IT’S THE ECONOMY STOOPID!!!! (Not contraceptives)
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — David Stockman, former director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Reagan administration, and Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute, talk about the Obama administration’s stimulus programs and the outlook for the U.S. economy. They speak with Trish Regan on Bloomberg Television’s “Street Smart.” (Source: Bloomberg)
“The Stock Market is Delusional!” Please watch the vid here and really hear what he says. It is very much worth your attention.
Stockman gets it right!
Tags: Debt Crisis, Economy, Trade Deficit
Abu Ghraib! Abu Ghraib! Abu Ghraib! Abu Ghraib!
@ waldensianspirit:
Abu Grab-ass!Abu Grab-ass!Abu Grab-ass!Abu Grab-ass!
Wait a minute. I thought O-zero was going to fix everything, we would be riding unicorns and skittles would fall from the sky. He also said he would not increase the deficit and pay for my mortgage.
@ Iron Fist:
Look at this Obama Boom story.
Rodan wrote:
from the story:
In other words—in short form—homes around the DC area seem to possibly be doing better, as Obama expands the government at an unchecked pace and blows vast sums of borrowed cash on new bureaucratic positions.
A true sign that the economy was recovering would be the bottom dropping out of the DC-area housing market, as the government would be shrunk and downgraded to the extent that tens of thousands of people could no longer afford the homes they bought during the Obama Government Expansion Years.
@ Rodan:
Nice shit they’re smoking! Things are still way off the peak. Disasterously off. Then there is this from the Economist. We’ve lost a decade of growth from back when the economy was really growing. It’ll take us twice that long at today’s growth rate to get back to where we were. Notice, too, that we are in the bottom three of the Western World, with only Iceland (Iceland?!?) and Greece below us. Wonderful magic Obama hath wrought on the economy. And he’ll probably win re-election despite all this…
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Good catch! He is taking a little localized uptick and generalizing it to the entire housing market, while the cause of that uptick is actually detrimental to the growth of the economy as a whole. We already knew that the only part of the economy that is really growing is government. This is just a validation of that knowledge…
t’s becoming clear that the more the United States apologizes to Afghanistan for burning a few Korans, the more Afghans leap into the streets. So White House Dossier has helpfully compiled for Obama a list of ten alternative approaches that the president could have taken to deal with the problem.
None, we believe, will be any less effective than “I apologize.”
Here they are.
*******
1. Dedicate a round of golf to the people of Afghanistan.
2. Send Michelle for a symbolic vacation to Jalalabad.
3. Ask the Afghans if they’d like the Russians back instead.
4. Head to a local Afghan restaurant and bow to the wait staff.
5. Offer to make Afghanistan’s heroin “The Official Heroin of the United States.”
6. Give Afghan children a permanent exemption from Michelle’s “Let’s Move” school lunch offerings.
7. Provide unlimited, free doses of Prozac to the entire adult population of Afghanistan.
8. Change the lyrics of O Tannenbaum to O Taliban.
9. Set up a program to provide virgins to Afghan men who refuse to commit suicide bombings.
10. Demand an apology from Afghanistan for the more than 1,800 U.S. forces killed since the start of the war.
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/02/24/top-ten-alternatives-apologizing-afghanistan/
@ NoThreat2U:
I say we pull out, and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure…
@ Iron Fist:
Sounds like a plan to me!
Iron Fist wrote:
Exactly what third world dictators do… … … oh right. We are a third world country
waldensianspirit wrote:
We will be when Obama gets through with us. I think that is the idea…
@ Iron Fist:
debt over 101% of gdp
NoThreat2U wrote:
There, fixed that for ya!
@ Macker:
Very clever sir
@ NoThreat2U:
Shouldn’t there be some sort of drag-queen cultural exchange program, given the penchant of Afghani men for “dancing boys?”
Ya gotta love this:
Heh™
@ buzzsawmonkey:
They could replace the virgins with the dancing boys. Eeeeewwwww
Another facet of the debt is the huge amount of toxic debt that the banks are holding. There’s lots of phony accounting practices that are hiding the insolvency of banks. Here’s a note from a newsletter I get.
there’s another phenomenon that’s witheld a lot of high end foreclosures from happening. Banks have been allowing people who have technically defaulted on jumbo mortgages to remain in their homes without making any mortgage payments for anywhere from 1 to 3 years. There’s a mathematical reason for this. Most jumbo mortgage paper still sits in one form or another (outright mortgages or in the form of “put backs” written into securitization documents) on bank balance sheets (off-balance sheet when in the form of a “put-back,” which requires the bank to back mortgages on properties below a specified loan-to-value ratio or are non-performing). If a bank forecloses on a $250k home with a $200k mortgage that it can unload for $200k, the bank eats only $50k. But if a bank has to foreclose on a $2 million mortgage on a home worth maybe $1.2 million (these are real life data points), the bank eats $800k. That write-down is a direct hit to the banks tier 1 capital ratio, which is the equivalent of cyanide to a bank. Moreover, it’s significantly more difficult for a bank to move a high 6-figure or 7-figure home. And the number of people who can actually afford to buy a home like that is shrinking. It’s this dynamic that has created a massive “shadow inventory” of high-end homes (remember the McMansion craze?) that do not show up in the inventory numbers yet:
A huge “shadow inventory” is building of elite homes that are in default but have not been put on the market…The backlog reflects the pent-up flood of foreclosed properties of all price ranges that are expected to hit the U.S. market this year, especially after five major banks reached a $25 billion settlement last week with the U.S. over fraudulent foreclosure practices.
@ yenta-fada:
OK, that was wordy and depressing. However, I prefer people here know what’s really going on instead of thinking that the economy is getting better.
Where’s nevergiveup? Haven’t seen him posting for a while. Did he give up?
