The Cynical Economist

Worried About Ahmadinejad, Chavez And Putin? Stabilize The Dollar - To have a stable economy and stable financial markets, we must have a stable dollar. A stable dollar is also required for fast economic growth, full employment, and true prosperity. It is a bonus that something that would be so good for America would also be so bad for our adversaries.

Five Prescriptions to Heal Economy’s Ills: Laurence Kotlikoff - What about printing more money? The Fed has already printed $1.8 trillion since September 2007. This exceeds by a factor of two all the money the Fed had printed since its creation in 1913. No, he does not suggest that…

The U.S. Federal Deficit Reaches A Tipping Point - How high can the debt get before it harms growth?

European debt inaction scaring the world: Obama - Barack Obama has urged European leaders to confront the deepening sovereign debt crisis, warning their inaction is “scaring the world”.

Obama’s Euro-Crisis Lecture Is ‘Pitiful and Sad’ - US President Obama has given the Europeans a harsh lecture on the dangers of their ongoing debt crisis. Offended by the unsolicited advice, Europeans have suggested the US get its own house in order first. Obama’s remarks were ”arrogant” and “absurd,” German commentators say on Wednesday.

French public debt to hit 87% of GDP in 2012: report - France’s public debt will rise to roughly 87 percent of gross domestic product next year, according to the draft budget to be presented Wednesday, the daily Les Echos reported citing parliament sources.

The dangerous subversion of Germany’s democracy - We have reached the point where the unseemly scramble to find ever more inventive and extreme ways to save monetary union – yet without coming clean, and invariably by trying to deceive German citizens about the real implications of each deal – is clashing directly with the integrity of German democracy.

Peter Oborne ‘Idiot’ Comments Prompts EU Spokesman To Storm Off Newsnight

Karl Marx on Obama’s Jobs Plan – Today, President Obama’s Napoleonic idea of a “jobs plan” claims that industry and trade will prosper in hot-house fashion through increased government jobs (“state posts”) and public works. The problem, as Karl Marx explained, is that bloated bureaucracies and public works schemes increase the obligations of the people with respect to taxes.

Report: Consumers spent less, earned less in 2010 – Government survey shows consumer spending and incomes fell for 2nd straight year in 2010

Obama’s Jobs Bill: Read It and Weep - Obama’s latest economic fix will kill the very jobs it’s meant to create.

5 Major Ways The Obama Administration Is Killing American Jobs - Admittedly, the country was not in great shape when Barack Obama came into office. The United States had already gone into recession, the housing bubble had burst, and the global economy didn’t look so hot either. Unfortunately, Barack Obama took a bad situation and made it much worse. Had Obama done nothing, chances are the country would be better off today and had he actually pursued a pro-growth policy of slashing regulations, cutting taxes, and tamping down the deficit, the economy would be immeasurably stronger than it is now. Instead, Barack Obama pumped job-killing, growth-draining rat poison directly into the veins of our nation’s economy

Job prospects worst since 1983 – This is the recoveryless recovery as consumer confidence is half of what it should be. The independent Conference Board put the Consumer Confidence Index at 45.4 in September. The Associated Press reported: “A reading above 90 indicates the economy is on solid footing.”

The real news, though, was that in the “jobs hard to get” category, the Consumer Confidence Index had its worse score since 1983 — 50.

Is the Whole World Going Into a Recession at the Same Time? - “Their worst case is not the worst case of the prior two recessions in 2001 and 2008,” said Stephen Weiss of Short Hills Capital. “This time it could very well be worse since the global economies have more interdependence.”

Health-Benefit Costs Rise Most Since 2005, Surpass $15,000 - The cost for businesses to buy health coverage for workers rose the most this year since 2005 and may reach $32,175 for a family in 2021, according to a survey of private and public employers.

OBAMA’S SENIOR ADVISOR VALERIE JARRETT: THE POINT OF GOVERNMENT IS TO GIVE PEOPLE A LIVELIHOOD SO THEY CAN PROVIDE FOR THEIR FAMILIES

Enron vet turns up in $737m solar loan guarantee – President Obama’s Solyndra scandal drew comparisons to the Enron scandal of the Bush era, but the Department of Energy’s latest $737 million loan guarantee for the solar energy company Tonopah Solar involves a veteran of Enron Corp.

Crony Socialism: Obama Gives $737 Million to Solar Firm Linked to the Pelosi Clan – It’s as if Solyndra never happened. The Obama Administration is giving $737 million to a Tonopah Solar, a subsidiary of California-based SolarReserve. PCG is an investment partner with SolarReserve. Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law happens to be the number two man at PCG.

This is from a site of the professional impersonator Steve Bridges

He does Arnold, Clinton, George W Bush and Obama.

Very good! Some hilarious stuff here….Especially after 1:30 mark

$200K Per Job? Timothy Geithner Says White House Jobs Plan Is Still a Bargain – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner didn’t dispute a Harvard economist’s estimate that each job in the White House’s jobs plan would cost $200,000, but said the pricetag is the wrong way to measure the bill’s worth.

