Most people aren’t expecting an overnight fix. That’s why his approval numbers are still over 60%. Geitner’s bank plan will be out soon. Despite all the hype and bluster, there are hundreds of billions of dollars worth of real projects in the stimulus bill that will be starting by summer. If things aren’t better by this time next year, I’ll say you were right.
In regards to his approval rating, it is in the 50s and plummeting. By next week, it could by below 50% and then what? What is going to happen when the media will have no choice but to throw this man-child of a President under the bus? The day is coming. It is just a matter of when.
He won’t be able to get anything done at that point, economic crisis included. I think he is doing it this way, so he can change America his way while he still can, before he is a lame duck. The economy is on HIS backburner.
That has to be as far as you read. Start adding it all up remembering Pelosi is floating a Stimulus #2 trial balloon, then the healthcare bill, environment plan, billions more to the UN, 77 TRILLION in medicare payments about to hit as the baby boomers are retiring.
Then we still have to dread the job killers they are planning on, higher taxes, cap and trade, card check. Nothing is going to look any better in a year, it will be dreadfully worse.
Sorry….the chart is smaller than I wanted it to be.
The chart represents the DOW since the Immaculate Inauguration.
ruaqtpi2
15 years ago
Fit fit,
Much of the buoyancy in Obama’s approval rating comes from a combination of the media’s continued fawning over “The One” and its likewise reckless abandonment of critique for anything left of center. If the media dared to repeat Clinton’s “It’s the economy, stupid!” maybe some of the swooning masses would snap out of their stupor and see this administration for the incompetent ship of fools that it is.
By the way, the part of Geithner’s plan that you referenced is only the part on what to do with the toxic assets. There’s a helluva lot more work to be done, and it looks like his inability to attract deputies means that he’s far from being able to submit anything that even remotely resembles a plan for digging the banks out. To a large degree, the fate of the global economy rests in this man’s hands. Do you really believe the rest of the world shares your confidence in Geithner?
I wouldn’t rush to lay all this at the feet of Obama. He’s just not that talented. He had/has lots of help. There are a whole lot of wacko politicians and businessmen who are mucking everything up. He’s just one of many, and if he hadn’t been selected to become president, he would have been just another anonymous face in the crowd of usual suspects. And as to a leadership vacuum, which is the only way a clown like that could have looked good, there’s nothing even remotely conservative out there to provide the necessary contrast for people to realize what a fake he is.
Warren Buffet isn’t simply a “high flier”. He is a partisan democrat. His stance has been quintessentially gutless.
“Brakabama is driving the economy into the ground…..but he deserves our support.”
What a cowardly flake. Besides that, though, the notion that Buffet is some sort of authoritative source on matters economic is dubious at best. He has one skillset. He buys undervalued companies. That is all he has ever done and its all he knows anything about.
Q: If Brakabama is fighting an economic “war”, who is the enemy?
A: Americans.
Timothy
15 years ago
Oh Fitty,
To be so smitty over “The One”. When Bushie had a drop in the polls the nattering naybobs chattered with glee and the MSM chirped with pride.
Now Obambi has a dipp and folks like you wanna cut him some slack. Where were you when Bushie had his problems and needed support? Nowhere. Now the shoe is on the other foot.
The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. The “Cloward-Piven Strategy” seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse.
Cloward and Piven were inspired by radical organizer [and Hillary Clinton mentor] Saul Alinsky:
“Make the enemy live up to their (sic) own book of rules,” Alinsky wrote in his 1989 book Rules for Radicals. When pressed to honor every word of every law and statute, every Judeo-Christian moral tenet, and every implicit promise of the liberal social contract, human agencies inevitably fall short. The system’s failure to “live up” to its rule book can then be used to discredit it altogether, and to replace the capitalist “rule book” with a socialist one. (Courtesy Discover the Networks.org)
Instead of Clinton’s “It’s the economy, stupid!” we are obviously having “It’s socialism, stupid!”
One really wondered how long it would take the majority of americans to wake up and see Obama’s true colors: A leftwing racist bigot with dreams of creating his own socialist paradise thru exercise of absolute centralised power.
Much like our Mao last time.
Many of those talking heads on your cable finance shows are at least critical or disagreeing with Obama’s policies whereas last time they were fawning at his feet. Those who now still support and adore him are starting to sound like retarded rabbits who have been eating too many carrots gone past their sell-by date. Your Warren Buffet is really funny: he disagrees with Obama on most things but says we still must suppport him. This round Warren was way behind the curve, did not see the downturn coming and also guessed the bottom way too early(fatal). I guess if he was conned by Obama, it means this round he wasn’t that smart.
In the market, you are only as good as the next round. But looking at how Buffet and Cramer were conned, it is a testament to Obama’s ability to con people, to find their emotional needs and weaknesses and con them into voting for him(then do the opposite of his promises later): this is Obama’s great strength. Basically he made Cramer and Buffet look like fools.
Going back to the market, with Geithner threatening to actually get something going and rules to hurt shorts, the market will stay up until it gets disappointed by Obama’s madness again.
After dropping so much, a lot of people have sold out and thus there is the potential for a rebound when some new guys come back in. But at this point I really see no way to tell if the last low was the ultimate bottom of the market.
Whatever the case, for the sake of America, Obama must not have a second term, and you Americans need to take Congress back into some semblence of sanity.
