The Cynical Economist

From Bloomberg

President Barack Obama marked his 100th day in office by telling Americans that “we’ve begun the work of remaking America.”

<…And remaking it in what? You aren’t remaking it sir, you are fucking WRECKNG IT….>

<Do you realise, that he has the aproval of only  the half of the american  people (who elected him) to remake the country?>

The president, speaking at a town hall meeting in the St. Louis suburb of Arnold, Missouri, said that while the U.S. still faces challenges in recovering from a recession, the country is making progress.

“We have begun to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off,” Obama said. “I’m pleased with the progress we’ve made, but I’m not satisfied. I’m confident in the future, but I’m not content with the present.”

<Delusional>

Obama said he wants Congress to approve legislation revamping U.S. financial regulation by the end of this year, expressed hope for a potential auto deal to save Chrysler LLC from bankruptcy and reiterated a pledge to cut the budget deficit in half during his first term.

<Ha! I call bullshit on the budget cutting, but don’t you think that the wording of the sentence suggest he believes he is going to be reelected to be president for two terms>

Over the next 100 days the president will be dealing with a host of thorny issues, including getting his proposals on the budget, health and energy pushed through Congress and dealing with the war in Afghanistan. The Democratic majorities in the House and Senate and continued high approval ratings give him a strong hand.

<OMG we are doomed>

A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted April 23-26 found 61 percent of Americans approve the way Obama is handling his job. The poll of 1,005 adults has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. A New York Times/CBS News poll taken April 22-26 gave him a 68 percent approval rating.

<You know, today as I was speaking to a colleague of mine I asked him if he was concerned about the spread of the Swine Flu… He answered me by asking “What Flu? I watched the NBA on ESPN not the news. Is it dangerous?” He didn’t have a clue. Do you expect him to have a critical view on the job our president is doing? Nowadays America breeds morons>  

Simultaneous Initiatives

The support has helped him press ahead with simultaneous initiatives on health care, energy and national security.

<Every asshole in the senate had his own agenda to push forward those initiatives! No one cared about the future and well being of the American people>

“The priorities that we’ve acted on are the things we said we would do during the campaign,” Obama said. “It’s not like anybody should be surprised.”

Answering questions from the audience, Obama repeated his stance that subjecting higher incomes to the Social Security payroll tax is the “best idea” for protecting the government retirement insurance system’s financial health. Making the wealthy “pay a little more payroll tax” is preferable to cutting Social Security benefits or raising the retirement age, Obama said.

The tax currently is applied to all income up to $102,000 a year. Obama proposed subjecting income above $250,000 to the tax — though at a lower rate — to keep the system solvent.

<Yeah, that is it baby…. make them pay. What are those rich assholes doing? Creating Jobs? Hell No!!! That is in the past. Obama is remaking America Now…. His government is creating the jobs NOW…. And that’s why they need the funding (taxes).But someday the money of the rich will run out.. What then?>

Chrysler Negotiations

On automakers, Obama endorsed a merger of Chrysler and Fiat SpA. The combination may help Chrysler make “fuel-efficient, clean-energy cars that’ll meet the needs of future markets,” Obama said. Chrysler is negotiating with lenders on a plan to cut its debt, a step needed to form the alliance.

Obama said environmental measures, such as his plan for a cap on carbon emissions, don’t require a choice between jobs and protecting the planet. “There’s a balance that can be struck, and the key principle is sustainability,” he said.

The 100-day milestone only represents the “beginning of another long journey” with many challenges ahead, Obama said.

“I’m not a miracle worker,” Obama said. “We’ve got a lot of tough choices and hard decisions and hard work ahead of us.”

<Shit!!! You mean you cannot work your magic to get us out of the hole Bush and his friends and You and your friends are going to throw us in? Now, WTF man? After a 100 days as president, you tell us, that we are really, really screwed up…>

As Obama marked his 100th day, the Commerce Department said the U.S. economy capped its worst six-month slump in more than 50 years, with gross domestic product dropping at a 6.1 percent annual pace during the first quarter of 2009. GDP contracted at a 6.3 percent rate during the last three months of 2008. The latest decline reflected a record slide in inventories and further declines in housing.

<Is it really so bad? YES IT IS. And If you believe things are turning better  - you are a MORON>

Not Surprising

Today’s GDP report is “not altogether surprising,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, saying it “demonstrates a pretty severe contraction in our economy over the course of the first three months of the year.”

<Not surprising? It caught half of the economist, that were making predictions, about the GDP growth,  with their pants down. I wish I knew who were they, so I publish their incompetent names>

The government also reported that consumer spending increased, which Gibbs described as “generally a very good economic statistic” that provides “some glimmers of hope.”

