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DEL.ICIO.USStimulus road rocky, reckless
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With good reason, Gov. Sonny Perdue and Georgia legislators are wary of the money dump coming from Washington.
Other Georgians should be wary, too.
It’s an invitation to bloated budgets, to expanded social spending, to funding for projects that are marginally useful and, ultimately, to fiscal recklessness.
When the Senate whittled lightly at the so-called State Fiscal Stabilization Fund — a bailout to the irresponsible — U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, the Democratic chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, warned that local communities would be hurt. “To get any Republicans at all,” he said, “you had to adopt a cut that’s going to mean policemen and firemen are going to be laid off.”
When, pray tell, did policemen and firemen in Atlanta or Cobb County become an obligation of taxpayers in Sioux Falls? And when did it become an obligation of taxpayers in Cobb County, who demand and get responsible stewardship from Commission Chairman Sam Olens and other elected officials, to subsidize the spend-thrift actions of those in Atlanta who give excessively generous pensions to public safety officers because they choose to spend the raise money elsewhere?
But that money, dangled through the Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, program, isn’t even limited to high-crime areas. Half of the $8 billion will go to communities of fewer than 150,000, meaning two things: One is that smaller communities are tempted to either staff up beyond what local officials would ordinarily think appropriate. The other is that the money goes to areas with no real crime problem.
In either case, it’s Washington dumping money that federalizes a local concern, money that ramps up the public payroll without creating any private-sector jobs, all in the name of stimulus.
Worse, it puts temptation money and reality avoidance money on the table for politicians who, by virtue of their job description, have no spending discipline.
To states like Georgia that have been reasonably and for the most part responsibly managed, this is a nightmare in the making. To get the money to send south, Congress has to print it or borrow it from the unborn. It’s paid off either with devalued currency or with the future quality of life of the unborn.
Georgia has a temporary revenue problem caused by the downturn. But it also has a rainy-day fund established for emergencies and a triple-A credit rating. At worst, it’ll determine that some programs are less worthy than others and whack their funding.
Or, it’ll look and decide that everything’s essential and furthermore new social spending is warranted for a statewide trauma care network, and legislators will raise taxes.
In either case, a periodically necessary and healthy debate is launched about priorities. What’s important, what’s not.
The alleged stimulus would have been less undesirable if the money had simply been divided up and handed over to state governments. Georgia then could have poured it into transportation or trauma or indigent defense or something else deemed to be a state and local priority. No, it’s program targeted. The $87 billion in proposed new spending on Medicaid, for example, gives states a two-year waiver on the 20 percent match. There’s no promise the feds will provide the money beyond that, nor is the argument here that they should. What will happen, though, is that the Medicaid match will be diverted to other spending, pushing off the need to face the budget problems.
Every dollar that comes into this state via the phony economic stimulus plan should be returned to state and local taxpayers, dollar for dollar.
Otherwise, it’s debt the locals will be repaying on their federal returns to buy more government to be financed with their state and local taxes.
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Comments
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 8:07 AM | Link to this
Good morning all. Jim’s excellent essay accurately catalogues the core sin of leftist diktat, the uneconomic “micromanagement” that inevitably accompanies Federal redistribution of taxpayer money. If our Washington overlords really believed their Keynesian nonsense, the state grants would be a true “revenue sharing” with no strings attached. Rather, the Washington overlords intend to “control,” even if that mandates wasteful use of funds. The governments in the “rust belt” states are well-trained, like Pavlov’s dog, and jump when the bell rings. If Guv. Sonny and/or any other non-Federal entities allow Federal monies to lapse for lack of use, they won’t get a word of criticism from me. The criticism is more reasonably directed at the dictators.
A significant flaw in the morning essay – it is a “stimulus” plan, not a stimulus plan. And I would have used “fraudulent” rather than “phony” but that is a mere matter of preference. For our leftist friends, who are otherwise unable to distinguish “fraud” from “honest business practices,” fraud is “a false representation of a matter of fact—whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed—that deceives and is intended to deceive another so that the individual will act upon it to her or his legal injury.” I saw a pointed analysis of the “stimulus” this morning, “It’s being sold as an emergency stimulus to deal with an immediate problem — the economic downturn — despite being more like a welfare-state wish-list festooned with fiscal nonsense. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid touts a whopping 58% of the bill as job-creating. No doubt that number is inflated. But even so, what’s the argument for the other 42%?…Principled liberals defend the bill while conceding that roughly half the discretionary “emergency” spending won’t even start until two years from now.” President Obama is to “economic stimulus” what ARod is to “body chemistry integrity.”
Perhaps the Washington Post online headline accurately represents President Obama’s intentions, and his candid acknowledgement of the likely consequences of his program: “Obama Says Economic Crisis Comes First - President Tells Nation Stimulus Plan Must Pass, With or Without GOP Support.” As an honest conservative I am constrained to admit that I agree the “stimulus” plan will turn today’s “economic distress” into an “economic crisis.”
But to end with a positive note, the Obama administration is keeping in place most of the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism practices, and is even defending same in court. For those of us who feared the consequences of a government that would tolerate private suits to punish companies for complying with government requests, the fears appear to have been misplaced. Such activities are “illegal” only when engaged by republicans.
By One Voice
February 10, 2009 8:16 AM | Link to this
Ragnar,
I find it telling that you take your username from an Ayn Rand novel, an author who has been universally dismissed as an intellectual lightweight by the left and the right (William F. Buckley), and who is not taken seriously by either scholars of literature or of philosophy. She wrote from a perspective of psychology and philosophy but was woefully undereducated in both areas, having less education than a modern day bachelor’s degree. So, your idol is someone who spewed volumes about topics she had little knowledge of and whose education didn’t support her ideological bent. Very fitting.
By GOP Big Bucks
February 10, 2009 8:21 AM | Link to this
Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein, writing Monday in The Financial Times, faulted the financial industry for what he said were multi-faceted failures of risk management in the period before the current financial crisis, and also commented on the limits of self-regulation and how executive pay should be structured.
By Peanut Man
February 10, 2009 8:23 AM | Link to this
How much money did Saxby Chambliss get from Peanut Corporation of America? What did they get for their money?
By Glenn
February 10, 2009 8:24 AM | Link to this
Good morning, Mr. Wooten, and Ragnar and the rest of you riff-raff,
I happen to believe that Cobb County could do with a community policing program, but more to the point: thank you, Jim Wooten, for introducing to this “stimulus” discussion the issue of federalization, as distinguished over against its enemy, federalism, or governmental devolution. This “package” (as in, “take dis effin’ package!”) IS federalization.
By Money Well Spent
February 10, 2009 8:27 AM | Link to this
Wall street lawyers, investment bankers, CEOs and media executives often used corporate credit cards to pay for $2,000 an hour prostitutes, according to the madam who ran one of New York’s biggest and most expensive escort services until it was busted last year.
Brian Ross reports on the woman speaking out about the business of pleasure.
But prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office chose not to pursue any of the corporate titans, says Kristin Davis, who pleaded guilty last year to charges of running a prostitution business that used more than a hundred women.
“They showed no interest,” said Davis in an interview for broadcast Friday on the ABC News program 20/20.
“Some of these guys, I was invoicing on corporate credit cards,” she said. “I was writing up monthly bills for computer consulting, construction expenses, all of these things, I was invoicing them monthly so they could get it by their accountants,” Davis said.
A spokesperson said district attorney Robert Morgenthau had “no comment” on the handling of Davis’ case or her allegations.
