AP Reports Householders Converted to Renters Total 3 Million

With 3 million more expected by 2015:

Since the housing meltdown, nearly 3 million households have become renters. At least 3 million more are expected by 2015, according to census data analyzed by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies and The Associated Press.

Read the rest of the story here, which says that the GSEs presently own 250,000 foreclosures.

Meredith Whitney's Caricature of Tea Party is Sexist and Liberal: Video and Transcript

She expressed her opinion on CNBC this morning (here is the video), saying the Tea Party is at bottom a phenomenon of unemployment, but composed mostly of freaked-out white men who've lost their jobs and their identities. She's obviously worried about it enough to offer advice to Machiavellian Democrats to defuse this supposed bomb before it's too late.

I guess she never examined the Gallup poll on the subject (here), which found that 45 percent of the Tea Party is female, is barely 5 percent more non-Hispanic white than the general population, and that the unemployment rate in the movement was lower than in the general population. Gallup concluded the Tea Party is fairly representative of the general population, unlike Whitney.

Sexist remarks start at 5:55 into the interview.

Translation: I'm a Machiavellian Democrat

Cost-Cutting and Job Creation Helped Republicans in Wisconsin

So says David Freddoso for The Washington Examiner here:

How did Republicans hold out? It hasn't hurt that Walker's reforms have dramatically helped school districts within the state save millions of dollars by abolishing the main Wisconsin teachers' union's insurance racket. Nor does it hurt that Wisconsin, under the business-friendly leadership of Walker and a Republican state legislature, created more than half of the jobs created in the United States during the month of June.

Republicans Keep Senate in Wisconsin Recalls Despite Millions Spent by Unions

The Republicans retained 4 of 6 seats in the unusual recall elections yesterday, narrowing their hold on the Wisconsin Senate to a 1 seat majority.

But two Democrats still face recalls next week. If they lose that would return the situation to the margins of the status quo ante and suggest that all the sound, fury and expense since March signified nothing, except folly.

Upwards of $35 million is being spent on the recalls, launched by angry unions and Democrats against Republicans under Governor Scott Walker who successfully pushed through legislation to curtail public union power over salaries and benefits in Wisconsin.

Read all about it at The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online, here:

By keeping a majority in the Senate, Republicans retained their monopoly on state government because they also hold the Assembly and governor's office. Tuesday's elections narrowed their majority - at least for now - from 19-14 to a razor-thin 17-16.

Republicans may be able to gain back some of the losses next week, when two Democrats face recall elections.

Jim Cramer's 'Machines' Cause Flash Rally, Reversing Some of Yesterday's Losses

Now 14 percent off the April highs.

S and P 500 is Almost 18 Percent Off the Recent Highs

And it's a long way back down to 683, another 39 percent.

Food Stamps in Michigan: 30K College Students Removed From Program

Who knew? Apparently that number on the program was huge, 10 times more than in other states.

New rules for eligibility are coming, requiring assets to be counted. Like lotto winnings.

The Detroit News has the story here:

Even after the recent removal of 30,000 college students from the food stamp program, close to 2 million Michigan residents — one in five — are on the program, [Brian] Rooney [Deputy Director, Department of Human Services] said.

Jim Cramer Blames The Machines

Here:

"You have to believe that it's related to the machines . . .."

Obama Talks Again of 'Balanced Approach' Meaning New Taxes, Market Tanks

CBS News reported here at 2:36 pm on the president's remarks made today after the lunch hour:

Mr. Obama noted that S and P attributed its downgrade in part to doubts about the U.S. political system's ability to act to reign in the nation's ballooning deficit and debt, and called for a "balanced approach" to deficit reduction - one that includes both tax increases on high earners and "modest adjustments" to Medicare and other health care programs.

At 1:47 pm the S and P 500 was down 56 points. At 2:18 pm it was down 67 points. By the close it stood at nearly 80 points down for the day:

Democrats Still Play The Dictator, Commit Crime Against Democracy: Attack Tea Party Over Credit Downgrade

Pat Caddell last September, referring to ramming ObamaCare down our throats:

"The Democrats had a chance to do this right — most people supported aspects of reform — but because of the way it was passed, as a crime against democracy, the country has simply not accepted it. The lies, the browbeating, the ‘deem and pass’ — all of it was a suicide mission. ...

