More than 90 U.S. banks and thrifts missed making a May 17 payment to the U.S. government under its main bank bailout program, signaling a rising number of lenders are struggling to meet their obligations.
And it’s getting worse. Not better.
Tag Archives: Economy
Who Is The Most Dangerous Man To America?
If you are thinking of Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or the president of North Korea Kim Jong IL, or BP’s CEO Tony Hayward, it’s not your fault. That would be the desired reaction by any sleight of hand magician who has you looking at his right hand while his left hand is removing your wristwatch. The magician of whom I speak is our own President, Barack Obama.
His agenda to remake America and, in his mind, become America’s new founding father is the reason the tea party movement has surfaced. And rather than deal with their heartfelt objection to his policies, his disciples simply discount them as racists.
His eighteen months in office has not been a string of coincidences to fundamentally change the role of the federal government, to expand the size of government, to control and usurp private sector industries, and expand ‘social justice’ by owing America’s future to China. Not to mention dismantling our global military defense and foreign policy strategy.
His Gulf Coast tour to talk about the oil disaster in the Gulf is not designed to ‘feel our pain.’ It is just another coincidence, along the line of Rule 1, to advance an ‘energy policy’ called Cap and Trade.
The evidence of this comes directly from the most dangerous man TO America himself in this email I received this morning, during his visit to Pensacola.
Ross —
The BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast is the worst environmental disaster of its kind in our nation’s history. I am returning to the region today to review our efforts and meet with families and business owners affected by the catastrophe.
We are working to hold BP accountable for the damage to the lands and the livelihoods of the Gulf Coast, and we are taking strong precautions to make certain a spill like this never happens again.
But our work will not end with this crisis. That’s one of the reasons why last week I invited lawmakers from both parties to join me at the White House to discuss what it will take to move forward on legislation to promote a new economy powered by green jobs, combat climate change, and end our dependence on foreign oil.
Today, we consume more than 20 percent of the world’s oil, but have less than two percent of the world’s oil reserves. Beyond the risks inherent in drilling four miles beneath the surface of the Earth, our dependence on oil means that we will continue to send billions of dollars of our hard-earned wealth to other countries every month — including many in dangerous and unstable regions.
In other words, our continued dependence on fossil fuels will jeopardize our national security. It will smother our planet. And it will continue to put our economy and our environment at risk. We cannot delay any longer, and that is why I am asking for your help.
Please stand with me today in backing clean energy. Adding your name will help create a powerful, public display of support for making this change happen.
The time has come, once and for all, for this nation to fully embrace a new future. That means continuing our unprecedented effort to make everything — from our homes and businesses to our cars and trucks — more energy-efficient. It means rolling back billions of dollars of tax breaks to oil companies so we can prioritize investments in clean energy research and development.
Many businesses support this agenda because shifting to clean energy creates opportunities for entrepreneurship. This is how we will reinvent our economy — and create new companies and new jobs all across the country.
There will be transition costs and a time of adjustment. But if we refuse to heed the warnings from the disaster in the Gulf — we will have missed our best chance to seize the clean-energy future we know America needs to thrive in the years and decades to come.
The House of Representatives has already passed a comprehensive energy and climate bill, and there is currently a plan in the Senate — a plan that was developed with ideas from Democrats and Republicans — that would achieve the same goal. But this is an issue that Washington has long ignored in favor of protecting the status quo.
So I’m asking for your help today to show that the American people are ready for a clean-energy future.
Please add your name to mine:
http://my.democrats.org/CleanEnergy
Thank you,
President Barack Obama
The magic show is on.
U.S. Debt Poised to Overtake GDP
Hellooooo! Eh, no problem. According to VP Joe Biden, the stimulus bill was an absolute success. Maybe so for labor unions, and government workers. The latter being the only job sector that has grown.
When government grows government jobs, it is adding overhead to an already broke company, or rather, country. Who pays their salaries? You do. Government employees and government jobs don’t make money, they consume it.
What happens next? Picture a snowball at the top of a hill. For the last couple years, economists were warning about out-of-control spending, deficit spending. So is China, a major benefactor of the dreamers in Washington.