Davis provided ABC News with a print-out of her computerized client list, the same one she says that was offered to the district attorney.
The document shows Davis kept meticulous notes about her clients, their credit card numbers and mobile phone numbers.
Click here to see more photos.
The Clients Among the names ABC News was able to confirm on the list:
a vice president of NBC Universal
While Their Johns Prosper the part owner of a Major League Baseball team who “loves Kelsey”
the CEO of one of the country’s largest private equity firms who met “Cameron” at the Peninsula Hotel
a major New York real estate developer who, according to the list, “will come to the door wearing women’s panties,” and who spent nearly $100,000
a partner at the Wall Street law firm Cravath Swaine Moore “looking for a party girl to come fully equipped” and spent a total of $20,000
an investment banker from Lehman Brothers who saw “Kelsey and Keely together” and later saw “Aria and Skyler at the same time”
an investment banker at JP Morgan Securities who “loves Brooke” and spent $41,600
an investment banker at Goldman Sachs who “only wanted all-American girls” and spent $27,000
a managing director from Merrill Lynch who saw “Lana” using the name “Nataly”
a managing director from Deutsche Bank “who called about seeing Nataly again”
A spokesman for JP Morgan said the company is looking into the matter
By Goober
February 10, 2009 8:28 AM | Link to this
There won’t be any unborn to borrow from because they will be just that—unborn. We won’t be able to afford children. If there is a kiddie pool to borrow from it will just be filled with statistics.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 8:31 AM | Link to this
Funniest quote of the day, Harvard economist Robert Barro being interviewed on the stimulus bill by the Atlantic:
Barro: This is probably the worst bill that has been put forward since the 1930s. I don’t know what to say. I mean it’s wasting a tremendous amount of money. It has some simplistic theory that I don’t think will work, so I don’t think the expenditure stuff is going to have the intended effect. I don’t think it will expand the economy. And the tax cutting isn’t really geared toward incentives. It’s not really geared to lowering tax rates; it’s more along the lines of throwing money at people. On both sides I think it’s garbage. So in terms of balance between the two it doesn’t really matter that much.
Atlantic: Well, presumably Larry Summers is not an idiot.
Barro: [laughs] That is another conversation. I have known him for 25 years, and I have opinions about that.
Atlantic: Well, presumably Christina Romer is not an idiot if you’re …
Barro: They’ve brought in some reasonable people in terms of economic advisers. I don’t know what impact they’re having, and I suppose they have different views on Keynesian macroeconomics than I have. But I’m giving you my opinion about it.
By Peadawg
February 10, 2009 8:33 AM | Link to this
Didn’t the Democrats get mad at Republicans for using scare tactics during the election? What is Obama doing by saying there will be a catastrophe if this “stimulus” package doesn’t pass?
Democrats = The New Hypocratic Party
By Thinkwell
February 10, 2009 8:38 AM | Link to this
Obama stunned the press conference by answering questions and forming compelling arguments for his package. I loved the “inaugural” moment with Helen, where the president showed affection and respect, yet sternly disciplined her wild goose chase question with one of the best presidential brush offs I’ve seen since Ike dissed Nixon. This man is a president.
No brainer: Buy. This is the bottom. The package is certain. Wall street only hinted how much it loves the package.
And Obama is no lame duck. he’s strong and vital and filled with potential. I loved his exit. did you see that? Thank you! Wave. Amscray.
That’s exactly how I got off stage last night at the open mic. I did okay, they loved the bits I wrote over the weekend. They didn’t seem to know them, so I guess nobody reads the blogs, except the trolls, just like any chat room..
Ragmop, after reading your stimulus definition, just say porkulus, okay? (whew)
What is it with you? You dont have the communicative skills to impart any germane spin about the stimulus package. You have to be able to tell us why any package is necessary first. You cant do that because you never took economics or accounting.
Accounting is the real reason the banks failed. The accountant is the town crier for biz. Yes, imagine a town crier who was told not to call it a crusade anymore, or even a war, but rather a “meditative religious retreat” for archers. Well, imagine when the archers show up and their surrounded by a hoard of moslem light cavalry……..now there’s a crisis of trust. That’s what happened to the global credit market. Our derivatives were massacred by Moslem light cavalry.
Accounting is considered an art. That means that I can contrive a financial statement that shows any possible investor that a business is sound whether it is or not. Hey! I’m picasso.
Ragmop: if U want 2 write better, then force yourself to stay within the 25 words or less limit. Within six months, you’ll rock. Trust me. I’m am your blogfather. take my hand and my advice. Join the spartan words force….
Use less words, Luke Ragmopper.
By Money Well Spent
February 10, 2009 8:39 AM | Link to this
The founders of a New York hedge fund at the center of the Bernard Madoff scandal have begun selling assets as their firm faces massive losses and a slew of lawsuits, sources told The Post.
Walter Noel and Jeffrey Tucker, co-founders of Fairfield Greenwich Group, a New York hedge fund that lost a whopping $7.5 billion to Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme, have been forced to curb their lavish lifestyles amid mounting doubts that the firm can survive the firestorm.
The pair recently dumped a shared interest in a Cessna 560XL private jet, according to a person close to the firm.
The duo purchased a one-sixteenth share in the jet in late 2006, giving them between 25 and 50 hours of use a year. Experts estimate the sale saves them a portion of the plane’s $200,000 annual maintenance fees, plus $2,000 for each hour of use.
Meanwhile, Tucker - the lesser-known founder of the Madoff-scarred firm - is looking to sell his posh horse farm in Schuylerville, NY, near Saratoga Springs, according to several people familiar with the matter.
“He hasn’t made a decision about price or firm,” said Tom Roohan, head of Roohan Realty, a prominent Saratoga Springs real-estate agency that’s vying for the job.
Sources say Tucker, who’s chairman of horseracing group Empire Racing, is leaning toward listing the grand estate with the upscale real-estate arm of Sotheby’s.
Tucker, a prominent member of the elite horseracing community, has pumped millions into modernizing the farm, which he bought in 2004. It boasts a 210-foot indoor arena, covered horse paddocks and several homes. It’s widely considered to be the most impressive horse farm in the area, which is known for its horse trade, several real-estate agents said.
The asset sales come amid a torrent of lawsuits by investors who say Fairfield Greenwich got hefty fees to select and monitor investments made on behalf of its clients only to miss several red flags that might have uncovered Madoff’s alleged shenanigans.
Some hedge-fund experts predict the firm, which Noel and Tucker founded in the 1980s, won’t likely survive the Madoff scandal.
Thomas Mulligan, a spokesman for Fairfield Greenwich declined to comment. Tucker, who years ago worked as an SEC lawyer, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Even Tucker’s wife Melanie, an avid bridge player, has had to tighten her belt.
Sources told The Post that as a member of the Midtown bridge club Honors, Melanie Tucker was accustomed to using her husband’s jet to fly herself, and the bridge pros hired to play on her team, to bridge tournaments across the country.
She recently told some of the professional players she employs that she’s had to postpone attending tournaments that would have required air travel, though she continues to play bridge at Honors six days a week, sources said.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 8:41 AM | Link to this
Dear One Voice @ 8:16, I find it telling that your blog-handle connotes Orwell, and your arguments reflect nothing more substantial than credentialism. But have a mindlessly happy day anyway.
Dear Bucks @ 8:21, I agree with the Goldman Sachs fellow – the funds managers relied on the integrity of FNMA and FHLMC, which is a mark of naiveté that approaches malpractice.
