Sunday, February 28, 2010
Some CEOs Are Selling Their Companies Short
Business Week reports:
With a little help from their bankers, hedging by CEOs, directors, and other senior executives may deprive investors of clues about impending problems at companies
Soros Criticizes Obama's Bailouts
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Billionaire investor George Soros, who helped U.S. President Barack Obama raise money for his presidential campaign in 2008, said Sunday he wasn't happy with Mr. Obama's handling of the financial crisis.The un -free market activist George Soros.
Mr. Soros said the government should have taken over U.S. banks instead of bailing them out, a move he suggested would have been more popular with Americans.
"The solution that he found to the financial crisis, which was to effectively bail out the banks and allow them to earn their way out of the hole, was, in my opinion, not the right solution," Mr. Soros said in an interview with CNN. "He should have compulsorily replaced the capital that was lost."
Flashback: James O' Keefe Catches Planned Parenthood's Willingness to Take Money Designated for Black Abortions Only on Tape
The New York Times Notices Planned Parenthood's Nefarious Beginnings
Illinois Review reports:
The documentary Maafa 21 continues to make headlines and draw attention to the eugenic roots of the notorious, yet taxpayer-funded, Planned Parenthood. Yesterday's New York Times surprisingly spotlighted the issue, writing that black leaders are pushing for the group's defundingHere's the Times:
Still, enough threads of truth weave through the theory to make “Maafa 21,” the documentary whose name is a Swahili word used to refer to the slavery era, persuasive to some viewers, at least at a recent screening at Morris Brown College, a historically black institution in Atlanta.Here's more on the subject.
“Before we saw the movie, I was pro-choice,” said Markita Eddy, a sophomore. But were she to get pregnant now, Ms. Eddy said, “it showed me that maybe I should want to keep my child no matter what my position was, just because of the conspiracy.”
The Al Gore Cult: One hundred psycho-pathological requirements to join
Is global warming a cult? Is Al Gore a leader in this cult:?
Is belief in Anthropogenic Global Warming a cult? Apply this 100 point Cult Test and you tell us. Read each one, adding one point for each statement that rings as true. Total up the score and tell us, on a scale of 0 to 100, what you come up with. Well, it really should be a score between 1 to 100, as there can be no person alive, even if a member of the cult, that could not agree with point #1.Check out the test.
Cult leader Al Gore, is so “always right” that his devotees don’t even question the fact that he will debate no one. Ever. Anywhere. They laugh at this absurd notion, for He is The One. Others are unworthy to even stand in his presence.
Obama's Middle-Class Meltdown
Joel Kotkin reports on Obama's move away from the middle class:
Obama’s move was encouraged by the aging leadership of the Democratic Party, shaped by places like Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco and Henry Waxman’s lushly affluent Beverly Hills. It has little to do with the views of the middle class who reside generally in smaller towns and less-than-tony suburbs—but some of the wealthiest, and most privileged, populations on earth.An article well worth your time.
President Obama’s other key constituency lies in the public sector unions, whose power in his home state of Illinois now rivals and perhaps surpasses that of the Daley machine. Even as middle-class voters see their pensions dwindle along with their housing prices and jobs, the public sector has waxed into something resembling the Blue Meanie in Yellow Submarine who consumes everything in sight, and ultimately itself.
Unused vacation time carries high price tag for California
The Sacramento Bee reports:
In the past few years, California has paid out an estimated $100 million to state employees who have retired with large amounts of unused vacation pay, ignoring long-standing rules that prohibit them from amassing such time-off benefits.Who's watching the watchdog?
The state sets a limit on how much vacation time state workers can accumulate during their careers. Most are allowed to bank up to 80 days worth of unused vacation, which is paid out when they leave state service.
But records show that supervisors routinely allow state employees to exceed that limit. State personnel officials acknowledge that at least $100 million, and perhaps tens of millions more, was paid between 2006 and mid-2009 to retiring state employees who went over the state caps.
Some fear California's high-speed rail won't deliver on early promises
The L.A. Times reports:
Despite a new $2.25-billion infusion of federal economic stimulus funding, there are intensifying concerns -- even among some high-speed rail supporters -- that California's proposed bullet train may not deliver on the financial and ridership promises made to win voter backing in 2008.This was supposed to be one of Obama's great central planning ideas with other people's money.
Estimates of ticket prices between Los Angeles and San Francisco have nearly doubled in the project's latest business plan, pushing ridership projections down sharply and prompting new skepticism about data underpinning the entire project.
As Senate campaign heats up, Giannoulias family races to avoid collapse of its bank
The Chicago Tribune reports:
Of Broadway's more than $240 million in seriously delinquent loans and foreclosed real estate, Demetris Giannoulias said, 9 percent of the value of those deals originated during Alexi Giannoulias' tenure as the bank's chief loan officer from 2002 through 2006, when he left to successfully run for state treasurer.The community bank that makes big loans to a mobster several states away from the community: the world of Alexi Giannoulias.