<He is looking at the wrong direction>

Since taking office Jan. 20, the 44th president has pushed for changes in U.S. economic, social and defense policies and reversed many of those put in place by his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush.

< The march toward Socialism and very few opose it…>

Obama has signed an order to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, enacted a law to make it easier for employees to sue for pay discrimination, extended health coverage to 4 million uninsured children, overturned restrictions on federal funding of stem cell-research and won passage of a $787 billion economic stimulus bill designed to revive an economy in recession.

Target Date

Obama has set Aug. 31, 2010, as the target for ending the U.S. combat mission in Iraq, assigned 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, and called in Prague for steps to eliminate nuclear weapons. He declared in Turkey that America is “not at war with Islam,” and lifted restrictions on Cuban-Americans sending money to Cuba.

< Yeah Mr president,  We are not at war with Islam we are at war with the Islamic ideology>

The president forced out General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner and replaced him with Fritz Henderson, and demanded changes at GM and Chrysler as a condition for further government aid.

The president got a political gift yesterday when Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter changed his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, strengthening Obama’s hand in the Senate and boosting his agenda on health care, energy, education and the budget.

<One more ASS LICKER!!! You should send Arlen Specter bag of  lemons as a gift to stimulate the saliva produsing for the ass licking>

After the town-hall meeting, the president is scheduled to return to Washington for a press conference at 8 p.m. local time, his third prime-time White House appearance.

More American Workers Outsourcing Own Jobs Overseas

From Money week

As you’d expect, fears overMexican swine flu hammered airlines and other travel stocks yesterday, while pharmaceutical companies made solid gains. But overall, the wider market actually managed to end the day higher.

It’s not too surprising. Markets are in ‘rally’ mode – traders see the crisis, not as a genuine threat, but as an opportunity to make money from others over-reacting….

….What investors should really be worrying about is that the problems afflicting the global economy are going to take a lot longer to go away….

Nah, Fortunately the flu will kill us all before the world depression becomes a major problem

From APNews

“That wasn’t me,” President Barack Obama said on his 100th day in office, disclaiming responsibility for the huge budget deficit waiting for him on Day One.

It actually was him – and the other Democrats controlling Congress the previous two years – who shaped a budget so out of balance…..

……….His assertion that his proposed budget “will cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term” is an eyeball-roller among many economists, given the uncharted terrain of trillion-dollar deficits and economic calamity that the government is negotiating……….

…OBAMA: “Number one, we inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit…. That wasn’t me. Number two, there is almost uniform consensus among economists that in the middle of the biggest crisis, financial crisis, since the Great Depression, we had to take extraordinary steps. So you’ve got a lot of Republican economists who agree that we had to do a stimulus package and we had to do something about the banks. Those are one-time charges, and they’re big, and they’ll make our deficits go up over the next two years.” – in Missouri.

THE FACTS:Congress controls the purse strings, not the president, and it was under Democratic control for Obama’s last two years as Illinois senator. Obama supported the emergency bailout package in President George W. Bush’s final months – a package Democratic leaders wanted to make bigger.

To be sure, Obama opposed the Iraq war, a drain on federal coffers for six years before he became president. But with one major exception, he voted in support of Iraq war spending. He’s persuaded Congress to expand children’s health insurance, education spending, health information technology and more. He’s moving ahead on a variety of big-ticket items on health care, the environment, energy and transportation that, if achieved, will be more enduring than bank bailouts and aid for homeowners.

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated his policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four years, even accounting for his spending reduction goals. Now, the deficit is nearly quadrupling to $1.75 trillion.

….OBAMA: “I think one basic principle that we know is that the more we do on the (disease) prevention side, the more we can obtain serious savings down the road. … If we’re making those investments, we will save huge amounts of money in the long term.” – in Missouri.

THE FACTS: It sounds believable that preventing illness should be cheaper than treating it, and indeed that’s the case with steps like preventing smoking and improving diets and exercise. But during the 2008 campaign, when Obama and other presidential candidates were touting a focus on preventive care, the New England Journal of Medicine cautioned that “sweeping statements about the cost-saving potential of prevention, however, are overreaching.” It said that “although some preventive measures do save money, the vast majority reviewed in the health economics literature do not.”

And a study released in December by the Congressional Budget Office found that increasing preventive care “could improve people’s health but would probably generate either modest reductions in the overall costs of health care or increases in such spending within a 10-year budgetary time frame.”

OBAMA: “You could cut (Social Security) benefits. You could raise the tax on everybody so everybody’s payroll tax goes up a little bit. Or you can do what I think is probably the best solution, which is you can raise the cap on the payroll tax.” – in Missouri.