Good morning or good evening, which ever, love it when you visit.
Was just reading Randal Hoven’s latest, am wondering what you think of it, agree/disagree.
He separates the crisis into tiers and then explains his thoughts on each.
Tier 1. The US housing market was a bubble that burst, which can be blamed mostly on Democratic politicians.
Tier 2. That led to a global financial crisis because so many investment and insurance firms around the world traded in mortgage-backed derivatives that no one understood. The blame for this part is complicated; more below.
Tier 3. That financial crisis led to an over-reaction on the part of politicians. The TARP legislation in the US in particular provided the double-whammy of being largely ineffective in its own right, and signaling to investors everywhere that it is time to panic. Blame this on just about everyone in charge or wanting to be in charge: Treasury Secretary Paulson, Fed Chairman Bernake, President Bush, both presidential candidates and both parties in Congress (but mostly Democrats).
Tier 4. And that led to the political meltdown in the US, in which a socialist agenda is being implemented as quickly as possible, in the name of crisis management. Blame this one on the Democrats and the people who vote for them.
I got these off Google. You can also check out projects on recovery.org. Or you can just keep your head up your ass and pretend there’s no real job creating projects in the ARRA.
As engineers, achitects and project managers start contacting vendors about their needs for all these projects, there will be a increase in demand for the raw materials and equipment needed. That will be the first sign the recovery is starting.
@sigmundringeck said: “looking at how Buffet and Cramer were conned, it is a testament to Obama’s ability to con people, to find their emotional needs and weaknesses and con them into voting for him”
Absolutley right.
And I loved the part about the retarded rabbit….Note to Fit Fit: Check the sell by date on your carrots.
He’s not ignoring the crisis. He’s USING it. AND, if Pelosi can introduce an even more disastrous Stimulus II, then Obama can denounce it and appear rational and responsible, thus giving cover to his efforts to turn America into a giant communist collective. Remember, Chavez was elected, too.
huh
15 years ago
My co-workers are pissed about losing thier home values and 401k’s. Obama, Geither, Pelosi, Reed, Emanual, Axelrod et al don’t really seem worried that the markets are going south. What do they know? Are they shorting the market? Why aren’t they screaming at the top of their lungs??
Obama has $750,000,000 in his war chest form the campaign. I’m sure all that is not stuffed into the bed in the Lincoln Room. I want to know his investment results.
huh
15 years ago
@Fit fit: Just how long do you think people like this are going to wait for the goody train to arrive?
—–
No one will tell YOU when thier goody train starts a rollin’. I’d bet it’s left the station already.
there will be a increase in demand for the raw materials and equipment needed
Oh, that’s sooo good to know. Our family has a metal fabricating plant and right now the scrap yard isn’t picking up the scrap because scrap metal prices have dropped severely, scavengers aren’t even stealing it anymore. But, that’s not too much of a problem because we cut hours, less scrap. Until we get the defense contracts back, things will remain slow. Since the manchild’s intention is to cut defense, and mess around with military aircraft contracts, things won’t be too rosey for a lot of companies in this area. We are at 12% unemployed right now.
Our aluminum, steel and stainless stock is built up now because we were getting it at bargain prices, but we can’t purchase more than we can store. So, if and when things break out, we won’t need to buy raw materials for awhile either.
Our company is being told by our vendors that this is going to go on for a long time, so glad you can shine such a bright light on the “near” future.
Then there’s that little problem with heavy equipment companies having a surplus on hand, also not needing to build anything more before their surplus is sold. How many times can these situations be multiplied around the country?
Now-needy FDIC collected little in premiums
With fund going strong, banks didn’t pay for decade
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | March 11, 2009
WASHINGTON – The federal agency that insures bank deposits, which is asking for emergency powers to borrow up to $500 billion to take over failed banks, is facing a potential major shortfall in part because it collected no insurance premiums from most banks from 1996 to 2006.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures deposits up to $250,000, tried for years to get congressional authority to collect the premiums in case of a looming crisis. But Congress believed that the fund was so well-capitalized – and that bank failures were so infrequent – that there was no need to collect the premiums for a decade, according to banking officials and analysts.
Now with 25 banks having failed last year, 17 so far this year, and many more expected in the coming months, the FDIC has proposed large new premiums for banks at the very time when many can least afford to pay. The agency collected $3 billion in the fees last year and has proposed collecting up to $27 billion this year, prompting an outcry from some banks that say it will force them to raise consumer fees and curtail lending.
To possibly reduce the fee increase, the FDIC has asked Congress for the temporary authority to borrow as much as $500 billion from the US Treasury – up from the current $30 billion limit – in case the number of bank failures increases even more dramatically. If Congress approves the measure, to borrow more than $100 billion, the FDIC would still need permission from the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, and the White House.
What good is a building a bridge? It produces no weath by itself and demands yearly upkeep. Construction projects are just a temporary fix. It’s the PRIVATE sector that generates the wealth, tax base and employment!!!!
How about buidling a bunch of nuclear power plants??? If it’s good enough for the Japanese (30% of electrical power and growing), French (87% of electrical power and exporting), Chinese (plans for more) and Indians (plans for more), it should be good enough for us.
Producing nuclear plants generates good paying jobs, is “carbon free”, produces a product the world needs, and has several advantageous spins-offs (desalination plants, night-time recharging, and hydrogen extraction)
Missy: About what was highlighted, I generally agree with the first parts(tier1 and tier2).