Since 2007, Broadway Bank has filed dozens of foreclosures on various properties, including several to Michael Giorango, a convicted bookmaker and prostitution ring promoter who has become a political albatross in Alexi Giannoulias' campaigns.
During Alexi Giannoulias' tenure at Broadway, the bank approved loans to Giorango for various real estate deals. Alexi Giannoulias has acknowledged he serviced some Giorango loans and went to Miami to inspect Giorango property the bank financed.
New York’s top earners will soon be paying more in state taxes than ever
City Journal reports:
Advocates of the misnamed “millionaire’s tax” enacted in New York State last year claimed that it would restore “fairness” to a tax code that favored the rich. After all, the statewide teachers’ union noted, “over the last 30 years, New York has cut its top personal income tax rate on the wealthy by one-half.” Technically, the union was right—but that was only part of the story. Thanks to the interplay of federal and state tax rules, Albany’s share of all income taxes paid by New York’s wealthiest residents has actually been rising since the 1970s. And it will soon rise to its highest level ever, if President Obama and congressional Democrats have their way. This is bad news for New York’s battered economy.An article well worth your time.
Buffett vents on financial fat cats
California is a greater risk than Greece, warns JP Morgan chief
The Telegraph reports:
Jamie Dimon, chairman of JP Morgan Chase, has warned American investors should be more worried about the risk of default of the state of California than of Greece's current debt woes.Yet, who just passed single payer out of the state Senate? Government workers in California are quite expensivie.
Coalition seeks freeze on dividend tax
The Hill reports:
More than 40 utility companies and associations will join forces next week to storm Capitol Hill to fight for the preservation of dividend income tax rates that are set to expire on Dec. 31.Just a warning, the demand for stocks will go down holding all other variables equal.
Absent congressional action, the 15 percent tax on dividends resets in January 2011 to pre-2001 levels when most dividends were taxed as income, with rates that topped out at 39.6 percent.
Welfare State Crack-Up : Not Enough People to Tax
Mark Steyn reports:
Unfortunately, Germany is no longer an economic powerhouse. As Angela Merkel pointed out a year ago, for Germany, an Obama-sized stimulus was out of the question simply because its foreign creditors know there are not enough young Germans around ever to repay it. Over 30 percent of German women are childless; among German university graduates, it’s over 40 percent. And for the ever-dwindling band of young Germans who make it out of the maternity ward, there’s precious little reason to stick around. Why be the last handsome blond lederhosen-clad Aryan lad working the late shift at the beer garden in order to prop up singlehandedly entire retirement homes? And that’s before the EU decides to add the Greeks to your burdens. Germans, who retire at 67, are now expected to sustain the unsustainable 14 monthly payments per year of Greeks who retire at 58.You'll want to read the whole article. Twice.
Think of Greece as California: Every year an irresponsible and corrupt bureaucracy awards itself higher pay and better benefits paid for by an ever-shrinking wealth-generating class. And think of Germany as one of the less profligate, still-just-about-functioning corners of America such as my own state of New Hampshire: Responsibility doesn’t pay.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Journalist William Greider to Speak at Chicago Democratic Socialists of America Dinner in May
Veteran journalist William Greider will speak at the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America's annual Debs-Thomas- Harrington dinner on May 7,2010. In 2004 , Jan Schakowsky was the speaker at the socialist dinner.
Pub landlord is first person in Britain to be jailed over smoking ban
The Daily Mail reports:
A former pub landlord yesterday became the first person to be jailed in connection with the smoking ban.How threatening Nick Hogan is to the government's crusade.
Nick Hogan, 43, was sentenced to six months in prison for refusing to pay a fine imposed for flouting the legislation.
Two years ago Hogan, who ran two pubs in Bolton, became the first landlord convicted of breaking the law for allowing his customers to routinely light up in his bars.
Singles, especially women, a growing share of homebuyers
The Chicago Tribune reports:
First-time homebuyers largely have been credited for the glimpses of optimism appearing in the nation's housing market. But there's another demographic group flexing its muscle: single buyers and, more specifically, single women.
Unmarried, solo buyers have been growing in number since the residential market heated up seven years ago, and there've been twice as many female buyers as male for at least a decade. In the past two years though, married couples have tempered their enthusiasm for home purchases, but singles with steady jobs and good credit are still closing on homes. They're either entering the market for the first time or are existing homeowners capitalizing on market dynamics to trade up.
House Republicans Call for Bigger Deficits Than Obama
The New American , the website of the John Birch Society has a reminder.
Workers Hidden On Payroll
The Miami Herald reports:
In a glaring example of how the Jackson Health System has wasted money, a new investigative report reveals how a Chicago consulting firm was paid $1.8 million over 2 ½ years -- including money for three little-used downtown Miami apartments and four employees hidden on the system's payroll in a plan intended to disguise how much money was being spent.Here's more on the story.