Dear Glenn @ 8:24, a cogent and efficient analysis, my compliments.
Dear Money @ 8:27, “Wall street lawyers, investment bankers, CEOs and media executives often used corporate credit cards to pay for $2,000 an hour prostitutes” Surely you are not suggesting that wall street types are as skuzzy as the former democrat governor of New York? I guess the big difference is the Wall Street guys used their own money?
By Curious Observer
February 10, 2009 8:43 AM | Link to this
Whew! It smells in here. Someone must have cut one loose. Oh! Ragnar’s been here, first as usual.
I find it amusing that the Georgia House has voted to split its session—to wait until the stimulus bill is passed before making the tough budgetary decisions. It seems these Republican stalwarts oppose the bill, but they don’t want to pass on an opportunity, via the stimulus, to get out of the painful decisions they might have to make. Can you spell u-n-p-r-i-n-c-i-p-l-e-d?
Wooten and Ragnar are both heavy on the criticism of the stimulus bill. At least Wooten proposes an alternative—simply handing the money over to the states, presumably so that we can have a fully funded Go Fish program. But there’s no evidence—none—that Georgia would make sound decisions about the disposition of the funds. I would much rather have the federal government make those decisions, thank you. I wouldn’t trust the Georgia knuckle-draggers to clean a bathroom adequately.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 8:46 AM | Link to this
Dear PoFo @ 8:38, the spirit is willing, but the logorrhea is potent. Funny post.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 8:49 AM | Link to this
Dear Curious @ 8:43, “Whew! It smells in here. Someone must have cut one loose….I wouldn’t trust the Georgia knuckle-draggers to clean a bathroom adequately.” We yield to your obvious expertise in such matters. Just stay away from political-economic analysis.
By Thinkwell
February 10, 2009 9:01 AM | Link to this
Did anyone get how Obama stole his explanation for the credit crisis from my blog? Last week I totally nailed an easily achieved narration about how you create wealth by taking on the risk inherent in any loan and then betting others that the loan is sound. You can bet 30 bucks for every dollar of a loan. That’s a derivative.
Obama must read me, man! I’m everybody’s dirty little secret.
By ButtHead
February 10, 2009 9:01 AM | Link to this
I would bet that if the idiots in our government would balance the budget all good things would follow. Instead they are telling all Americans that it is ok to spend what you don’t have. What a bunch of losers, VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBENTS WE NEED NEW IDIOTS!
By Churchill's MOM
February 10, 2009 9:02 AM | Link to this
I don’t understand men. My husband is a huff about his favorite baseball player being on steroids but loves to watch our neighbor who has a boob job. Just what is the difference between steroids and a boob job?
By Copyleft
February 10, 2009 9:03 AM | Link to this
Wooten is absolutely right! Georgia’s legislators should REFUSE that federal money and return every penny of it to Washington to be spent elsewhere.
That would be in keeping with their principled stance against this stimulus plan. And we all know the opposition to it is all about “principle,” right? Until actual money’s involved.
By Thinkwell
February 10, 2009 9:12 AM | Link to this
Boob Job and Steroid abuse? Fertile ground indeed!
Lets have some fun and riff: Does your neighbor have an asterisk next to her boobs?
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 9:12 AM | Link to this
Dear Copyleft @ 9:03, you raise an intriguing possibility: what if Georgia returned the money and the Georgia economy held fairly constant, while the rest of the nation’s economies went bad? Do you think that would persuade the leftists that they were misleading us, an initio?
By @@
February 10, 2009 9:13 AM | Link to this
Great article, Jim.
(((When, pray tell, did policemen and firemen in Atlanta or Cobb County become an obligation of taxpayers in Sioux Falls?)))
The federal government, being the Bullchit Conners that they are, wield a long rubber hose from the “big house” on the hill.
Like willing overseers, the liberal masses sacrifice their brethren to the sting.
Infuriating!
By Davo
February 10, 2009 9:16 AM | Link to this
JW tries to make the case that Perdue is ‘wary’ of the money coming from this stimulus…I very much doubt that. I’m sure he and and the legislture are just drooling with anticipation on how they can use these funds to keep themselves in the payola scheme that is Georgia govt.
If everything in the world was the same with the exception that it was John McCain as president and he was pushing this exact same pile of cr@p off on the people, Perdue et al would be standing right beside him as he dooled it out.
By Glenn
February 10, 2009 9:20 AM | Link to this
Thinkwell,
Wall Street has hinted at its love for Obama’s stuffed package? Really? In the past weeksworth of trading days the Street’s been as flat as my first girlfriend. Evidently Barry’s swelling package fails to excite.
By Wooten is a liar
February 10, 2009 9:23 AM | Link to this
Sonny and the Republican led legislature is wary of the stimulus bill? Wooten is that why they will adjourn the general assembly in March to reconvene in the summer to determine how best to spend the money? Your facade of a conservative argument is laughable.
By Thinkwell
February 10, 2009 9:23 AM | Link to this
Go short, Glenn. If you got the nerve. go short.
Do you think Babe Ruth’s boobs were real?
By Tom
February 10, 2009 9:24 AM | Link to this
jbm, please please please stop trying to use Latin to connote your supposed “erudition.” It’s “ab initio,” not “an initio.” Like the vast majority of your other “contributions” here, “an initio” has no meaning whatsoever.
Perhaps we should be tipped off by the fact that your current pseudonym is taken from perhaps the very worst novel ever penned, a work which redefines the terms “turgid” and “tendentious.” Which also perhaps explains why your writing style, demonstrated here almost daily, is so excruciatingly poor.
By Pi
February 10, 2009 9:36 AM | Link to this
Ragmop can help it, Tom, he was born with a silver asterisk up his as I was saying, if ragmop would use less words, and read more, and then maybe not blog for three or four years, then he’d be perfect, and the shoe-in for the new conservative writer at the ajc, which you will have moved on from by then.
Writing is about your heart. Dont cross it. Even if you wear a bra.
One thing this phelps marijuana scandal magnified is the male boob. Men grow boobs on THC. That’s the side effect. (Besides moronium.) They estimate that Phelps will lose one 1/100th of a second for every cup size.
he’s finished.
By Curious Observer
February 10, 2009 9:40 AM | Link to this
You must be more scathing about Raghead’s writing, Tom. He’s desperate for any kind of recognition. He’ll read your comment and immediately nominate himself for the Nobel Prize in literature.
By Elephant Whip
February 10, 2009 9:43 AM | Link to this
“To states like Georgia that have been reasonably and for the most part responsibly managed, this is a nightmare in the making.”
Achilles’ heel of your article. Georgia is not reasonably and responsibly managed.
By GOP Big Bucks
February 10, 2009 9:51 AM | Link to this
On Wednesday, eight chief executives of big banks will make their way to Washington — giving up their private jets and instead riding Amtrak and the Delta Shuttle — to appear at a Congressional hearing in front of Representative Barney Frank and the House Financial Services Committee.
Lloyd C. Blankfein, Jamie Dimon, John J. Mack, Vikram S. Pandit and Kenneth D. Lewis will be among them.
The hearing will no doubt be a spectacle. It is meant to explore what Mr. Frank, the chairman of the committee, described as Wall Street’s lack of accountability over how it is using funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
“Until they are successful in showing Americans that the money is being used reasonably, they don’t need to ask for it, because they won’t get it,” Mr. Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, said last week when he announced the hearing about whether the next $350 billion of the TARP program would be distributed.
Judging by the nation’s outrage at Wall Street, however, our representatives are likely to turn the hearing into a public flogging.