As for tier2, Lehman Bros even came here and to HK to sell their mortgage backed securities to us and con our money, it was so widespread. Everybody was writing derivatives on other derivatives, so when the first one crashed, all the others written on each other also crashed. Look at how AIG, which was the insurer, crashed because they were liable to backup those crashed subprime loans and securities. Then with AIG gone, when other banks could not afford insurance on their dubious assets, they also basically became insolvent. It was like one dollar(of real money) supports 30 or 40 or more dollars of assets(dubious loans,etc).
About tier3, I am not too sure about how the measures brought up to deal with the crisis actually interacted with the market psychology and also the political scene(tier3), probably because I have no experience in how to manage a financial crisis, from a governmental point of view. My view is always from that of an investor or FM: how can I make money or prevent loss. This is obviously something I need to learn more about, cause knowing the first will obviously help the second.
One big problem many of us chinese and SEAsian investors face is that being so far away from the US, we don’t have a good feel of the market situation there, and how to read where things are going. That’s the reason for the poor “bottom positioning” of the singaporeans and chinese funds this round: They avoided the first stages of the crash but misjudged the bottom and reinvested too early, which is fatal.
To understand the US market, I have to understand US politics, and I think it is the same for anyone. That way if any big bomb comes again, hopefully I will avoid it and also not reinvest back too early. If you don’t understand US politics, you’ll never understand the US markets.
Like I saved a lot of money by understanding that Obama would be bad for the markets and sadly I was proved right.
About tier4, I don’t know if the financial meltdown really was the cause of Obama winning. I am sure it helped, but was it the determining factor? Maybe Obama was just able to take advantage of it and con more people to vote for him, while Mccain just wasn’t able to turn it to his advantage. I am thinking even without the crisis, Obama might still have beaten McCain. Also his majorities in congress obviously allow him to ram thru any nonsense he wants, under the guise of helping the economy, I guess just like HITLER did it last time. But even without the crisis, I think he still would have tried to ram thru his radical socialist agenda, you can see he is very ruthless about it.
———————————————————————–
Hope your family’s steel business picks up. My extended family has a small property development business. We build, sell and rent out. At the moment most of our stuff has rental contracts from 2007 still locked in at high prices, but the next round we will probably have to lower rates by 30 or more %. Thankfully we did not gear up very much in 2007 so we only have a few vacant props unsold and unrented.
I don’t know if you have ever thot of selling your steel overseas? My friend tells me he was trying to buy an anchor recently and the price had doubled over the past few months.
——————————————————————————
Mike: It is good to see americans so dedicated to good sense as you are. I hope there will be enough people with your good sense to return america to the right path where it can continue to grow, prosper and set a good example to the rest of the world to follow, as it did during the Bush administration(yes, I am not joking–to me GWB was a decent US POTUS, had balls and class).
I understand Obama is going to meet with mainland FM Yang today. Must tell Yang not to disrobe to underwear if offended by Obama.
BEIJING – CHINA is concerned about its investments in the United States, Premier Wen Jiabao said Friday, as he called on US economic planners to safeguard the assets.
‘We have lent huge amounts of money to the United States. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets,’ Mr Wen told reporters.
‘To be honest, I am a little bit worried and I would like to… call on the United States to honour its word and remain a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets.’ As the largest creditor to the United States, China is ‘extremely interested in developments in the US economy,’ he said.
‘On the foreign reserves issue, the first consideration is our national interest,’ he said. ‘But we also have to consider the stability of the overall international financial system, as the two factors are interlinked.’ With the world’s largest forex reserves, standing at US$1.95 trillion (S$3 trillion) at the end of December, China is facing the challenge of finding safe ways of placing its money, forcing it to buy large amounts of US government debt.
China held US$727.4 billion in US Treasury bonds at the end of last year, ahead of Japan, the holder of US$626 billion in bonds, according to US government data. — AFP
————————————————————————————–
Says a lot, when the mainland govt speaks so openly like this: they think Obama is dangerous and untrustworthy. This would never have happened with Bush, cause everyone knows that Bush is a man of his word, whereas with Obama there is no value in his words, because he’ll say anything to get his way.
Thank you for your time. I did read about AIG last week, because of how far reaching they were it was necessary for part of our funds to bail out foreign banks. It tied in with you mentioning trusting the books. I think it was Merrill Lynch in London that had some funny business going on with their books to the tune of $400 million. With the skeleton crew we have at Treasury, how in the world will they be able to check this out?
As for our company, we do have a few overseas accounts, a couple of them are antique auto rehab outfits, lots of gas tanks and duplicating parts that no longer can be found. Hubby once refabbed a rusted out floorboard for an auto in GB, they told him there were only two of those autos in existance, they personally came over to pick it up. We are always amazed when these companies find us.
My father-in-law started the business back in the 50’s. He was financed by a company that built parts for our planes. His employer wasn’t getting the work out in time, they approached my father-in-law to set him up to work exclusively on their accounts.
Our larger accounts are Woodward Governor, Sundstrand’s and a couple others I’m not remembering right now. Some of the work we do for them I’m not even allowed to see or go into that part of the building, wouldn’t know what I would be looking at anyway.
@sigmundringeck: “Mike: It is good to see americans so dedicated to good sense as you are.”