The no-bid contract of Capitol Consulting LLC was terminated last July, after Eneida Roldan took over as chief executive. According to the report, a Jackson executive accessed Roldan's e-mail account to authorize payment of $31,568.74 for Capitol expenses.
Yale To Post Essays On Sex On University Website
The Hartford Courant reports:
To show that Yale social life isn't all about hooking up, university officials are asking students to submit essays on sex, which will be posted on the website of the Yale College dean's office.Pell Grants were meant for writing essays.
Melanie Boyd, director of undergraduate studies at Yale's Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies program, is one of the organizers of the "sex@yale" initiative. She says the project is designed partly to counteract a popular notion of Yale student life as being all about casual sex. The essays will be up on the site this summer.
Chicago Democrats Move For Tougher signature demands for aldermanic races
The Chicago Tribune reports:
No word from Chicago Mob linked political boss Alderman Burke on this one.
Just getting in the race to take on a Chicago alderman in next year's election could get tougher if a change proposed by a lawmaker from the Cook County Democratic establishment becomes law.
To secure a ballot spot, aldermanic candidates would have to gather at least 500 valid voter signatures -- the same number now required of state representatives, whose districts have nearly twice the number of residents as city wards -- under legislation making its way through the Illinois House.
Foes said the change could protect Democrats and aldermen who have organizations behind them. They noted it takes two to three times the number of required signatures to withstand the petition challenges often mounted by party regulars.
"In the lowest turnout wards, it's going to have an effect," said Cindi Canary, director of the Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. "I don't see that we have a problem that requires this. I'm more concerned with making it easier for people to run, not harder for people to run."
3 in Dallas City Hall case sentenced in a 'betrayal of our city'
The Dallas Morning News reports:
Former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison for leading a massive shakedown scheme that a federal judge called a "betrayal of our city."Can you name that party that the Dallas Morning News left out?
U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn sentenced Former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, his wife, Sheila Farrington Hill and former plan commission appointee, D'Angelo Lee, to prison for leading a massive shakedown scheme that the federal judge called a "betrayal of our city."
U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn also sentenced his wife, Sheila Farrington Hill, 46, to nine years for her role laundering the hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and extortion payments from developers for her 58-year-old husband. Hill's former plan commission appointee, D'Angelo Lee, 44, received 14 years.
Political Litmus Test: Bluest States Spilling The Most Red Ink
Forbes reports:
Want to know which states are in the worst financial condition? One telling indicator that might not immediately come to mind is whether most of its citizens identify themselves as Democrats.How Blue?:
The five states in the worst financial condition--Illinois, New York, Connecticut, California and New Jersey--are all among the bluest of blue states. The five most fiscally fit states are more of a mix. Three--Utah, Nebraska and Texas--boast Republican majorities and two--New Hampshire and Virginia--skew Democratic.
Of the 10 states in the worst financial condition, eight are among a total of 23 defined by Gallup as "solidly Democratic," meaning the Democrats enjoy an advantage of 10 percentage points or greater in party affiliation.Great moments in Blue America.
Oddball Tax Deductions: Breast Implants?
Kiplinger reports on some tax deductions you might not know of:
In an effort to get bigger tips, an exotic dancer with the stage name "Chesty Love" decided to get implants to make her a size 56-FF. The IRS challenged her deduction, saying the operation was cosmetic surgery. But a female Tax Court judge allowed this taxpayer to claim a depreciation deduction for her new, um, assets, equating them to a stage prop. Alas, the operation later proved to be a problem for Ms. Love. She tripped, rupturing one of her implants. That caused a severe infection, and the implants had to be removed.Imagine that.
4 Health Care Questions and Answers
Andrew Napolitano has a short contribution to your education:
Can the government force you to buy health insurance? Why can't I buy health insurance from anyone who wants to sell it to me?You'll want to read the whole article.
Radical Left Wants Sen. Bunning Ousted From Baseball Hall of Fame For Opposing Unemployment Benefits
Gateway Pundit reports:
The radical left wants Senator Bunning ousted from the Baseball Hall of Fame for opposing the democrat’s plan to extend unemployment benefits and increase the national debt. Democrats passed a paygo rule just two weeks ago. They already violated that rule. Bunning wanted to hold them accountable.
Health care to die for
Don Surber reminds about death do to socialized medicine:
In America, 45,000 out of 300 million people die because they lack health insurance.No word from the progressives on this one.
In England, 50,000 out of 60 million people die because they have health insurance.
Adjusting for population and those 45,000 who die without health insurance would become 250,000 who die with health insurance.
Judge orders bank to turn money over to Jefferson County, Alabama
AL.com reports:
A circuit court judge today ordered Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank to turn over $27.4 million it holds in an account for Jefferson County.
County officials said the money immediately will be used to pay a tax rebate payment due Saturday to the Internal Revenue Service.
Bank officials have declined to say why they refused to release the money to the county.
Defying Global Slump, China Has Labor Shortage
The New York Times reports:
Just a year after laying off millions of factory workers, China is facing an increasingly acute labor shortage.
