceleration in imports, and a deceleration in nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by accelerations in exports and in PCE.

Michelle Obama Lies About When And Why Obama Gave Up Pot

Neither one can tell the truth

Here's what Michelle Obama has just claimed, as quoted here, in response to a question about her husband's prolific pot-smoking habits:

'When he lost his father, that was one of those click-in moments. And he really buckled down, he transferred schools, went to Columbia, and thought about how to use his life to the fullest.'

This is nothing but the same sort of fictionalization we've come to expect from Obama himself, say, about his girlfriends, experiences with whom are conflated in his book in composite characters, not real ones.

Michelle is lying about the chronology of events which supposedly led to Barack becoming a serious person, pinning it all of the death of Barack Obama Sr. But Obama's father died late in 1982 when Barack was already at Columbia for a year. Barack transferred to Columbia in the fall of 1981. See for example, here.

The death of Obama's father had nothing to do with transferring to Columbia. In fact, the death post dates the move from Occidental to Columbia by two years.

The truth is we don't know when Obama quit smoking weed. But we do know Michelle Obama isn't telling the truth about it.

President Pothead Strikes Again, Angering Poland

This time the president has referred to Nazi concentration camps in Poland as Polish concentration camps.

Just one more reason why the president's past (?) drug use makes him unfit for office in the present. Kind of like how Biden's 1988 brain aneurysms have something to do with his now very full repertoire of offensive gaffes which disqualify him.

The story is here.

But look on the bright side. At least Obama didn't call Jan Karski a corpseman.

Middle Class Implies Far More Than Being Able To Buy A House

Robert Weissberg details here the older definition of what it meant to be middle class, you know, the one which is now politically incorrect to talk about, let alone be:

The core of being middle class was a strong work ethic, self-discipline, a willingness to defer gratification, an aversion for flashy consumption,  and an embrace of what might be called “respectability,” (i.e., sobriety), a morality that stressed honesty, a solid family life, being law-abiding, and valuing education (though not necessarily being “intellectual”).

Inner dispositions were associated with speaking clear, grammatical English, exhibiting decent table manners, never using profanity in public (and almost none in private, too), being “clean cut”  in appearances and always acting politely. Middle class members also abhorred the thought of taking government handouts. ...

These “square” traits were associated with material well-being but were really a result of middle class values, not its defining elements. Nobody believed that the causal flow was reversible—home ownership could inculcate middle-class values. In principle, it was possible to be lower class despite owning middle-class doodads. A well-paid entertainer may live well but could still be considered white trash if he dressed in tattered clothing, beat his wife, openly philandered, cursed and spit in public and spent a dime for every nickel earned.

Case Shiller Home Price Index Falls To 128.13 Through 12/31/11

And everyone's happy for some reason.

When you consider that the mean for the whole history of the index is 123 and the median 120, which include the irrational exuberance of recent history, today's new low of 128 after this massive, outlier, bubble merely looks like more progress in the direction of regression toward the mean, not a "bottom" as many are saying. Indeed, the historical mean implies we have a fair way DOWN to go in price, to say nothing of the very real possibility of overshooting that to the downside.

The quarterly index, adjusted for inflation, has now hit today's level eight times in the post-war period:

Dec. 31, 2011 128.13

Mar. 31, 1999 128.40

Dec. 31, 1990 128.27

Dec. 31, 1979 128.78

Sep. 30, 1978 128.22

Dec. 31, 1955 128.21

Mar. 31, 1955 128.15

Dec. 31, 1954 128.30.

There's enough history between 110 and 130 to suggest that "normal" is still somewhere south of 128.

Take two aspirin every morning and call me in ten years.

Go here for the chart.

Banking Since 1913 In A Nutshell

From Daniel Oliver at Myrmikan Capital, here: 

Like any Ponzi scheme, the fractional reserve system must periodically collapse because wealth creation cannot stem from an eternal expansion of credit. Betrayed and confused, the little people march into the halls of power and hang the perpetrators from the nearest lamp posts. ...