“I want groveling,” wrote Patt Morrison, an op-ed writer at The Los Angeles Times, over the weekend, echoing a chorus of others. “I want show-trial sweating and stammering. I want their nine-figure bonus checks endorsed over to the rest of us. I want my 401(k) money back. I want blood; I’m a vegetarian, but I’d make an exception for a smoking plate of C.E.O. en brochette.”
That sentiment may not seem that unreasonable given that taxpayers are now against-their-will shareholders. But the hearing should really be used to get at some fundamental and meaningful questions that go beyond what mode of transport the bankers used to get there or whether they sponsored an event at the Super Bowl. (In case you’re curious, Bank of America did.)
Here are 10 questions members of the committee might consider asking:
Pretend for a moment that you are on the biggest road show of your life. Try to sell American taxpayers on why they should invest in your firms and what kind of returns they should expect. Please be specific. Can you provide a 12-month forecast, a 24-month forecast and a 5-year forecast of both your earnings and a price target that you’d put on your own stock?
The government has lent your firms hundreds of billions each at an annual cost of 5 percent. There is speculation in the marketplace that you have turned around and used the money to buy corporate bonds with yields as high as 20 percent, like Alltel debt, for example. If that is the case, this new “carry trade” is allowing you to arbitrage the difference using taxpayer money. Is this so? And if it is, should it be?
This question is for Mr. Pandit of Citigroup. When you sold your hedge fund, Old Lane Partners, to Citigroup for $800 million in 2007, you pocketed $165.2 million cash. At the time, you did not reinvest any of that cash in Citigroup’s stock; you invested the after-tax proceeds into Old Lane, which you’ve since shuttered. Since then, your biggest purchase of Citigroup stock amounted to $8.4 million, when it was trading at $9.25 a share. (It closed Monday at $3.95). Only a fraction of your net worth appears to be in the company you run. Why? And why should taxpayers be willing to make a bet on a company that so far you seem unwilling to bet on yourself?
Last month, several banks — Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, among them — lent $22.5 billion to Pfizer to help finance its acquisition of Wyeth. The two drug companies said that part of the motivation of the deal was to cut $4 billion in annual costs. Much of that is likely to come in the form of jobs, 19,500 in total according to Pfizer, at a time when the country can ill afford more people out on the street. Given that Congress is considering a stimulus plan to help create and save jobs, is it consistent to allow TARP-funded banks to make loans to corporations that will inevitably hurt the economy, at least in the short run?
This question is for Mr. Dimon of JPMorgan Chase, Mr. Lewis of Bank of America and Mr. Pandit. Much has been made of the subprime debacle. But few seem to be willing to talk about another looming crisis: credit card debt. People like Nouriel Roubini, the professor who has predicted much of this crisis, have estimated that you could have losses of as much as $3.6 trillion, which would bankrupt the industry. What do you make of that number? And since credit card defaults are correlated to employment, what happens if unemployment goes as high as 10 percent or more? What is the highest unemployment level that you’ve used in your forecasting models? And do you have adequate reserves for your worst-case situation? If your assumptions are wrong, what happens?
The termination of the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era laws that separated commercial banking and investment banking, enabled you to run a casino inside your bank because it allowed the combination of traditional banking and the riskier side of Wall Street, investment banking. While the house usually wins, you lost big time. Do you think Glass-Steagall should have been repealed? Do you think there should be a limit on the amount of leverage, or borrowed money, that your banks can employ? (Not just capital ratios.) What’s appropriate?
Your compensation structure has been “heads I win, tails I win” for you and many of your employees, despite putting your firm and the nation’s fiscal health in jeopardy. What’s the right model? And how do you feel about forcing your employees to risk their own money, not just the firm’s, when they make a trade or participate in a transaction that puts shareholder capital at risk?
Treasury has proposed a $500,000 cap on compensation for banks that take new TARP money. Many of you have privately complained that you will lose your top talent. Are these the same people that helped lose your banks billions? And can you quantify the impact on your earnings without such “talent?”
Mr. Blankfein and Mr. Mack, both of you have been outspoken about your firm’s intention to repay the TARP money that you received as fast as possible. Mr. Blankfein, you have also hinted that you have little intention of changing your firm’s business model despite being granted bank holding company status and access to the Federal Reserve’s discount window. Please explain whether we should have provided you the money in the first place and whether your status as a bank holding company should be rescinded? If both took place, could you survive?
Please explain how you feel about the newest TARP proposal from the Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner. Would you be willing to sell toxic assets into a “bad bank” if you are forced to realize serious losses? At what price would you be willing to sell your toxic assets? And finally, should the Bush administration have pursued its original TARP plan to buy assets as opposed to making capital injections? How do you grade the success of the program?
By Pi
February 10, 2009 9:54 AM | Link to this
Bookman and Wooten:
I’m a teacher. As students you two couldn’t flesh out a story if the assignment was a buns of steel video. B- for both of you, but you fail my class. You need an A+ to get into my newspaper. I’ll write you a brave recommendation, though.
Writers are Rare. Why do you think christ needed 12 disciples? None of ‘em could write. Christ must have chosen them based on their sobriety. each disciple was responsible and clear headed and maybe Christ also waited to hear them talk a little too. The ones who used the word like the least got chosen, like.
Imagine the beatitudes: Blessed are the liked, like, they will, like be liked.
of course this led to the high school yearbook designation, “Most likely to be unliked”.
By Brad
February 10, 2009 10:04 AM | Link to this
Tom and Curious are mean. I hope jbmlaw will rip them new ones — ones that work, so they will no longer be mean.
Meanies.
By CommunistAJC
February 10, 2009 10:05 AM | Link to this
Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan: Betsy McCaughey
Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.
Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.
Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).
The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.
But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”
Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.
New Penalties
Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541)
What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.
The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.
Elderly Hardest Hit
Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.
Medicare now pays for treatments deemed safe and effective. The stimulus bill would change that and apply a cost- effectiveness standard set by the Federal Council (464).
The Federal Council is modeled after a U.K. board discussed in Daschle’s book. This board approves or rejects treatments using a formula that divides the cost of the treatment by the number of years the patient is likely to benefit. Treatments for younger patients are more often approved than treatments for diseases that affect the elderly, such as osteoporosis.
In 2006, a U.K. health board decreed that elderly patients with macular degeneration had to wait until they went blind in one eye before they could get a costly new drug to save the other eye. It took almost three years of public protests before the board reversed its decision.
Hidden Provisions
If the Obama administration’s economic stimulus bill passes the Senate in its current form, seniors in the U.S. will face similar rationing. Defenders of the system say that individuals benefit in younger years and sacrifice later.
The stimulus bill will affect every part of health care, from medical and nursing education, to how patients are treated and how much hospitals get paid. The bill allocates more funding for this bureaucracy than for the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force combined (90-92, 174-177, 181).
Hiding health legislation in a stimulus bill is intentional. Daschle supported the Clinton administration’s health-care overhaul in 1994, and attributed its failure to debate and delay. A year ago, Daschle wrote that the next president should act quickly before critics mount an opposition. “If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it,” he said. “The issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol.”
More Scrutiny Needed
On Friday, President Obama called it “inexcusable and irresponsible” for senators to delay passing the stimulus bill. In truth, this bill needs more scrutiny.
The health-care industry is the largest employer in the U.S. It produces almost 17 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Yet the bill treats health care the way European governments do: as a cost problem instead of a growth industry. Imagine limiting growth and innovation in the electronics or auto industry during this downturn. This stimulus is dangerous to your health and the economy.