THE FACTS: Obama’s proposal would reduce the Social Security trust fund’s deficit by less than half, according to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.

That means he would still have to cut benefits, raise the payroll tax rate, raise the retirement age or some combination to deal with the program’s long-term imbalance.

Workers currently pay 6.2 percent and their employers pay an equal rate – for a total of 12.4 percent – on annual wages of up to $106,800, after which no more payroll tax is collected.

Obama wants workers making more than $250,000 to pay payroll tax on their income over that amount. That would still protect workers making under $250,000 from an additional burden. But it would raise much less money than removing the cap completely.

Associated Press writers Kevin Freking and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report. 

Economy in U.S. Shrank at 6.1% Rate in First Quarter - The U.S. economy plunged again in the first quarter, capping its worst performance in five decades, reflecting a record slump in inventories and further declines in housing.

Fed says it sees signs recession may be easing  - The Federal Reserve says it sees signs the recession may be easing 

Insider Selling Jumps to Highest Level Since 2007 - Executives and insiders at U.S. companies are taking advantage of the steepest stock market gains since 1938 to unload shares at the fastest pace since the start of the bear market.

Summary of what are the real news today. Connecting the dots. -

The Economy is way worst, than many people think and want you to believe. The Feds and corporations do not want to spark panic on the stock market, so they say, that everything is fine and  the schmucks put their money back on the market, so the stocks go up.

But as they say, that everything is fine, what they do?

Today Feds left the interest rates at 0% and said “take as much money as you can, please”. Do you think the rates are staying low because everything is fine?

Then you read, that the executives and insiders are unloading (getting rid off) shares of  their companies!!! Do you think that they do it, because they think, that everything is OK.

Of course NO!!!! They are unloading, because they know, that all the profits and all the talks about the end of the depression are bullshit!!!

Question is who do you believe?

Chose wisely who do you trust!

From CNN

The Obama administration has committed $75 billion in stimulus money in 10 weeks. So far $14.5 billion has been spent, mostly for Medicaid.

 The federal government has made available more than $75 billion for stimulus projects in the 10 weeks since President Obama signed the $787 billion recovery package into law.

Not all of that money has hit the streets, however. So far, $14.5 billion has been spent, nearly all of it to help states cope with rising Medicaid costs.

A CNNMoney.com analysis of the program’s financial reports shows how difficult it is to quickly inject billions of dollars into the economy. Experts interviewed said they are not surprised by the pace of spending, though they had mixed views on whether the effort would boost the economy.

“There’s a natural tension between using taxpayers’ money in a prudent way and getting the money out the door quickly,” said Isabel Sawhill, a Brookings Institution senior fellow.

…………..”I don’t think the infrastructure spending is likely to spend out at a fast enough rate,” Viard said

Yeah, they are complaining, that they are not spending, what they rob from the taxpayers, fast enough

And Obama was surprised, that there were a tea parties?  

Soon there is going to be revolution

We need to fire them all

From White Rabit

Enough of the current socialistic action of the leadership in Washington; we have lost the meaning of what this country once stood for, but sadly, it was predicted. Witness the following:

“The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

“The difference between Democrats and Republicans is: Democrats have accepted some ideas of socialism cheerfully, while Republicans have accepted them reluctantly.”

“I no longer need to run as a presidential candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our platform.”

The above were quotes from a leading socialist, Norman Thomas, a six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. And it appears that his word are true.

Also Alexis de Tocqueville stated, “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.” And this is how it is with the public’s money today, this current administration and Congress offering bribes to pacify those that made their mistakes and is now being paid for at the expense of those that have done the right things in their lives.

America is no longer the grand republic it once was; we are destroying ourselves. As Abraham Lincoln once said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” How true those words are today. We have become our own enemy.

The American republic, the grand experiment of our Founding generation, appears to be dying and in its place is growing the big brother of socialism.

Long live the Socialist States of America — God help us all.

From Newsweek

At its core, the financial crisis is about uncertainty; who’s holding what, how much it’s worth, when it will blow up.

If you take the headlines at face value, it has been a good month for banks. Wells Fargo announced $3 billion in first-quarter profits, Goldman Sachsracked up $1.8 billion, JPMorgan Chase had $2.1 billion, Bank of America$4.25 billion and even beleaguered Citigroup tallied $1.6 billion in profits. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner validated the good news by declaring that the “vast majority” of the nation’s banks are now well capitalized and solvent. Markets rallied. The worst of the financial crisis, it seemed, had passed.

Smart investors know better. At the core, this financial crisis has been driven by uncertainty—about who’s holding what, how much it’s worth and when it might blow up. A careful look at last week’s profit news reveals that there’s still plenty of uncertainty lurking on the balance sheets of America’s top banks.

read the rest here