Posts filed under 'The Econ'
Obama’s Big Sellout by MATT TAIBBI (Another Classic)
The president has packed his economic team with Wall Street insiders intent on turning the bailout into an all-out giveaway.
MATT TAIBBI Posted Dec 09, 2009 2:35 PM
Barack Obama ran for president as a man of the people, standing up to Wall Street as the global economy melted down in that fateful fall of 2008. He pushed a tax plan to soak the rich, ripped NAFTA for hurting the middle class and tore into John McCain for supporting a bankruptcy bill that sided with wealthy bankers “at the expense of hardworking Americans.” Obama may not have run to the left of Samuel Gompers or Cesar Chavez, but it’s not like you saw him on the campaign trail flanked by bankers from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. What inspired supporters who pushed him to his historic win was the sense that a genuine outsider was finally breaking into an exclusive club, that walls were being torn down, that things were, for lack of a better or more specific term, changing.
Then he got elected.
What’s taken place in the year since Obama won the presidency has turned out to be one of the most dramatic political about-faces in our history. Elected in the midst of a crushing economic crisis brought on by a decade of orgiastic deregulation and unchecked greed, Obama had a clear mandate to rein in Wall Street and remake the entire structure of the American economy. What he did instead was ship even his most marginally progressive campaign advisers off to various bureaucratic Siberias, while packing the key economic positions in his White House with the very people who caused the crisis in the first place. This new team of bubble-fattened ex-bankers and laissez-faire intellectuals then proceeded to sell us all out, instituting a massive, trickle-up bailout and systematically gutting regulatory reform from the inside.
How could Obama let this happen? Is he just a rookie in the political big leagues, hoodwinked by Beltway old-timers? Or is the vacillating, ineffectual servant of banking interests we’ve been seeing on TV this fall who Obama really is?
Whatever the president’s real motives are, the extensive series of loophole-rich financial “reforms” that the Democrats are currently pushing may ultimately do more harm than good. In fact, some parts of the new reforms border on insanity, threatening to vastly amplify Wall Street’s political power by institutionalizing the taxpayer’s role as a welfare provider for the financial-services industry. At one point in the debate, Obama’s top economic advisers demanded the power to award future bailouts without even going to Congress for approval — and without providing taxpayers a single dime in equity on the deals.
How did we get here? It started just moments after the election — and almost nobody noticed.
FULL READ HERE: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/31234647/obamas_big_sellout/1
VIDEO HERE: http://taibbi.rssoundingboard.com/matt-taibbi-on-obamas-economy#
Add comment December 15, 2009
The Unemployment Game Show: Are You “Really” Unemployed? – From Mint.com
Add comment December 8, 2009
Ron Paul – MSNBC 12/3/09
On Tuesday, Congressman Paul appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Meeting with Dylan Ratigan” to discuss Bernanke’s renomination hearing, how the Federal Reserve helped create the economic crisis, and the need to end the Fed.
Add comment December 4, 2009
Ron Paul – The Ed Show – MSNBC 12/03/09
On Thursday, December 3, 2009, Congressman Paul appeared on MSNBC’s “The ED Show” to discuss Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s nomination hearing for a second term, as well as the need to Audit the Fed.
Add comment December 4, 2009
Ron Paul – The Kudlow Report, 11/30/09
On Monday night, Congressman Paul appeared on CNBC to debate former ITC chief economist Peter Morici over the Federal Reserve’s role in the economy and the need for greater transparency at the Fed.
Add comment December 1, 2009
Music to my Ears
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is making few new friends in Congress these days, as a growing litany of bipartisan critics are questioning whether he should keep his job.
Rep. Kevin Brady of Texas, the top Republican House member on the Joint Economic Committee, on Thursday was the latest lawmaker to call for Mr. Geithner to resign, saying the nation has lost confidence in the Obama administration’s ability to handle the economy.
“For the sake of our jobs, will you step down from your post?” Mr. Brady asked Mr. Geithner during a hearing of the panel.
Mr. Geithner, who was appointed by Mr. Obama and took office in January, shrugged off the request, saying that it was “a great privilege for me to serve this president.”
“I agree with almost nothing in what you said,” the secretary added. “And I think almost nothing of what you said represents a fair and accurate perception of where this economy is today.”
Another Texas Republican, Rep. Michael C. Burgess, went a step further than Mr. Brady in his criticism of the secretary.
“I don’t think that you should be fired; I thought you should have never been hired,” Mr. Burgess told Mr. Geithner.
Mr. Burgess said questionable actions in Mr. Geithner’s past, such his admission shortly after his nomination that he owed back taxes, made him unsuitable for the job from the beginning.
“It did not leave the American people with a good feeling about the person who was going to be responsible for this economic recovery,” he said.
The GOP rebukes came two days after the release of an embarrassing report by a Treasury Department watchdog that criticized Mr. Geithner’s handling last fall of an initial emergency plan to save then-failing American International Group (AIG) while head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The report, conducted by Neil Barofsky, special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), said that although the Federal Reserve’s initial $85 billion credit line to AIG helped the company settle many of its outstanding contracts with outside parties, “its terms were unworkable.”
Even some liberals have been piling on Mr. Geithner. Rep. Peter A. DeFazio, Oregon Democrat, said flatly on MSNBC on Wednesday that Mr. Geithner should quit.
Mr. DeFazio said that within the House Congressional Progressive Caucus, a group of liberal House Democrats of which he is a member, there is a growing consensus that Mr. Geithner should leave his post.
“The populist caucus is considering questions regarding both him and some other members of the economic team in the near future,” he said.
The congressman also hinted that White House economic adviser Lawrence H. Summers should perhaps be shown the door.
