Quantitative Easing Explained: 'Back Door' Toxic Asset Relief for the Banks

As remarked elsewhere now and again, but not quite as succinctly as here:

So what did QE achieve once we look at the money flows?

This policy has been replenishing the banks’ coffers though not quite in the Mexican and Savings and Loan manner. Instead of printing money to fulfill nominal commitments, the government and the Fed have been taking toxic credits away from the  financial institutions’ balance sheets. The government and the Fed have been “validating” the lousy credit already created.

And if that’s not enough, banks can borrow from the Fed at extremely low rates and buy Treasuries. The generous spread between these rates is allowing them to record the profits that are rebuilding their balance sheets with no risk or effort.

As of March $2.7 Trillion Held in Money Market Mutual Funds

Seen here:

According to the Investment Company Institute, more than 50 million Americans keep at least some of their assets in money market funds. As of March 2011, in fact, some $2.7 trillion was held in money markets—about 25% of all mutual fund assets in the United States. Equally compelling is the fact that in the 40-year history of money market funds, only two funds have seen their net asset values dip below $1 per share (often called "breaking the buck"). During that same period, in contrast, some 2,800 U.S. banks have failed, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Median Income Declined in Every State in 2009, Except South Carolina, North Dakota, and Washington, D.C.

While South Carolina is known for palmettos, North Dakota is known for oil.

And DC?

Snake oil.

As seen here.

Obama's War on the Middle Class Transfers Wealth to the Rich!

Even the Left agrees: the middle and upper middle classes lost the most in 2009, and they lost it to the rich.

Unfortunately for America, Obama's communist-inspired redistribution of wealth redistributes it from everyone to the rich.

Take whatever he says and always expect the opposite.

As seen here:

The bottom income quintile (households earning $20,453 or less a year) earned 0.5% less on average in 2009 than in 2008.

The 2nd income quintile (households earning $20,454 to $38,550 a year) also earned 0.5% less on average in 2009 than in 2008.

The 3rd income quintile (households earning $38,551 to $61,801 a year) earned 0.8% less on average in 2009 than in 2008.

The 4th income quintile (households earning $61,802 to $100,000 a year) earned 1.0% less on average in 2009 than in 2008.

The top income quintile (households earning more than $100,000 a year) earned 0.3% more on average in 2009 than in 2008.

Unemployment Back Up to 9.1 Percent, Fewest Jobs Created Since September

The story is here with all the numbers.

Way to go, Brownie Commie.

7 in 10 Democrats Sympathize with Communism

According to the latest Gallup Poll, here:

Seven in 10 Democrats believe the government should levy taxes on the rich to redistribute wealth, while an equal proportion of Republicans believe it should not. The slight majority of independents oppose this policy.

Recall Ebenezer Elliot (1781-1849):

What is a communist? One who has yearnings

For equal division of unequal earnings.

Idler, or bungler, or both, he is willing

To fork over his penny and pocket your shilling.

Why Not Count Bi-Sexual Softball Players as Three Fifths of a Teammate?

That way the team could have three bi-sexuals, which would count as only 1.8 players, 2 heteros and 5 full-on queers and win every time!

A gay softball organization can keep its rule limiting the number of heterosexual players [to two] on each team, but allegations by three players who say they were disqualified from a tournament because they weren't gay enough can proceed to trial, a federal judge said. ...

The organization says it has always considered bisexuals to meet the definition of "gay" for roster purposes, but the minutes [of a hearing] also note that one official involved in the decision to disqualify D2 commented that "this is not a bisexual world series. This is a gay world series."

More here.

Switch Hitters Nullify Softball Victory

"U.S. District Judge John Coughenour ruled Tuesday that the organization [North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance] has a First Amendment right to limit the number of heterosexual players, much as the Boy Scouts have a constitutional right to exclude gays."

More here. 

If the case goes to the Supreme Court, will she recuse herself?

Growing Schmoeing: Each Dollar of GDP Cost Almost $9.00

Charles Hugh Smith takes a tour of recent public debt and annual GDP and delivers the bad news:

Here are the numbers . . .

Total public debt in 2007 (pre-recession) was $8.95 trillion.

Total public debt in 2010 was $13.53 trillion.

This is an increase of $4.58 trillion.

Add in the 2011 deficit of $1.6 trillion and the total is $6.1 trillion in additional debt in the four years from 2008 to 2011.

GDP in 2007 (pre-recession): $14.08 trillion

GDP in 2008 (recession starts): $14.44 trillion ($364 billion gain)

GDP in 2009 (recession officially ends in mid-2009): $14.12 trillion ($322 billion decline)

GDP in 2010: $14.51 trillion ($390 billion gain)

Let's be generous and assume the U.S. economy continues "growing" at the first-quarter pace of 1.8% for all of 2011: GDP advanced 1.8% in Q1 2011 (BEA). That would add $260 billion to the 2010 GDP, so the GDP at the end of fiscal year 2011 would total $14.77 trillion in nominal dollars. In constant dollars, it might reach back up to 2007 levels, but only if the economy doesn't roll over.

