Apartment vacancies hit a 30-year high in the fourth quarter, and rents fell as landlords scrambled to retain existing tenants and attract new ones.Deflation of rents.
The vacancy rate ended the year at 8%, the highest level since Reis Inc., a New York research firm that tracks vacancies and rents in the top 79 U.S. markets, began its tally in 1980.
Rents fell 3% last year, according to Reis, led by declines in San Jose, Calif., Seattle, San Francisco and other cities that had brisk growth until the recession.
In New York City, the vacancy rate improved by 0.1 percentage point for the second straight quarter, but around 60% of rental buildings dropped their rents in the fourth quarter from the previous quarter. Effective rents -- which include concessions such as one month of free rent -- fell 5.6% in New York last year, the worst since Reis began tracking the data in 1990.
Landlords now must entice tenants to renew leases. "We'll shampoo their carpets. We'll paint accent walls. We'll add Starbucks cards," said Richard Campo, chief executive of Camden Property Trust, a Houston-based real-estate investment trust that owns 63,000 units. He said the first half of 2010 should be "pretty ugly," but was optimistic the sector would pick up later in the year.
Thursday, January 07, 2010
U.S. Now a Renters' Market: With Apartment-Vacancy Rate at 30-Year High, Landlords Cut Prices 3% in 2009
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Southern Schools Mark Two Majorities
The New York Times reports:
The South has become the first region in the country where more than half of public school students are poor and more than half are members of minorities, according to a new report.
The shift was fueled not by white flight from public schools, which spiked during desegregation but has not had much effect on school demographics since the early 1980s. Rather, an influx of Latinos and other ethnic groups, the return of blacks to the South and higher birth rates among black and Latino families have contributed to the change.
The Greatest Heroes Who Fought FDR's New Deal
Jim Powell reports:
During the early 1930s, there were powerful political pressures to suppress economic liberty, as the New Deal promoted price fixing and cartels that benefited producer interests at the expense of consumers. But for three years, the U.S. Supreme Court defended economic liberty and struck down one New Deal law after another.
New Deal historians long blamed these adverse Supreme Court decisions on the "Four Horsemen of Reaction," meaning justices Willis Van Devanter, James C. McReynolds, Pierce Butler and George Sutherland.
A Milestone on the Road to Becoming a Third-World Economy
New Geography reports:
Northrop Grumman Corp started California’s New Year by announcing it is moving its headquarters to the Washington D.C. area. Unfortunately, they are neither the first nor the last major corporation to leave Southern California. It is a trend, one that may not last much longer, though since aren’t that many major corporations still headquartered in greater Los Angeles.
Graduate School in the Humanities: The Path to Poverty
Thomas Benton reports:
Nearly six years ago, I wrote a column called "So You Want to Go to Grad School?" (The Chronicle, June 6, 2003). My purpose was to warn undergraduates away from pursuing Ph.D.'s in the humanities by telling them what I had learned about the academic labor system from personal observation and experience.The scam of higher education.
It was a message many prospective graduate students were not getting from their professors, who were generally too eager to clone themselves. Having heard rumors about unemployed Ph.D.'s, some undergraduates would ask about job prospects in academe, only to be told, "There are always jobs for good people." If the students happened to notice the increasing numbers of well-published, highly credentialed adjuncts teaching part time with no benefits, they would be told, "Don't worry, massive retirements are coming soon, and then there will be plenty of positions available." The encouragement they received from mostly well-meaning but ill-informed professors was bolstered by the message in our culture that education always leads to opportunity.
Chicago Plumbing inspector convicted of bribery, conspiracy
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
A federal jury Tuesday convicted a Chicago plumbing inspector accused of overlooking code violations and pushing through permits.There's more:
Mario Olivella, 42, was convicted of two counts of bribery and conspiracy for taking bribes to overlook code violations at a building at 1637 W. Granville that is being converted to condos. He faces up to 15 years in prison at his May 28 sentencing.
