bailout

BOHICA!! I won’t go into a description of the nomenclature on that one just now. Suffice that it means you’ve been had again and again and again. With magnificent disregard for reality the evil empire has struck again and voted itself fifty billion dollars worth of non-existent money.

Obama signs a twenty six billion dollar spending bill, watched by teachers and government workers.

But wait… those presses have to work overtime to print all that money. Government printers with government unions. That’s Obama’s idea of jobs growth. Fifty billion dollars to prop up teachers’ unions and other public sector unions. Doubtless, much of this illicit largesse will work its way into DeMarxist war chests before long.

This is where I tell you that now it’s no longer yours and my money they’re stealing… uh-uh. Your kids‘. That’s whose money and prosperity they’re stealing now. If something isn’t done to stop them, they’ll be into the lives of our grandchildren. So this latest tour de force by the triumvirate of Obama, Pelosi and Reid has most Americans really boiling.

To most of us, this latest government payoff to the unions just points out the abject failure of Obama’s entire policy, starting with the 800+ billion dollar extravaganza that brought us Government Motors and “green jobs”, at the rate of 350,000 dollars cost to the taxpayer per job. What we can say unequivocally is that it has been, and is, a colossal failure.

We now have eighty two days until the election. Tell us about what you’re doing to get yourself and your friends fired up and ready for the election… But then, most of us have been pretty disgusted for some time.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2010

The answer to that question is simple, the US of course. Some months ago I made a comment to Skip that the EU would be lucky to survive another ten years. It now looks like my estimate could have been generous. Greece is all but bankrupt, Portugal and Spain are teetering on the brink, Italy and Ireland are close behind. This week, Britain announced that it forecasts a budget deficit larger than that of Greece. All is not well in the New European Empire.

A Greek Police Officer Hit By A Molotov Cocktail.

In a one-size-fits-all economic arrangement there are bound to be casualties. The cap simply won’t, and can’t, fit some countries. Imagine the US joining an extended form of NAFTA, perhaps called AFTA, which includes all or most countries in Central and South America. To create a common currency with equal value in all member states would be disastrous, not to mention the fact that ‘free movement’ rules would have to be observed. So much for immigration controls!

These free movement rules are very much a one-way street. For example, compare the number of Polish and Latvian emigres in Britain with the number of Brits in former Eastern Bloc countries. During a recession it’s virtually impossible to provide jobs for the unemployed in your own country, without trying to cater for the requirements of ex-pats from another twenty six member states.

There is no doubt that the empire builders in Brussels have this vision of being the prime world superpower, economically at least. There are numerous reasons why this just won’t work. Many European nations are notoriously socialist in their outlook, indeed for some of them communism was the only system they knew until recent times. Socialism and free market principles together cannot work. That is why the current US administration can never work. Any system which is top-heavy with bureaucracy and regulation is doomed to failure. More time, money and resources are used in supervising the machine than in letting it do its stuff.

I hope that what is happening in Europe will be an example to Obama and Congress of how not to run an economy, although it will probably fall on deaf ears. It is a coincidence that Obama’s administration gave the International Monetary Fund another $100 billion recently, while this week it was announced that the IMF is to give $39 billion to Greece. So much for the European economic powerhouse, on top of the $106 billion they are giving from countries in the Euro-zone they have to run to the IMF for a top-up, some of it being American money.

A failed economic system can only shored up for so long, eventually the weight of flawed financial principles, bureaucracy and Euro-socialist ideals will bring the walls crashing down. Then, I wonder, who will they call?

(Editor Dee is in for Skip today)

By Rose Pedenko and Tanya Simon

When the president alludes to his mandate the messages are delivered with the smug satisfaction that he need not explain himself nor defend the mind-boggling amount of taxpayer dollars he is throwing at every problem that comes his way, much like throwing spaghetti against the wall.  But in his case, if it sticks, we’re cooked.

His fan club, apparently so overwhelmed with his rock star “tude,” doggedly cling to the “hope” he promised.  “Hope” and “Change” were, after all, burned into his teleprompter.

What has become as dangerous as a truckload of C‑4 is that hope, by itself, is not always enough.  Those same BHO groupies are “stuck on hope” because they still subsist on the incessant superficial media coverage of President Bush’s financial blunders.

Obama’s followers have yet to understand or accept where their fearless leader has taken Americans in these first 100 days – straight down Thomas Crapper’s throne.  If they persist in their blind adoration, they’ll be enjoying their just desserts a la commode.

Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Paul Craig Roberts, in his March 2008 article entitled The Collapse of American Power, offered this bleak assessment: “…the fact of the matter is that the U.S. is bankrupt.”  That statement was made during the Bush Administration.  What conservative Americans are learning, while liberals continue to savor the Chosen One, is that one trillion dollars of debt has morphed into several trillions, a staggering amount most humans cannot wrap their brain around.  It is turning recovery into a mathematical impossibility.

The “in the tank” media, reports every little Bear market rally as if recovery was at hand.  And whenever Ben Bernanke speaks, his presentation is reminiscent of “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.”  That’s the joke of course, because we all know what happened to E.F. Hutton.

And so goes Wall Street.  Not so very long ago, everyone listened to Alan Greenspan too.  And look where we are now.  “The thrill is gone” as B.B. King said, “free from the spell” of Wall Street economists.

For you recalcitrant liberals, there is the National Bankruptcy Survival Guide, in which Seth Van Brocklin explains the difficulty in quantifying the national debt.  As he states: “Once numbers start getting up into the trillions, they literally become mind-numbing.”

By way of illustration, Van Brocklin explains just how large one trillion dollars actually is:  “If you were able to earn $1 per second continuously, you would accumulate $1 Billion after 33 years.”  But, to make $1 Trillion at the rate of $1 per second, “it would take 33,000 years.”  We’re pretty sure you can now visualize twelve times that amount, which is roughly the national debt under the current Administration.

It’s difficult not to feel and sound morose at times.  The present Administration (as well as the numerous fiscal blunders and catastrophes of previous Administrations) have forced the American People to duck and dodge an unrelenting monetary meteor shower which is hitting us all left, right, and center.  Even the Administration’s indignation over Bernie Madoff seems rather comical when you step back in order to see a bigger picture, that is, the federal government now running the biggest Ponzi scheme in history.  But with a solid majority, the bad guys aren’t even getting a slap on the wrist.

The president rode into office on a wave of popularity with a promise to fix the economic mess he inherited (as we are constantly reminded).  He’s smart, but not that smart.  If he were the brainchild his followers touted he is during those nightmarish months of campaigning, he wouldn’t now be crushing the country with a spending tsunami.  And as the country is crushed, so are our lives, our livelihoods, our dreams and aspirations, and, most tragically, our children’s future.

As elected leader of the U.S., one would either have to be totally unprepared, inexperienced or ignorant to not understand the magnitude of this economic crisis.  A logical conclusion would be that this President is either too ignorant, OR fully understands and is lying to Americans -- perhaps running the economy, and thereby the nation, into the ground to realize a larger ideological agenda in the naïve belief it’s for the greater good.

The saddest part is this: even if conservatives were to reclaim the majority in Congress, slash taxes across the board, break the hold unions have on industry, resurrect manufacturing and purge entitlements to illegal immigrants, those efforts would only be a blip on the radar of history.

While the media doesn’t even try to conceal their bias anymore, they continue to squash the opposition through the denigration of patriotically concerned Americans who are now fighting back to save our Republic.  It is not a pretty picture, and there will be no honor at the end of the day for the media.

This is why the TEA party participant numbers are swelling.  No matter what kind of negative hype the media invents, citizens are on to them and there’s a new wave of optimism about to crush the Left’s favorite milieu – carefully crafted ignorance.

We know for a fact (and readily admit) that there are just as many academically intelligent people on the left as there are on the right. After all, America wasn’t conceived and built by dummies.  We, therefore, cannot understand why logical and common sense answers are being cast aside or rejected entirely—the way a demented fisherman tosses the filets of his catch into the drink and tries to sell us the innards.  Americans won’t be buying your stinking innards much longer.  Looming inflation won’t let them.

Our greatest fear is searching for, but not finding, viable solutions to reverse the trade and industry mess in which we find ourselves. The more research we find out, the more we realize it is becoming impossible to clean up after this disaster.

Americans must find a way to strike a balance between regulation, to protect against greed, but at the same time allow everyone to pursue their dreams unhindered by a parasitic socialist system designed to quash our freedoms.

The TEA party participants are looking for that balance and we will not settle for less.

H/T Tim White

Last night I pointed out that various Democrats were playing one-upsmanship in who could offer the least plausible explaination for the AIG bonus debacle.  