As American workers struggle with near double-digit unemployment, unskilled factory workers here in China’s industrial heartland are being offered signing bonuses.
Factory wages have risen as much as 20 percent in recent months.
Auto suppliers urge Congress to boost access to credit
The Detroit News reports:
The nation's auto suppliers again asked Congress on Friday for greater access to credit.There's more:
For more than a year, the Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association has been seeking access to federal government loans to diversify and stabilize their businesses.
Wes Smith, who is president of E&E Manufacturing in Plymouth, urged the House committees on Financial Services and Small Business to help them get credit.
Auto suppliers warn that after more than 50 bankruptcies in 2009 and up to 200 simply closing their doors, this year could be even worse.Unless John Dingell is able to loot taxpayers from across the country.
Fannie Taps Treasury for $15.3 Billion More After a 10th Loss
Bloomberg reports:
Fannie Mae will seek $15.3 billion in U.S. aid, bringing the total owed under a government lifeline to $76.2 billion, after its 10th consecutive quarterly loss.Great moments in bailouts.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Skull and Bones Member Pleads Guilty to Fleecing Investors
The Daily Herald reports:
Forrest David Laidley - the builder of a prominent Lincolnshire mall and former board member of a publicly traded company - has admitted fleecing investors and financial institutions.There's more:
Although federal prosecutors say Laidley fraudulently obtained more than $10 million, his attorney has filed documents contending the amount is overstated. His defense attorney, Kenneth Cunniff, couldn't be reached for comment Friday.
Laidley graduated from Yale University in 1966. He played linebacker on Yale's football team and belonged to the prestigious Class of '66 Skull and Bones Society, which included Democratic U.S. Sen. John Kerry.No word yet on whether John Kerry still supports his fellow "patriarch".
Blue State Rotten: Led by New York, big-government blue states sink deeper into corruption
Fred Siegel reports:
American politics, particularly in the big-government, ever-more-insolvent blue states, are increasingly driven by scandal. We are witnessing a meltdown of the political class in states where the growth of government has, even in weakened economies, offered bountiful opportunities for living well off the public purse. Illinois, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut have all had to force corrupt governors from office in recent years. But now New York is sprinting ahead in the scandal sweepstakes. If extraordinary front-page editorials in today’s New York Daily News and New York Post calling for the resignation of David Paterson are any measure, the Empire State is headed for its third governor in three years.Another great one from Fred Siegel. You'll want to read the whole article twice.
George Soros, 'at centre of hedge funds plot to cash in on fall of the euro'
The Daily Mail reports:
A secretive group of Wall Street hedge fund bosses are said to be behind a plot to cash in on the decline of the euro.No word yet from the Center For American Progress on this.
Representatives of George Soros's investment business were among an all-star line up of Wall Street investors at an 'ideas dinner' at a private townhouse in Manhattan, according to reports.
A spokesman for Soros Fund Management said the legendary investor did not attend the dinner on February 8, but did not deny that his firm was represented.
Wisconsin Teachers union spends big on 2009 lobbying
The Milwaukee Journal reports:
The Wisconsin Education Association Council spent nearly twice as much as any other organization to lobby lawmakers in 2009, according to the Government Accountability Board.The amazing self interest of public employee unions. We must commend the teachers unions for promoting propaganda that public school teachers are underpaid. Have you ever heard of a group that is number one in lobbying being underpaid? Maybe Wisconsin students should ask for an apple from the teachers.
The state's largest teachers union reported spending more than $1.5 million and 7,239 hours lobbying, almost twice as much as the Wisconsin Insurance Alliance, which spent the second highest amount to lobby in the state.
One aspect of the union's lobbying effort was largely successful, with the state Legislature repealing the 16-year-old qualified economic offer law that restricted teachers' pay and benefits.
Flashblack: Yale Economist Irving Fisher Explains the Eugenics Movement's Plan
Flashback to 1915, in which influential economist Irving Fisher and Eugene Lyman Fisk explain the racist plan to get rid of individual choice for those they and other elitists deem "unfit". Here's a few quotes from the eugenics section of their book titled How To Live:
But when we propose to restrict marriages or mating of those unfit to marry , people are apt to say, "That is a dream . It can't be done." But it can be done and it has been done.(page 320)Here's another gem from Fisher:
Yet in the light of modern eugenics we could make a new human race in a hundred years if only people in positions of power and influence would wake up to the paramount importance of what eugenics means.And this could be done quietly and simply without violence to existing ideas of what is right and proper. It could be done by segregation of the sexes for defectives, feeble-minded, idiots, epileptics, insane, etc.By this kind of isolation we can save the blood-stream of our race from a tremendous amount of needless contamination. (pages 321 and 322)Would the world be a better place if the members of Skull and Bones had respected the rights of individuals? Professor Fisher sums up the eugenics project pushed by the progressives:
To summarize: There three main lines along which eugenic improvement of the race may be attained:Here's some information concerning the funding of the American eugenics movement. Where would the "progressive" movement's racist agenda have been without Rockefeller and Harriman money behind it?