(Betsy McCaughey is former lieutenant governor of New York and is an adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute. The opinions expressed are her own.)
By Davo
February 10, 2009 10:06 AM | Link to this
Predicting Crisis: Dr. Doom & the Black Swan
How to predict a financial crisis and the five signs of a bear, with Nouriel Roubini, RGE Monitor and Nassim Taleb, The Black Swan author.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1027496846&play=1
Great vid. It’s amazing to see the disconnect; the questions are all about ‘where do I invest?’ and these guys are like ‘are you serious’? Realists vs. the Keynesians.
By Pi
February 10, 2009 10:09 AM | Link to this
zzzzz
By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 10:13 AM | Link to this
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By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 10:14 AM | Link to this
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By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 10:16 AM | Link to this
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By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 10:16 AM | Link to this
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By Tillson
February 10, 2009 10:42 AM | Link to this
Are you for real BOP BIG BUCKS?
—On Wednesday, eight chief executives of big banks will make their way to Washington — giving up their private jets and instead riding Amtrak and the Delta Shuttle — to appear at a Congressional hearing in front of Representative Barney Frank and the House Financial Services Committee.—
BARNEY EFFIN FRANK????? WHOSE DEEP PENETRATION INTO FREDDIE’S FANNIE WAS WHAT BIRTHED THE MORTGAGED BABY?
HA!!!!!!!!!!!
By Copyleft
February 10, 2009 10:48 AM | Link to this
Ragnar: Yes, and if the Sun orbited the Earth I’d be convinced that Galileo was wrong too.
That fits in snugly with the fantasy world where supply-side actually works and tax cuts are the magic solution to everything, instead of failing over and over again as they do here in reality.
I urge Georgia’s legislators to stand by their—cough, “principles,” cough—and reject the funds from this bill. When Georgia’s economy finishes collapsing, maybe South Carolina or Tennessee will be nice enough to step in and annex us.
By BS Aplenty
February 10, 2009 11:02 AM | Link to this
By the time the real fiscal crisis arrives in this country, that is the Medicare and Social Security crisis, many of these politicians will be in a retirement home drooling over their cottage cheese and sliced peaches. I give former-President Bush high marks in this area. At least he confronted the large fiscal elephant(s) in the room. The ones no one wanted to discuss - at least with a Republican in office. It matters little. The fiscal piper must be paid and history will give the former President an “A” for his attempt at market reforms.
As Jim’s essay implies, when you create a mandatory government program you must know there will be a day of reckoning. Must be. The nature of this particular reckoning will a complete transformation - a total government takeover of healthcare. The rally cry will be that healthcare costs are out of control. Industries like auto and airline (see the union connection?) must be “stimulated” (read: bailed-out of their unfunded healthcare and pension liabilities). Simple market reforms will be dismissed as incapable of addressing so massive a governmental clusterf@&k. So, presto!, the Dems reason, we’ll just put EVERYONE in an even more massive governmental program and call it Universal Healthcare! How ingenious - problem solved.
No, make no mistake, the $827 billion that’s being spent in addition to the excess $350 billion in TARP funds now being spent to “stimulate” the economy are simply the opening spending salvos in the Medicare/Social Security wars. The Dems are practicing their appropriation skills for the even larger reckoning that is Medicare reform. Their simple-minded solution - a nationalized healthcare program for all with the “hope” that somehow government will be able to control costs this time. Assuredly they won’t but that’s a reckoning for another generation.
By BS Aplenty
February 10, 2009 11:20 AM | Link to this
CommunistAJC
My compliments on your fine post. Medicare and Social Security reform will represent an even more massive takeover of the private sector economy. I would estimate federal expenditures to exceed 35% of GDP. The loss of creative drive and talent in these industries will be startling. Same thing happened to auto and airlines. Notice the airline that consistently makes money - Southwest. Very creative forces there.
By yankee
February 10, 2009 11:26 AM | Link to this
Start a war, it worked for Bush.
By Glenn
February 10, 2009 11:44 AM | Link to this
I will go short, Thinkwell. I know you’re right. The Babe’s man cleavage may have been silicone, but Ty Cobb’s Coke stock was The Real Thing.
By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 11:57 AM | Link to this
bs: My props on your fine ditto of commie’s mea culpa.
start a war? we’ve already got two. War only works if it’s a global thing, not an isolated and ill-conceived drama.
The Babe! He was so good he could point out whenever he was about to hit a homerun….okay that happened once and if you review the newsreel he didn’t actually point, but rather gestured with an all-in-fun trash-talk gesture to shuss the jeering coming from the other team’s bench. He didn’t point. Sorry. They didn’t have instant replay back then, so nobody was in a position to make that call.
By Ga Values
February 10, 2009 12:02 PM | Link to this
In keeping with my say nothing bad for 90 days, this is what I agree with in Geithner’s plan..
“American people have lost faith in the leaders of our financial institutions and are skeptical that their government has — to this point — used taxpayers’ money in ways that will benefit them,” Mr. Geithner said
By deegee
February 10, 2009 12:06 PM | Link to this
Republicans can oppose the stimulus package because they know that they can go on record as opposing it while appeasing the 31% that would vote for Satan as long as he ran as a republican. If they had any inkling that this bill would fail they would be scrambling to find a way to pass it. The party that broke the record on government spending is not going to let this slip through their fingers.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 12:09 PM | Link to this
Just for the curious among us, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
10831.07 October 1 – after TARP, but before Obama’s Election was manifestly likely
9.319.83 November 1 – when Obama’s election was manifestly likely
9,139.27 November 5 – the day after Obama was elected
7,949.09 January 20 – the day of inauguration
7,980.15 Latest quote
Clearly a vote of confidence for the “stimulus” plan. Although the market fell 26.6% in the 111 days from the time before Obama was perceived likely to the time he actually became president, it has rebounded almost 0.55% in the 21 days since. At that rate of 2 points per day, the market will be back where it was before Obama became “likely” by October 12, 2012. Change we can put in our pockets.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 12:18 PM | Link to this
Dear Tom @ 9:24, the mind is sharp as always, but the fingers fail. I respectfully observe, for your benefit, the tight nexus between “b” and “n” on the standard qwerty keyboard. But you knew that already, and are merely the sort of mindless snipe that wets his pants over typos? You need to visit with our friend Curious – he can help you with such matters.
By Ga Values
February 10, 2009 12:24 PM | Link to this
Ragnar Danneskjöld 12:09 PM
You need to go to Georgia State and sign up for a finance course, it’s obvious you don’t understand a lot about the market.
By Patriots Act
February 10, 2009 12:30 PM | Link to this
Bush’s medicaid bill was a deal with RX to deregulate, and the result is like a bull in the generic china shop.
RX is the military industrial complex’s techno twin.
Look at the information in those two lines of news analysis, written so that even an eighth grader could dig what I say to you all this day.
I am the new conservative writer for the AJC.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 12:34 PM | Link to this
Dear GA Values @ 12:24, sounds more like I need to be teaching finance at GA State, if you learned something contrary to the wisdom I offer.
By Patriots Act
February 10, 2009 1:02 PM | Link to this
Your ilk IS teaching at GA State, rag, that’s what I object to.
Ragnar is a product of disinformation. It’s not his fault, that he was educated by high achieving scholars. Perhaps the Peter Principle is not true. Perhaps steroids dont affect performance unnaturally.. Perhaps Bush knew the difference between a sunni and a kurd.