Well, someone from the Democratic senate caucus has broken ranks from the Obamatons about this farce, and has added a new name to the existing participants in the

The Geithner-Dodd Deception Derby

Who in the Administration pressed for the AIG bonuses?FoxNews' Trish Turner offers:Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., all but pointed the finger of blame directly at the "Obama economic team" Wednesday for allegedly stripping a provision from the stimulus package last month that would have slapped a heavy tax on bonuses like the ones doled out at AIG...Asked to whom he spoke with back in February when he was fighting to keep the item, Wyden said, "Secretary Geithner, Larry Summers, and I'll leave it at that." 

OK, Dodd blames "Treasury"  Now Geithner admits he "talked to Dodd".  Funny how this little detail wasn;t mentioned by either gentleman until late this afternoon.  Dodd says he still has confidence in Geithner. Then again he also had confidence in Fannie Mae.

Jeez, if any more people claim not to know what was going on when the Porkulus bill was drafted I'll think this guy works for Obama   

Tonight's's party line seems to be the entire senior management of the Obama adminstration knew about the bonuses, put an amendment in to protect the bonuses, and then a) failed to inform the President and b) acted surprised when the issue blew up like a Roman candle

RRRIGHT!

Well, the President says Geithner is doing "an outstanding job" Then again, while Obama may be the first sitting President on a late night talk show, I doubt he wanted to use the occasion to fire a cabinet officer.  

 Let's just hope this isn;t like the last time a President had to so frequently defend an embattled federal official

The Plot thickens.....

From the Corner:

Did Geithner Lie?   [Greg Pollowitz] 

Time: "Treasury Learned of AIG Bonuses Earlier Than Claimed

and Chris Dodd now fesses up and admits he agreed to the loophole amendment to permit grandfathered bonuses.

Wolf Blitzer said " viewers are confused".  That's only if you believed Dodd when he said yesterday "I had nothing to do with" changing the amendment. I wasn't fooled by Dodd. he's "amended his remarks" before, like on the Countrywide mortgages..

He still refuses to explain who told him to change the amendment --"I don't know their names"

Start with a "G", Chris.

Looks like the White House and Congress are busy in this competition----the bus throwing derby!.

This is the initiial reaction in the press from Dodd's duplicitious debacle

Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) looks like he may be facing a fresh political firestorm.

Dodd just admitted on CNN that he inserted a loophole in the stimulus legislation that allowed million-dollar bonuses to insurance giant AIG to go forward – after previously denying any involvement in writing the controversial provision. .

“We wrote the language in the bill, the deal with bonuses, golden parachutes, excessive executive compensation that was adopted unanimously by the United States Senate in the stimulus bill,” Dodd told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer this afternoon.

“But for that language, there would have been no language to deal with this at all.”

Dodd had previously said that he played no role in writing the controversial language, and was not a part of the conference committee that inserted the language in the bill. As late as today, Dodd’s spokeswoman denied the senator’s involvement.

Only 41% of CT voters considered Dodd "honest and trustworthy" in a recent poll. This isn;t going to make the number go up.

So we have Dodd not telling the truth and Geithner not telling the truth.

Should we start a pool on who's career in Washington ends first?

Trying to keep track of all of Chris Dodd's blunders is like trying to watch the 'Cuse-UConn basketball game every night. It's tiring , time consuming and amazing to behold

Overnight we we treated to the spectacle of the Banking Committee Chairman and the Treasury Secretary throwing each other under the bus over the odious AIG bonuses that somehow were grandfathered in under federal law in the "stimulus" bill.

The Artful Doddger just returned tan rested and ready from a tropical vacation and posted this overnight. 

"The administration blames this all on what they are calling the "Dodd Amendment," the executive compensation amendment to the stimulus bill that included the loophole allowing bonus payments that had already been agreed to prior to February 11. Dodd denies he was the author of that aspect of the provision , but he won't pin it on anyone else, either. 

Dodd's original amendment did not include that exemption, and the Connecticut Senator denied inserting the provision."I can't point a finger at someone who was responsible for putting those dates in," Dodd told Fox. "I can tell you this much, when my language left the senate, it did not include it. When it came back, it did." "

So let's see . The Treasury blames Dodd for writing the clause in the Porkulus bill that protected the greedheads at AIG and then Dodd blames someone else for it, denying his own responsibility.  It's like a Sherlock Holmes mystery; the case of the stimulus amendment that not only did not bark in the night, but slobbered all over the villains.

