America Lost $10 Billion On The GM Bailout As 2014 Recalls Surge Another 1.3 Million To 6.1 Million

The driver claimed his power steering locked up after hitting a pothole.

The GM recall debacle of 2014 is developing so fast it's hard to keep up.

On Saturday the New York Times announced the weekend's recalls had brought the total in 2014 to 4.8 million, but here we are on Tuesday and GM is adding another 1.3 million to that, bringing the total so far to 6.1 million, I think.

If ever a company deserved to go bankrupt and sold off to the highest bidders, GM is it. The crap it's churned out in the last decade is amazing.

Don't forget it was Obama who insisted on preserving all those union jobs you're so proud of as the steering goes out on your Malibu on the way to buy groceries with your EBT card.

Media Shills Claim Surging Support For ObamaCare Even As Obama Disapproval Surges To New Highs

Now why would Obama set a new record for disapproval if his signature law is so popular?

On the last day for open enrollment in ObamaCare yesterday, the news script on the radio at the top and bottom of each hour was the same: support for ObamaCare is surging, when the fact is that overall it isn't.

Those reports were based on the headline story from WaPo here: "Democrats’ support for Obamacare surges", conveniently leaving out "Democrats'".

As with most infractions against the truth in our society, we major in sins of omission and minor in sins of commission, unless you're the Obama regime, which got a double major. Not only is it more secretive and conniving than Tricky Dick ever dreamed of being, it sends the leader of the free world off to Brazil after sending in the troops to Libya, leaving hapless Dick Lugar trying to find someone to complain to at The White House about not consulting with the Congress first.

The WaPo/ABC poll showing surging support for ObamaCare among supporters (!) started on March 26th, the same day WaPo here headlined "Poll: Obama’s disapproval rating hits a new high", surmising it's due to foreign policy:

Negative views of President Obama have hit a new high, according to a poll. The AP-GfK poll shows 59 percent of Americans now disapprove of Obama -- a point higher than the previous high set in December. Obama's approval rating stands at 41 percent. That's the second-lowest figure the poll has ever found. Part of Obama's problems appear to be related to foreign policy: The poll shows Americans disapprove of his handling of the situation in Ukraine 57-40 and disapprove of how he handles relationships with other countries 58-40.

Foreign policy? Really? Americans never give foreign policy much thought, and even less than they have given to signing up for ObamaCare. Sign-ups supposedly surged yesterday in a rush to beat the deadline, crashing the system, even though people have had six months to sign up and the regime has had three years to build a website that works. Where have they all been living during the PR blitz, under a rock?

Of course, WaPo doesn't tell you about the other "part" of the reason for Obama's record level of disapproval.

But they don't have to. You already know what it is, and so do they, which is why they didn't mention it.

Obama Befriends Illegals: ICE Arrests Plummet 40% Since 2011, 870,000 Deportable Aliens Remain Deep In Country

. . . and these Republicans support him.

The Daily Caller reports here:

Since June 2011, when the first of the Obama administration’s “prosecutorial discretion” policies were put in place, the [Center for Immigration Studies] report adds, interior ICE arrests have declined by 40 percent. ... ICE reports that there are more than 870,000 aliens on its docket who have been ordered removed, but who remain in defiance of the law.

To paraphrase Aristotle, citizens have the back of the king but a tyrant relies on foreigners for protection.

Maryland Junks Its Failed Online Healthcare Exchange, Now If Only The Feds Would Do The Same

Story here:

Maryland is not alone in having deep-seated problems with its health marketplace. Technical issues also have plagued Oregon, Minnesota and Hawaii. But Maryland will be the first to walk away from its site, a particular embarrassment for Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D), who was placed in charged of implementing health-care reform in Maryland by Gov. Martin O’Malley (D).

Bailed-Out GM Auto Recall Surges To 4.8 Million In 2014 From 0.76 Million In 2013

Top 20 vehicles by sales volume 2013

There's your everyday, run-of-the-mill, garden-variety recall from going automobile companies like Toyota and Honda who recall vehicles and still make a profit, and then there's your government-subsidized, taxpayer-funded, otherwise bankrupt recall like one from General Motors or Chrysler.