The president “is being failed by his economic team,” Mr. DeFazio told Ed Schultz on MSNBC. “We may have to sacrifice just two more jobs to get millions back for Americans.”
Add comment November 30, 2009
Geithner Grilled
Congress grills Timothy Geithner, including of all people Charles Schumer who is just as responsible for this economic disaster.
Add comment November 24, 2009
“Obama is in bed with Wall Street just like Bush” – Peter Schiff
Obama is in bed with Wall Street just like Bush Peter Schiff on SBS Dateline
Add comment November 10, 2009
Homes: About to get much cheaper
- By Les Christie, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Home values are predicted to drop in 342 out of 381 markets during the next year, according to a new forecast of real estate prices.
Overall, the national median home price is predicted to drop 11.3% by June 30, 2010, according to Fiserv, a financial information and analysis firm. For the following year, the firm anticipates some stabilization with prices rising 3.6%.
In the past, Fiserv anticipated the rapid decline in home-sale prices over the past few years — though it underestimated the scope.
Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Economy.com, agreed with Fiserv’s current assessments. “I think more price declines are coming because the foreclosure crisis is not over,” he said.
In fact, those areas with high concentrations of foreclosure sales will experience the steepest drops, according to Fiserv. Miami, for example, is expected to be the biggest loser. Prices are forecast to plunge 29.9% by next June — after having already fallen a whopping 48% during the past three years.
If Fiserv’s forecast holds, Miami real median home price will tumble to $142,000 by June 2011.
In Orlando, Fla., the second-worst performing market, Fiserv anticipates a 27% price collapse by June 2010, followed by a less severe drop the following year. In Hanford, Calif., prices are estimated to drop 26.9% and continue falling 9.5% in 2011; in Naples, Fla., they’re expected to fall 26.8% and then flatten out.
Other notable losers include Las Vegas, where prices have already fallen 54.6% and are expected to lose another 23.9% by June 2010. In Phoenix values have already collapsed by 54% and could fall another 23.4%. In both cities, Fiserv anticipates the losses to continue into 2011, but they will be less than 5%.
Prices had stabilized
The latest forecast is at odds with the past few months of the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price index. That report has given hope that most housing markets may have already stabilized because the composite index of 20 cities rose in May, June and July. Nationally, it found that home prices have gained 3.6%.
Brad Hunter, chief economist for Metrostudy, which provides housing market information to the industry, however, expects a change in fortunes, however.
“I’m afraid Case-Shiller may be just a temporary reprieve,” he said.
He pointed out that the tax credit for first-time home buyers helped support prices during the three months of Case-Shiller gains. By the end of November, the credit will have been used by 1.8 million homebuyers, at least 355,000 of whom would not have bought a house without the tax break, according to estimates by the National Association of Realtors. But the market assistance ends when the credit expires on Dec. 1.
Hunter also sees a new wave of foreclosure problems coming from higher priced loans and prime mortgages. He expects a high failure rate for option ARM loans that were issued to prime customers so they could buy homes in bubble markets, such as California and Florida. In those areas, prices for even modest homes had skyrocketed.
Winners
A handful of metro areas will buck the trend, according to Fiserv. Six markets will remain flat, and 33 will actually post gains. The biggest winner will be the Kennewick, Wash., metro area, where home prices have ramped up 8.9% over the past three years and are expected to increase another 3.4% by June 2010.
Fairbanks, Alaska, prices are anticipated to rise 2.5%, while Anchorage will climb 2.1%. Elmira, N.Y., prices may inch up 1.8%.
The nation’s biggest metro area, New York City, will underperform the nation as a whole over the next two years, according to Fiserv. Prices, which have already fallen 21.7% to a median of $375,000, are expected to fall 17.4% by June 2011.
Home values in the nation’s second largest city, Los Angeles, have fallen 43.3% since June 2006 to a median of $313,000. They are expected to dive another 20.2% over by June 2010, and then start to climb in 2011. Chicago prices, which have fallen 25.2% to $227,000, will drop only 4.1% over the next 12 months and then starting to climb.
The Detroit metro area now has the dubious distinction of having the lowest home prices in the country. Prices have dropped 51.7% to a median of $50,000. They’re expected to fall another 9.1% and then stabilize.
Add comment October 20, 2009
Peter Schiff – Gold to Hit $5,000 Per Ounce & Talks Jive on Ben – 10.07.09
Add comment October 8, 2009
The New World Order is here
Russia Today gets the report right again! Why can’t CNN or FOX do this?
Watch, especially after .30 seconds. I’m really starting to HATE my country. Thanks Russia again for covering the FUCKING news that ABC, CNN or FOX should be covering!
An arrest that was made occurred on a side street near Baum Ave & S Millvale Ave.
The “Group of 20″ is meeting today and tomorrow in Pittsburgh. People have been demonstrating to counter the G20, a group of the richest, most powerful people from the richest, most powerful countries who make decisions which impact all of us. The past few times they have met they decided to bail out big banks, including the biggest, baddest bank of them all, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which does nothing to help people. In addition, G20-style globalization policies have harmed the environment and threatened democracy everywhere.
Demonstrators went on the march through Pittsburgh without a permit, and police tactics effectively split up the group after about 45 minutes of marching. In the end only about 26 arrests were made.
Demonstrators are expected to march again tomorrow for a permitted and family-friendly rally and march, endorsed by many large organizations, which will start at Craft and Fifth Avenue in Pittsburgh at 11:30 AM. Bring kids and pets! More info: http://www.thomasmertoncenter.org/
The New World Order is here part #2 (especially after .30 seconds). I’m really starting to HATE my country. Thanks Russia again for covering the FUCKING news that ABC, CNN or FOX should be covering!
Add comment September 25, 2009