As 1962 NY Mets manager Casey Stengel said

"Can't anyone here play this game?"

We can't expect a Senate Committee Chairman to keep track of what's in a bill that goes to the President's desk for signature, now can we?

The Senator now vents in outrage . However, the record shows a perpetual state of cluelessness about the AIG issue on Dodd's part which is astonishing in its scope.

Let's consider this exchange from the DC Examiner with Dodd's spokeswoman

Dodd, she said, “was completely unaware of these AIG bonuses,” and it is “categorically false” to suggest Dodd orchestrated the exception to allow the bonuses to be handed out

Maybe Dodd could do what Governor Palin does to stay informed. Hmm, read the paper. I'm sure the Washington Post is delivered to all of the Senator's multiple addresses.

AIG disclosed its retention-payment program more than a year ago, and the amount of the bonuses -- more than $400 million for Financial Products alone -- had been widely reported.

So Dodd's story is as the Chairman of the Banking Committee he was "completely unaware" of hundreds of millions of dollars of bonuses at a firm receiving $170 billion in federal bailout money---when the bonuses were were reported in the press a year ago. Yep. That's his story. Got a new bridge to sell, I see.   And guess what, the folks at AIG (Allies In Greed?) were asked by Geithner to decline the bonuses, but told him to pound sand. 

AIG’s new management team last year proposed that its employees give up their “retention” bonuses, or at least reduce them. The response from the 370 or so employees set to rake in $450 million in bonuses through 2010?Take a hike.  “We suggested that early on, but there are people who feel this money was due them,” a source close to the company told The Hill.  It apparently didn’t matter that taxpayers have provided $170 billion and counting to bail out AIG. “Quants,” the people who put together the computer-programmed algorithms behind the complicated hedges and trades that brought down the company, pushed back hard against any notion they should sacrifice their bonuses, the source said.   

Well, why should they. Chris Dodd was the Number #1 recipient of AIG cash through the years, and maybe he had their back. And now blames it on his own incompetence. This is what it has come to. When someone accuses Chris Dodd of being evil, his defense is he is only stupid.   It's far past time to shut down Bailout Nation. And its far past time to remove the utter incompetents "managing" the Treasury Department, the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee.

 ====UPDATE====

Now the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Tim Geithner claims he didn;t know about these bonuses, either

An administration official said that despite having engineered the first two rescues of AIG while president of the New York Fed, Mr. Geithner didn't know about the pending bonuses until last week.

So much for the Democrats being the party of intellectuals. Fire them all.

My senior senator is becoming quite the object of derision these days.  Caribou Barbie is so last year, this year's comedian's pin cushion is tunring into Chris Dodd. 

Here's Scappleface. Sadly, very few words were changed from Dodd'a actual press releases---and the campaign finance numbers are accurate

Obama, Dodd Outraged at AIG Campaign Cash

(2009-03-17) — As the furor over AIG executive bonuses threatened to bring the current economic recovery to a halt, President Barack Obama and Sen. Chris Dodd today threw fuel on the fire, announcing their “fierce outrage” upon hearing that the insurance giant had given each of their campaigns more than $100,000 last year.

“While AIG was collapsing, and her executives crawling to DC with hat in hand,” said Sen. Dodd, D-CT, “my campaign, and then-Senator Obama’s were getting what can only be termed influence bonuses from the same firm. Naturally, I knew nothing about this, and I’m now seething with anger at the injustice.”

President Obama and Sen. Dodd were the two largest recipients of campaign contributions from the beleaguered company, and the only politicians to garner six-figure amounts from AIG in 2008 — $103,100 for Sen. Dodd and $100,332 for presidential candidate Obama.

AIG, which has received $170 billion in taxpayer cash from the federal government since September, gave more than $585,000 to Congressional and presidential candidates last year, favoring Democrats 3-to-1 over Republicans.

In unrelated news, Sen. Dodd proposed legislation requiring AIG political gifts to be returned to the U.S. Treasury, “exempting only those campaign contributions made before November 4, 2008.”

The senator’s office immediately issued a statement declaring that Sen. Dodd was not aware that he had proposed such the exemption.

Powerline points out what has become common knowledge during the course of the day; that Senator Dodd's amendment intending to restrict corporate compensation of bailout recipients--tacked onto the Porkulus bill--grandfathered in the obscene bonuses being paid to the least competent executives in American business history.  