By Elephant Whip
February 10, 2009 1:02 PM | Link to this
14087.14 October 2, 2007- before primaries on either side were determined
“10831.07 October 1 – after TARP, but before Obama’s Election was manifestly likely”
A 23% drop before we even knew who the candidates would be and while Bush II was still in charge.
By Ga Values
February 10, 2009 1:05 PM | Link to this
Ragnar Danneskjöld 12:34 PM
If you can teach finance, Saxby can teach ethics.
By REPUBLICANS EVIL TIME IS UP
February 10, 2009 1:05 PM | Link to this
I FIND IT FUNNY THAT THE YANKEES WERE GOP REPUBLICAN SLAVE SAVERS WHO DEFEATED THE DIXIE DEMOCRAPS,AND NOW YOU HAVE THESE TURNCOAT REBELS WHO ARE NOW REPRESENTING THE PARTY THAT THEY USE TO HATE BEING THE PARTY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN,THIS SHOWS THE LACK OF EDUCATION THAT THESE HICKS DONT HAVE,LIKE RAGNAR.
FROM 2000-2006 THE GOP CONTROL WHITE HOUSE AND CONGRESS GAVE AWAY AMERICAN TAX PAYER MONEY TO IRAQ FUNDS TO ISREAL,FUNDS TO AFRICAN AIDS RELIEF,AMERICAN TAX MONEY WENT TO HALLIBURTON EACH MONTH FOR THE AMERICAN TROOPS,BUT THAT MONEY WAS NOT USE FOR THE TROOPS,WALL STREET GOT BAILOUT MONEY FROM AMERICAN TAX PAYERS, BUT YOU WONT HEAR ANYTHING COMING FROM REDNECK CONVERT OR RAGNAR ABOUT FACTS LIKE THESE,RAGHEAD WILL JUST POST BIG WORDS THAT HAVE NO MEANING ON THE SUBJECT AT HAND.
IN 2009 OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRAPS WANT TO GET AMERICA BACK ON TRACK, WITH HELPING PEOPLE WITH JOBS AND EDUCATION,MEDICAID AND THE HOUSING MARKET,BUT WHEN YOU HELP OUT AMERICANS YOU ARE CONSIDERED A TRAITOR TO COUNTRY BY THE SELLOUT GOP REDNECKS AND HICKS,WHEN THE DEMOCRAPS WANT TO HELP THE AMERICAN PEOPLE,REDNECK NEO-NAZIS COMPLAIN,BUT WHEN GOP NAZIS HELP OTHER COUNTRIES BESIDES AMERICANS THEY ARE CONSIDERED SAVIORS,IM GLAD PEOPLE LIKE RAGHEAD AND REDNECK CONVERT EXPOSE THEMSELVES SO PEOPLE CAN SEE HOW BACKWARDS THESE HICKS HERE IN GEORGIA ARE!
By Peter
February 10, 2009 1:09 PM | Link to this
What baloney you write today Jim………..
“It’s an invitation to bloated budgets, to expanded social spending, to funding for projects that are marginally useful and, ultimately, to fiscal recklessness.”
Ok so the 3 Trillion dollar WAR was NOT reckless…….. SURE !!!!
Funny Point Jim……..
“To states like Georgia that have been reasonably and for the most part responsibly managed, this is a nightmare in the making. To get the money to send south, Congress has to print it or borrow it from the unborn. It’s paid off either with devalued currency or with the future quality of life of the unborn.”
Gee Jim that is what I have been saying since the WAR, tax cuts, and Cost plus contracts…….No other time in American History has a President Gone to WAR…….and CUT Taxes.
Bush bankrupted America, and your grand kids are going to pay for it !
By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 1:11 PM | Link to this
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By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 1:16 PM | Link to this
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By Ty One On
February 10, 2009 1:17 PM | Link to this
Remember how the MORON liberal demoncats pitched a wussyfit over a right wing blogger named Jeff Gannon being in a Bush press conference and asking a question that basically slammed the left? Well, looksee here - apparently it’s A OKAY to have a left wing moonbat talk radio show host do that. Day in and day out the left reminds us what stinkin’ hypocrites they are:
February 09, 2009 Categories: Talk Radio Schultz gets front row seat
“What if Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh were up front at Bush’s press conferences in the East Room?”
“Well, as network correspondents sat in the second row, liberal radio host Ed Schultz managed to snag a seat up front, right next to Helen Thomas.”
“Schultz told Politico’s Jonathan Martin that his front row was seat was assigned to him.”
By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 1:20 PM | Link to this
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By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 1:21 PM | Link to this
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By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 1:28 PM | Link to this
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By Redneck Convert
February 10, 2009 1:29 PM | Link to this
Well, I don’t care what this all-caps guy says. Me and Raghead think alike and in the same way. He might just get to be a Ornery Redneck up at Billy Bob’s. Bunch of commies!
By CJ
February 10, 2009 1:31 PM | Link to this
Republicans had 8 years to get it “right”. Time to try something new! All I hear is “nay nay nay” from the Republicans. OK - where are your solutions, geniouses? Oh wait, you don’t have any. All you can do is lower taxes on the wealthy and b**ch about any plan Democrats put out there, even when it’s a good plan!
By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 1:35 PM | Link to this
The Bailout explained: Why do you think they call it a piggy bank.
The Stimulus Package explained: This is the economy. This is your money. zzzzz. Any Questions?
Bristol Palin explianed: Just say no.
Notice how these three lines tell the history of the world for the last six months?
I am the new conservative writer for the ajc. But I’m interviewing them. I’M…. interviewing…….Them.
know it. believe it. Live it. (camera to me giving the bobby kennedy lip-purse sneer)
By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 1:46 PM | Link to this
If the last eight years were a crime. Then follow the money. 2 Cheney’s man-sized safe?
How rich is our vice president? I want a chart. of his whole life that shows accumulated assets.
Think it’s going up?
Cheney is the new pirate. His power is immense. He is the face of the Saudis, but the commander in chief of Blackwater. Know it. Believe it. Live it.
I am formally making a citizen’s cyber arrest of Cheney here on this blog now. Cheney, turn yourself in. You’re under arrest you sonnovabeech.
I can prove what I’m saying here. I know exactly where to look for the data points that will lead to a conviction.
Cheney, unless he flees to Dubais, is going to prison. I’m also saying “Vice versas” to Bush’s preemptive pardon of Harriet Meirs, Carl Rove, (and Cheney).
That’s where W made his big mistake: his pardon wasn’t followed up by a “no backs, no vice versa’s, no changies”.
Perhaps we need to see a president sitting in jail. Perhaps that’s the slap in the face lady liberty needs to know that the price of freedom is death. It is, my fellow americans who I love simply because you R america: The price of freedom is death.
Obama sure looked presidential last night. I love Obama simply because he is america too.
America. (sure am sorry i’m french.)
By whatacrock
February 10, 2009 1:53 PM | Link to this
Look Jim, we are in this mess because of the republicans period. You and the republicans have become so drunk on your own wealth that you cannot and will not see what is happening to the average American.
The republicans stopped trickling down their wealth if indeed they ever did. They became selfish and self-centered and focused on only what their money would by them and now they can just sit in their own pot.
We are slowly having enough of the Repubis sitting and crying and their pathetic ideas are falling on deaf ears.
The wreckless spending by the republicans has created this mess and we now are facing a class warfare of sorts.
If I were you, I would jump the ship of this republican foolery and begin charting new ground away from these idgets. What few of them are left will be left in a pile of dust over the next several Novembers. What a danged crock Jim!