“Democrats used to be the voice of the common man in America, not his dictator.”

The whole interview, here, is as applicable now as it was then.

China Lectures America While Failing To Comply With The Rules

From Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, here, who points out there is a dwindling supply of growth to steal from the future:

China has already pushed credit to 200pc of GDP. It cannot repeat the trick. ...

As for China's bluster, it is chutzpah and self-delusion. We all agree that the US needs to "cure its addiction to debts", but so will China soon.

China buys US debt in order to recycle $200bn a quarter in foreign reserves, hold down the yuan, and continue its mercantilist export strategy. If China had not distorted world trade in this fashion, the US would not be in such a mess.

Obama is Engineering the Decline of the American Republic

Rush Limbaugh said it, right?

No, Pete Wehner, here.

Real Clear Politics' Image of Obama Doesn't Match The Video

Are they having just a little too much fun?

We do that, but should they?

Seen here:

'And the glory of the Lord shone round about him.'

The Permabulls' Latest Ploy

You know your leg is being pulled when steep market declines are just flash crashes to be blamed on high frequency trading, but buying on the dips couldn't possibly be pre-programmed to cause flash rallies.

Have fun at the casino!  

Recent Sell-Off Was Another Flash Crash? Why isn't the Opposite a Flash Rally?

A couple of people here are blaming the market meltdown last week on high frequency trading.

Gee whiz, what isn't to be blamed on high frequency trading when 75 percent of the trading, and climbing, is high frequency?

These explanations have become a distinction without a difference.

So movements are amplified, so what? People just aren't used to the increased volatility, which is just like turning up the volume on the stereo. The music is the same, just louder.

Obama's Defeated 2012 Budget Would Have Taken Public Debt to $24 Trillion in 10 Years

TheHill.com reported the CBO projection in March here:

CBO estimates Obama's plan would produce 10 years of deficits totaling $9.5 trillion. By 2021, it would increase the debt held by the public to 87 percent of gross domestic product.

On March 18, 2011 public debt stood at $14.225 trillion, to which add $9.5 trillion over ten years, and you get nearly $24 trillion, nearly 122 percent higher than the debt at the end of 2008.

Was that "a balanced approach"?

Was Standard and Poor's wrong at $22.1 trillion? It would be more accurate to call it generous, in Obama's favor. Brow-beaten by criticism from the regime, S and P dropped the number to $20.1 trillion.

I predict that if Obama is still in office in 2015, we'll have already hit that $20.1 trillion mark by then and won't have to wait for 2021. 

EU Growth Rate 2000-2010 at 1.56 Percent

Yeah! Let's be more like Europe!

Wait. We already are.

Data here and here.

Let's Play 'Who's The Bigger Liberal: Clinton, Bush or Obama?'

In January of 1993, the total public debt stood at $4.2 trillion. By the end of the year 2000, it stood at $5.7 trillion. So Bill Clinton increased the debt by 35 percent, about 4.4 points per year.

At the end of December in 2008, the debt stood at $10.7 trillion. So George Bush increased the debt by 88 percent, about 11 points per year, a rate 2.5 times higher than Bill Clinton's.

As of August 4, 2011, the debt stands at $14.6 trillion. So Barack Obama has increased the debt by 36 percent . . . in just over one half of one term in office, not two full terms like his predecessors, or 14.4 points per year.

George Bush is clearly a bigger liberal than Bill Clinton, but Obama is already topping him by a rate of 1.3 times.  

Standard and Poor's Estimate of GDP is Way Too Optimistic

From their downgrade report:

Key macroeconomic assumptions in the base case scenario include trend real GDP growth of 3 percent and consumer price inflation near 2 percent annually over the decade. ... our downside case scenario assumes relatively modest real trend GDP growth of 2.5 percent and inflation of near 1.5 percent annually going forward.

Real GDP in the first decade of the 21st century was a pathetic, anemic 1.67 percent.

If that continues (we're at 1.3 percent right now), the gap between spending and revenues will continue to widen, increasing the size of annual deficits and adding to the total debt.

Not Triple A

Thanks, Harvard.

Story here.