Which would you prefer?

The New York Times reports here:

General Motors announced on Saturday morning that it was recalling 490,000 trucks and 172,000 compact cars, meaning the automaker has now recalled about 4.8 million vehicles in the United States during the first three months of the year. That is about six times the number of vehicles it recalled in all of 2013. ... G.M. recalled about 758,000 vehicles in the United States in 2013, ninth among automakers, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Toyota was first, with about 5.3 million vehicles, followed by Chrysler with 4.7 million and Honda with almost 2.8 million.

Taxpayers lost $10 billion on the GM bailout, $1.3 billion on the Chrysler bailout.

Lost For Three Weeks, Malaysian Flight 370 May Join 83 Other Disappearances Since WWII

Bloomberg has a good graphic here of aircraft which have simply vanished in the post-war, about 1.2 per year on average.

Wikipedia now has quite a large page devoted to Flight 370, here.

In addition Wikipedia devotes pages to 33 individual lost aircraft over the years, listed here.

Memo To Larry Kudlow And Other Defenders Of GM/TARP Bailouts: Free Market Capitalism This Is Not

General Motors, bailed out at a loss to the American people in 2009, has now had to recall approximately 2.6 million vehicles according to this story, many built well after the fact:

General Motors is boosting by 971,000 the number of small cars being recalled worldwide for a defective ignition switch, saying cars from the model years 2008-2011 may have gotten the part as a replacement.

The latest move brings the total number of cars affected to 2.6 million. The questionable handling of the problem, including GM's admission that it knew the switches were possibly defective as early as 2001, has embarrassed the nation's largest automaker. The recalls — which are under investigation by Congress and federal regulators — have overshadowed the improved quality of GM's newer cars.

---------------------------------------------------

Improved quality? You mean like the Volt which catches on fire? The Cruze whose steering wheel comes off? If this were a free market capitalist economy, Larry, GM would have been allowed to fail instead of being allowed to keep on selling this garbage to the American people.

GM should have gone through bankruptcy instead of being bailed out. It might have been reorganized as a result, but not as a worthless union shop. Otherwise its assets would have been acquired by the highest bidders who know how to build cars. Unfortunately GM's still here making crummy cars with shitty parts, some of which could kill more people, all thanks to the taxpayers, some of whom are still dumb enough to keep buying the things. Just Google the forums and read the horror stories. I'll bet they're the same ones who don't know Monday is the deadline to sign up for ObamaCare.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: no more GM cars for me, ever. The bailout was a bridge too far.

Ditto Chrysler.

Larry Kudlow's Kudlow Report On CNBC Ended Tonight

CNBC posted the farewells here on the day ending the television show's 5-year run, which wraps up 25 years with the network so far.

Kudlow remains affiliated with CNBC in a senior capacity and will appear daytimes on occasion instead of nightly at 7:00 PM.

Kudlow, 66 and an avid tennis player,  has had back problems requiring surgery in the last year, according to his own remarks on his 10:00 AM Saturday radio program on WABCradio.com, where you can download podcasts.

Ending his television program was reportedly his own choice and was made in the interest of slowing down.

Others have pointed to the show's very poor ratings as the reason for ending it, but the show has an enthusiastic and devoted, if not large, following.

The Reaganite supply-sider is known for his belief in free market capitalism as the best path to prosperity, as well as for strong dollar policy, growth oriented economic policies and a militarily strong America which welcomes and befriends others wishing to be free.

Kudlow credits his conversion to Roman Catholicism with helping him overcome a drug and alcohol addiction.

Incompetent Boob

He can't even make a gimme

WaPo's Chris Cillizza Doesn't Realize The Voters Already Decided Obama Was Incompetent Way Back In 2010

Yeah, Obama was reelected in 2012 and retained the Senate twice, but the House went Republican in 2010 and stayed that way in 2012 despite all the help the press has given Democrats, which is why they all remain so damn angry.

