quote of the week

When refering to Chrysler's Bankruptcy the big O had this to say, "This is not a sign of weakness but rather one more step on a clearly chartered path to Chrysler's revival."

Not a sign of weakness? That's confusing, I thought only those who couldnt meet their obligations filed for Chapter 11 restructuring. Nobody told me that it meant a clearly chartered path towards revival. Well, now I know.

Obama & Chavez

Is this a sign of the times to come? I am afraid it is.

N. Korea calls bluff

We threatened, they prepared their rockets, we threatened again, they launched their rockets, we whine and go away.

Last week North Korea launched a LCBM that flew over Japan and crashed into the Pacific Ocean 1300 miles from the launch site. I recall them saying that the launch was in order to send a satellite into orbit, hmmm....ocean satellites, I thought those were called buoys. Needless to say our allies in the region are scared S****less about living next to a mad man that has the capability to deliver A-bombs via airmail.

After the launch the world went into a panic. The end result.....the UN won't even issue a "preliminary" statement of condemnation.

...meanwhile in Obama fantasy land....
A nuclear free world is on the agenda for the week. Hmmmm. If we cant stop Iran from developing a nuclear warhead, what makes him think we could take it away once it is built?

Politically Polarized

So basically if you are a Democrat, you still have "hope". If you are a Republican, the writing is on the wall.

GM- Doomed

Bankruptcy Awaits...Here is the latest news on the GM debacle.

-Bloomberg reports that GM & the other car makers posted smaller than expected sales numbers for the month of March.
-In an effort to increase sales numbers the same automakers spent a record amount of incentive programs to lure in customers. (Lets see, higher marketing costs & lower sales revenue, hmm...)
-CEO Obama says that there will be no financial support for GM for their June 1st debt payments. (1 Billion at 1.5%)

Newsflash- The UAW needs to make some sacrifices and for some reason they won't come to the table. It makes no sense to me. The UAW has two options, make concessions while they have some political capital with the Democratically controlled DC crew, or sit in front of a BK judge who will take a proverbial weed whacker to the union contracts.

GM & Chrysler get B^%# Slapped

Today the Big O Administration decided to get "tough" with Chrysler and GM. They figured if CEOs that have been in the industry for 30+ years can't figure out how to turn a profit, well then the US GOV must show them how. (And we know how well the Feds can balance a budget and produce results. ) Today Obama forced the resignation of the GM CEO Rick Wagoner as a stipulation for additional government aide. A similar move to when Hank Paulson forced our AIG's CEO in 2008. Mr. Obama announced the decision in a press conference addressing the "restructuring" of the US auto industry.

What do you call it when a government starts to control private industry? Not just a business, but an industry. GM and Chrysler screwed up, don't get me wrong. But, shouldn't the company's share holders do the hiring and firing of the CEO, not the President of the United States? Where does this path lead us....?
One thing is for sure, with Obama controlling the selectiong of the CEO of GM (and dont think he isn't) he will be able to pursue his green initiative with an American car maker in his pocket.

Heres an idea. Bankruptcy, its coming eventually, why prolong the inevitable?

The Market is Sound?

Obama says US market is sound.

I don't think I even need to write anything else about this, but I am bored, so I will.

I think one thing that is going to piss me off with this administration is the fact that they can't tolerate bad press. Over the last couple of weeks the Obama administration has done nothing but tout our situation as the greatest financial crisis our generation has ever seen, and rightly so. After repeating that mantra about a thousand times Americans are beginning to realize that he and the Donkeys are using a Bush/Republican tactic of playing on the fears of Americans to pursue an agenda. Then, this weekend on Obama's glorified weekend vblog he says that the economy is sound despite the mess we are in. Who is he fooling?

Lets recap, our banking system has imploded, foreclosure rates jumped 30% in February, unemployment is up month to month (CA exceeding 10%), the Dow Industrials are down 40% from October 2008, and our #1 treasury holder (China) is doubting our ability to pay back our debt... The market is anything but sound.

On Meet the Press an Obama adviser Christina Romer said this, "The fundamentals are sound in the sense that the American workers are sound, we have a good capital stock, we have good technology." --Are you kidding me? All of these words and there is absolutely no meaning behind them. American workers are sound...ok I guess if you exclude all the unions, We have good capital stock.... I have no idea what she is refering to (cattle maybe, because its sure not our market capital), and we have good technology...compared to who, the East? ummm not really.

Last rhetorical question, if the market is sound why did the American taxpayers just cut about 3 trillion dollars worth of "Stimulus" and "Bailout" checks?

Mr. Obama vs. The Market

Volcker has an idea from 1933

Today at NYU Stern School of Business Paul Volcker gave a conference that indicated some one is actually thinking about how to fix the bank problem. Up until today the Bad Bank theory has been the talked about solution. However the “Bad Bank” solution is not a solution at all. The Bad Bank idea was designed to ‘clean’ the balance sheets by transferring the toxic debt to a separate entity, a bad bank. Once the toxic debt is off the balance sheet, the theory is that the banks can get back to lending. The “Bad Bank’ idea is a feasible solution for the near term crisis.

But what about the long term?

Paul Volcker says that commercial banks and investment banks should be separated. Under this idea the commercial banks would be focused on providing depository services and access to credit to consumers. The investment banks can then operate with more risk due to the indirect impact of their actions on the commercial bank customer.

Ever heard of the Glass-Steagall Act?
One of the major fixes of the financial system after the great depression was the Glass-Steagall Act. In 1933 this legislation was introduced to give more power to the FED, while also separating the banks by type of business (commercial & investment).

So what happened?
In 1999 Phil Gramm (R- Texas) and Jim Leach (R- Iowa) drafted legislation that effectively repealed the Glass Steagall Act. This bill was passed on party-line votes in the house and senate, and eventually signed into law by Bill Clinton.

So, it looks as if the Big O and the gang are going to end up with legislation that will eventually put us back to what fixed the first Depression, the separation of banks.

The Republicans screwed the pooch on this one!

Obama Snubs UK's Brown

In my daily perusing of online newspapers and blogs yesterday I found it amazing how many UK news sources are reporting that Obama “snubbed” the UK PM Brown in his visit to the White House this week. The reports stem from the White House cancelling a high profile rose garden press conference as well as a routine foreign dignitary state dinner and reception. To no surprise everyone in Washington and on Downing Street is downplaying the supposed “snubbing”. As we all know, it’s not whether or not Obama actually snubbed Brown that matters. What matters, is how the media reports the incident.

It will now prove to be more difficult for Brown to avoid the “America’s Puppet” label that awaits his return to the Isles.

Soldiers Coffins to be Photographed

I am trying to give this administration a break on my criticisms until they have shown what they can do with handling the Iraq quagmire and the Afghanistan escalation in violence. In my opinion they made a great decision to make public a withdrawal date for major operations in Iraq. However, they sure screwed the pooch on their next major announcement. The administration has decided to lift the blackout on photographing our dead soldiers. Last I checked every nightly news and Sunday political program runs a list of American casualties during their broadcast. Almost everyone knows how many Americans have been sacrificed for this war. My question is why must we embarrass the Americans who decide to fight for this country by showing their coffins get unloaded from a military cargo plane.

The argument for allowing these photos is that it shows Americans the true cost of war. If that is the case, why not show the video footage of Americans actually getting killed? That would sure show the 'cost of war'.

What happened to decency? I sure hope the President shows more respect to 'his' troops in the future.


--Also, if we are going to discuss the cost of this war, why not discuss the benefits?
I will save that lengthy digression for another time.