‘Labor’-ing to separate jobs facts, fiction - It’s confession time for the Department of Labor.

The Federal Reserve Produces A Black Swan - Why did the Federal Reserve’s announcement of “Operation Twist,” a re-shuffling of its portfolio designed to stimulate the economy by driving down long-term interest rates trigger a precipitous global sell off in equity and commodity markets?

An Examination of U.S. Dollar Declines – Although the dollar strengthened somewhat recently, its level relative to the currencies of the United States’ main trading partners is nonetheless 11 percent lower than it was at the start of 2009.

Obama’s tax falsehoods - President must know his quest to raise taxes will kill jobs

Lost Decades: The Lost Graphs – Nice graphs

Most Food Stamp Recipients Have No Earned Income - Some 70% of households that relied on food stamps last year had no earned income, a new report shows.

Coke CEO Blasts U.S., Praises China, Russia - Muhtar Kent, the CEO of All-American corporate giant Coca-Cola (KO), knocked Washington over its handling of taxes and the level of political rancor and said he prefers investing in faster-growing countries like China, Russia and Brazil.

Americans Express Historic Negativity Toward U.S. Government –

• 82% of Americans disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job.
• 69% say they have little or no confidence in the legislative branch of government, an all-time high and up from 63% in 2010.
• 57% have little or no confidence in the federal government to solve domestic problems, exceeding the previous high of 53% recorded in 2010 and well exceeding the 43% who have little or no confidence in the government to solve international problems.
• 53% have little or no confidence in the men and women who seek or hold elected office.
• Americans believe, on average, that the federal government wastes 51 cents of every tax dollar, similar to a year ago, but up significantly from 46 cents a decade ago and from an average 43 cents three decades ago.
• 49% of Americans believe the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. In 2003, less than a third (30%) believed this.

Why Does the Good Life End? - Redistribution of wealth rather than emphasis on its creation is surely a symptom of aging societies

Economic Freedom of the World: Lessons for the U.S. - America has prospered historically because we have chosen economic freedom rather than political allocation and crony capitalism. To the extent we move away from economic freedom, our future prosperity will be diminished.

Christine Lagarde: IMF may need billions in extra funding - IMF need a BAILOUT? LOL…Christine Lagarde has signalled that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) may have to tap its members – including Britain – for billions of pounds of extra funding to stem the European debt crisis.

IMF, World Bank eye carbon tax on fuels - THE World Bank and IMF are proposing global carbon taxes on aviation and ship fuels in developed economies to help reduce carbon dioxide emissions, according to a draft proposal seen by AFP today.

Bankers Splinter on Remedy for European Debt as Tension Pervades Meeting - World’s top bankers agree on one thing: They don’t have any idea what the hell they are doing and want the governments to bail them out

Illinois budget deficit to hit $8 billion despite tax increase - Despite a major income tax increase, the state of Illinois is expected to end the budget year more than $8 billion in the red, according to a report set to be released Monday by a nonpartisan tax watchdog group. The Civic Federation analysis found that while lawmakers cut spending for state agencies this year, the reductions were offset by higher pension costs and the growing cost of paying back years of increased borrowing to keep Illinois afloat. Here you go – a good example of  how higher taxes and borrowing to fake prosperity worked out in Illinois and what to expect for the future of  the US of  America.

Small dent in jobless rate seen from Obama’s plan - Even if Congress heeds President Barack Obama’s demands to “pass this bill right away” and enacts his jobs and tax plan in its entirety, the unemployment rate probably still would hover in nosebleed territory for at least three more years.

Obama raising with Missouri stimulus beneficiary - President Barack Obama will raise money in early October with a Missouri businessman whose company benefited from a $107 million federal tax credit to develop a wind power facility in his state.

Obamacare HHS rule would give government everybody’s health records – It’s been said a thousand times: Congress had to pass President Obama’s  health care law in order to find out what’s in it. But, despite the repetitiveness, the level of shock from each new discovery never seems to recede.

This time, America is learning about the federal government’s plan to collect and aggregate confidential patient records for every one of us.

Bloomberg suggest: “We must tax everybody!!!”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

New gaffe: Obama confuses Jews with janitors – “If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I have no problem with that.”

Will Robots Steal Your Job? - You’re highly educated. You make a lot of money. You should still be afraid.

What Is the Real Solyndra Scandal? – There will be many more Solyndras out there, so this scandal will keep getting bigger and bigger, whether the media likes it or not.

Kaiser Family Foundation 2009 grant to Michelle Obama’s ‘Urban Health Initiative’ sparks more Solyndra ‘crony capitalism’ questions – A Daily Caller review of the George Kaiser Family Foundation’s income tax returns found that during the same year billionaire investor George Kaiser successfully secured $535 million in government loan guarantees for the now-failed solar panel manufacturer Solyndra, his private philanthropy donated to a political cause close to the hearts of several high-ranking Obama administration officials.

Solyndra employees: Company suffered from mismanagement, heavy spending - “After we got the loan guarantee, they were just spending money left and right,” LOL it was mostly left…

Michelle Obama dazzles in New York, wearing diamond bangles by H-Town’s Katie Decker – If you’ve been saving your nickels and dimes, the cuffs are available locally at Judith Ann Jewels. The First Lady wore Katie’s Lotus cuff priced at $15,000 with 2.9 carats of diamonds, her Gothic cuff at $15,350 with 2.17 carats in diamonds and the Quatrefoil bracelet at $11,800 with 1.73 carats in diamonds.

This economic collapse is a ‘crisis of bigness’ - Leopold Kohr warned 50 years ago that the gigantist global system would grow until it imploded. We should have listened

Marc Faber to Reuters- You dont need the fed to tell you something is wrong

Ex-labor chief’s 1-day rehire nets $158,000 city pension – Dennis Gannon, former president of the Chicago Federation of Labor, was able to take a long leave from a city job to work for a union and then receive a city pension based on a high union salary. That arrangement is allowed under a state law signed by Gov. Jim Thompson on his last day in office in 1991, according to an investigation by the Tribune and WGN-TV.

The change has enabled a couple dozen labor leaders to become potential millionaires.

What is different in Gannon’s case is that he became eligible for the especially lucrative pension deal only because the city rehired the former Streets and Sanitation Department worker for one day in 1994, before granting him an indefinite leave of absence, according to the investigation. He retired from the city job in 2004 at age 50.

Obama Takes Aim at Tax ‘Targets,’ Fires Blanks - Broad-based reform is not Obama’s style. He sees the size of the pie as finite — and his job as slicer-in-chief.

Pensions, Ponzis and pyramids – The retired are always supported by their children… Ooppsie- Now days there are not enough people (children) working to support their retired parents pension plans…

Has America Lost the Future? Ask a College Grad - “We were told to figure out  what we wanted to do, get good grades in college and we would get great jobs.” LOL LOL LOL

Global economy alarm bells ring – The recession alarm bells were ringing across the globe Thursday, spooking investors and economists alike.

The latest monthly readings released Thursday on manufacturing in the eurozone, the U.K. and China all were weaker than they had been, as was a report on the service sector in Europe.

Ho- ho -ho No one has money ….

Credit card debt on the rise, again - Consumers are racking up credit card debt like it’s 2008.

From the Fed to Europe to Obamanomics, It’s Ugly – It’s not 2008. Not by a long shot. But it’s not a pretty picture either.

GM deal moves electric car development to China — a ‘shakedown’? – General Motors agreed in Shanghai today to develop an electric vehicle platform with longtime Chinese partner SAIC. It effectively moves GM’s future electric vehicle development to China.

Peter Schiff Testimony Before Congress On Jobs Committee – At 4:20 he says how he had to pay a fine for hiring too many people. Look also at 12:30 when he asks Dr Bushey what she thinks it is fair to tax him….You never get a straight answer on that question, but liberals think all your money belong to government…

Over $760,000 Stimulus Funds Go To Interactive Visual Dance – According to Recovery.gov, the website that tracks the money spent under the Recovery Act, The University of North Carolina is receiving a $762,372 grant for it’s ‘Dance.Draw’ project.

IMF: World economy enters ‘dangerous new phase’ – The world economy has entered a “dangerous new phase,” according to the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. As a result, the international lending organization has sharply downgraded its economic outlook for the United States and Europe through the end of next year.

Stealth Wealth Tax - The stealth wealth tax may be the single-largest tax ever imposed on the American people, yet virtually no one knows about it. What is particularly unconscionable about this tax is that it has been imposed upon the most responsible citizens and the elderly in a most disproportionate way, and the real tax rate on American savers has soared to record levels.

Taxpayers foot the bill for Justice Department’s $16 muffins – Report hits ‘extravagant’ costs

Is the US Department of Labor About To Develop Hit Lists of Individuals To Be Targeted By Unions? - Whether or not the union bosses intend for intimidation, retaliation, or even violence to occur is unknown. However, that the Department of Labor seems to be heading toward making a hit list for union bosses seems abundantly clear.

Warren Buffett’s Tax Story Is Bogus - For years, Warren Buffett has been claiming that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. Recently, President Obama has taken that claim and run with it. I don’t know Mr. Buffett’s particular tax situation, but I do know that his claim as a general matter is bogus.

Delay on Pension Oversight - The Labor Department plans to push off until 2012 the adoption of a set of rules that would expand its oversight of pension plans, 401(k) plans and individual retirement accounts.

Great Recession yields a lost generation of workers - New 2010 census data show wrenching impact of economic downturn on young adults

Barack Obama joins Open Government Partnership for group photo –

“I don’t know much about diplomatic protocols, but I would guess that waving during the group photo is something to avoid.”

Move your mouse over the image…It is all about HIM! Always!