(1)Education of all people on the inheritability of traits; (2) segregation of defectives so they might not mingle their family traits with those on sound lines; (3) sterilization of certain gross and defectives, to preclude the propagation of their type.
There would seem to be great need of State Eugenic Boards, to correlate and promote these activities, in the interests of future population, and to give expert advice as how to legislate wisely, and individual advice as how to mate wisely. The latter function now falls entirely upon the Eugenics Records Office at Cold Spring Harbor , where the work is being carried out with great efficiency with the funds at command.(pages 323 and 324)
Sen. Grassley Grills Goldman Sachs Over Hefty Fees For 'Build America' Bond
The Huffington Post reports:
Sen. Chuck Grassley (D-Iowa) is concerned that Goldman Sachs will collect sizable fees from its role as an underwriter of the 'Build America' bonds that play a key role in the Senate's latest jobs bill.As of this posting , the Huffington Post has mislabeled Grassley as a Democrat.
State and local governments will be allowed to sell the taxable bonds to combat sagging budgets, but Grassley worries that the program could siphon "off a lot of taxpayer dollars that are meant to help cities and states."
Grassley directed his query specifically at Goldman because of a new ad the firm published in favor of the program. In the ad, Goldman touts its role as "one of the principal underwriters."
Key to Grassley's argument, it should be noted, is an assertion that Wall Street firms have already charged local governments approximately 30 percent more to underwrite Build America Bonds than they charged for other bonds
White House Meets With Atheists
McClatchy reports:
A spokesman for the Secular Coalition for America, a group that includes atheists, said its representatives met for close to an hour and a half Friday with Obama administration officials from the public engagement office of the White House and from the departments of Justice, Health and Human Services and Defense.Hope and change is so important it's a secret.
Paul Fidalgo, however, said he couldn't offer any details about what Obama aides said in the meeting because of an agreement that their discussion be kept private.
NYT Flashback 1989: Data of Last 100 Years Show No Change in Temperatures or Rainfail
Flashback to a New York Times article on January 26, 1989:
After examining climate data extending back nearly 100 years, a team of Government scientists has concluded that there has been no significant change in average temperatures or rainfall in the United States over that entire period.No word from Al Gore on this one.
While the nation's weather in individual years or even for periods of years has been hotter or cooler and drier or wetter than in other periods, the new study shows that over the last century there has been no trend in one direction or another.
The study, made by scientists for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was published in the current issue of Geophysical Research Letters. It is based on temperature and precipitation readings taken at weather stations around the country from 1895 to 1987.
Desiree Rogers quitting as White House social secretary
The Chicago Tribune reports:
Desiree Rogers is stepping down as White House social secretary, an Obama administration official said today.The Trib reminds us:
In 1997, she joined Peoples Gas.That's the Chicago Way.
When Rogers was president of Peoples from 2004 to 2008, the utility was sued by the city and state for "massive fraud" linked to the Enron scandal that allegedly led to widespread customer overcharges. The scheme pre-dated Rogers' term at the company's helm, but stonewalling of the investigation allegedly continued after she took over. Peoples agreed to a record $196 million in refunds.
Mass. Rep.William Delahunt shells out $500G from coffers
The Boston Herald reports:
U.S. Rep. William Delahunt blew nearly $560,000 in campaign cash last year - much of it on lavish meals and a family-friendly payroll that includes his ex-wife, son-in-law and daughter - stoking speculation the Quincy Democrat is emptying his war chest and won’t seek re-election.
Nickolai Bobrov, who is married to Delahunt’s daughter Kara, has raked in $47,732 since landing on the payroll as the congressman’s campaign manager in July, including a $10,000 payment that month marked retroactive for “consulting services April-July,” according to campaign finance records.
Plan to Seek Use of U.S. Contracts as a Wage Lever
The New York Times reports:
The Obama administration is planning to use the government’s enormous buying power to prod private companies to improve wages and benefits for millions of workers, according to White House officials and several interest groups briefed on the plan.The taxpayers are supposed to pay more for these central planning dreams. Only gains in marginal productivity raise private sector wages over time, not unions.
By altering how it awards $500 billion in contracts each year, the government would disqualify more companies with labor, environmental or other violations and give an edge to companies that offer better levels of pay, health coverage, pensions and other benefits, the officials said.
Because nearly one in four workers is employed by companies that have contracts with the federal government, administration officials see the plan as a way to shape social policy and lift more families into the middle class. It would affect contracts like those awarded to make Army uniforms, clean federal buildings and mow lawns at military bases.
Coffee Party activists : Reaction to Tea Party Movement
The Washington Post reports:
Furious at the tempest over the Tea Party -- the scattershot citizen uprising against big government and wild spending -- Annabel Park did what any American does when she feels her voice has been drowned out: She squeezed her anger into a Facebook status update.Substance and compassion, remember that one if you don't work for the government.
let's start a coffee party . . . smoothie party. red bull party. anything but tea. geez. ooh how about cappuccino party? that would really piss 'em off bec it sounds elitist . . . let's get together and drink cappuccino and have real political dialogue with substance and compassion.