The government is gambling with the future of the country, or more accurately, the future of your children and grand children. They claimed that all this spending was needed to jump-start the economy. Realists were warning that the debt is heading to an unsustainable point. They warned that when interest rates begin to rise from their all-time low, that we wouldn’t be able to make the interest payments on the debt, let alone the debt itself.
The problem is not where to get more tax revenue. The problem is where to find the guts to cut spending. Realists were telling Washington to look at Greece and Europe to see what we can expect to happen here IF we don’t roll back spending.
Well, it is starting. Interest rates on our debt is poised to rise. The time to get real has come. The time has come to put all our dreams of a socialist utopia behind us and realize the truth of the matter that, just like you and your household can’t live beyond your means, the country can’t either.
Link: U.S.’s $13 Trillion Debt Poised to Overtake GDP: Chart of Day – Bloomberg.com.
Behold Your IRA And 401(k)
In this day and age where things are happening that no one could have imagined happening just a few short years ago, do you think your IRA and 401(k) plan will always be yours? Do you believe that your children will be able to collect their Social Security?
Let me put it this way. The Department of Labor and the Treasury Department are exploring the idea of using your retirement accounts and to replace them with yet another version of a Social Security-like retirement program, or ‘revenue stream’ as it is referred to.
Some food for thought:
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it.”
Frederic Bastiat
Right now, they’re toying with the idea. But from here, it looks like the compass they’re following.
Related Links:
- Jan 8, 2010: http://www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jan2010/pi2010018_130737.htm
- Jan 14, 2010: http://boortz.com/more/newsletter/011410_retirement.html
- Feb 3, 2010: http://boortz.com/nealz_nuze/2010/02/the-government-wants-your-reti.html
- From the Dept of Labor and Dept of Treasury: Request for Information Regarding Lifetime Income Options for Participants and Beneficiaries in Retirement Plans
BP’s $25 Million For Florida’s Panhandle
Gov. Charlie Crist (NPA-FL) visited the Florida Panhandle a few times since the Deepwater Horizon incident. Hearing from residents and industry leaders about how the already weak economy is worsening because of the bad publicity, BP officials agreed to support an advertising fund to help offset the economic damage with an advertising effort to promote business in the Panhandle.
So far, and according to RicksBlog . . .
State Senator Don Gaetz says that, as of Friday, May 21, BP has not given Florida the $25-million block grant for tourism advertising that BP CEO Tony Hayward promised Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday.
According to State Senator Don Gaetz . . .
state officials are still negotiating a ‘memorandum of understanding’, which must be completed prior to receiving the funds.”
Well, that’s how it started. From there it has gone to a gimme-fest by politicos all over the state. Developing a memorandum of understanding over the $25 million seems only prudent. Especially when you have people like Kendrick Meek showboating for $100 million.
Aside from all that, take a peek at how the Panhandle is going to be ‘promoted.’ No, take a long look at it, and a peek is all you’ll see. Links to the proposed ads as produced by VisitFlorida.com are here:
Link to spots: http://www.2150.tv/getpass.html
password: visitflorida (case sensitive)
There are currently 2 versions of the spot – a general Florida version and a more Northwest Florida oriented spot.
Take a look at those ads. If that’s what they call focused on the Panhandle, I think we need to look to another ad agency with a more effective message. VisitFlorida.com’s website is nothing but a glorified Yahoo travel site. You’re lucky to find beach shots with sugar-white sands, and no mention of the timeliness of the ads and the beautiful conditions that exist in this part of the Gulf of Mexico and Florida.
But you will find this . . .
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Update
There continue to be no confirmed oil sightings associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill on Florida’s shores at this time.
The great majority of the hotels/motels are inland. There is no evidence there of any emphasis placed on fighting the negative impression created by the news media and environmentalists.
Considering both ads, if I had to put a percentage to it, as for how much of it is ‘focused’ on the Panhandle and how much of it is generic to Florida, I’d give the Panhandle less than ten percent. And if you don’t live in the area, like 100 percent of the target audience, you wouldn’t recognize anything to do with the Panhandle. It’s a sham.
It seems apparent that Charlie Crist and Alex Sink care more about getting the money to promote Florida than the Panhandle. The place where Florida’s economy is most severely impacted.