By Grading Wooten
February 10, 2009 2:19 PM | Link to this
Look at Wooten’s fifth paragraph. He should have taken the fifth….out.
This piece is a mess. D-. I know for a fact that Wooten has given up and he’s writing at this level on purpose to taunt me.
but lets just tell the world why wooten’s fifty paragraph is so bad. The run-on sentence is very effective in expression. It’s unique structure can be devastating if the tone of a piece called for it.
‘muff said.
I’m sorry, Jim.
By GA VALUES
February 10, 2009 2:21 PM | Link to this
News release from Sen. Zell Miller, Oct 22, 2003:
Miller to Senate: Let the Majority Prevail Senator Introduces Bill to End 60-Vote Requirement of Filibuster Rule
WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) today introduced a bill to abolish Senate Rule XXII, also known as the filibuster rule. He released the following statement concerning the bill:
“We need to get shed of this outrageous rule that allows 41 who oppose something to defeat 59 who favor it. Or, as we saw in today’s vote on whether to go forward with a debate on a class action lawsuit bill, 39 senators blocked the will of 59 senators.
“This rule is not only a waste of time and taxpayer money. It is a flagrant abuse of majority rule, the principle that a republican form of government operates on everywhere - everywhere that is except the United States Senate.”
By Grading Wooten
February 10, 2009 2:30 PM | Link to this
Ga values: dumb it down. How does the bill affect someone who wants to filibuster? How does it affect democrats now?
How does it affect the GOP now.
By Ga Values
February 10, 2009 2:32 PM | Link to this
GA VALUES 2:21 PM
Good post…
By G'TOWN DUDE
February 10, 2009 2:35 PM | Link to this
You guys are nutz. All I keep hearing about is what is being done wrong. haven’t heard squat from the GOP about what can be done to improve the mess YOUR PARTY STEERED US INTO. At least, President Obama is trying on the behalf of the American people who have sat idly by and watched their futures go down the frikkin’ toilet. Do any of you GOP fanatics have an answer? If it’s a no, then just shut the hell up and pray that this thing works.
All of our collective azzes are on the line here.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 2:47 PM | Link to this
Dear Whip @ 1:02, sounds about right, the FNMA/FHLMC fraud cost us 25% of Dow value in a year, or approx. the same as the election of Obama in four months. Uh oh, looks now like the Dow has read the stimulus bill. Now below inauguration levels, 7911.82. Change we better believe.
By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 2:49 PM | Link to this
Dear Dude @ 2:35, no sweat. All you have to do is waterboard Speaker Pelosi until she agrees to renew the Bush tax cuts. The Dow will rise 1500 points in two days.
By The Huckster
February 10, 2009 2:53 PM | Link to this
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee warned supporters Tuesday that the $828 billion stimulus package is “anti-religious.”
In an e-mail that was also posted on his blog ahead of the Senate’s passage, Huckabee wrote: “The dust is settling on the ‘bipartisan’ stimulus bill and one thing is clear: It is anti-religious.”
The former Republican presidential candidate pointed to a provision in both the House and Senate versions banning higher education funds in the bill from being used on a “school or department of divinity.”
“You would think the ACLU drafted this bill,” Huckabee said. “For all of the talk about bipartisanship, this Congress is blatantly liberal.”
“Emily’s List, radical environmental groups, etc. all have a seat at the decision making table in Washington these days,” he continued. “Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are in charge and they are working with an equally ‘progressive’ President Obama (remember his voting record is more liberal than Ted Kennedy!).”
In the e-mail, Huckabee concedes that there is little that conservatives can do in the near term, but advocated mobilization to defeat those “masquerading as ‘conservative Democrats.’”
“This is the opening round of the Democrats’ campaign for big government,” he wrote. “We cannot afford to sit round one out, because if we do, they will only become more emboldened and their grab for power more audacious and damaging to our country and our freedoms.”
By Grading Wooten
February 10, 2009 2:55 PM | Link to this
If the Dow’s correction is Obama’s fault. so are the elections in Iraq.
Ragnar. I’d bet Ragnar going to Bookman’s appearance tonight, if there are any seats left after I dramatized it by pretending to not be interested in throwing a pie at Bookman.
I just like to bring out the Ann Coulter in speakers, that’s all.
Ragnar is a good fellow. His kind heart shines through his poorly expressed comments. Most of the trolls here have good hearts and are patriotic. They just simply shouldn’t be writing and expecting respect, that’s all.
I wish I could get you all in my newspaper, but then I’d be the AJC, now, wooden eye?
Hair lip!
By Grading Wooten
February 10, 2009 3:08 PM | Link to this
Hair Lip!
By Elephant Whip
February 10, 2009 3:24 PM | Link to this
You attribute the beginning of the recession in 2007-08 to federal lending programs? Not big banks selling bad debt to financiers, who then put lipstick on the pig and sold it to thousands of people relying upon them for retirement investments? Not private investors riding the wave of false real estate value and taking cheap loans for spec. houses, hoping to turn them around before interest sky-rocketed?
If anything, the federal programs you blame are the tip of the conspicuous-consumption iceberg…and the major, private, unregulated banks are the mammoth mass of jagged ice just below under the surface. But why regulate them…right? The market just needed correction, nevermind the people on the verge of retirement who are now looking at 5 more years of work, right?
By Grading Wooten
February 10, 2009 3:38 PM | Link to this
A Savior-based economy explained: I’ll use the 14 stations of the cross (but in rosary years).
1). The Agony in the Rose Garden - Yassar Arrafat with only an oval office between him and a lewinski.
2). The Scourging at the Piller - 911
3) The Crown of Thorns - Iraq
4) The Carrying of the Cross - since the inauguration
5) The Crucifixion - lame duck in the first 100 days (did they have to break his legs? animals!)
The ascension into heaven - The shorts cover here.. Rally. All is forgiven. The Gop wins in 2012, and a skeet shooting gallery is added to the recreation wing of the Grey House. (the ranger IS going to like this, yogi).
By Jackie
February 10, 2009 3:56 PM | Link to this
The current economic slump began 18 months previously.
The economy has lost more than $1 Trillion dollars during that time.
The USA is 25% of the world’s economy and 70% of the consumer economy.
If we fail, all of the world fails. Other countries need us to import their goods in order to grow.
We have physical educational facilities literally falling down, yet, we have those who complain about spending money on those structures.
The list goes on and on and on…
The Repubs, as usual, complain about the spending, yet offer nothing concrete and specific to resolve the problem in the short term. They continue to use the mantra of “free markets.” I do believe Ronnie Reagan and his deregulation of the free markets and the sabotage of the unions eviscerated the middle class.
The Repubs still use him as a beacon of light as to the way economic policy should be formulated.
By Marc
February 10, 2009 4:41 PM | Link to this
Bush inherited a budget surplus and a sustainable spending plan. In the 8 years since, the “conservatives” have saddled the country with two poorly run wars that continue to be revenue sink holes, a banking crises due to ill informed de-regulation, sky rocketing unemployment, and a trillion dollar deficit which generally came from funding their pet projects and entitlement programs. Now when we really need government spending, Republicans have a come to Jesus “small government” moment. You only want small government, because you can’t channel the money to your special interest groups.
If you are against the program, what is your plan? Is it to give more tax cuts to the rich? That’s what has happened the last 8 years, and it has led us here. Is it to do nothing? If so, you’re a callous idealogue who has a very selective (or uneducated) memory of history and how bad this can become and the solutions that America uses to deal with them.