Thanks Sigmund. I appreciate the compliment. I take a lot of flak from the libs so it’s nice to know my efforts are appreciated.
P.S. I noted Premier Wen Jiabao’s statement today expressing their concern about the value of the loans China has made to the U.S. I can’t recall a precdent for any such statements in the past.
We’re all a bit concerned that Obama will try and escape from the consequences of his massive overspending by some monetary trickery that will damage existing assets.
@Missy: Didn’t you make a comparison between Obama and Nixon a while back? I heard Bill O’Reilly discussing that very same thing with Karl Rove tonight in reference to the Obama enemies list and the new White House Plumbers unit.
Mike and Missy
Thanks for your replies.
When your housing crisis started to unfold, I was in tune with the first stages, but did not anticipate the further unravelling of AIG and the further destruction of your banks in the latter part of last year. I guess I really needed to be more in tune with the US situation, which I simply wasn’t. I hope I don’t get blindsided by something in europe now(lotsa noise abt the euro and the loans the euro countries have given eastern europe, fear of default, etc).
Basically I think your US housing crisis is a case study of systematic default: one thing failing and affecting many others that we don’t realize initially.
Doubtless we will have some huge bust like this, probably in the mainland 10-15 years down the road.
Anyway, wish you both well, and I hope that in due time, things in America get better as more people start to work to take back your congress and kick out this horrible Obama. This guy is really bad for america and I am quite shocked that somebody so dishonest, vicious, classless, racist and crazed with socialist fervour could have ever become POTUS.
@sigmundringeck said: “kick out this horrible Obama. This guy is really bad for america and I am quite shocked that somebody so dishonest, vicious, classless, racist and crazed with socialist fervour could have ever become POTUS.”
Obama had a lot of people fooled. I remember during the election that we tried to warn people that Obama was totally inexperienced and the only guide we had to go on to determine what he was reallly all about were these troubling associations with people like Ayers and Rev. Wright.
But when we tried to communicate that reality to people they didn’t want to hear it. Like children who plug their ears and sing when being told news they don’t want to hear.
Obamatons desperately wanted to believe that their man was this new Messiah they had made him out to be even though no human being except Christ himself could fulfill that role.
I would almost feel sorry for duped Obamatons except that they were, and some still are, filled with such an annoying sense of sanctimony that they deserve to be smacked down to reality a few times to teach them a lesson.
Hopefully next time they will bother to ask a few serious questions about a man or woman before investing so much of their trust.
Obama may be an incompetant idealogue when it comes to running the govt and managing the economy, but as a politician/campaigner who can con peoples’ votes, he really is good at that.
The way Obama lies so naturally, it is like breathing air, eating and drinking to him. The truth means nothing to him. How can you vote for someone who lies all the time like that??? How can you trust him, even if he represents your political party??? I wouldn’t even trust him with $100 of my money, much less be my leader.
How can you ask such a habitual and constant liar to be leader of your great country??? Yes, America is a GREAT country, not because of its size, wealth or military, but because of its constitution, bill of rights and its freedoms. That is what is GOOD about America. Maybe americans take all these things for granted?????
Another saying: You never really appreciate what you have until you lose it.
@sigmundringeck: “You never really appreciate what you have until you lose it.”
I imagine there are more than a few people saying that about George W. Bush right now.
And look at what a bumbling job Hillary Clinton did recently with her “overcharge” button to the Russian foreign minister and telling European leaders that our democracy was older than that in Greece.
Condi Rice never goofed like that.
But the adults are no longer in charge and until the American voters figure out how badly they were conned were stuck with the current crop of kids playing at government.
Yes, that Hillary really is a bumbler. Actually I feel a bit sorry for her, having a husband like that. But she is a disaster herself.
In contrast, Condi Rice had a lot of brains and class.
Such a great difference, from the professionalism of the GWB admin to to amateurishness of Obama and Hillary. One a conman, the other trying to do a job that is sadly beyond her. And to think the media kept on criticizing GWB’s admin—well they now have an present admin that makes the previous one looks like geniuses. Look at Geithner, that guy is like a deer in the headlights. And Warren Buffet is clever enough to refuse a post in Obama’s admin but looks constipated with unhappiness on TV now.
More than a bad day: Worries grow that Barack Obama & Co. have a competence problem
Sunday, March 15th 2009, 4:00 AM
Not long ago, after a string of especially bad days for the Obama administration, a veteran Democratic pol approached me with a pained look on his face and asked, “Do you think they know what they’re doing?”
The question caught me off guard because the man is a well-known Obama supporter. As we talked, I quickly realized his asking suggested his own considerable doubts.
Yes, it’s early, but an eerily familiar feeling is spreading across party lines and seeping into the national conversation. It’s a nagging doubt about the competency of the White House.
Most people aren’t expecting an overnight fix. That’s why his approval numbers are still over 60%. Geitner’s bank plan will be out soon. Despite all the hype and bluster, there are hundreds of billions of dollars worth of real projects in the stimulus bill that will be starting by summer. If things aren’t better by this time next year, I’ll say you were right.
@Fit fit: Just how long do you think people like this are going to wait for the goody train to arrive?
“I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car. I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage….If I help him he’s going to help me.”
In regards to his approval rating, it is in the 50s and plummeting. By next week, it could by below 50% and then what? What is going to happen when the media will have no choice but to throw this man-child of a President under the bus? The day is coming. It is just a matter of when.