Total up the gains and declines in annual GDP for the four years from 2008 through 2011, and you get $690 billion. That's the total sum of each year's gains for the four years.

That means we as a nation borrowed and spent $6.1 trillion to get $700 billion in GDP "growth."That means we borrowed and spent $8.70 for each $1 of nominal GDP "growth."

America is obviously in this and every other way completely insane.

Read the whole entry here.

The Truth About Student Loans

From Mish, here:

Obama brags about safeguarding student loans. That is like bragging about safeguarding the plague.

Student loans have done four things, all of them bad.

Jack up the cost of education

Make students debt slaves for the rest of their lives

Unjustly hand over huge profits to schools like the University of Phoenix at taxpayer expense

Add to the national debt

The best thing to do with student loans would be scrap the program entirely.

America worships at the altar of a secular god, education. The student loans are the sacrifices offered thereon. The professoriate is the priesthood, which grows fat on the first fruits. And the campi are its churches and cathedrals. The Ivies are the Holy See. And the liberalism taught there is the indulgence of its day. It desperately needs a Luther to nail it to the wall. Perhaps he will be called Bankruptcy.

If Senators Wyden and Udall Weren't Servile Cowards, They'd Tell America the Truth

And the rest of the slaves wonder in amazement at the senators' recent revelation discussed here that the Patriot Act is interpreted in a secret manner in order to hide from Americans their own government's routine violation of their Fourth Amendment rights:

"Today the American people do not know how their government interprets the language of the Patriot Act," [Senator] Wyden said. "Someday they are going to find out, and a lot of them are going to be stunned. Some of them will undoubtedly ask their senators: 'Did you know what this law actually did? Why didn't you know? Wasn't it your job to know, before you voted on it?' "

In an interview, [Senator] Udall said he wasn't even allowed to discuss details about the government's intelligence-gathering with fellow senators unless they go to a secure room in the Capitol designed to thwart eavesdropping.

Where is the real American who has the fire in the belly to tell the truth? The activists cower in fear, the senators cower in fear, everyone it seems is afraid and does NOTHING. Land of the free? What a joke.

Because none of you really believe in anything.

"Preserve, protect and defend the constitution, so help me God"? HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa!

Maryland Transit Admin. Officers Illegally Detain Man, Demand ID

And did so citing the Patriot Act, as reported here:

“Listen, listen to what I’m saying. The Patriot Act says that critical infrastructure, trains, train stations, all those things require certain oversight to take pictures, whether you say they are for personal use or whatever, that’s your story,” the officer said.

“So why don’t you have any signs posted to say I cannot take pictures?” Fussell said.

“Our officers have become very sensitive post 9/11 and we’re trying to see that they understand our passengers and citizens also have a right to take pictures,” Wells said.

The officer eventually threatened to take Fussell into custody.

“Do you have Maryland state identification on you?” the officer asked.

“I am not committing a crime,” Fussell said.

“Sir, I’m going to ask you one last time, then I’m going to take you into custody.  Do we understand each other?” the officer said.

Fussell's videos are here and here.

The American Fascist Police State grows and grows . . . under Democrats.

Chicago: Olympic Venue Aspirant Cancels Fireworks Because It's Broke!

Story here.

Venetian Night, a 52 year old summer tradition, was canceled two years ago. Gee, wasn't that a sign already that the Olympic dream was just a pipe dream?

A fitting conclusion to the Daley legacy, and he gets to keep $1.1 million in campaign cash on top of it, plus his fat pension and a security detail.

New Investing Trend is to Not Invest?

I know I'm not, but it is a little hard for me to believe an on-line poll of investors by Prudential which shows nearly 60 percent have lost faith in markets and nearly 45 percent intend never to invest again.

See the pie charts here.

Presumably these are all Prudential customers who actively answered the poll? As opposed to a scientific sample of registered voters?

Of course they could be Tea Partiers set to unleash holy hell on the electorate again, right?

Tea Party sympathy has been running steady at about 33 percent of the electorate for months, and it would be just like them to go on strike. But I suspect that a large number of people who've lost big time -- jobs, houses, investments -- have nothing much left to invest anyway, so they answer accordingly, keeping very little stashed away, if anything. Maybe an insurance policy or two?

Nearly half the country admits it couldn't scrape together $2,000 in a pinch. 

Barry Ritholtz Can't Even Spell Other People's Book Titles Properly

His latest demonstration of illiteracy is here (which I rather like to point out now and again since Ritholtz seems to think he's God's appointed corrector of innumeracy--what's so great about being able to count when you can't read or write, either?):

The Case Shiller chart showing home prices in the 1920s or 30s does not use actual sales data, but are [sic] hypothesized by Prof Shiller in his book Irrational Exuberence.