You need to either get a clue or get on the team. You know, the team of Americans who put our well being above partisanship and that is trying to make life better for all Americans. Not the partisan Republican team that ran the country in the ground and now that just wants to snipe at the hard decisions that need to be made so they can claim victory in the mid term elections if Obama (…and America) fails.
Otherwise, you need to rethink if you care about America at all.
By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 4:46 PM | Link to this
zzzzz
By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 4:48 PM | Link to this
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By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 4:48 PM | Link to this
zzzzz
By zzzzz
February 10, 2009 4:49 PM | Link to this
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By Peter
February 10, 2009 5:19 PM | Link to this
Hey ……….By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 2:49 PM | Link to this
Dear Dude @ 2:35, no sweat. All you have to do is waterboard Speaker Pelosi until she agrees to renew the Bush tax cuts. The Dow will rise 1500 points in two days.
Sure ……..HA HA HA…….. are you sweating all your hard earned dollars Bush has squandered ?
By deegee
February 10, 2009 5:20 PM | Link to this
I had an unusual experience today. I heard a delivery truck pull up in my driveway. The volume of the radio exceeded the volume of the engine. When I opened the door I determined that the driver was listening to el Rushbo. The driver asked me if I had listened to any of the town hall meeting that Barack Obama was hosting in Florida. I answered that I had. The driver assumed that I felt the same way he did about the idiots that were asking such ridiculous questions about the stimulus package. Questions like, “what’s in it for me?” He stood there in his snappy uniform and went on and on with the republican talking points like a Jehovah’s Witness spreading the news about Armageddon. I guess business is slow right now.
By Peter
February 10, 2009 5:25 PM | Link to this
HA HA HA HA……..By Ragnar Danneskjöld
February 10, 2009 2:47 PM | Link to this
Dear Whip @ 1:02, sounds about right, the FNMA/FHLMC fraud cost us 25% of Dow value in a year, or approx. the same as the election of Obama in four months. Uh oh, looks now like the Dow has read the stimulus bill. Now below inauguration levels, 7911.82. Change we better believe.
What was the DOW when BUSH took OFFICE ? What was the unemployment rate…….Duhhhhhhhh …the two go together….
Obama inherited a TRAIN WRECK…….a Republican Train Wreck !
By Peter
February 10, 2009 5:33 PM | Link to this
Jim forgets one basic principal……..
There would not be a need for a stimulus package, had the Republican’s run the country like a business, and kept us in the black……..but alas no………. they ran the country like George Bush ran all his business’s…….right into the ground !
Jim we kicked the Republican’s out because they ran us into a Trillion dollars worth of debt, and got us into (2) TWO WARS !
By @@
February 10, 2009 5:39 PM | Link to this
Hell! Didn’t PoliFore tell us he was really a conservative?
Gullible as I may be, I still say he’s awash in the “wishy”.
Blog on PoliFore.
You’re firing on all eight of late.
Wait a minute……it’s probably four since you’re a green weenie.
By The Huckster
February 10, 2009 6:03 PM | Link to this
Just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to, doesn’t mean they don’t love you with all they have.. Ralph and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital. One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool. Ralph suddenly jumped into the deep end.
He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed there.
Edna promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled him out. When the Head Nurse Director became aware of Edna’s heroic act she immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as she now considered her to be mentally stable.
When she went to tell Edna the news she said, ‘Edna, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you’re being discharged, since you were able to rationally respond to a crisis by jumping in and saving the life of the person you love. I have concluded that your act displays sound mindedness.
The bad news is, Ralph hung himself in the bathroom with his bathrobe belt right after you saved him. I am so sorry, but he’s dead..’
Edna replied, ‘He didn’t hang himself, I put him there to dry.. How soon can I go home?’
By Churchill's MOM
February 11, 2009 8:45 AM | Link to this
Here’s a bunch that need to be put in jail, Even that idiot Dusty would agree.
By NATASHA SINGER Published: February 10, 2009 Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals has just introduced a new $20 million advertising campaign for Yaz, the most popular birth control pill in the United States.
An ad for Yaz, a birth control pill by Bayer, promoted its effectiveness against premenstrual symptoms.
An actress in new ads for Yaz says that some commercials were not clear, and that the F.D.A. “wants us to correct a few points.” But the television ads, now running during prime-time shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and on cable networks, are not typical spots promoting the benefits of a prescription drug. Instead, they warn that nobody should take Yaz hoping that it will also cure pimples or premenstrual syndrome.
As part of an unusual crackdown on deceptive consumer drug advertising, the Food and Drug Administration and the attorneys general of 27 states have required Bayer to run these new ads to correct previous Yaz marketing.
Regulators say the ads overstated the drug’s ability to improve women’s moods and clear up acne, while playing down its potential health risks. Under a settlement with the states, Bayer agreed last Friday to spend at least $20 million on the campaign and for the next six years to submit all Yaz ads for federal screening before they appear.
“You may have seen some Yaz commercials recently that were not clear,” an actress says in the new corrective television spot, as she looks into the camera. “The F.D.A. wants us to correct a few points in those ads.”
By REPUBLICANS EVIL TIME IS UP
February 11, 2009 9:42 AM | Link to this
WHEN LOGICAL OPEN MINDED PEOPLE POST BLOGS HERE WITH A THOUGHT PROCESS, YOU HAVE THE SUPER REDNECK THAT POST zzzz TO ALL HIS POST BECAUSE I GUESS THE MODERN EDUCATIONAL BOOKS HAVENT BEEN SENT TO THE HILLBILLIES IN NORTH AND SOUTH GEORGIA,NOW THAT THESE HICKS CANT SCREAM GET THE TERROIST GAYS AND STOP ABORTION,BECAUSE THEIR PARTY THE NEO-NAZIS SENT AMERICA STRAIGHT TO THE POOR HOUSE.
P.S.NOTICE THAT ZZZZ RAGHEAD OR REDNECK CONVERT NEVER HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT THE GREATNESS OF AMERICA,THEY JUST STILL HURT CAUSE DIXIE LOST THE GOT D@MN CIVIL WAR,THIS IS WHY THE POOR GOP NUTHUGGER REDNECK CAN NEVER ADVANCE!
By Frost
February 11, 2009 9:57 AM | Link to this
Hey Jim and Ragnar Danneskjöld and the like minded,just tell ur governor to return the money if GA,a red state dont need it!
STOP THE WHINING The elections are long gone.
Uall p** me off.Crying like babies….Glad u are on ur sun set journey Jim
By cranky old man
February 11, 2009 4:19 PM | Link to this
Good afternoon, Jim,
I have a solution to the problem you mention in the first couple of paragraphs: simply do away with state governments. Replace them with federal administrative districts. Conservatives would love it. Think of the advantages:
Cutting out a whole layer of government should save a significant sum of money. Who needs middle-men anyway?
National business chains are always complaining about having to customize their operations to comply with 50 different sets of laws and regulations. Standardization would save them money.
National certifications for doctors, nurses, lawyers, electricians, etc. would obviate the need to get re-certified when moving to a different state.
We could eliminate the U.S. Senate. Think how much pork that could save.
National education standards and funding could help us catch up with educational achievement in other industrialized nations, providing a functionally literate work force.
No more competition between states to see who can offer the lowest taxes and fewest protections for workers in order to lure minimum-wage jobs to the state. Oh, wait. Conservatives might not like this one.
Okay, I was being facetious (sort of), but it’s still not a bad idea.