The Case-Shiller 20 city index sparked hope for the housing market recovery. It was actually UP for the first time in months (+0.7 NSA, but -0.1% SA). Of course, one good month doesn’t make a rally – we need at least 3-6 consecutive months for there to be a sustainable recovery. But before we get all excited, let’s look at GDP growth.
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The thin skinned Candidate Obama…er, I mean President Obama…is back.
As if he ever left:
I am currently reading Reckless Endangerment by Gretchen Morgenson and Josh Rosner. I highly recommend it. This book names names, exposes policies and schemes, and will make you very mad with all of politics of the current economic mess. It documents the role of James Johnson and his tenure at the head of FNMA (Fannie Mae) in the 1990s, and his role in the housing price collapse/financial crisis of 2008. It focuses on James Johnson, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Representative Barney Frank (D-MA).
Has Obama ever given a bravura performance at a press conference? No wonder he goes three months or so without doing them.
Today he mentioned a tax break for corporate jets six times. He didn’t mention that he signed legislation preserving the tax code provision into law, or that the grand total of the savings of ending that tax break would be about $3 billion over ten years.
The Constitution is singularly the greatest document that has ever been written and has resulted in more good for more people around the world than any other single document of man in history. It’s not however perfect. It has an amendment process that allows citizens to make bad choices – see the 16th and 17th Amendments, both enacted in the midst of a progressive frenzy in 1913 – but such changes require the active participation of a large segment of the population.
We are now engaged in another great illegal war, this one is in Yemen; relax, we are only killing Al Qaeda operatives and civilians, since Obama was elected with a 6% landslide margin and has the unflinching support of American Socialists, he is not bound by the usual rules that govern presidents. The war is classified so only the readers of the New York Times and Flopping Aces know about it; however, the relatives of civilians killed in the kinetic actions have probably put the pieces together. We are striking at militant leaders with armed drones and fighter jets, so in Obama’s unique definition of war and Nobel Peace Prize qualification, it narrowly misses being designated as a war, there is also a growing power vacuum in a nation we consider to be an ally.
The recent Anthony Weiner scandals brought back that old specter of whether or not politicians cheating on their wives should matter. We got to have rehashed the tales of Clinton, Gingrich, Edwards, Ted Kennedy, and now of course, Weiner. There are however, two angles that overall seem to have fallen under everyone’s radar.
Back in 1998, Andrew Cuomo sent this country careening down an economic embankment when he sued Accubanc for not making enough bad loans. He punished a bank for not losing enough money and demanded that they engage in practices which were doomed to failure. Barack Obama has plans to force doctors into a similar situation.
Attorney General Eric Holder: “[the courts are the nation’s] most effective terror-fighting weapon.”
Van Jones (to Glenn Beck and FoxNews): “We see the effects of your cynicism and your disrespect and your hate-mongering and it’s not just immoral, it’s un-American to abuse the airwaves and to abuse the ears of our children with your lies and your filth and we’re tired of it….You’re not America.”