Give money to Crist and Sink, and you can kiss it good-bye. Especially in this political season. All the Panhandle is left with is hope. Nothing has changed.
aSide Order
April 28, 2010, Obama was concerned about Greece’s ‘debt problems.’ They’re monitoring it closely.
“This is something that is of great concern to the president and we’re monitoring it very closely,” Burton told reporters on Air Force One, adding that the U.S. Treasury Department and other agencies were “in close contact with folks in Europe about the issue.”
Have you heard anything from the administration since? 
What has happened since is this; Obama urged Germany and the EU to go the bail-out route. Why should we be the only country in debt for generations to come? The Euro is falling, Greece is burning, the dollar is gaining at the expense of the Euro. The dollar gaining causes the bolivar to tumble, bringing Venezuela’s inflation up to 30%.
Missed in all of this is the common thread; welfare state economies are not sustainable.
Does watching it closely make it better? Maybe we could refrain from becoming like them? Do ya think?
Scientists in mainly Muslim Kazakhstan have come up with an instant test for the presence of pork in food.
Pork? Our genius politicians in Washington don’t know what it is.
Used copy machines can be a good deal in the wrong hands. Check out this video before you get rid of yours.
Chavez Goes After Another Industry
Spelling disaster to an already weak, unproductive, and inflationary economy, the hemisphere’s idiot, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, considers controlling the financial market next.
The failed socialist / Marxist / communist economic system often praised by the Left and Hollywood elites, is experiencing the same shortages on the supermarket shelves and rationing as it always has, only this time the strengthening of the dollar, facilitated by the falling of the Euro under the weight of debt there, has caused the bolivar to lose half its value in one day, increasing the cost of everything for Venezuelans. Not insignificant considering Venezuela has to import half of the products it consumes.
Consumer prices jumped 5.2 percent in April alone, driving the annual inflation rate to 30.4 percent – the highest in Latin America – according to the Central Bank and National Statistics Institute.
The Chavez regime is raiding brokerage houses with the threat of criminal action. Next is the demise of the industry, leaving it under complete control of the government. Sound familiar?
It remains unclear how local brokerages will continue turning a profit. Maria Fernandez, a local banking analyst, predicted the new regulations would lead some brokerage firms to bankruptcy.Many brokerages will be forced to impose “a significant reduction of employees” in order to survive, but others probably will close because the business “is no longer viable” for them.
Step-by-step and not by mere coincidence, the Obama administration is doing its part in usurping one piece of the financial industry after another. And we can expect the exact same result with the private health insurance industry here under Obamacare.
What ought to be disturbing is how, despite the example of Europe and Venezuela, this administration is taking us down the same road? The only thing left to do now is to decide whether President Obama’s political philosophy is more like the socialist Europe or the Marxist Venezuela. Then realize that there is no choice that is good for America.
How’s that hope and change working out for ya?
Capitalism Pays For Socialism
What is happening to Greece, and soon to Spain, Portugal, and Italy is a snapshot of what we can look forward to right here in the United States unless we reverse the course of big government and expanded government control of our lives, higher taxes, and deficit spending amounting to generational theft, like the Obama administration has already done. And they have only just begun. The picture painted in this post, The State of the Welfare State, demonstrates how socialism with all its good intentions is not sustainable.
Now Greece, with a total population roughly equal to the combined populations of New York City and Chicago, is looking for $146.2 billion for a bailout. The fact is, no amount of money will bail out Greece. Not unless and until Greece dismantles the socialist utopia it has built for itself.
Their utopia is currently running a national debt that is 115% of GDP, and is expected to rise to 149% of GDP by 2013. {actual for 2013 is 156.9% of GDP} By any measure, that is what bankrupt is. Pretty impressive debt, especially when you consider that Greece, like all of the EU, has a value added tax (VAT) in addition to all their other taxes.
Most European countries today operate under economic and labor policies crafted during the height of the post-war baby boom, featuring middle-class entitlements like generous pension systems that allow early retirement, liberal disability programs that exempt many laborers from work, and extended unemployment systems that make going on the dole and staying there easier than in the U.S.. Europeans designed these policies in an era when there were, in many European minds, too many people competing for jobs and a bulging work population to support those who were retired or on disability.
Now, this house of cards is falling down. The demographics are nothing today like they were 60 or 70 years ago. Now, not only are there less people working, but there are more people on the government dole collecting retirement pensions. Europe has their own baby boomers. Governments, like Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal, have no money to sustain this welfare state and they and other countries face riots in the streets at the very thought of trying to reform (take away) the unsustainable benefits they have put in place.
So where are we today? Hopefully, we a learning the lesson that the socialist economic system is not sustainable. Like Margaret Thatcher said, ‘the problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples money.’ Their socio-economic models need to change to a market driven capitalistic model. Much like the one President Obama is trying to dismantle.
By trying to be more like Europe, actually way worse than Europe, he is heading the country southbound in the northbound lane. And is taking advice from people telling him to ‘speed up,’ instead of ‘turn around.’
And before too long, this great country will be in the same shape as Greece, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, and the rest of them.
Still An Issue Of Trust For Obama Administration
Now that the dust from the terrorist car bombing attack in Manhattan has settled, and the oil spill talking points are down, all while the flooding in Tennessee is being ignored, what else has the media not been telling you about when it comes to the Obama administration?
Having removed all possibilities offered by giving the benefit of doubt to President Obama, let’s examine the actions of the community organizer-turned Commander in Chief since last month. Time has come to hold him accountable for the disparity between his words and his deeds.
Missed from the news pages and the evening ‘news’ was this little ditty.
The economic report released last week by Health and Human Services, which indicated that President Barack Obama’s health care “reform” law would actually increase the cost of health care and impose higher costs on consumers, had been submitted to the office of HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius more than a week before the Congressional votes on the bill, according to career HHS sources, who added that Sebelius’s staff refused to review the document before the vote was taken.
“The reason we were given was that they did not want to influence the vote,” says an HHS source. “
Which is actually the point of having a review like this.To put it another way, telling Americans and Congress the truth would be contrary to President Obama’s agenda. So the truth loses.
And today the Congressional Budget Office says President Barack Obama’s new health care law could potentially add at least $115 billion more to government health care spending over the next 10 years.
Long before the so-called health reform bill was voted on, I was willing to accept that Obama was just wrong in his assertion that his bill would reduce costs. I was even willing to believe him (well, not really) when he said that he wouldn’t sign a bill that wouldn’t reduce cost and increase care. But when put to the wall, this administration is all about the means justifying the end. Truth, openness, and accountability was the smokescreen used to usurp nearly 20 percent of the private sector economy and the health care decisions of all Americans, whether they like it or not.
We now know that none of what the President promised will happen. Ditto with the so-called ‘stimulus’ package of out-of-sight deficit spending keeping unemployment below eight percent. If the President was an honest man, he would hold a news conference and admit his ‘mistake’ and call for the revocation of The Affordable Care Act and hold true to his word that no bill of that magnitude will ever again pass on a simple majority, bribery notwithstanding.
Then there is the divider-in-chief’s comments on the new law in Arizona that gives state and local police the same powers of the federal government when it comes enforcing the law as relates to border crashers, aka illegal aliens.
Anyone who characterizes the Arizona law as an immigration law is mis-characterizing it. The federal government has immigration laws that cover how people immigrate to the United States legally. Arizona has given State authorities the same tools to identify those in the country illegally as those used by the federal government. Their law has nothing to do with immigration laws.
It was in late April at a campaign-style event in Iowa when Obama said, “Now, suddenly, if you don’t have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream, you’re going to get harassed.” That simply and factually is not true. It is a deliberate prevarication of the facts, or more simply, a lie. Standard practice for a community organizer who looks at illegal aliens as undocumented democrats. But deplorable practice for the President of the United States.
The Arizona law prohibits profiling to ascertain citizenship, same as the federal law prohibits profiling. What the President knows, and is deliberately misleading to inflame emotions in the Latino community, is that (like the federal law) any interrogation such as asking for identification may only come AFTER a lawful contact with a person such as being stopped in the commission of a crime, a traffic stop, or some other reason that an officer may lawfully come in contact with an individual. It may not happen solely on the color of their skin.
And where is the President when it comes to responding to Mexico’s 
President Felipe Calderon who said . . .
Criminalizing immigration, which is a social and economic phenomena, this way opens the door to intolerance, hate, and discrimination.” Calderon told a meeting with Mexican immigrant groups.
“My government cannot and will not remain indifferent when these kinds of policies go against human rights,” Calderon said, adding that he would bring up the new law when he meets with Obama next month during an official visit to Washington.
Like his predecessor Vicente Fox, Calderon often refers to illegal aliens who are Mexicans as a migration phenomenon. Breaking U.S. immigration laws is not a human right Mr. Calderon. Something else to ponder President Calderon, people immigrate, animals migrate.
I have no problem with people who want to come to America to live and prosper, when done legally. And if steps are not taken now to insure that America remains American, then I apologize to our future generations for the chaos they’ll be going through. There’s nothing wrong or un-American about this country being a so-called melting pot. What’s wrong is to let the pot melt.
Links:
Boat Owners Join Oil Recovery Fight
Called the Vessels of Opportunity Program, boat captains everywhere can help to remedy the oil spill going on at Deepwater Horizon. Where Florida’s coast is concerned, the oil has not reached the shores yet. But it has already hit the charter boat and commercial fishing industries, including of course the seafood distributors, all over the Gulf coast.
The problem is simple, there is no fishing business for the fishing industry until the oil leak is fixed. And there are not enough BP and government vessels available for the extended use that is anticipated.
BP is offering $2000/day for captains in the program. It helps them with some income and helps to save the coast and Gulf waters from further oil pollution.
Participation requires specialized training. Information about participating is on their website at Deepwater Horizon Response. The list of training sessions all along the Gulf Coast is below.
Vessels of Opportunity Orientation and Training Sessions Schedule
| City | Date | Place | Start Time |
| Houma, LA | Monday,
May 10 |
Houma Civic Center
346 Civic Center Boulevard Houma, Louisiana 70360 |
9:00 AM |
| Houma, LA | Monday,
May 10 |
Houma Municipal Auditorium
880 Verret Street Houma, LA 70360-4636 |
9:00 AM |
| Chauvin, LA | Monday,
May 10 |
5248 Bayouside Dr.
Chauvin, LA 70344 |
2:00 PM |
| Houma, LA | Monday,
May 10 |
Houma Civic Center
346 Civic Center Boulevard Houma, Louisiana 70360 |
2:00 PM |
| Bayou La Batre, AL | Monday,
May 10 |
Church of God Gym
1136 Argyle Road Irvington, AL |
3:00 PM |
| Panama City, FL | Monday, May 10 | Gulf World Marine Park
15412 Front Beach Road Tropical Garden Theatre Panama City Beach, FL 32413 |
5:00 PM |
| Apalachicola, FL | Tuesday, May 11 | 66 Fourth St.
Apalachicola, FL 32320 |
1:00 PM |
| Lafitte, LA | Tuesday, May 11 | Lafitte Civic Center
4953 City Park Dr. 70067 |
1:00 PM |
| New Orleans East, LA
(Vietnamese) |
Tuesday, May 11 | TBD | TBD |
| Grand Isle, LA | Tuesday, May 11 | 3811 Highway One
Grand Isle, LA 70358 |
3:00 PM |
| Pensacola, FL | Tuesday,
May 11 |
Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulf Front, 12 Via de Luna Drive, Pensacola Beach, Fl 32561 | 5:00 pm |
| Slidell, La | Wednesday, May 12 | TBD | 9:00 AM |
| TBD, Jackson Co., MS | Wednesday, May 12 | TBD | 10:00 AM |
| Bon Secour, AL | Wednesday, May 12 | Friendship Baptist Church Community Hall,
7159 Bon Secour Highway Bon Secour, AL 36511 |
1:00 PM |
| Chauvin, LA
(Vietnamese) |
Wednesday,
May 12 |
5248 Bayouside Dr.
Chauvin, LA 70344 |
1:00 PM |
| Slidell, LA | Wednesday, May 12 | TBD | 2:00 PM |
| TBD, Jackson Co., MS | Wednesday, May 12 | TBD | 3:00 PM |
| Dauphin Island, AL | Thursday, May 13 | TBD | 9 AM |
h/t Chasidy Fisher Hobbs, Emerald Coastkeepers