He won’t be able to get anything done at that point, economic crisis included. I think he is doing it this way, so he can change America his way while he still can, before he is a lame duck. The economy is on HIS backburner.
http://franklinslocke.blogspot.com/
His numbers are steadily falling:
Some of the biggest names in his support base are departing.
The wheels are comin’ off of the Obamalama train.
It’s just a matter of time now.
The stongly approve/strongly disapprove gap is in single digits. How long before the strongly disapprove overtakes approve?
Any bets?
Mike,
I’d say we will see the green and red lines cross one another within two weeks of today.
That’s a pretty bold prediction. But looking at the dramatic drop in the gap between the two numbers you might not be off by much if at all.
Soon these trends will start showing an impact on the overall approval numbers.
And that day will be a joy to behold! All those poor deluded Obamatons finally realizing they had been had.
I’ll be happy to say:
I TOLD YOU SO!
@Fit fit:
That has to be as far as you read. Start adding it all up remembering Pelosi is floating a Stimulus #2 trial balloon, then the healthcare bill, environment plan, billions more to the UN, 77 TRILLION in medicare payments about to hit as the baby boomers are retiring.
Then we still have to dread the job killers they are planning on, higher taxes, cap and trade, card check. Nothing is going to look any better in a year, it will be dreadfully worse.
Another opinion poll:
Sorry….the chart is smaller than I wanted it to be.
The chart represents the DOW since the Immaculate Inauguration.
Fit fit,
Much of the buoyancy in Obama’s approval rating comes from a combination of the media’s continued fawning over “The One” and its likewise reckless abandonment of critique for anything left of center. If the media dared to repeat Clinton’s “It’s the economy, stupid!” maybe some of the swooning masses would snap out of their stupor and see this administration for the incompetent ship of fools that it is.
By the way, the part of Geithner’s plan that you referenced is only the part on what to do with the toxic assets. There’s a helluva lot more work to be done, and it looks like his inability to attract deputies means that he’s far from being able to submit anything that even remotely resembles a plan for digging the banks out. To a large degree, the fate of the global economy rests in this man’s hands. Do you really believe the rest of the world shares your confidence in Geithner?
Jeff V
@Fit fit:
I’d like to know more about these projects.
Links please.
@ruaqtpi2:
Jeff,
TuboTax Timmy cannot even get anyone to answer the phone over at Treasury.
Heh.
@Aye Chihuahua:
Since Obama was nominated on June 3 the index of wealth throughout the world has been cut by more than half:
http://www.mscibarra.com/products/indices/stdindex/performance.jsp
@Mike’s America:
I wouldn’t rush to lay all this at the feet of Obama. He’s just not that talented. He had/has lots of help. There are a whole lot of wacko politicians and businessmen who are mucking everything up. He’s just one of many, and if he hadn’t been selected to become president, he would have been just another anonymous face in the crowd of usual suspects. And as to a leadership vacuum, which is the only way a clown like that could have looked good, there’s nothing even remotely conservative out there to provide the necessary contrast for people to realize what a fake he is.
This may help illustrate that last point…
http://thelondonfog.blogspot.com/2009/02/reagan-obama-debate.html
As to “ignoring” the crisis, it’s probably more like they are stoking it…
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/barack_obama_and_the_strategy.html
Warren Buffet isn’t simply a “high flier”. He is a partisan democrat. His stance has been quintessentially gutless.
“Brakabama is driving the economy into the ground…..but he deserves our support.”
What a cowardly flake. Besides that, though, the notion that Buffet is some sort of authoritative source on matters economic is dubious at best. He has one skillset. He buys undervalued companies. That is all he has ever done and its all he knows anything about.
Q: If Brakabama is fighting an economic “war”, who is the enemy?
A: Americans.
Oh Fitty,
To be so smitty over “The One”. When Bushie had a drop in the polls the nattering naybobs chattered with glee and the MSM chirped with pride.
Now Obambi has a dipp and folks like you wanna cut him some slack. Where were you when Bushie had his problems and needed support? Nowhere. Now the shoe is on the other foot.
How it feel now Fitty?
@Timothy:
That shoe fits Fit.
If the Fitty Fits we must acquit!
@yonason: That was a good link and the modus operandi sure does fit:
Instead of Clinton’s “It’s the economy, stupid!” we are obviously having “It’s socialism, stupid!”
One really wondered how long it would take the majority of americans to wake up and see Obama’s true colors: A leftwing racist bigot with dreams of creating his own socialist paradise thru exercise of absolute centralised power.
Much like our Mao last time.
Many of those talking heads on your cable finance shows are at least critical or disagreeing with Obama’s policies whereas last time they were fawning at his feet. Those who now still support and adore him are starting to sound like retarded rabbits who have been eating too many carrots gone past their sell-by date. Your Warren Buffet is really funny: he disagrees with Obama on most things but says we still must suppport him. This round Warren was way behind the curve, did not see the downturn coming and also guessed the bottom way too early(fatal). I guess if he was conned by Obama, it means this round he wasn’t that smart.
In the market, you are only as good as the next round. But looking at how Buffet and Cramer were conned, it is a testament to Obama’s ability to con people, to find their emotional needs and weaknesses and con them into voting for him(then do the opposite of his promises later): this is Obama’s great strength. Basically he made Cramer and Buffet look like fools.