The only reason the House and Senate flipped Democrat under George Bush was the full court press of the press against him, which in the case of Obama has been completely silent on his Hurricane Sandy debacle, just as it has been on the worst GDP record in the post-war . . . under Obama. Scores of other bungles and idles also apply, from the Macondo Blowout to the Fruit of Kaboom Bomber to the Tsarnaevs to JOBS, and most recently Obama's signature debacle, the rollout of healthcare.gov. In every case the response is the same, learned from the Lutheran catechism: put the best construction on everything under Obama.

By comparison the economy and the country was a paradise under Bush, including the successful implementation of the awful Medicare Part D. GDP was 1.7 times better than it is under Obama, and will be even better than that by the time Obama is through. At least George Bush's liberalism was competent.

Cillizza's laughable commentary here.

Obama Is Going To Finish His Presidency With The Worst GDP Performance Since World War Two

The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports here today its third and final estimate of Q4 2013 GDP at 2.6%, up from 2.4% in the second estimate. 2013 overall remains stuck at 1.9%, another paltry sum in the fourth full year after the so-called Great Recession ended.

Obama's average report for the five years 2009-2013 is 1.24%, the worst in the post-war.

Bush's average report at 2.13%, the worst up to the time, was 1.7 times better than Obama's to date.

Even if Obama racks up 3.5% real GDP growth in each of the next three years 2014, 2015 and 2016, he'll still end up with a worse record than Bush and the worst record since World War Two.

What a complete and utter loser.

High On Dope Again, Obama Calls Russia A "Regional Power" Despite Its Nuclear Stockpile Of 8500 Warheads And Hundreds Of ICBMs

A country which can obliterate another nearly 10,000 miles away is not a regional but a strategic power, but as we all know by now, Obama is a little challenged in the spatial reasoning and math departments, which, unfortunately, could get us all killed. 

Obama today, apparently after a few puffs on a doobie, as quoted by WaPo here:

“Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors — not out of strength but out of weakness,” Obama said in response to a reporter’s question about whether his 2012 election opponent, Mitt Romney, was right to characterize Russia as America’s biggest geopolitical foe.

Unreliable Conservatism: Judge Bernard A. Friedman, Reagan Appointee, Overturns Michigan's Marriage Amendment

As a Democrat in recovery, Ronald Reagan proved more than once that his journey to conservatism was incomplete.

On the social issues he was full of soothing words to keep the religious rubes in the Republican line at the voting booth, but appointed to the courts people confused by liberalism (the Reagan Democrats), such as Judge Bernard A. Friedman in Michigan, who openly encouraged in 2012 lesbian plaintiffs to challenge Michigan's constitutional amendment of 2004 defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Appointed as Friedman was in 1988, conservatives may wish to console themselves with the thought that Ronald Reagan was already senile in his last year in office and was co-opted by the George H. W. Bush faction. You remember him . . . the same guy who happily signed his name recently as a witness to a lesbian "wedding" in his own dotage.  

And here we are in 2014 and the same judge Friedman has struck down what was passed by the voters with 59% approval just 10 years ago:

In his 31-page written opinion, Friedman said the constitutional amendment known as the Michigan Marriage Act, passed by 2.7 million state voters in 2004, was unconstitutional because it denied gays and lesbians equal protection under the law.

When conservatism admits liberal ideas into its universe, a queer thing known as libertarianism, the rule of law goes out the window because the rules go out the window. Societies form around consensus (culture springs from the cult), and when the consensus breaks down so does the concept of society. Order gives way to chaos, whether imposed from without by judicial usurpation or by voter apathy, acquiescence or decadence.

If capturing the heights through elections has shown us anything it is that sometimes leaders can persuade the people from the ramparts, but unless the laws spring forth organically from the beliefs of the people the future of the idea of one nation remains in doubt.

As many have pointed out, marrying your dog, multiple men or women, a herd of sheep, or minor boys and girls cannot be far behind unless Nature and Nature's God once again capture our imaginations.

"Our outlook continues to be more favorable for Treasuries going forward."

So says Market Anthropology's Erik Swarts, here.

"[O]ur current estimates of prospective S&P 500 total returns are negative on every horizon shorter than about 7 years," says John Hussman, here.