When the next crisis comes, as it must, the central banks of the world will face the same choice as in 2008, only on a larger scale. They will have to decide whether to allow the major banks to fail, wiping out trillions of dollars of paper wealth and plunging the globe into a 1931-style bond market failure depression, or to print money on an even larger scale.

That crisis may be here now, which, perhaps, is what the gold markets have been telegraphing for months. ... 

In 1944, Christian Men Made The Best Soldiers

Dear Friend:

Pvt. V. L. Meyer was with us in our Field Service last Sunday afternoon. The men of his Battalion and attached units are on maneuvers in the Wichita Mountains near Fort Sill for two weeks. Since the men cannot come to the Chapel on Sunday, we take the service out to them.

We take our Field Organ and small books with familiar hymns in them. The men are usually brought by truck to a place set for the service. It is entirely up to the men whether they attend.

We meet them at the appointed place and have an informal outdoor service. The men choose the hymns and we have a short message, scripture readings and prayers.

The outstanding leaders of our armed forces are convinced that Christian men make the best soldiers, sailors and marines. With their fine cooperation, we do our best to help the men be real Christians.

Sincerely yours, 

Lawrence C. Upton

Chaplain (Capt.)


Jan. 3, 1944

They Didn't Die . . .

. . . for this

TSA VIPR Unit Patrolling Beneath Elevated Trains For Detroit Electronic Music Fest

As reported here by an attendee:

“[I]f you don’t like it,” the solution is clear: don’t leave your house. Or, you know, you could make your disapproval of TSA antics known now, before the TSA can expand in this absurd fashion and say, “Well you let us do it in the airports, so why can’t we do it in train stations?” “…at bus stops?” “…as you’re driving down the street?” “…whenever we want to.” If we don’t demand the Fourth Amendment in airports now, can you really, truly believe that I’m just talking hyperbole about what will happen next?

Waste Management Converting Over 18K Trucks To Natural Gas

Read all about it here in the Houston Chronicle.

Anti-Christian Army General Thomas Bostick Sued For Discriminating Against Women

Gen. Bostick and wife

The general who helped craft the Army's DADT policy and a five-year personnel reduction plan meant to weed-out members of the military who object to homosexuality on moral grounds has been sued by women in the military who want to fight in combat but are barred from doing so.

The general, Thomas Bostick, just assumed command of the US Army Corpse of Engineers on May 22 (a little Obama lingo there).

I'm guessing he's secretly happy he's named in the suit and that he hopes he'll lose so women, like homosexuals, can hit the front lines with the men.

In the job of transforming America, Obama's work is never done.  

The New York Times has the story here.

The UK Isn't Austere: Spending Has Increased To Record Levels

So reports the UK Telegraph here:

[T]he Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that the double-dip recession was even worse than feared. The economy shrank by 0.3pc in the first quarter of the year, the ONS said in its second estimates, rather than the 0.2pc initially thought. Government spending hit record levels in the three months to March in spite of the austerity drive, rising by 1.6pc to £81.5bn and delivering 0.4 percentage points of overall economic growth. However, the taxpayer-funded boost was not enough to offset weak activity in construction, trade and the financial sector.

Unfortunately for Great Britain, it has a leader who is more concerned with gay marriage, tax increases and diverting attention away from domestic failures.

Gee, kind of reminds one of none other than Barack Obama.

Hm.

The UK Lets Taxes Rise in 2010, Gets Ugly Recession in 2012

Louis Woodhill for Forbes details the history here, wondering why they call tax increases in the throes of an economic crisis Conservatism in the UK.

Maybe because Prime Minister Cameron isn't really a conservative, just like George Bush wasn't a conservative (junking free market principles to save the free market system). The top marginal tax rate went from 40 percent to 50 percent in 2010 in the UK.

Conservatism hasn't been practiced in either place in a very long time.