Pension Costs Explode at Chicago Public Schools
The Chicago Sun-Times reports on problems with public education in Obama's Chicago:
Between 2009 and 2011, the cost of pensions jumps from $178 million to $587 million to comply with a formula set by state law.All this from one of the worst public schools systems in America.
Freddie Mac loses $7.8 billion, warns of foreclosure wave
The San Jose Mercury reports:
Freddie Mac lost almost $26 billion last year, ominous news for taxpayers, who are footing the bill to rescue the mortgage finance company and its sibling, Fannie Mae.No word yet from Jesse Jackson on this one.
In the final three months of last year, Freddie Mac posted a loss of $7.8 billion, or $2.39 a share. Freddie Mac, which has lost almost $80 billion since the housing crisis started in 2007, is bracing for more pain. The McLean, Va., company said a record 4 percent of its borrowers are at least three months behind on their payments and facing foreclosure.
Its chief executive, Charles Haldeman, warned Wednesday of a "potential large wave of foreclosures" still to come.
This is a major problem for the federal government, which seized control of Freddie and Fannie in September 2008. The two companies have already siphoned $111 billion from the government to stay afloat. That number is expected to hit $188 billion by fall 2011.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Public Education Cartel: Monopoly Exploitation
Carpe Diem has a this video down below that you should watch.
Muni Bonds to Be Taxable: Bipartisan Bill Would Change the Municipal Debt Market
The Bond Buyer has a rather important story:
Municipal market participants are still weighing the implications of a bill that would eliminate tax-exempt bonds and shift the muni market wholesale to a tax-credit subsidy, with many warning it would hurt state and local governments still recovering from the recession.You'll want to read the whole article.
Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Judd Gregg, R-N.H., on Thursday unveiled the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010, which would fundamentally remake the tax code, including how the federal government subsidizes debt issued by state and local governments.
The senators issued statements highlighting the big-ticket provisions: halving the amount of individual tax brackets, making the top individual tax rate 35%, eliminating the alternative minimum tax, and establishing a flat corporate tax rate at 24%.
But the bill also proposed making all municipal debt taxable, and subsidizing it by providing individual investors with a tax credit equal to 25% of interest costs. It also would prohibit any advance refundings of municipal bonds.
Wal-Mart Making the Poor Rich
Lew Rockwell has this quote from the Atlantic concerning Wal-Mart:
The most interesting part, however, is the taste test. Kummer bought the same set of ingredients from Walmart and Whole Foods and had an Austin, TX chef prepare the identical meals with each set. He then had a group of 16 foodies compare the dishes. The results? Basically a draw. He also notes, but doesn’t make much of it, that the ingredients at Walmart cost $126.02 but $175.04 at Whole Foods. If there was no major difference, in the aggregate, in the quality and flavor, why pay $50 more?Lower prices and the miracle of capitalism.
This is yet another example of Walmart extending the consumption possibilities of the rich to the poor, as has been the ongoing trend since the Industrial Revolution.
Chicago Public Schools chief warns of billion-dollar deficit
The Chicago Tribune reports:
The head of the Chicago Public Schools today laid out a dire budget forecast for next school year, with a deficit that could reach more than $1 billion if Gov. Pat Quinn's proposed budget becomes law.Great moments in Blue America.
The Limits of Urban Growth
New Geography reports:
What if we achieved the urbanist dream, with people deciding en masse to move back to the city? Well, that would create a big problem, since there would be no place to put them. Many cities hit their peak population in 1950, when the US total was 150 million. Today it is over 300 million, with virtually all the growth taking place in the suburbs.
So where would these new urbanites reside? With the enormous losses in our urban housing stock, our cities lack the residences to hold even their 1950 population.
Madoff Whistleblower Book: Makes New Claims
The Huffington Post reports:
In an explosive new book, Bernie Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolos tells the inside story of how he uncovered the $65 billion fraud, claims that he exposed State Street's alleged fraud of pension funds and admits that he considered the idea of killing Madoff if he was ever threatened by the Ponzi schemer.There's more , much more:
The SEC proved equally inept when it came to Markopolos's other cases. He claims he gave the agency 20 cases of market timing, which proved that various companies had stolen billions of dollars from investors. The SEC, Markopolos says, turned down all of them. One of his examples included a huge mutual fund that had monthly turnover percentages in its international equity funds of 1,100 to 1,300 percent range per month.It doesn't seem government can save you, what's the SEC's incentive to do anything?
Markopolos is withering in his dismissal of just about every SEC employee whom he approached
Hospital Clout Spurs Higher California Health Costs, Study Says
Bloomberg reports:
Don’t blame only insurers for rising health-care costs, a study in the journal Health Affairs says.For University of California medical centers it's kind of like a tuition increase without the Pell Grants.