Not to be outdone in festive spirit, the NRSC has a new web ad up poking fun at Dodd and his "luck" in obtaining resort homes and sweetheart mortgages. But was'nt there a better Irish accent to be found in voiceoverworld?. Please 

If this keeps up, maybe Chris Dodd and Tim Geithner can do a lounge act on the Vegas strip, since they seem to be such funny guys of late.

From CNN:

"It's time for this waste and inefficiency to end. It's time for a government that only invests in what works," Obama said.

The president said the country must "turn the tide on an era of fiscal irresponsibility so that we can sustain our recovery, enhance accountability and avoid leaving our children a mountain of debt."

Question Number One: If "it's time for a government that only invests in what works," why does it look like AIG may be receiving yet another "investment"  of taxpayer dollars because the latest bailouts haven't worked?

Question Number Two: If we are truly going to "turn the tide on an era of fiscal irresponsibility," on what did we just spend $11.6 trillion of our children's and grandchildren's inheritance?

Question Number Three: If "it's time for this waste and inefficiency to end," why wasn't it time for waste to end as late as yesterday?

Question Number Four: If we are to "avoid leaving our children a mountain of debt," why aren't we seeing the "change" we were promised?  The only change I see is an accelerated rate of fiscal irresponsibility which may ultimately lead to financial collapse.

For those silly ones who regard government as a moral institution, an article in the business section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch 1 March 2009 may provide some problem in reconciling their delusion with reality. The article “Missouri could win in shell game” describes the Missouri legislators as a pack of con artists engaging in shell games with Federal bailout money. Republicans and Democrats are engaged in activities, which in this land of two laws, one for the politicians and another for the citizen, would be invite a visit from the FBI if the average guy tried the same con. But be not concerned. Senator Victor “Bagman” Callahan thinks there is “…enough to go around for everyone.” By everyone, of course, he means the politically connected, not the fools who actually pay taxes. Thank goodness there is $4 billion for the gang to split up. Imagine if it had only been $3 billion. Morals are cheap in the Missouri legislature but not that cheap. Missouri legislators, who are busy trying to con the con artists, seem to have let their mathematics slip. Missouri is getting $4 billion out of an $800 billion “beggar the children bill.” That is only 0.05% of the loot. But Missouri has almost 6 million folks out of an estimated 300 million Americans or almost 2% of the population. Shouldn’t there be a more equitable distribution of the swag?      The article suggests the felonies will result in a win-win for “conservative” Republicans and Democrats. What the benefit is to the taxpayer is left to the imagination. Don’t pay taxes, don’t worry. Running the government printing presses will set the classic conditions for inflation, too many dollars chasing too few goods. The “stimulus” bill will only stimulate production of taxes and money to cover the trillion dollar debts “as far as the eye can see.” Fortunately the naïve innocents of the Missouri legislature have consultants from the National Conference of State legislators to advise them on the running of scams. “It’s all a matter of appearance,” stated one consultant who had the wit unlike the Missouri legislators to go nameless – just in case someone decides to make a Federal case out of a little graft, corruption and misappropriation of Federal funds. After all didn’t Obama say if the bailout money was misused he would see that the miscreants would suffer? Perhaps the legislators are expected that Obama to expire just like so many others.   Senator Callahan shows he knows as much about economics as he does about morality. “I’m happy we’re not in South Carolina. And I hope, by the way, we get some of that moron’s money.” The senator, who is a living example of why Mark Twain thought idiot and politician were redundant terms, obviously believes pixies bring the money to Washington and unicorns bring it to the wise folk for their enjoyment. It is not “that moron’s money”; it is not Callahan’s money; it is not even Obama’s money. It is the taxpayers’ money. Jay Nixon, who apparently believes that sins of the father should be visited upon the son, has said apparently with satisfaction our children and grandchildren will be paying off the Obama debts. But that is the hope of these politicians – that the bill comes due long after they have left office. At the end of the day Missouri voters will wish their politicians had the sense that South Carolina’s does.

This is a repost of an entry I wrote for QandO a few days ago. I'm reposting it here, for a different audience to get a look at it.

It is a lengthy think piece, and it may be completely off base. But the fundamental point I think we should be looking at is this: We are, quite possibly, watching the collapse of the Post-WWII global financial system. The first collapse in the 1930s saw off the Gold Standard. This collapse will probably see off the concept of government-backed fiat currencies.

So, what happens then?