Foreclosure's Ground Zero Finally Shifts To New Jersey And New York After Region Being In "Suspended Animation" For Years

So reports Bloomberg here in late February:

The epicenter of the U.S. foreclosure crisis is shifting to New Jersey and New York, threatening a housing rebound in one of the country’s most densely populated areas. ...

The number of New York and New Jersey homeowners losing their houses reached a three-year high in 2013. Banks in these states have been slowly working through a backlog of delinquent loans that enabled borrowers to skip mortgage payments for years. ...

“It is really a delayed reaction in New Jersey and New York,” said Michael Fratantoni, chief economist for the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington. “Loans that were made pre-crisis have been in this state of suspended animation for a number of years. And now, we are beginning to see the pace of resolution pick up.”

Keith Jurow has been warning about this since at least early 2013.

All But One Big Bank Would Fail Real Stress Tests, Which Means In An Actual Crisis It's 2008 All Over Again

So says Bloomberg View here, naming Wells Fargo as the only one which would pass:

The results aren’t pretty. Using a start date of Sept. 30, 2013, the same as that of the Fed's latest round of stress tests, the NYU model gives only one of the six largest U.S. banks -- Wells Fargo & Co., Inc. -- a passing grade. The other five -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley -- would have a combined capital shortfall of more than $300 billion. That's not much less than they needed to get themselves out of the last crisis.

China Ups The Ante In The Race For Thorium Reactors

The earth is loaded with thorium, but so is the moon.

The South China Morning Post reports here:

A team of scientists in Shanghai had originally been given 25 years to try to develop the world's first nuclear plant using the radioactive element thorium as fuel rather than uranium, but they have now been told they have 10, the researchers said. ... 

Professor Li, director of the project's molten salt chemistry and engineering technology division, said the smog crisis had provided huge impetus for their research. ...

Western countries such as the United States have experimented with thorium reactors but gave up on the technology because of the engineering difficulties.

Analysts have also suggested the US lost interest in thorium as a fuel for reactors because uranium was a more suitable material to produce nuclear weapons.

Interest, however, has been revived in recent years and research projects have been established in several countries, including the United States, France and Japan.

"This is definitely a race," said Li. China "faces fierce competition from overseas and to get there first will not be an easy task", he said.

h/t Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

The Federal Reserve Couldn't Hit A Bull In The Ass With A Sack Of Peaches, Let Alone Target The Inflation Rate

The all items CPI had climbed to 219.016 on July 1, 2008 and didn't surpass that level again until October 1, 2010 at 219.024. The deflationary gale of the Great Recession blew for 27 months.

The collapse in prices in the five months from July 2008 through November 2008 was 3.48%, after rising in 2007 by 4.29%, a spread of 7.77 points.

So much for inflation targeting by the Federal Reserve, which couldn't hit a bull in the ass with a sack of peaches.

In 2012 and 2013, despite explicitly targeting the rate at 2%, the Fed could only come up with 1.6% and 1.56% respectively, suggesting that deflationary winds remain a problem.

Bonds Beat Both Stocks And Cash For The Last 15 Years 1999-2014

The return from cash in the Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund has been 2.3% per year for the last 15 years, according to Morningstar. Note that the return over the last one, three and five years of that period has been effectively zero, which is what you get also from gold at all times and in all places . . . plus the shine.

The return from stocks in the Vanguard S&P500 Index Fund has been 4.2% per year for the last 15 years, according to Morningstar. Note that the one, three and five year returns have been three to five times the 15 year return. The S&P500 is currently very richly valued, and in real terms its level is about 7.1% off its all time high in August 2000.

The return from bonds in the Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund has been 5.15% per year for the last 15 years, according to Morningstar. At the current NAV of 10.71, the price of the fund is richly valued, about 2% above what looks like the historical high end of normal at around 10.50 per share.

Your 15 Year Real Return From The S&P500: Just 2% Per Year 1999-2014

The inflation-adjusted return from an investment in the S&P500 from January 1999 to January 2014 is just 2% per year.

At that rate it takes 35 years to double your fortune in real terms.

Calculate your return here.