California’s hospital fees surged 10.6 percent from 1999 to 2005, more than twice the national average, as the state’s biggest hospital networks began to demand higher rates from insurance companies, according to the report released today.
By exerting their market clout, the systems led by the five University of California medical centers may be as responsible for cost inflation as Kaiser-Permanente, the nation’s largest health maintenance organization, the study said. In the same period, state lawmakers also passed regulations that made it difficult for insurers to cut off subscribers’ access to doctors and hospitals, no matter their fees.
Sex Addict Dude Claims He Ran Out of Women
Standard Madness reports:
Sex addict Danny J. had to move out of a town in England after he allegedly banged all the chicks in the area. Moving out of town seemed to be the last resort for the 27 year old tattoo artist, who much like married star Tiger Woods, 34, went into sex rehab after a string of alleged affairs.Heh.
California Assembly Backs Bill to Guard Cash After Bond Delayed
Business Week reports:
California’s Assembly passed a bill allowing the state to delay payments to programs including schools to avoid running out of cash, a move aimed at boosting confidence in bonds sold by the most-populous U.S. state.Great moments in Blue America.
Highway funding for Illinois snags U.S. Senate jobs bill
Crain's Chicago Business reports:
The $15-billion jobs bill the Senate passed Wednesday morning hit a roadblock in the House in the afternoon, partly because it steers a large amount of highway funding to Illinois.That's the Chicago Way!
Some House Democrats are balking at the Senate bill because four large states would get 58% of $932 million in highway construction money set aside for special projects. Illinois would get 16%, or about $151 million; California would get 30%, and 22 states would get none.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald to handle Mumbai terror case
The Chicago Sun-Times reports:
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald has personally prosecuted just one case in Chicago since arriving in September 2001 from New York, where he'd made his reputation prosecuting terrorism cases including the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center.
Now, Fitzgerald plans to prosecute what authorities have called one of the most significant terrorism cases in the country — the 2008 bombings in Mumbai, India, that claimed the lives of about 170 people.
Obama Embraces Nixonomics
Reason reports:
If a rate increase is unreasonable and unjustified, customers can head for greener pastures. Among the several dozen competing insurers in California, some presumably will leap at the chance to grab their business. If other companies decline to offer lower rates, however, it's a surefire sign that the increase is both reasonable and justified.Steve Chapman on supply and demand.
The administration thinks WellPoint has no reason to raise prices because it had billions in profits last year. But the company says it lost money on individual policies in California, because medical prices rose and many customers dropped their coverage, leaving the company with a sicker and more expensive clientele.
Obama may fantasize that WellPoint will keep furnishing its product forever while stoically swallowing losses. It's more likely to devise ways to curtail benefits, make it harder for applicants to qualify, and raise the hassle factor so unprofitable customers go elsewhere. If things get bad enough, it can abandon the market -- leaving consumers to pay the low rate of nothing while also getting nothing.
Jesse Jackson Jr. : Taking Campaign Money From Controversial Chicago Alderman Ed Burke
To some he's Jesse Jackson's son. To others he's a Congressman who went so far that he's on the powerful House Appropriations committee. To others he's a friend of Barack Obama's who was his campaign Co-Chairman. To others he's a federal informer. But, why has Jesse Jackson Jr. accepted campaign contributions from controversial Chicago Alderman Burke? Does the hyper-sensitive Jackson care that Alderman Burke has been allegedly quoted openly referring to a African-American police brutality victim as a nigger by top FBI informant Robert Cooley ? Does it bother Jesse Jackson Jr. that Alderman Burke didn't sue Robert Cooley or the publisher of Cooley's book?
Michelle Obama : Use Federal Government to Bring Grocery Stores to Inner City
With the federal government in housing, higher education, medical care, it appears Michelle Obama is thinking about grocery stores. Instead of letting Wal-Mart expand in Chicago: we now hear from Michelle how the market for fresh food is a failure with the need for Uncle Sam to step in.
Canada's 'Free' Health Care Has a High Price Tag
The Wall Street Journal reports on the high cost of socialized medicine up North:
When adjusted for the age of its population, Canada vies with Iceland and Switzerland as the highest spender on health care among the 28 most developed nations with universal systems. Dr. David Gratzer, a Toronto physician affiliated with the Manhattan Institute, calculates that a Canadian earning $35,000 a year pays a stunning $7,350 in health-care taxes.
76 Year Old Man Takes Chicago to Supreme Court Over Handgun Ban
ABC TV Chicago has a good video report on the 76 year old African-American grandfather who wants to defend himself in his Chicago home.
Corruption Trial Could Sink Gov. Deval Patrick
The Boston Herald reports:
A key defense lawyer in the corruption case against former House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi is preparing for trial as early as September in a courtroom drama that could force Gov. Deval Patrick and his former top aides to testify just weeks before the election.Great moments in Blue America.
“I think that would be the death blow to his administration,” said Boston University political professor Thomas Whalen. Whalen added that even if Patrick himself isn’t called to the stand, “he’s going to be dealing with the taint of corruption, kind of like the (former state treasurer) Joe Malone syndrome. Even though he wasn’t charged, he still looks like a boob.”
DiMasi is accused of taking $57,000 from the Cognos software firm in exchange for using political influence to secure a $13 million state contract for the company.
Hearing probes CalPERS investments' Iran links
The San Francisco Chronicle reports:
California's giant public pension funds remain invested - and have even increased investments - in companies doing business in Iran despite a 2-year-old law mandating that the state sell its holdings in those companies.CalPERS holds itself out as paragons of "socially responsible investing". Imagine that.
The Euro's Next Battleground: Spain
The Wall Street Journal reports:
Greece set off the crisis rattling the euro zone. Spain could determine whether the 16-nation currency stands or falls.
The euro zone's No. 4 economy, Spain has an unemployment rate of 19%, a deflating housing bubble, big debts and a gaping budget deficit. Its gross domestic product contracted 3.6% in 2009 and is expected to shrink again this year, leaving Spain in its deepest and longest recession in a half-century.
Madoff Daughter-in-Law Seeks to Change Name After Death Threats
Bloomberg reports:
Stephanie Madoff said she wants to change their surnames for safety reasons. She said that in December 2008, she was informed of “certain death and other threats made against the Madoff family.” While the government investigated those threats, Stephanie Madoff said she still “fears for her safety and the safety of her children.”
Obama Readies a Fallback Health-Care Proposal
The Wall Street Journal reports:
President Barack Obama will use a bipartisan summit Thursday to push for sweeping health-care legislation, but if that fails to generate enough support the White House has prepared the outlines of a more modest plan.
His leading alternate approach would provide health insurance to perhaps 15 million Americans, about half what the comprehensive bill would cover, according to two people familiar with the planning.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
White House punts on key cost-saving move
Politico reports:
At Thursday’s health summit, President Barack Obama is almost certain to highlight the importance of reining in skyrocketing health care costs.
But in his own health care bill, it’s a different story.
Obama has put off a tax on high-cost health plans until 2018 — long after he’s out of office, even if he’s a two-termer.And in doing so, he’s essentially neutered the last significant Democratic push to control health costs.
Schwarzenegger, Whitman back away from ballot measure to cut pension costs
The Sacramento Bee reports:
Despite their full-throated support for cutting public employee pension costs, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the leading GOP candidate to replace him, Meg Whitman, have backed away from supporting a ballot measure that would do just that.Profiles in non-courage.
Bernanke offers concessions to quell Congress' criticism of Fed
The Washington Post reports:
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke launched a wide-ranging effort Wednesday to fend off congressional efforts to take powers away from the central bank, laying out a series of compromises and olive branches meant to defuse lawmakers' criticism.
Judge Alex Kozinski: The Fourth Amendment is Gone. "Welcome to the fish bowl."
Reason reports:
Last week the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied an en banc rehearing of the case United States v. Lemus, which dealt with a warrantless police search of a suspect’s home after he was arrested outside of it. As a result of the 9th Circuit’s denial, the search will stand, which has left Chief Judge Alex Kozinski none too happy.You'll want to read the whole thing.
'Mini Madoff' pleads guilty in Ponzi scheme
The New York Post reports:
A Florida money manager dubbed the "mini Madoff" said he was "profoundly sorry" before pleading guilty this morning to all charges in a $397 million Ponzi scheme.
SEC puts new curbs on short-selling
The Washington Times reports:
Federal regulators on Wednesday imposed new curbs on the practice of short-selling, hoping to prevent spiraling sales sprees in a stock that can stoke market turmoil.
The Securities and Exchange Commission, divided along party lines, voted 3-2 at a public meeting to adopt new rules.
The rules put in a so-called "circuit breaker" for stock prices, restricting for the rest of a trading session and the next one any short-selling of a stock that has dropped 10 percent or more.
Obama's Common Purpose For All
Politico reports on Obama's central plan for all:
Obama challenges the business leaders to find common ground with workers to solve the country's "very big and difficult challenges."For the dangers of a common purpose please read Hayek's Road to Serfdom.
"The only way we’ll get through them – the only way we ever have – is if we align the interests of workers and businesses and government around a common purpose, if we all pick up an oar and start rowing in the same direction," he says.
Jeb Bush: Obama Charts 'Dangerous Course,' His Policies 'Not American'
Newsmax has an interview with Jeb Bush:
Newsmax.TV asked whether Obama is the most liberal president in the nation’s history.
Bush said he tries to avoid such labels but went on to say: “If he believes that government ought to consume 40 percent of the economy, of the economic output, I don’t know what you’d call that, but it’s not American.
Top Turkish officers charged over 'coup plot'
The BBC reports:
Seven senior military officers have been formally charged in Turkey with attempting to overthrow the government.
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