Going back to the market, with Geithner threatening to actually get something going and rules to hurt shorts, the market will stay up until it gets disappointed by Obama’s madness again.
After dropping so much, a lot of people have sold out and thus there is the potential for a rebound when some new guys come back in. But at this point I really see no way to tell if the last low was the ultimate bottom of the market.
Whatever the case, for the sake of America, Obama must not have a second term, and you Americans need to take Congress back into some semblence of sanity.
@sigmundringeck:
Good morning or good evening, which ever, love it when you visit.
Was just reading Randal Hoven’s latest, am wondering what you think of it, agree/disagree.
He separates the crisis into tiers and then explains his thoughts on each.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/03/heres_whats_happening_to_the_e_1.html
LINK
LINK
LINK
LINK
LINK
LINK
I got these off Google. You can also check out projects on recovery.org. Or you can just keep your head up your ass and pretend there’s no real job creating projects in the ARRA.
As engineers, achitects and project managers start contacting vendors about their needs for all these projects, there will be a increase in demand for the raw materials and equipment needed. That will be the first sign the recovery is starting.
@sigmundringeck said: “looking at how Buffet and Cramer were conned, it is a testament to Obama’s ability to con people, to find their emotional needs and weaknesses and con them into voting for him”
Absolutley right.
And I loved the part about the retarded rabbit….Note to Fit Fit: Check the sell by date on your carrots.
He’s not ignoring the crisis. He’s USING it. AND, if Pelosi can introduce an even more disastrous Stimulus II, then Obama can denounce it and appear rational and responsible, thus giving cover to his efforts to turn America into a giant communist collective. Remember, Chavez was elected, too.
My co-workers are pissed about losing thier home values and 401k’s. Obama, Geither, Pelosi, Reed, Emanual, Axelrod et al don’t really seem worried that the markets are going south. What do they know? Are they shorting the market? Why aren’t they screaming at the top of their lungs??
Obama has $750,000,000 in his war chest form the campaign. I’m sure all that is not stuffed into the bed in the Lincoln Room. I want to know his investment results.
@Fit fit: Just how long do you think people like this are going to wait for the goody train to arrive?
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No one will tell YOU when thier goody train starts a rollin’. I’d bet it’s left the station already.
@Fit fit:
Oh, that’s sooo good to know. Our family has a metal fabricating plant and right now the scrap yard isn’t picking up the scrap because scrap metal prices have dropped severely, scavengers aren’t even stealing it anymore. But, that’s not too much of a problem because we cut hours, less scrap. Until we get the defense contracts back, things will remain slow. Since the manchild’s intention is to cut defense, and mess around with military aircraft contracts, things won’t be too rosey for a lot of companies in this area. We are at 12% unemployed right now.
Our aluminum, steel and stainless stock is built up now because we were getting it at bargain prices, but we can’t purchase more than we can store. So, if and when things break out, we won’t need to buy raw materials for awhile either.
Our company is being told by our vendors that this is going to go on for a long time, so glad you can shine such a bright light on the “near” future.
Then there’s that little problem with heavy equipment companies having a surplus on hand, also not needing to build anything more before their surplus is sold. How many times can these situations be multiplied around the country?
@Fit
Can White male construction workers apply??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opxuUj6vFa4
@Fit fit:
Can non-union companies bid for the gov’t contracts?
Mike,
#13.. So now you have Obama responsible for the whole worlds economy since his nomination in June.
Who was president until January 20th?
maybe you should check and see what has happened since he first ran for public office and make him responsible for that time period too…
What a crock!
@Real American Patriot: C.R.A.P: It would be a crock if you folks accepted Obama’s blame for the current Dow Dive.
But since you don’t I have no problem tracing the market crash back to the onset of the Age of Obama.
@Aye Chihuahua:
Heh. With all the Obama cronies busy making matters…..worse?
http://therealbarackobama.wordpress.com/2009/03/12/from-acornjobs-with-justice-rally-today-in-orlando-to-push-historic-budget-to-worldwide-demonstrations-for-global-social-justice/
Just found this, ain’t life great?
Now-needy FDIC collected little in premiums
With fund going strong, banks didn’t pay for decade
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | March 11, 2009
WASHINGTON – The federal agency that insures bank deposits, which is asking for emergency powers to borrow up to $500 billion to take over failed banks, is facing a potential major shortfall in part because it collected no insurance premiums from most banks from 1996 to 2006.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which insures deposits up to $250,000, tried for years to get congressional authority to collect the premiums in case of a looming crisis. But Congress believed that the fund was so well-capitalized – and that bank failures were so infrequent – that there was no need to collect the premiums for a decade, according to banking officials and analysts.
Now with 25 banks having failed last year, 17 so far this year, and many more expected in the coming months, the FDIC has proposed large new premiums for banks at the very time when many can least afford to pay. The agency collected $3 billion in the fees last year and has proposed collecting up to $27 billion this year, prompting an outcry from some banks that say it will force them to raise consumer fees and curtail lending.
To possibly reduce the fee increase, the FDIC has asked Congress for the temporary authority to borrow as much as $500 billion from the US Treasury – up from the current $30 billion limit – in case the number of bank failures increases even more dramatically. If Congress approves the measure, to borrow more than $100 billion, the FDIC would still need permission from the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department, and the White House.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/03/11/now_needy_fdic_collected_little_in_premiums/?page=1
What good is a building a bridge? It produces no weath by itself and demands yearly upkeep. Construction projects are just a temporary fix. It’s the PRIVATE sector that generates the wealth, tax base and employment!!!!