This is another girl giggling Ozero pic. I collect them.
http://news.daylife.com/photo/01Zg90E6fR7kd?__site=daylife&q=barack+obama
Here’s Moochelle gagging on the healthy food she wants everybody else to eat.
http://news.daylife.com/photo/0220f9k5zpdEP?__site=daylife
@ yenta-fada:
I hate to say this but he looks “special” when he giggles.
NoThreat2U wrote:
And ghey.
@ NoThreat2U:
Whuzzup with u?
@ yenta-fada:
Too much sugar in his gas tank? lol lol I am fine. Just had some lunch and waiting for meds to kick in so it stays down. Seriously considering wiping my walls down today. It is pretty springy outside so I might as well spring clean a bit. And how are you doing?
@ yenta-fada:@21
Great post. It certainly paints a picture that is not on the radar of most folks, yet without a doubt exists.
This issue never crossed my mind, but you are spot on. We know about the stories of people who obtained the mini McMansion, have not paid for a year or more, and are still living in them.
That will become a septic condition sooner or later.
Big O is just allowing this to fester.
Lots of chronic pain. Need better drugs. My doctor is stingy. It’s getting difficult to find a GP in Toronto. The old ones are retiring out of disgust with the system. Socialized medicine is great until you get sick. They won’t allow any real privatization of services which would be smart and efficient for those who could afford it. Younger people don’t want to be GPs because it’s such a slog. Loaded with paperwork and people who abuse the system. Truly, my old family doctor says we’re on a par with Cuba and North Korea. He’s only practicing 2 days/week.
@ yenta-fada:
The joys of Socialized Medicine. That is what the Democrats want to bring to us. They are truly vile…
@ Formercorpsman:
To be fair, the whole world is allowing this to fester. The Fed has become the lender of last resort to Europe. It may take a couple of years (or not), but I’m betting the economic system collapses and there’s a re-start. There is simply no way EVER to pay off global debts. The Chinese may back the Euro for a while, but it is ‘kicking the can’ down the road.
Iron Fist wrote:
The dems want to give everyone the worst of both worlds. I know you know that. At least they are trying here, but the system is not affordable.
Moochelle brings teh crazy. I love this pic.
http://www.daylife.com/photo/04OC14Q3v41o3?__site=daylife&q=michelle+obama
yenta-fada wrote:
It’d be fun to force her to eat, for a month, the way she wants other people to eat.
buzzsawmonkey wrote:
Not. Enough. Revenge.
@ yenta-fada:
I hear you on that. My GP is going into specialized areas and is getting out of the GP field. Which means that in 2 weeks I no longer have a doctor. Lucky for me I don’t get sick that often. Now I just have to find a listing of all the clinics in my area just in case.
PaladinPhil wrote:
Sorry to hear that you are in that position. So is a friend in Quebec.
Staying healthy is number one priority. Look for someone in your neighborhood. It is good to have someone, even if they have just started working. They will learn as you get older.
I’m not quite sure how I feel about Stockman’s predictions. While he does understand economics, he does not understand the capital markets in the slightest. That is part of the problem with both sides. Using the capital markets in order to score political points. The people trading stocks, currencies, gold, commodities are truly only marginally aware that politics is happening somewhere. All the equities markets represent, at least in terms of political considerations, is what people with money to invest feel about a companies potential to be profitable, either more so or less so than today. Equities, for all of their volatility, are truly a long term proposal. People treat it as a short term investment at their own peril.
As for the other dolt in the video, all I can think of to say is this. Could you not find someone even dumber to put on your show? Surely there are Special Education classes where you could have found a student to make a little more sense than what he added. That you put this ass hat out as an economics expert, tells me all I need know about Bloomberg.
@ yenta-fada:
Trouble was that this doctor WAS in my neighborhood. I don’t think there are many doctors taking patients at the moment in the area. Thankfully I am not in my hometown where my brother waited 8 months to be assigned a doctor. And even then it didn’t help him at all.
yenta-fada wrote:
It’s a start.
@ buzzsawmonkey:
Defeating Obama this fall will be a good enough start for me. Preferrably whilst taking back the Senate, too. With Tea Party candidates. I hope the dude that is primarying Dick Lugar wins, too. That, if it all comes to pass, would be a good start on revenge…
@ PaladinPhil:
We used to joke about do it yourself dentistry in the UK. I wonder if that is the road will be traveling when equal access to healthcare in obama’s socialist utopia will mean essentially no or limited healthcare delivered late.
citizen_q wrote:
Hey, but it’ll be equal. Crappy service for everyone. Well, except for the politically connected, of course. They’ll get better service than the serfs. Things like heart bypasses and hip replacements. And pain medications. And insulin, if they are diabetic. Little creature comforts that they deserve because, well, they are the rulers after all. And the peasantry will be put in their place. Finally….
Oh Geez, enough already!
STERLING, Va. (AP) — A senior Pentagon official is apologizing to Washington-area Muslims for the burning of Qurans at a military base in Afghanistan.
.
He should be a little more clear. He means islamic religious material, no change for Christian or Jewish I am sure. Of course its only islamic material they will come accross since we are fighting jihadis, though we won’t even admit who and what the enemy is.
When we get fed-up enough to start playing cowboys and muslims, the talking heads will wonder where the backlash came from.
citizen_q wrote:
No they won’t. The talking-heads will blame the RAAAAACISM inherent in the American Psyche, and know that our innocent muslim victims are better than we are. I so hate the Left…
@ citizen_q:
No condemnation of Iran’s execution of a Christian pastor.
@ yenta-fada:
Yup.
@ Formercorpsman:
O loves this!
New Thread.
BOOM!
Rodan wrote:
Have they carried out the execution? I had last heard of the sentencing.
It is infuriating how islamic barbarity is given a free pass.