On the substantive issue, Ritholtz is right to stress that there are problems comparing the two eras since data are not complete for the past in the same way that they are today for many things.

I rather liked one commenter's response to this post, objecting to the obvious straw man argument among other things: 

Mark A. Sadowski Says: 

June 1st, 2011 at 10:19 am

There’s a couple of problems with this post.

1) You’re conflating the claim that residential housing has done worse with the claim that this recession is as bad as the Great Depression. These are two seperate [ah, that would be "separate"] claims and one does not imply the other.

2) The relative absence of mortgages in the Great Depression would have greatly reduced the foreclosure problem relative to our own times.

3) High end real estate in Manhattan [!] in the 1930s was not a proxy for housing nationally.

Grebler, Blank and Winnick constructed a fairly decent index of nominal housing prices nationally (Shiller uses it). It fell 30.5% from 1925 to 1933.

http://www.nber.org/books/greb56-1

In contrast the S&P/Case-Shiller index has fallen 34.0% from 2006Q2 through 2010Q4.

Moreover your claim ignores the fact that there was considerable deflation in everything during the Great Depression. Taking into account the CPI, real housing prices only fell 12.6% from 1925 through 1932. In contrast real housing prices have fallen 40.1% this time around (so far).

P.S. For comparison[']s sake on the 67% decline in housing prices in Manhatten [Manhattan] between 1929Q3 and the end of 1932, consider the city of Las Vegas today. From peak in April 2006 to present housing prices in Las Vegas have fallen 58.4%. Adjusting for CPI the decline in housing prices in Manhatten [Manhattan] in the early 1930s is 57% whereas the decline in Las Vegas today it is 62.7% (so far).

If Ritholtz is so smart, how come it's not called the Case/Ritholtz index?

Now wasn't that fun? 

Housing Price Declines About 6.5 Percent Worse Than Great Depression

As reported here, quoting Paul Dales, senior economist at Capital Economics:

“On the Case-Shiller measure, prices are now 33% below the 2006 peak and are back at a level last seen in the third quarter of 2002. This means that prices have now fallen by more than the 31% decline endured during the Great Depression.”

The article concludes that it is probably even worse than that, if current modest inflation is factored in compared to the  deflation prevalent in the 1930s. 

The Housing Pox-Eclipse

As reported here by Stephen B. Meister, there are currently 2.25 million foreclosures, 1 million repos, 1.8 million more than 90 days delinquent, and 3.8 million legitimate listings. Add to that another 12 million underwater.

There were places like these.

Cities.

They were called cities.

They had lots of knowing.

They had skyscrapers. . .

. . .videos and they had the sonic.

Then this happened.

This Pox-Eclipse happened, and it's

finished. It isn't there anymore.

-- Savannah, Mad Max 3 Beyond Thunderdome

Yeah, Thanks Bernanke

"Interest rates are amazingly low and that, thanks to Ben Bernanke, is driving everything."

"We’re on the verge of a great, great depression. The [Federal Reserve] knows it."

"We have many, many homeowners that are totally underwater here and cannot get out from under. The technology frontier is limited right now. We definitely have an innovation slowdown and the economy’s gonna suffer."

"Any bears out there better be careful because the dividend yields on these stocks look awesome relative to all the other investment vehicles out there. So bears are going to have to find a new way to express their discontent with the U.S. economy."

-- Peter Yastrow, market strategist, quoted here

These guys keep talking their book, which is the Fed's book, which is the politicians' book, until, you know, we vote them out of office. "Don't fight the Fed" is their number one rule.

Why do we have to find a new way to express our discontent? What's wrong with expressing our discontent in the usual way, like we've been doing? You don't want us to march in the streets again, do you? We aren't buying anything, we aren't traveling anywhere, eating out, investing, or working for a paycheck. In short, we're on strike. Howdoyalikethemapples, chump?

The only thing we can do is plant. And wait. And vote. And we're really looking forward to voting again.

Or have you forgotten last November?

Obama Hands Out Medicare Advantage Waiver from ObamaCare

He's running away from his own plan as fast as he can:

Millions of seniors in popular private insurance plans offered through Medicare will be getting a reprieve from some of the most controversial cuts in President Barack Obama's health care law.

In a policy shift critics see as political, the Health and Human Services department has decided to award quality bonuses to hundreds of Medicare Advantage plans rated merely average.

The $6.7 billion infusion could head off service cuts that would have been a headache for Obama and Democrats in next year's elections for the White House and Congress. More than half the roughly 11 million Medicare Advantage enrollees are in plans rated average.

When even AP and Yahoo notice, you know you've got a credibility problem.

Dope Obama Scheduled Facebook Townhall for Dopers' 420, 0.11 Percent of 19.3 Million Friends Sign Up

Story here, without a trace of understanding.