How about buidling a bunch of nuclear power plants??? If it’s good enough for the Japanese (30% of electrical power and growing), French (87% of electrical power and exporting), Chinese (plans for more) and Indians (plans for more), it should be good enough for us.
Producing nuclear plants generates good paying jobs, is “carbon free”, produces a product the world needs, and has several advantageous spins-offs (desalination plants, night-time recharging, and hydrogen extraction)
Missy: About what was highlighted, I generally agree with the first parts(tier1 and tier2).
As for tier2, Lehman Bros even came here and to HK to sell their mortgage backed securities to us and con our money, it was so widespread. Everybody was writing derivatives on other derivatives, so when the first one crashed, all the others written on each other also crashed. Look at how AIG, which was the insurer, crashed because they were liable to backup those crashed subprime loans and securities. Then with AIG gone, when other banks could not afford insurance on their dubious assets, they also basically became insolvent. It was like one dollar(of real money) supports 30 or 40 or more dollars of assets(dubious loans,etc).
About tier3, I am not too sure about how the measures brought up to deal with the crisis actually interacted with the market psychology and also the political scene(tier3), probably because I have no experience in how to manage a financial crisis, from a governmental point of view. My view is always from that of an investor or FM: how can I make money or prevent loss. This is obviously something I need to learn more about, cause knowing the first will obviously help the second.
One big problem many of us chinese and SEAsian investors face is that being so far away from the US, we don’t have a good feel of the market situation there, and how to read where things are going. That’s the reason for the poor “bottom positioning” of the singaporeans and chinese funds this round: They avoided the first stages of the crash but misjudged the bottom and reinvested too early, which is fatal.
To understand the US market, I have to understand US politics, and I think it is the same for anyone. That way if any big bomb comes again, hopefully I will avoid it and also not reinvest back too early. If you don’t understand US politics, you’ll never understand the US markets.
Like I saved a lot of money by understanding that Obama would be bad for the markets and sadly I was proved right.
About tier4, I don’t know if the financial meltdown really was the cause of Obama winning. I am sure it helped, but was it the determining factor? Maybe Obama was just able to take advantage of it and con more people to vote for him, while Mccain just wasn’t able to turn it to his advantage. I am thinking even without the crisis, Obama might still have beaten McCain. Also his majorities in congress obviously allow him to ram thru any nonsense he wants, under the guise of helping the economy, I guess just like HITLER did it last time. But even without the crisis, I think he still would have tried to ram thru his radical socialist agenda, you can see he is very ruthless about it.
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Hope your family’s steel business picks up. My extended family has a small property development business. We build, sell and rent out. At the moment most of our stuff has rental contracts from 2007 still locked in at high prices, but the next round we will probably have to lower rates by 30 or more %. Thankfully we did not gear up very much in 2007 so we only have a few vacant props unsold and unrented.
I don’t know if you have ever thot of selling your steel overseas? My friend tells me he was trying to buy an anchor recently and the price had doubled over the past few months.
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Mike: It is good to see americans so dedicated to good sense as you are. I hope there will be enough people with your good sense to return america to the right path where it can continue to grow, prosper and set a good example to the rest of the world to follow, as it did during the Bush administration(yes, I am not joking–to me GWB was a decent US POTUS, had balls and class).
I understand Obama is going to meet with mainland FM Yang today. Must tell Yang not to disrobe to underwear if offended by Obama.
Here are the mainlanders worried about the money they lent to the US:
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http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Money/Story/STIStory_349647.html
Worried about US investments
BEIJING – CHINA is concerned about its investments in the United States, Premier Wen Jiabao said Friday, as he called on US economic planners to safeguard the assets.
‘We have lent huge amounts of money to the United States. Of course we are concerned about the safety of our assets,’ Mr Wen told reporters.
‘To be honest, I am a little bit worried and I would like to… call on the United States to honour its word and remain a credible nation and ensure the safety of Chinese assets.’ As the largest creditor to the United States, China is ‘extremely interested in developments in the US economy,’ he said.
‘On the foreign reserves issue, the first consideration is our national interest,’ he said. ‘But we also have to consider the stability of the overall international financial system, as the two factors are interlinked.’ With the world’s largest forex reserves, standing at US$1.95 trillion (S$3 trillion) at the end of December, China is facing the challenge of finding safe ways of placing its money, forcing it to buy large amounts of US government debt.
China held US$727.4 billion in US Treasury bonds at the end of last year, ahead of Japan, the holder of US$626 billion in bonds, according to US government data. — AFP
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Says a lot, when the mainland govt speaks so openly like this: they think Obama is dangerous and untrustworthy. This would never have happened with Bush, cause everyone knows that Bush is a man of his word, whereas with Obama there is no value in his words, because he’ll say anything to get his way.
@sigmundringeck:
Thank you for your time. I did read about AIG last week, because of how far reaching they were it was necessary for part of our funds to bail out foreign banks. It tied in with you mentioning trusting the books. I think it was Merrill Lynch in London that had some funny business going on with their books to the tune of $400 million. With the skeleton crew we have at Treasury, how in the world will they be able to check this out?