Prosectors alleged Olivella’s $105,000 credit card debt and $1 million debt to mortgage lenders provided ample motivation for graft.
Olivella is the 12th of 17 city workers snagged in a federal investigation dubbed Operation Crooked Code to be convicted.
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Will Rahm Emanuel Run For Mayor of Chicago?
Sally Quinn in the Washington Post reports:
Emanuel is said to have told people that the chief-of-staff role is an 18-month job and that he is considering a run for mayor of Chicago.
NYC prosecutor blasts 'heroin how-to' pamphlet
The New York Post reports:
New York City’s top narcotics prosecutor says a Health Department pamphlet that teaches heroin addicts how to shoot up safely is wrongheaded because there is no safe way to inject heroin.Great moments in socialized medicine.
Keynesianism Delivers a Decade of Zero : Ron Paul Attacks Paul Krugman
Ron Paul reports on the grand failure of Keynesian economics:
This past week we celebrated the end of what most people agree was a decade best forgotten. New York Times columnist and leading Keynesian economist Paul Krugman called it the Big Zero in a recent column. He wrote that “there was a whole lot of nothing going on in measures of economic progress or success” which is true. However, Krugman continues to misleadingly blame the free market and supposed lack of regulation for the economic chaos.No job growth after a decade of a massive increase in government spending.
It was encouraging that he admitted that blowing economic bubbles is a mistake, especially considering he himself advocated creating a housing bubble as a way to alleviate the hangover from the dotcom bust. But we can no longer afford to give prominent economists like Krugman a pass when they completely ignore the burden of taxation, monetary policy, and excessive regulation.
After all, Krugman is still scratching his head as to why “no” economists saw the housing bust coming. How in the world did they miss it? Actually many economists saw it coming a mile away, understood it perfectly, and explained it many times. Policy makers would have been wise to heed the warnings of the Austrian economists, and must start listening to their teachings if they want solid progress in the future. If not, the necessary correction is going to take a very long time.
The Austrian free-market economists use common sense principles. You cannot spend your way out of a recession. You cannot regulate the economy into oblivion and expect it to function. You cannot tax people and businesses to the point of near slavery and expect them to keep producing. You cannot create an abundance of money out of thin air without making all that paper worthless. The government cannot make up for rising unemployment by just hiring all the out-of-work people to be bureaucrats or send them unemployment checks forever. You cannot live beyond your means indefinitely. The economy must actually produce something others are willing to buy. Government growth is the opposite of all these things.
Barney Frank: Lenders Fannie and Freddie now
The Hill reports:
Mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are now basically a "public policy instrument" of the government, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) suggested Tuesday.You might ask where Barney Frank gets the constitutional authority to make this grand pronouncement? Will Moodys and S&P now consider Fannie and Freddie debt obligations of the U.S. Treasury?
Frank, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, asserted that the companies, which were taken over by the U.S. in September 2008, have become an extension of the government's policy-making tools.
"Remember now that Fannie and Freddie have been converted," Frank said during an appearance on CNBC. "Part of the losses of Fannie and Freddie are that since the housing collapse, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have become a kind of public utility."
Skull linked to secret Yale society to be sold at Christie’s
The New York Post reports:
A human skull that apparently was turned into a ballot box for Yale’s mysterious Skull and Bones society is going on the auction block.Sickening. For more on this disturbing subject read Antony Sutton's book and Alexandra Robbins' book.
Christie’s estimates the skull will sell for $10,000 to $20,000 when it is auctioned on Jan. 22. Fittingly, the auction house has agreed to keep the seller’s name a secret. On Monday, it described the person only as a European art collector.
The skull is fitted with a hinged flap and is believed to have been used during voting at the famous society’s meetings. The auction house said it also may have been displayed at the society’s tomblike headquarters on Yale’s campus in New Haven, Conn., during the late 1800s.
The Hidden Benefits of Exercise
The Wall Street Journal reports:
As millions of Americans flock to the gym armed with New Year's resolutions to get in shape, medical experts are offering an additional reason to exercise: Regular workouts may help fight off colds and flu, reduce the risk of certain cancers and chronic diseases and slow the process of aging.You'll want to read the whole article.
Physical activity has long been known to bestow such benefits as helping to maintain a healthy weight and reduce stress, not to mention tightening those abs. Now, a growing body of research is showing that regular exercise—as simple as a brisk 30- to 45-minute walk five times a week—can boost the body's immune system, increasing the circulation of natural killer cells that fight off viruses and bacteria. And exercise has been shown to improve the body's response to the influenza vaccine, making it more effective at keeping the virus at bay.
"No pill or nutritional supplement has the power of near-daily moderate activity in lowering the number of sick days people take," says David Nieman, director of Appalachian State University's Human Performance Lab in Kannapolis, N.C. Dr. Nieman has conducted several randomized controlled studies showing that people who walked briskly for 45 minutes, five days a week over 12 to 15 weeks had fewer and less severe upper respiratory tract infections, such as colds and flu. These subjects reduced their number of sick days 25% to 50% compared with sedentary control subjects, he says.
Silicon Valley 'Bloodbath' Leaves Entire Office Buildings Empty
Business Week reports:
Silicon Valley is beset by the biggest office property glut since the dot-com bust, leaving the U.S. technology hub with empty high-rises and office parks that make it impossible for landlords to sustain average rents.No word from the National Association of Realtors on this one.
More than 43 million square feet (4 million square meters)—the equivalent of 15 Empire State Buildings—stood vacant at the end of the third quarter, the most in almost five years, according to CB Richard Ellis Group Inc. San Jose, Sunnyvale and Palo Alto have 11 empty office buildings with about 3 million square feet of the best quality space.
"There is a bubble bursting in much the same way as the residential market burst," said Jon Haveman, principal at Beacon Economics, a consulting firm in San Rafael, California. "None of those towers will fill up anytime soon."
The Limits Of Blue State Politics
New Geography reports:
Obama and his congressional allies have worked overtime in favor of urban blue-state constituencies in everything from transportation funding and energy policies to the Wall Street bailouts and massive transfers of private wealth to powerful public-employee unions. Yet these areas continue suffering from net outmigration and stubbornly high job losses – as well as from some of the most severe fiscal imbalances in the nation.Another great one from Joel Kotkin.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the president's hometown of Chicago. The Windy City has suffered a very bad recession and may have fallen to its worst relative position since the Daley reconquista in 1989. As Chicago blogger Steve Bartin points out, even the presence of a Daley operative in the White House has failed to prevent the city from falling "in a funk." He writes that even a reliable booster, columnist Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune, has lately described the city "as edgy, a little sullen and scared, verging on depressed."
N.J. bill on in-state tuition for illegal immigrants advances
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports:
A bill to allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at state colleges and universities cleared committees in both houses of the Legislature yesterday after several hours of impassioned debate.
"It is a matter of simple fairness that students who have grown up in New Jersey, graduated from high school in New Jersey, and are the future of New Jersey, be given the simple dignity of being able to go to college here as well," said Assemblywoman Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D., Camden), a sponsor.
Eleven states allow illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition, which in New Jersey can be half the cost of out-of-state rates. Advocates in New Jersey have been working to advance legislation on the issue since at least 2002.
The bill would allow illegal immigrants to qualify for in-state tuition if they attended a New Jersey high school for at least three years, graduated or received the equivalent of a high school diploma from a New Jersey high school, and submitted an affidavit to the college or university stating they had applied to legalize their immigration status.
Monday, January 04, 2010
Funds cut US and UK bond holdings
The Financial Times reports:
The world’s biggest investment funds are cutting exposure to US and UK government bonds amid fears that rising public debt and the withdrawal of central bank support for their economies could scupper the global recovery.
The funds fear that a big rise in government bond yields, or interest rates, triggered by market concerns about public finances, could quickly feed through to higher mortgages and business borrowing costs. As yields rise bond prices fall, devaluing the funds’ holdings.
Counting calories burned is not as easy as 1-2-3
The L.A. Times reports:
Whether you're trudging on a treadmill, pedaling on an exercise bike or taking on Roger Federer in a Wii game of Grand Slam Tennis, the machine will probably give you a reading of how many calories are going up in sweat.
In fact, no matter what you're doing -- and that includes doing nothing -- you can find a gadget to compute how many calories you're working off.
But should you put a lot of weight on these figures?
"The short answer is no," says Dr. Chris Cooper, director of the UCLA exercise physiology research laboratory. "They're all estimates based on a number of assumptions."
Government Workers Plunder the Taxpayers: Steve Greenhut Talks About HIs Book on Looting
C-Span has a video you should watch.
Why New York City Needs a New Economic Strategy
Joel Kotkin reports:
It's also time to get rid of the Sex and the City image and start making New York a city where people can have both sex and children. This will become more important as the millennial generation enters its late 20s and early 30s later this decade. This is when many young migrants to the city, including upwardly mobile immigrants, typically become ex–New Yorkers.Another great one from Joel Kotkin.
How the Welfare State Came to America: A Look At the American Association For Labor Legislation
How did America go from being a place of limited government and free markets to a German style Welfare State? Between 1900 and 1950 the intellectual climate of opinion went statist. One of the most important groups in promoting big, activist government was the mostly forgotten group the American Association of Labor Legislation. This group of left wing economists provided the constant propaganda in the move to saddle businesses and consumers with costly regulations. Lloyd F. Pierce wrote a rather interesting doctoral dissertation concerning this left wing group. Here's a list of the Presidents of the organization:
Richard T. Ely (1906-1907)
Henry W. Farnam(1908-1910)
Henry R. Seager(1911-1912}
William F. Willoughby(1913)
Henry R. Seager(1914-1915)
Irving R. Fisher(1916-1917)
Samuel Lindsay(1917-1919)
Thomas Chadbourne(1920-1926)
Sam Lewison(1927-1928)
Thomas Parkinson(1929)
Joseph Chamberlin(1930)
Ernest Draper(1931-1933)
Leo Wolman(1934)
Joseph Chamberlin(1935-1945)
Henry Farnam and Irving Fisher were members of Yale's Skull and Bones. David Moss wrote an interesting book on this group.Moss stated that Farnam was the group's "biggest financial contributor during the progressive period".
Boomerang effect: Young adults move back home to save money
The Chicago Tribune reports:
Only 46.1 percent of 16- to 24-year-olds are employed, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the smallest share recorded since the government began collecting such data in 1948.
With Chicago Conventions Down : 100K Jobs Up at Convention Center
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Even as convention business has plummeted, the number of people on the payroll of the government agency that runs McCormick Place and Navy Pier who are paid more than $100,000 a year has grown.But there's more:
A Chicago Sun-Times analysis of payroll records shows 54 employees of the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority were making at least $100,000 as of September 2009. That's eight more than the agency, familiarly known as McPier, had in 2006, the records show -- a 17 percent increase.
The roster of McPier's six-figure workers also includes Michael R. Degnan, son of former top Daley aide Tim Degnan, and Ronald Marasso, who at one point was working a $91,000-a-year McPier job by day at the same time he had a $41,000-a-year job with the Cook County sheriff's police at night.Alderman Roti was identified in 1991 in the United States Attorney General's annual report as a made member of the Chicago Mob.
Marasso, a son-in-law of late Chicago Ald. Fred Roti (1st), took an unpaid leave of absence from his night job guarding the old domestic violence courthouse at 13th and Michigan in July 2001 before resigning that post in August 2003. He now makes $129,280 a year as McPier's facilities director for Navy Pier and McCormick Place.
For the feds, some Wall Street firms are too big — to punish
McClatchy reports:
Forget too big to fail. In the eyes of federal regulators, many Wall Street firms are too big to punish.Those campaign contributions work wonders.
During the past three years, some of the nation's largest financial firms have been accused by the government of cheating or misleading clients and ripping off tens of thousands of consumers of their investments.
Sunday, January 03, 2010
Fannie and Freddie : The Biggest Losers
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Happy New Year, readers, but before we get on with the debates of 2010, there's still some ugly 2009 business to report: To wit, the Treasury's Christmas Eve taxpayer massacre lifting the $400 billion cap on potential losses for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as the limits on what the failed companies can borrow.The cancer grows.
The Treasury is hoping no one notices, and no wonder. Taxpayers are continuing to buy senior preferred stock in the two firms to cover their growing losses—a combined $111 billion so far. When Treasury first bailed them out in September 2008, Congress put a $200 billion limit ($100 billion each) on federal assistance. Last year, the Treasury raised the potential commitment to $400 billion. Now the limit on taxpayer exposure is, well, who knows?
Bernanke Says Regulation Would Have Limited U.S. Housing Boom
Bloomberg reports:
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said the central bank’s low interest rates probably didn’t cause the past decade’s housing bubble and that better regulation would have been more effective in limiting the boom.What else would you expect a central planner to say?
The New York Mob and New York Mets : Shady firms got $52M to build Citi Field
The New York Post reports:
The Mets shelled out $51.6 million in taxpayer money to contractors shunned by the city for their ties to the Mafia, labor corruption or bribery, The Post has learned.Where would the union movement be without organized crime?
At least seven contractors the city avoids were hired by the team to build Citi Field between 2006 and 2009, according to government records.
The tainted companies were paid from a $91 million pot the city Economic Development Corp. gave to the Mets.
Among the contractors was Ruttura & Sons, a Long Island firm that received $23 million for concrete and excavation work. Its vice president, Peter Ruttura, was convicted of fraud in 2004 for paying off business agents and labor officials in mobbed-up unions, according to court records.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Blasts Benchmark S&P Over Decade
CNBC reports:
Shares of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway far outperformed the benchmark S&P 500 stock index over the decade of the 2000s, with a gain of 76.8 percent.Where would Warren Buffett be without TARP money? Warren Buffett sure knows how to lobby Congress get taxpayer money to line his pockets.
The S&P dropped 24.1 percent, excluding dividends, over the same ten-year period ending today (Thursday.)
Saturday, January 02, 2010
Ron Paul's ideas no longer fringe
The L.A. Times reports:
For three decades, Texas congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul's extreme brand of libertarian economics consigned him to the far fringes even among conservatives. Not a few times, his views put him on the losing end of 434-1 votes on Capitol Hill.An article well worth your time.
No longer. With the economy still struggling and political divisions deepening, Paul's ideas not only are gaining a wider audience but also are helping to shape a potentially historic battle over economic policy -- a struggle that will affect everything including jobs, growth and the nation's place in the global economy.
Michigan's smokes now will burn themselves out
The Detroit Free Press reports:
A state law that took effect Friday requiring stores to sell only self-extinguishing cigarettes, may help snuff out smoking-related deaths.
Chrysler Sues State Officials Over Dealer Law Changes
Bloomberg reports:
Chrysler LLC sued the Oregon Attorney General and officials in Maine, North Carolina and Illinois, saying recent changes to those states’ dealer’s laws violate the bankruptcy code and the U.S. Constitution.
Chrysler says the new laws interfere with the car company’s rejection of 789 dealers as part of its sale to Italy’s Fiat SpA. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan bankruptcy court by reorganized Chrysler as well as its bankrupt estate, seeks a court order declaring the laws unconstitutional and in conflict with a bankruptcy judge’s orders.
State and local pensions plans are on a path to failure
The Washington Post has an editorial:
The hardest-hit states are those, such as California, Illinois and New Jersey, that made the most lavish underfunded promises. Still even relatively responsible states such as Virginia and Maryland have been hit hard. The market's comeback this year has ameliorated the situation to some extent. Many pension funds are tempted to gamble for higher returns to make up for their losses. Even if pension funds do manage to achieve that magical 8 percent average rate of return over the next 15 years, they will only have an average of 45 percent of the money they need to pay benefits, according to an analysis by state pension expert Kim Nicholl of PricewaterhouseCoopers. The picture for health benefits, which states are generally paying out of current revenue, is even worse.For more on this subject , we wrote something for New Geography. On why democracy lacks accountability.
Obama's Secret Power Base
The Daily Beast reports:
Rather than the “good old boys,” Obama’s core group hails from what may be best described as the “creative class”—the cognitive elite, or, to borrow from the Daniel Bell’s The Coming of Postindustrial Society, the “the hierophants of the new society.” They come not from traditional productive industry, but the self-conscious “knowledge” sectors—such as financial services, the software industry, and academia.Another great one from Joel Kotkin.
From early on, Barack Obama attracted big-money people like George Soros, Warren Buffett, and JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon far more effectively than his opponents in either party. As The New York Times' Andrew Sorkin put it back in April, "Mr. Obama might be struggling with the blue-collar vote in Pennsylvania, but he has nailed the hedge-fund vote.”
U.S. Stocks Drop as Crisis Causes S&P 500’s First Decade Loss
Bloomberg reports:
This past year’s rally wasn’t enough to restore money lost in two bear markets after the Internet bubble collapsed in 2000 and more than $1.7 trillion in global bank losses sent the index to a 38 percent decline in 2008. The S&P 500 posted an average decrease of 0.9 percent a year since 1999 including dividends, the first negative return for a decade since data began in 1927, according to S&P analyst Howard Silverblatt.
“This dispelled two myths,” said Robert Arnott, founder of Research Affiliates LLC, which oversees $47 billion in Newport Beach, California. “The notion that investment gains are easy, and the notion that stocks will win for the patient investor, no matter what we pay.”
Chinese banks find their credit in high demand
The Washington Post reports:
China's state-owned banks have become a main engine of the global recovery, financing the construction of copper mines, purchase of airplanes, expansion of retail stores and other projects even as their U.S. and European counterparts scale back lending.
Columbia University Gets a Lesson in Property Rights
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Columbia University is one of New York's largest landowners, and perhaps the one with the most to gain from the state's power to seize private property. But in a surprise ruling in early December, a state court struck down the city's attempt to take private land in West Harlem and give it to the university. Now that case is becoming an important beachhead in the fight over eminent domain.An institution such as Columbia, which employs and preaches hostility to markets and contracts can be a reliable advocate for theft of property through the political process.
Friday, January 01, 2010
U.S. economy took a dive in the 2000s, a lost decade for workers
The Washington Post reports:
There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.A decade of a massive increase in government spending, yet the Keynesian multiplier produced nothing in job growth. What better proof that every dollar government spends is one less the private sector has to spend?
Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 -- and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009.
The Call to Boycott Morgan Stanley for Higher Chicago Parking Meters : Joint Venture Leads to Rage
The Examiner reports:
The Chicago Tribune reports today that city parking meters are set to rise (yet again) next week. That means that, come Monday, parking for an hour in the loop will run you $4.25. Ouch.Wouldn't you know, Mayor Daley's nephew works for Morgan Stanley. That's the Chicago Way.
If you are angry enough to take action, I have a suggestion for you. No, I am not advocating taking a sledgehammer to a frozen parking payment kiosk (you're on your own there). Strike back at the heart of the enemy.
The Tribune coyly identifies the private company that purchased the rights to collect parking fees for the next 75 years as "Chicago Parking Meters LLC." But a few clicks of the mouse reveals that the parent company of this decoy entity is actually mega-investment bank Morgan Stanley.
Right. So, if you wish to take a stand against the rape and pillage of ordinary Chicago car-owners you have a very straightforward option: close any accounts you have with Morgan Stanley and transfer them to a rival service provider. Be sure to inform Morgan Stanley why you are withdrawing your business.
New York State Moves Closer to Insolvency
The New York Post reports on New York state:
Then, last spring, deep in the throes of what was termed the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression, lawmakers pumped up state spending even more -- raising it from $121 billion to $132 billion, a stunning 9 percent jump, and paying for most of it with huge tax increases.
Paterson, to his shame, went along.
But now he's backtracking.
Federal agencies may have to consider climate before they act
The L.A. Times reports:
The Obama administration may issue an order that would expand the National Environmental Policy Act's scope to prevent global warming. The move could open up new avenues to challenge projects.The anti-jobs movement in action.
TSA nominee misled Congress about accessing confidential records
The Washington Post reports:
The White House nominee to lead the Transportation Security Administration gave Congress misleading information about incidents in which he inappropriately accessed a federal database, possibly in violation of privacy laws, documents obtained by The Washington Post show.
Saudi Arabia, Norway gave Clinton's foundation millions
The New York Post reports:
Foreign countries including Saudi Arabia and Norway gave millions of dollars to former President Bill Clinton's charity as Hillary Rodham Clinton served her first year as President Barack Obama's secretary of state.Hillary Clinton is lucky not to be a Republican, the MSM would never stop writing stories about this.
A donor list released on New Year's Day by the William J. Clinton Foundation shows that Saudi Arabia and Norway each donated somewhere between $10 million to $25 million to the former president's charity.
The biggest donors included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which gave more than $25 million.
The Clintons agreed to annually disclose the names of donors to the former president's foundation to address concerns about potential conflicts of interest between his fundraising abroad and his wife's role in helping direct administration foreign policy.
Numerous federal tax cuts expired at midnight
Illinois Review reports:
Your federal taxes increased at midnight January 1, 2010 because Congress failed to reinstate tax cuts that were scheduled to sunset.Just think , Obama said he wouldn't raise taxes on those making under 200K. I guess he lied.
Republicans Who Opposed The Stimulus Continue To Pan It As A ‘Failure,’ While Also Taking Credit For Its Success
Palm Beach police arrest 2 state employees for stealing from patient
Overpaid Government Worker reports:
Two women employed by the state to protect a vulnerable elderly woman instead preyed on her, stealing about $20,000 from her bank accounts while she was hospitalized for dementia.The state.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Blago Aides Fined for Campaiging for Obama on the Job
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
Three aides to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich have been fined by a state ethics panel for campaigning for Barack Obama on the taxpayers' dime.Barack Obama and Blago: closer than the MSM wanted you to believe.
Sheila Nix, Abigail Ottenhoff and Rebecca Rausch broke the law in 2007 when they issued a press release supporting Obama on behalf of Blagojevich, the Illinois Executive Ethics Commission ruled.
Public Sector Greed
Reason reports:
There is a looming showdown in American society between public-sector employees and the rest of us, in terms of job security and, especially, unsustainable gold-plated retirement and health benefits that are working hard to bankrupt whole states such as California, New York, and New Jersey. As with some parts of the private sector (domestically owned auto companies, for instance), basic compensation packages were hammered into place in a very different America, and conferred massive future benefits when politicians were either too stupid or too cowardly to confront basic questions of fiscal responsibility. Do you want to spend your life (and have your kids spend their lives) to pay ever-increasing taxes for teacher, cop, and bureaurat retirements at early ages? Especially while you're expected to fully fund your own? This is a social contract that needs to be redrawn ASAP.Classic war.