As for our company, we do have a few overseas accounts, a couple of them are antique auto rehab outfits, lots of gas tanks and duplicating parts that no longer can be found. Hubby once refabbed a rusted out floorboard for an auto in GB, they told him there were only two of those autos in existance, they personally came over to pick it up. We are always amazed when these companies find us.
My father-in-law started the business back in the 50’s. He was financed by a company that built parts for our planes. His employer wasn’t getting the work out in time, they approached my father-in-law to set him up to work exclusively on their accounts.
Our larger accounts are Woodward Governor, Sundstrand’s and a couple others I’m not remembering right now. Some of the work we do for them I’m not even allowed to see or go into that part of the building, wouldn’t know what I would be looking at anyway.
@sigmundringeck: “Mike: It is good to see americans so dedicated to good sense as you are.”
Thanks Sigmund. I appreciate the compliment. I take a lot of flak from the libs so it’s nice to know my efforts are appreciated.
P.S. I noted Premier Wen Jiabao’s statement today expressing their concern about the value of the loans China has made to the U.S. I can’t recall a precdent for any such statements in the past.
We’re all a bit concerned that Obama will try and escape from the consequences of his massive overspending by some monetary trickery that will damage existing assets.
@Missy: Didn’t you make a comparison between Obama and Nixon a while back? I heard Bill O’Reilly discussing that very same thing with Karl Rove tonight in reference to the Obama enemies list and the new White House Plumbers unit.
This link was mentioned:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19846.html
Mike and Missy
Thanks for your replies.
When your housing crisis started to unfold, I was in tune with the first stages, but did not anticipate the further unravelling of AIG and the further destruction of your banks in the latter part of last year. I guess I really needed to be more in tune with the US situation, which I simply wasn’t. I hope I don’t get blindsided by something in europe now(lotsa noise abt the euro and the loans the euro countries have given eastern europe, fear of default, etc).
Basically I think your US housing crisis is a case study of systematic default: one thing failing and affecting many others that we don’t realize initially.
Doubtless we will have some huge bust like this, probably in the mainland 10-15 years down the road.
Anyway, wish you both well, and I hope that in due time, things in America get better as more people start to work to take back your congress and kick out this horrible Obama. This guy is really bad for america and I am quite shocked that somebody so dishonest, vicious, classless, racist and crazed with socialist fervour could have ever become POTUS.
@sigmundringeck said: “kick out this horrible Obama. This guy is really bad for america and I am quite shocked that somebody so dishonest, vicious, classless, racist and crazed with socialist fervour could have ever become POTUS.”
Obama had a lot of people fooled. I remember during the election that we tried to warn people that Obama was totally inexperienced and the only guide we had to go on to determine what he was reallly all about were these troubling associations with people like Ayers and Rev. Wright.
But when we tried to communicate that reality to people they didn’t want to hear it. Like children who plug their ears and sing when being told news they don’t want to hear.
Obamatons desperately wanted to believe that their man was this new Messiah they had made him out to be even though no human being except Christ himself could fulfill that role.
I would almost feel sorry for duped Obamatons except that they were, and some still are, filled with such an annoying sense of sanctimony that they deserve to be smacked down to reality a few times to teach them a lesson.
Hopefully next time they will bother to ask a few serious questions about a man or woman before investing so much of their trust.
Obama may be an incompetant idealogue when it comes to running the govt and managing the economy, but as a politician/campaigner who can con peoples’ votes, he really is good at that.
The way Obama lies so naturally, it is like breathing air, eating and drinking to him. The truth means nothing to him. How can you vote for someone who lies all the time like that??? How can you trust him, even if he represents your political party??? I wouldn’t even trust him with $100 of my money, much less be my leader.
How can you ask such a habitual and constant liar to be leader of your great country??? Yes, America is a GREAT country, not because of its size, wealth or military, but because of its constitution, bill of rights and its freedoms. That is what is GOOD about America. Maybe americans take all these things for granted?????
Another saying: You never really appreciate what you have until you lose it.
@sigmundringeck: “You never really appreciate what you have until you lose it.”
I imagine there are more than a few people saying that about George W. Bush right now.
And look at what a bumbling job Hillary Clinton did recently with her “overcharge” button to the Russian foreign minister and telling European leaders that our democracy was older than that in Greece.
Condi Rice never goofed like that.
But the adults are no longer in charge and until the American voters figure out how badly they were conned were stuck with the current crop of kids playing at government.
Yes, that Hillary really is a bumbler. Actually I feel a bit sorry for her, having a husband like that. But she is a disaster herself.
In contrast, Condi Rice had a lot of brains and class.
Such a great difference, from the professionalism of the GWB admin to to amateurishness of Obama and Hillary. One a conman, the other trying to do a job that is sadly beyond her. And to think the media kept on criticizing GWB’s admin—well they now have an present admin that makes the previous one looks like geniuses. Look at Geithner, that guy is like a deer in the headlights. And Warren Buffet is clever enough to refuse a post in Obama’s admin but looks constipated with unhappiness on TV now.
@Mike’s America:
Remember this?
That exchange was from March 11th.
Today is March 16th.
The pretty little red line grows closer and closer to the pretty little green line:
Even Obie’s supporters are getting nervous.
@Aye Chihuahua: I knew you would be all over that.
At this rate it won’t be two weeks until those lines cross.
And thanks for the link to: