Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 29, 2011

CASE  SHILLER HOUSING MAIN POINTS:

1. The Case-Shiller 20-city house price index declined by 0.6% (month-over-month, seasonally adjusted) in September, a larger drop than expected by the consensus. Estimates for earlier months were also revised lower. On a year-over-year basis, prices were down 3.6%. The seasonally adjusted version of the index fell to a new low for the cycle, and prices are now at their lowest level since April 2003 (the non-seasonally adjusted version of the index is still slightly above lows reached in the spring months of 2009 and 2011).

2. Results were mixed across regions. Prices fell sharply in Atlanta (-4.1% mom, seasonally adjusted), and declined in 15 of the 20 cities in the index. House prices continued to rise in Washington DC, where the index is up 1% year-over-year.

September’s Case-Shiller home price index fell year-over-year as the Non-seasonally adjusted price index fell for the first time month-over-month since February. The overall index dropped 3.9% YoY, compared to expectations of a 3.1% drop. The more narrowly focused 20 City Index also missed expectations, falling 3.59% (relative to expectations of -3.00%). The index value is back below 142 (back at 2003 levels), its lowest in 3 months, as prices muddle along the bottom here with the mix, most likely holding us from a more vertical drop. The second derivative crowd will note the -3.9% drop is slower than the -5.79% drop of Q2, but October and November have been tumultuous months and we suspect the acceleration top the downside will revert – especially given recent rises in delinquencies to record highs.

Charts:Bloomberg

www.zerohedge.com

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Real Estate, Wall Street | 89 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 29, 2011

American Airlines Files For Bankruptcy

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, National Security, Wall Street | 56 Comments »
Tags: Airlines Losing Money, American Airline BK

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 26, 2011

The time to prepare for a disaster, is before the disaster happens. Capice? 

Britain’s Foreign Office Prepares For Riots In Europe

British Embassies are being warned in Europe of dire consequences of an eventual Euro breakup.  Analysts at UBS, an investment bank earlier this year warned that the most extreme consequences of a break-up include risks to basic property rights and the threat of civil disorder.  “When the unemployment consequences are factored in, it is virtually impossible to consider a break-up scenario without some serious social consequences,” UBS said.

The Telegraph: Prepare for riots in euro collapse, Foreign Office warns:

British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain.

As the Italian government struggled to borrow and Spain considered seeking an international bail-out, British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible.

Diplomats are preparing to help Britons abroad through a banking collapse and even riots arising from the debt crisis.

The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way.

A senior minister has now revealed the extent of the Government’s concern, saying that Britain is now planning on the basis that a euro collapse is now just a matter of time.

“It’s in our interests that they keep playing for time because that gives us more time to prepare,” the minister told the Daily Telegraph.

Recent Foreign and Commonwealth Office instructions to embassies and consulates request contingency planning for extreme scenarios including rioting and social unrest.

Greece has seen several outbreaks of civil disorder as its government struggles with its huge debts. British officials think similar scenes cannot be ruled out in other nations if the euro collapses.

Diplomats have also been told to prepare to help tens of thousands of British citizensin eurozone countries with the consequences of a financial collapse that would leave them unable to access bank accounts or even withdraw cash.

Fuelling the fears of financial markets for the euro, reports in Madrid yesterday suggested that the new Popular Party government could seek a bail-out from either the European Union rescue fund or the International Monetary Fund.

There are also growing fears for Italy, whose new government was forced to pay record interest rates on new bonds issued yesterday.

The yield on new six-month loans was 6.5 per cent, nearly double last month’s rate. And the yield on outstanding two-year loans was 7.8 per cent, well above the level considered unsustainable.

Italy’s new government will have to sell more than EURO 30 billion of new bonds by the end of January to refinance its debts. Analysts say there is no guarantee that investors will buy all of those bonds, which could force Italy to default.

The Italian government yesterday said that in talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Prime Minister Mario Monti had agreed that an Italian collapse “would inevitably be the end of the euro.”

The EU treaties that created the euro and set its membership rules contain no provision for members to leave, meaning any break-up would be disorderly and potentially chaotic.

If eurozone governments defaulted on their debts, the European banks that hold many of their bonds would risk collapse.

Some analysts say the shock waves of such an event would risk the collapse of the entire financial system, leaving banks unable to return money to retail depositors and destroying companies dependent on bank credit.

The Financial Services Authority this week issued a public warning to British banks to bolster their contingency plans for the break-up of the single currency.

Some economists believe that at worst, the outright collapse of the euro could reduce GDP in its member-states by up to half and trigger mass unemployment.

Analysts at UBS, an investment bank earlier this year warned that the most extreme consequences of a break-up include risks to basic property rights and the threat of civil disorder.

“When the unemployment consequences are factored in, it is virtually impossible to consider a break-up scenario without some serious social consequences,” UBS said.

www.zerohedge.com 

Category: Commentary, Economy, Finance, National News, Wall Street | 71 Comments »
Tags: Breaking Up Euro, Disaster, euro, Warning On Euro

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 24, 2011

The history of Thanksgiving…..

In the United States, the modern Thanksgiving holiday tradition traces its origins to a 1621 celebration at Plymouth in present-day Massachusetts.

The initial thanksgiving observance at Virginia in 1619 was prompted by the colonists’ leaders on the anniversary of the settlement. The 1621 Plymouth feast and thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. In later years, the tradition was continued by civil leaders such as Governor Bradford who planned a thanksgiving celebration and fast in 1623. While initially, the Plymouth colony did not have enough food to feed half of the 102 colonists, the Wampanoag Native Americans helped the Pilgrims by providing seeds and teaching them to fish. The practice of holding an annual harvest festival like this did not become a regular affair in New England until the late 1660s.

Thanksgiving in the era of the Founding Fathers until the time of Lincoln had been decided by each state, and set on various dates. The first Thanksgiving celebrated on the same date by all states was in 1863 by presidential proclamation. The final Thursday in November had become the customary date of Thanksgiving in most U.S. states by the beginning of the 19th century. And so, in an effort by President Abraham Lincoln (influenced by the campaigning of author Sarah Josepha Hale who wrote letters to politicans trying to make it an official holiday), hoping to foster a sense of American unity between the Northern and Southern states, Lincoln proclaimed the date for thanksgiving to be the final Thursday in November.

It was not until December 26, 1941 that the unified date changed to the fourth Thursday (and not always final) in November—this time by federal legislation. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed a bill into law with Congress, making Thanksgiving a national holiday on the fourth Thursday in November of every year. President Roosevelt said his intent was to help business merchants kick off the holiday retail season a week early as the country came out of the great depression.

Category: Commentary, Inspirational, National News, Tid Bits | 46 Comments »
Tags: A little bit of history, Thanksgiving History

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 24, 2011

                  A Parrot Named Turkey 

A young man received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary full of foul language. 

Every word out of the bird’s’ mouth was rude, obnoxious and laced with profanity. The young man tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words, playing soft music and anything else he could think of to ‘clean up’ the bird’s vocabulary.

Finally, he became fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. He then shook the parrot and the parrot got angrier and even ruder. Finally, in desperation, he threw up his hands, grabbed the bird and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed. Then suddenly there was total quiet.  Not a peep was heard for over a minute.

Fearing that he’d hurt the parrot, the young man quickly opened the door to the freezer.  The parrot calmly stepped out onto an outstretched arm and said “I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions.  I’m sincerely remorseful for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and totally unforgivable behavior.”

The young man was stunned at the change in the bird’s attitude.  

As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a dramatic change in his behavior, the bird spoke-up, very softly, “May I ask what the turkey did?” 

                                       HAPPY THANKSGIVING To All

Category: Commentary, Inspirational, National News, Tid Bits | 456 Comments »
Tags: Happy Thanksgiving, Parrot Named Turkey

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 23, 2011

We have NEVER seen the U.S. Fed set such a stringent set of criteria for the banks…we think there is a message here!  Actually it’s a no brainier!   Leverage is a killer near term. De leveraging and deflation is the immediate concern.

The Federal Reserve released criteria yesterday for capital tests measuring the strength of the largest 31 U.S. banks. The standards measure their wherewithal if the U.S. economy sours and major trading partners default on their debt. Lenders need to prove they have the capital to withstand a “severe” U.S. recession with 13 percent unemployment and an 8 percent decline in gross domestic product before they can increase dividends or repurchase shares.

Category: Commentary, Economy, Finance, National News, Wall Street | 6 Comments »
Tags: Bank Criteria, Bank Standards, Fed Message

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 22, 2011

This from The Inger Letter…….

Besides the EU situation and the growing tensions in the Persian Gulf region (hard to believe it; but mainstream news here isn’t at all reporting the reality of the rising issues…to wit.. the pressure against Iran’s Central Bank, with restriction of oil sales in the wings.. much less 2 US Carrier Battle Groups (the Bush and the Stennis) entering the Gulf yesterday. This, as a Russian flotilla parks itself off the Lebanese coast near the only Syrian port, as I noted last night. There are rumors that a ‘no fly’ zone is about to be set-up around Syria; which could employ our Forces from the Gulf to interdict any try by Iran to interfere, while Turkey takes care from the North and Western sides. (As there are reports a Syrian military unit attacked a bus of civilian pilgrims on the way back from Mecca to Turkey; they’re said to be rather upset about it.)

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, National Security, News Letters, Wall Street | 7 Comments »
Tags: Oil Sales Restrictions, Prsion Gulf Tensions, U.S. Battle Groups

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 22, 2011

Art Cashin, from the floor of The New York Stock Exchange….

Unintended (And Unwelcome) Consequences – Rich Miller at Bloomberg caught our eye this morning with this rather disturbing note:  

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and fellow U.S. policy makers may find themselves hampered in restoring financial stability should the European debt crisis spread to America.   The Dodd-Frank legislation passed last year prohibits the Fed from engaging in rescues of individual financial firms, such as it did with Bear Stearns Cos. and American International Group Inc. during the 2008 financial crisis. Lawmakers also banned the Treasury Department from again using an emergency reserve program to backstop money market funds. And the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. now has to get Congressional approval before it can guarantee senior debt issued by banks.   Investors don’t realize the extent to which Congress has tied people’s hands, said Donald Kohn, who served as vice chairman of the Fed from 2006 to 2010 and is now senior economic strategist for Potomac Research Group in Washington. There is less room to maneuver for the authorities.  

Just what we needed – less ammunition as Europe lurches toward a highly contagious banking crisis.

Category: Commentary, Economy, Finance, National News, Wall Street | 242 Comments »
Tags: Ammo, Engine Room, europe debt problems, Fed

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 21, 2011

Dumb blondes…at age 85!

An elderly blonde Lady called 999 on her mobile phone to report that her car has been broken into. She is hysterical as she explains her situation to the operator: “They’ve stolen the stereo, the steering wheel, the brake pedal and even the accelerator!” she cried. The operator said, “Stay calm An officer is on the way.” A few minutes later, the Officer radios in. “Disregard..” He says, “She got in the back-seat by mistake..”

Category: Commentary, Jokes | 64 Comments »
Tags: Dumb Blonde, Old Blonde

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 21, 2011

Uh, what…so  what are we looking ahead to, again?

Three sisters ages 92, 94 and 96 live in a house together.
One night the 96 year old draws a bath.. She puts her foot in and pauses…
She yells to the other sisters, “Was I getting in or out of the bath?”
The 94 year old yells back, “I don’t know. I’ll come up and see.”
She starts up the stairs and pauses “Was I going up the stairs or down?” The 92 year old is sitting at the kitchen table having tea listening to her sisters. She shakes her head and says, “I sure hope I never get that forgetful,” she knocked on wood. She then yells, “I’ll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who’s at the door.”

Category: Commentary, Jokes, National News, Tid Bits | 637 Comments »
Tags: Ah, Baby Boomers, looking Ahead, Predicament, The Predicament

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 20, 2011

We have a broken down world! Can two Lone Rangers rescue us?  

PIMCO’s Bill Gross laid out his pessimistic outlook, fretting that growth in developed countries could be weighed down for years by debt problems in Europe and high unemployment in the U.S.

BlackRock’s Larry Fink said he sees “all the same problems, and the problems are enormous.” But he’s more optimistic because the underlying “vitality” that fed the success of U.S. companies such as Apple and Facebook remains intact.

This from the Los Angeles Times:

When the U.S. government needed expert help in evaluating the bonds that caused the 2008 financial crisis, there were only two men it could turn to.

Larry Fink, the founder of investment giant BlackRock Inc., and Bill Gross, the founder of Pacific Investment Management Co., are the generally acknowledged kings of the bond universe.

Together, the companies they run hold approximately 7.5% of all outstanding bonds. The $1.2 trillion managed by BlackRock and the $1.1 trillion at Pimco dwarf the holdings of the next largest bond players, according to data from Pensions & Investments.

As the world grapples with these problems, the opinions of Gross and Fink have defined the debate and sometimes swayed the direction of bond prices.

Their dominance has raised concerns among some critics who say it is dangerous for two companies to control such a large share of the bond market. But their relationship has more often than not been defined by their contrasting views on topics such as the prospects for economic growth and the future of Treasury bond yields.

Their differences were in full relief recently when Gross and Fink made a rare public appearance together, at an event for other alumni of UCLA’s Anderson business school.

Gross laid out his pessimistic outlook, fretting that growth in developed countries could be weighed down for years by debt problems in Europe and high unemployment in the U.S.

Fink said he sees “all the same problems, and the problems are enormous.” But he’s more optimistic because the underlying “vitality” that fed the success of U.S. companies such as Apple and Facebook remains intact.

“I agree with almost everything Bill is saying, except my conclusions are generally less bearish than his,” Fink said.

One point on which the two men agreed: The public’s outrage at Washington and Wall Street is legitimate.

“I’m actually very happy with Occupy Wall Street,” said Fink, a lifelong Democrat. “I’m going to admit it as part of the financial community: We let down a lot of people.”

“How can one not sympathize with their predicament?” Gross said of working Americans. “To not have sympathy with Main Street, as opposed to Wall Street, that would simply be to have blinders” on.

Category: Commentary, Economy, Finance, Interest Rates, Bonds, National News, Pensions and Retirement, Personal Net Worth | 73 Comments »
Tags: Bond Barrons, Bond Kings, Lone Rangers, Maverick

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 15, 2011

From the master himself,  Warren Buffett…“Through the tax code, there has been class warfare waged, and my class has won,” Buffett said. “It’s been a rout. You have seen a period where American workers generally have gone no place, and where the really super rich as a group increased their incomes five for one in this rarefied atmosphere.”  We may never see it again!

“The return on equity, on tangible equity, for American business today is terrific, overall,” Buffett said in an interview posted today on the website of Berkshire’s Business Wire unit. “Housing is still in the depression of the fall of 2008. It has not come back at all.”

Real estate has defied prior predictions of rebound from Buffett, who said in February 2010 that “within a year or so, residential housing problems should largely be behind us.” The median price of a single-family home decreased in the third quarter from a year earlier in 111 metropolitan areas out of the 150 measured, the National Association of Realtors said in a report this month.

Housing “doesn’t hurt corporate profits that much in most areas,” Buffett said. “But the American worker is not doing well.”

“We had the greatest binge in housing that this country or probably any country has seen,” Buffett said. “When you have a huge bubble in the biggest asset that most people have and that bubble pops, and people have borrowed against that asset and everything, you’re not going to get over it in a day or a year or a month.”

Category: Commentary, Economy, Inspirational, National News, Personal Net Worth, Real Estate, Wall Street | 4 Comments »
Tags: Buffett, Corporate Earnings, Poor, Rare Doings, Real Estate, Rich, Super Rich, Warren Buffett

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 15, 2011

This is almost too ridiculous to review…….Nearly $100 million of tax dollars went to lucrative pay packages for top executives at (almost bankrupt) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, filings show. Geez 

The latest cost estimate from FHFA is that the two bailouts will end up costing taxpayers about $124 billion through 2014, though that figure could rise as high as $193 billion.

And…The FHA (Federal Housing Administration) may also be underestimating how far underwater many of its borrowers are, as well as other risks, said Joseph Gyourko, a real estate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He estimates the agency could face losses of between $50 and $100 billion in coming years.  The Wall Street Journal said FHA could require additional funding from the federal government, maybe as soon as next year.

From CNN:

Mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac received the biggest federal bailout of the financial crisis. And nearly $100 million of those tax dollars went to lucrative pay packages for top executives, filings show.

The top five executives at Fannie Mae received $33.3 million in 2009 and 2010, while the top five at Freddie Mac received $28.1 million. And each company has set pay targets of as much as $17 million for its top managers for 2011.

Rep. Spencer Bachus, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has scheduled a vote in his committee Tuesday on his own legislation that would suspend the compensation packages of top executives at the firms.

“The fact that the top executives of these failed companies are receiving multi-million dollar pay packages, plus millions more in bonuses, is an added insult to the taxpayers who are forced to foot the bill,” Bachus said in a statement announcing plans to hold the vote.

The Democrat-controlled Senate Banking Committee also plans to hold a hearing on the matter on Tuesday. Additionally, the Republican-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is set to call Edward DeMarco, the acting director of FHFA, and the CEOs of the two firms, to a hearing on the pay packages on Wednesday.

Sixty senators from both parties have already sent a letter to DeMarco asking that he change the compensation policy of the two companies. FHFA has final say on pay at the two companies.

“The idea that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which rely on taxpayer funding to stay afloat, must offer excessive bonuses to its executives to attract effective management strains credulity,” the letter said.

Category: Commentary, National News, Real Estate, Wall Street, World News | 261 Comments »
Tags: Bailouts, Government Dumb Bunnies, housing

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 14, 2011

This is all very positive for the U.S.

So, now you know. The longest and deepest recession in the post-war period reduced oil consumption by 12.8%.  At the same time production is bouncing to the upside.  The next thing you know, the price of gasoline will start to drop…or perhaps it defies the law of gravity a bit longer.

Category: Commentary, Commodities, Economy, National News, Oil and Nat Gas, Wall Street, World News | 3 Comments »
Tags: Oil News, Petroleum Consumption, U.S. Oil Production

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 14, 2011

If America ends up with one of these Republican muppets it is doomed, no… really, we’re doomed….and why do we say that….read on!

A simple question: Do you agree with the way President Obama handled Libya?  

“I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reasons – um, no, that’s a different one,” he said, before uncrossing and crossing his legs, shifting position in his seat, and adjusting his jacket.

“Let’s see, I’ve got to go back, see,” he continues. “(I’ve) got all this stuff twirling around in my head.”

“Are you asking me did I agree or not agree with Obama?”

From CNN:

Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain took a moment Monday to clarify his position on Libya: He needs more information.

Cain was meeting with the editorial board of the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel when Libya came up.

“Okay, Libya,” he responded when asked whether he agreed with President Obama’s actions in the region. Eight seconds later, after looking up, biting his lip and blinking repeatedly, Cain asked, “President Obama supported the uprising, correct?”

“I just want to make sure we’re talking about the same thing before I say ‘Yes, I agree’ or ‘No, I do not agree.”

But just as Cain, a former conservative talk radio host, started to respond to the question, he then changed his mind.

“I do not agree with the way he handled it for the following reasons – um, no, that’s a different one,” he said, before uncrossing and crossing his legs, shifting position in his seat, and adjusting his jacket.

“Let’s see, I’ve got to go back, see,” he continues. “(I’ve) got all this stuff twirling around in my head.”

“Are you asking me did I agree or not agree with Obama?”

Cain finally settled on a response after hearing the question rephrased a second time.

“It’s not a simple yes/no because there are different pieces and I would’ve gone about assessing the situation differently, which might have caused us to end up at the same place, but I think more could’ve been done was, what’s the nature of the opposition?”

He explained that he would have gotten more information on determining who the opposition was, but said, “I’m sure that our intelligence people had some of that information.” Although he declined to criticize the president, Cain said he didn’t think enough was done.

And before he was challenged on the clarity of his response, Cain asserted, “I’m not trying to hedge on the questions, it’s just that’s my nature as a businessman, I need to know all of the facts, I would need to know all of the alternatives.”

“It’s not a clear yes/no,” he said again. “Because of all those things I think that should have been assessed… I don’t know that they were or were not assessed.”

“I didn’t see reports of that assessment.”  blah blah blah…….

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Wall Street, World News | 3,816 Comments »
Tags: Blunders, Dumb, Morons, Republican

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 13, 2011

Excuse us, but… didn’t the government just say a week or so ago that there wasn’t much to worry about with inflation?  Um, Yep…that’s what they said.  Liar Liar Pants On Fire!

The cost of a Thanksgiving dinner in the U.S. will jump 13 percent this year, the biggest gain in two decades, as prices rose for everything from turkey to green peas to milk, the American Farm Bureau Federation said.

A meal for 10 people on the holiday, which falls on Nov. 24 this year, will rise to $49.20 from $43.47 last year, and it’s the biggest increase since 1990. Other Thanksgiving cost increases in the annual Farm Bureau survey include a 17 percent gain for a pound of frozen green peas, 16 percent for a 30-ounce can of pumpkin-pie mix, a 15 percent for a half-pint of whipping cream, 13 percent for a gallon of whole milk, 9 percent for a 14-ounce bag of stuffing mix, 8.5 percent for 12 rolls, 2.9 percent for fresh cranberries and 2.2 percent for a three pounds of sweet potatoes.

Rising gasoline prices, up 28 percent in the past year, are an additional drag on consumer spending, according to Corinne Alexander, an agricultural economist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. The biggest reduction in disposable income from rising food prices occurs in the middle class, where consumers buy cheaper generic food brands and lower-quality meat, while eating out less, she said.

“We are still in a period of accelerating food inflation that may begin to moderate (hopefully) in 2012,” Alexander said.“Consumers are getting a double whammy. It costs more to get to work, and they have less disposable income to spend on other things after they go to the grocery store.”

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, World News | 93 Comments »
Tags: inflation, Thanksgiving Dinner, Thanksgiving Food Costs Rise, Turkey Costs Rise

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 13, 2011

Wireless and mobile….the only way to go now days!  But the 7″ screen seems a bit small to us.

From the LA Times:

Amazon.com Inc. will allow users to use Hulu Plus on its upcoming Kindle Fire device, adding a major source of TV and movie content to its tablet arsenal.

The 7″ tablet, which will begin shipping next week, costs $199 and will feature a special, limited version of Google’s Android operating system that Amazon customized.

That means Amazon will selectively choose which apps it will allow the device — and which it will not. That gatekeeper approach is similar to the way Apple runs its App store — only approving apps that follow its many guidelines, and allowing it to take a percentage of all Apps its sells on the iPad.

Hulu Plus will also include a number of popular content apps that will be available when the Kindle Fire comes out next week, including Netflix, Rhapsody, Pandora and Twitter.

Hulu Plus requires an $8 monthly subscription for customers to access its full library of movies and current TV shows from ABC, NBC, FOX, Comedy Central and others. Customers must still watch advertisements during the shows, however.

Category: Commentary, Education and Schooling, National News, Technology | 581 Comments »
Tags: Hulu Plus, New Tablet, Technology

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 8, 2011

It’s the gift that keeps taking…. Fannie Mae has now borrowed $111.6 billion from the government, and paid back a mere $17 billion in forced dividends. Freddie Mac has taken more than $71 billion in aid and paid back around $15 billion. The net cost to the taxpayers for bailing out both now stands at $150.6 billion.  The Treasury has pledged up to $300 billion to keep them both going.  Geez, what a bunch of government morons.

Even more interesting,  Bill Gross of PIMCO recently said that it’s unlikely a private lender would want the bussiness risk considering the record low interest rates….meaning that the return on capital is punk.  So it remains a government owned charity.

Fannie Mae said it would seek $7.8 billion more in U.S. government assistance after posting a wider loss in the third quarter as the housing market’s troubles continued.

Fannie Mae posted a net loss of $5.1 billion in the third quarter, compared with a year-ago loss of $1.3 billion. It was the 16th loss in the past 17 quarters for the company, which has been kept on government life support for the last three years.

“Our results in the third quarter were significantly affected by continued weakness in the housing market and the economy overall,” Michael J. Williams, the company’s chief executive, said in a statement.

Losses are also rising because Fannie and Freddie are unlikely to be able to recover as much money from mortgage insurance firms, which cover losses on defaults for some borrowers. Last month, state insurance regulators took over PMI Group Inc., one of the nation’s largest mortgage-insurance companies.

Fannie said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that “while our remaining mortgage insurers have continued to pay claims owed to us, there can be no assurance that they will continue do so given their current financial condition.”

Sharp declines in long-term interest rates during the third quarter have also caused Fannie Mae to report an additional $4.5 billion loss on the value of derivatives investments that are used to hedge against swings in interest rates.

The Treasury has pledged unlimited support through the end of next year and up to around $300 billion after that to keep the two mortgage companies afloat and stabilize mortgage markets.

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Real Estate | 370 Comments »
Tags: Borrowed, fannie mae, freddie mac, Government Aid

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 8, 2011

This from Reuters – An “epic” storm is bearing down on western Alaska on Tuesday, the National Weather Service said, warning that it could be one of the worst on record for the state.

The storm, moving inland from the Aleutian Islands, was expected to bring hurricane-force winds with gusts up to 100 miles per hour, heavy snowfall, widespread coastal flooding and severe erosion to most of Alaska’s west coast, the National Weather Service warned.

“This will be an extremely dangerous and life threatening storm of an epic magnitude rarely experienced,” the service said in a special warning message on Tuesday.

Powerful storms in the North Pacific and Bering Sea are common this time of year, but this event is unusual because of its trajectory, Brown said.

“It’s going very far north,” he said.

Posing an additional threat is the lack of sea ice off northwestern Alaska, he said. The last time a storm of a similar magnitude was sent in the same northward direction was 1974, but the sea surface was much more frozen then, he said.

“History tells that the sea ice helps subdue the storm surge,” Brown said “With no sea ice there, we could see the full brunt of that 6- to 9-foot storm surge.”

Arctic sea ice this year reached the second-lowest coverage since satellite records began in 1979, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado.

Category: Commentary, National News, Wall Street, Weather, World News | 574 Comments »
Tags: Alaska Epic Storm, Epic Storm, Huge Storm, Hurricane Winds In Alaska, Weather Storm

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 8, 2011

No, we didn’t make this up….really, who could even have dreamed up such a thing?

From Art Cashin on the floor of The New York Stock Exchange:

There are new reports of earth tremors around the El Hierro volcano in the Canary Islands.  As you probably recall, El Hierro is located on a very unusual geological formation that could produce a massive undersea landslide.  Such a landslide could, in turn, produce a historic tsunami which could devastate the entire East Coast of the United States.

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Weather, World News | 45 Comments »
Tags: Bad Weather, El Hierro, volcano

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 7, 2011

The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record.

Households headed by someone under age 35 had their median net worth reduced by 27 percent in 2009 as a result of unsecured liabilities, mostly a combination of credit card debt and student loans. No other age group had anywhere near that level of unsecured liability acting as a drag on net worth; the next closest was the 35-44 age group, at 10 percent.

Wealth inequality is increasing within all age groups. Among the younger-age households, those living in debt have grown the fastest while the share of households with net worth of at least $250,000 edged up slightly to 2 percent. Among the older-age households, the share of households worth at least $250,000 rose to 20 percent from 8 percent in 1984; those living in debt were largely unchanged at 8 percent.

The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 or older has a net worth 47 times greater than a household headed by someone under 35, according to an analysis of census data released Monday.

While people typically accumulate assets as they age, this gap is now more than double what it was in 2005 and nearly five times the 10-to-1 disparity a quarter-century ago, after adjusting for inflation.

The median net worth of households headed by someone 65 or older was $170,494. (Median means half are above and half are below the number.) That is 42 percent more than in 1984, when the Census Bureau first began measuring such data broken down by age. The median net worth for the younger-age households was $3,662, down by 68 percent from a quarter-century ago, according to the Pew analysis.

Net worth includes the value of a person’s home, possessions and savings accumulated over the years, including stocks, bank accounts, real estate, cars, boats or other property, minus any debt such as mortgages, college loans and credit card bills. 

For young adults, the main asset is their home. Their housing net worth dropped 31 percent from 1984, the result of increased debt and falling home values. In contrast, Americans 65 or older were more likely to have bought homes long before the housing boom and thus saw a 57 percent gain in housing net worth even after the bust.

Social Security benefits account for 55 percent of the annual income for older-age households, unchanged since 1984. The retirement benefits, which are indexed for inflation, have been a consistent source of income even as safety-net benefits for other groups such as low-income students have failed to keep up with rising costs. The congressional supercommittee that is proposing cuts has been reviewing whether to trim college aid programs, such as by restricting eligibility or charging students interest on loans while they are still in school. (They’re nuts, they are already giving student loans to anybody, my dog could get one!)) What a bunch of government morons…Charging students interest while in school?  They’re already going to be financially buried for a large part of their life.  Can you get juice out of a turnip?  No!

Category: Commentary, Economy, Finance, National News, Pensions and Retirement, Personal Net Worth, Wall Street | 63 Comments »
Tags: Buried, Financial Wipeout, Unsecured Liabilities, Wealth Gap

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 7, 2011

The entire consumer credit growth is from auto loans and student loans, while revolving credit dropped…Student loans have been a growth business, but at what expense? A whole student generation is hopelessly buried.  Truly buried like no other generation ever!

So… just where did this consumer credit in 2011 come from?  Well, of the $32 billion in credit issued YTD, basically the whole pile comes from the U.S. government. The only other positive source of credit during 2011 was $1 billion from savings institutions (a pittance). Every other traditional source of credit is, you guessed it… a drain.

The September consumer credit number is out, it rose by $7.4 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis, on expectations of $5.2 billion (but down from the revised $9.7 billion borrowed in August). 

Revolving credit declined by $627 million, while the entire growth was in Non-revolving borrowing, which rose by $8 billion. What does non-revolving credit fund? Uum, auto loans and student loans!

Category: Commentary, Economy, Finance, National News, Personal Net Worth, Wall Street | 44 Comments »
Tags: consumer credit, Credit, New Loans, Student Loans

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 6, 2011

Odd things are happening in some unusual places, like the largest earthquake in Oklahoma, ever….expect more according to Clif High. Clif does Asymmetric Language Trend Analysis and writes a report called The Shape Of Things To Come.  We have followed him for some time and we have to say he has had some outlandish predictions on things…the interesting thing is that a higher percentage of these have come true then one would have expected.  Here are just a few of the many predictions in his latest report.

Among his recent thoughts (09-19-2011), he said data indicates a deeply cold and a crushingly long Winter is about to unleash on North America, as the Fall season is seemingly skipped.

And…a very, very major damaging earthquake is set to hit the U.S. west coast, but that all of North America is at risk too. 

Alarmingly, the deflation sub set shows falling prices and values for most commodities, real estate and things other then food, gold, silver and medicines, which look immune…the effects (language) are described as shocking and unbelievable.  The food sub set indicates rapidly rising food prices.

Also…this report said that between the time of September through early December, a multinational conglomerate with primary headquarters in the USA will fail, and do so in spectacular fashion with civil/fiscal and criminal proceedings involved!…Hmm, we just saw MF Global (a financial firm) file for bankruptcy on Monday October 31, ranking as the 8th largest U.S. bankruptcy ever, and surprising just about everyone in its swift ending…

*An important reminder… these are just opinions from a computer with a secret algorithm language.  Some of these opinions are right and others will miss the mark entirely. The review above is not intended to be a recommendation for the purchase or sale of any asset in any way shape or form.  The Shape Of Things To Come Volume 0, Issue 12, Data Set Analysis…Asymmetric Language Trend Analysis, Interpretation and Predictions for 2011/2012 by Cilf High, can be accessed on the Internet.  His report does have a cost and we did buy it and read it. We have no other connection to him or these reports in any way.

The largest earthquake ever recorded in the state of Oklahoma struck Saturday night at 10:53 p.m., with a magnitude of 5.6, and its epicenter being four miles east of Sparks in Lincoln County, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey.

The strongest earthquake previously reported in Oklahoma was April 9, 1952, in El Reno, according to the geological survey. Its magnitude was 5.50.

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Outliers, Wall Street, Weather | 452 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 3, 2011

Some sobering thoughts from Caroline Baum, author of “Just What I Said”.  She is a Bloomberg News columnist (the opinions expressed are her own).

Why is so much energy being directed, or misdirected, at housing? Wouldn’t those efforts be better spent charting a sound course for the overall economy rather than targeting a specific sector?

For starters, housing’s footprint is larger than its current 2.4 percent share of gross domestic product. Even at its recent peak in 2005, residential investment, as it’s known in the GDP accounts, made up only 6 percent of GDP, the highest since the 1970s when inflation was driving demand for real assets.

For most Americans, their home is their major store of wealth. The value of household real estate peaked in the fourth quarter of 2006 at $25 trillion, falling to $16.2 trillion in the second three months of this year, according to the Fed’s latest Flow of Funds report. A reverse wealth effect is depressing consumer sentiment and spending.

It’s also limiting mobility. Unemployed homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth can’t pick up and move to areas of the country where labor is in demand.

Finally, home purchases beget spending on big-ticket items, such as refrigerators, washing machines and furniture.

Between 1997 — when home-price appreciation started to outpace the consumer-price index — and the peak in 2006, the average price of an existing home rose about 125 percent, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller U.S. Home Price Index. It was arguably the biggest real-estate bubble in history. I know of no law of nature, or finance, that allows for the reflating of a burst bubble. (Another asset class, yes; the same one, no.)

Category: Commentary, Economy, Finance, National News, Real Estate, Wall Street | 193 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 2, 2011

Fed assumptions become more realistic….we say better late then never, especially when in denial.

FED OFFICIALS SEE 2011 GDP 1.6%-1.7% VS 2.7%-2.9%
FED OFFICIALS SEE 2012 GDP 2.5%-2.9% VS 3.3%-3.7%
FED OFFICIALS SEE LONGER-RUN GDP 2.4%-2.7% VS 2.5%-2.8%
FED OFFICIALS SEE 2011 UNEMPLOYMENT 9.0%-9.1% VS 8.6%-8.9%
FED OFFICIALS SEE 2012 JOBLESS ESTIMATE 8.5%-8.7% VS 7.8%-8.2%
FED OFFICIALS SEE 2013 JOBLESS ESTIMATE 7.8%-8.2% VS 7.0%-7.5%
FED OFFICIALS SEE LONGER-RUN JOBLESS 5.2%-6.0% VS 5.2%-5.6%

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Wall Street, World News | 4 Comments »
Tags: Economic Outlook, Fed Slows Future

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 2, 2011

We’ve heard this for months now, but the thinking was that Big Daddy (the U.S.) shut the idea down….

Sky News has reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to rally support in his cabinet for an attack on Iran, according to government sources. “The country’s defence minister Ehud Barak and the foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman are said to be among those backing a pre-emptive strike to neutralise Iran’s nuclear ambitions. But a narrow majority of ministers currently oppose the move, which could trigger a wave of regional retaliation. The debate over possible Israeli military action has reached fever pitch in recent days with newspaper leader columns discussing the benefits and dangers of hitting Iran.

More from Sky:

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is due to report on the state of Iran’s nuclear capabilities on November 8, and that assessment is likely to influence Israel’s decision.

Western intelligence officials estimate that Iran is still at least two to three years away from obtaining a nuclear bomb.

Israel has long made it clear that it will not allow Iran to obtain a nuclear capability that could threaten the Jewish State.

But prime minister Netanyahu has repeatedly warned that all options are on the table.

Israel’s former defence minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told Haraatez newspaper that he feared a “horror scenario” if Israel attacked Iran.

Washington is also strongly opposed to Israel taking unilateral action. 

www.zerohedge.com

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, National Security, Wall Street, World News | 732 Comments »
Tags: Attack, Israel, middl East, war

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 1, 2011

Hey, what the heck…records are made to be broken.

August (the latest data), set a new all time record for Americans on food stamps, with 45.8 million poor souls on food stamps for sustenance.  Alabama, Delaware, Utah, and Washington all had at least a 3% sequential increases in food stamp usage.

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Personal Net Worth, Wall Street | 999 Comments »
Tags: Food Stamp Use, Government Assitance

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on November 1, 2011

Looks like the Netflix business model of raising charges and fees doesn’t work…we have slow learners with the banks, but they ultimately did get it!

Bank of America has dropped its plan to charge customers $5 a month for using their debit cards, after a giant sized customer backlash.

Category: Commentary, National News, Wall Street | 2,897 Comments »
Tags: banks, Netflix Business Model, Raising Fees

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 31, 2011

MF Global goes Chapter 11……breaks into the top ten standings!

Here we go…MF Global, the brokerage run by former Goldman Sachs chief Jon Corzine, today filed for bankruptcy protection, becoming the highest-profile U.S. victim (that we know, so far) of bad bets on European government debt.

With the Chapter 11 filing, MF Global also is likely to be added to the ignominious list of the 10 largest bankruptcies in U.S. corporate history. Here is that list, according to research firm BankruptcyData.com, and based on the value of each company’s assets before its bankruptcy filing.

Based on MF Global’s disclosed assets as of Sept. 30, it is likely to slot in just ahead of Chrysler as the eighth-largest U.S. bankruptcy.

1) Lehman Brothers Holdings September 2008 Assets: $691 billion

2) Washington Mutual September 2008 $327.9 billion

3) WorldCom 2002 $103.9 billion

4) General Motors June 2009 $91 billion

5) CIT Group November 2009 $80.4 billion

6) Enron 2001 $65.5 billion

7) Conseco 2002 $61.4 billion

MF Global $41 billion (as of Sept. 30)

8) Chrysler April 2009 $39.3 billion

9) Thornburg Mortgage May 2009 $36.5 billion

10) Pacific Gas & Electric Co. 2001 $36.15 billion

Source: BankruptcyData.com; SEC filings for MF Global asset size

Category: Commentary, Economy, Finance, National News, Personal Net Worth, Wall Street | 2,814 Comments »
Tags: MF Global Boes BK, New Bk Filing, Value Dump, Wipe Out

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 30, 2011

Clocks are scheduled to be set back one hour starting on November 6, 2011…..

The end of Daylight Saving Time this year is scheduled for Sunday, November 6.  Though individuals may see their biological clocks reset, and will get an “extra hour” of sleep or rest over the weekend, researchers say that the stress caused by time changes can be bad for the body.

In fact, researchers in Sweden published a report in 2008 in the New England Journal of Medicine reporting that the number of heart attacks jumps during the period immediately following time changes, and that those vulnerable to sleep deprivation should be extra careful.

The seven-month period of daylight saving time is mandated by governments — not biological clocks — which began implementing the time switch during World Wars I and II to save energy and resources for the war effort. From World War II until recently, daylight saving in the U.S. ran from April until mid-October.

But in 2007, Congress adjusted daylight saving time to begin three weeks earlier and end one week later — a move they hoped would help save energy. At the time, they pointed to the fact that longer daylight in the evening hours reduced people’s need to turn on lights in their homes at night.

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News | 17 Comments »
Tags: Clocks Set Back One Our, Daylight Savings Time, November 6

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 29, 2011

Question: Can you guess the amount of money spent for food prepared at home and the amount spent on eating out?

Answer: 52% is spent on food prepared at home,  and 48% is purchased and eaten onsite or taken home. Half of what we eat is “out”. It’s an oddly high number. Behind this almost 50-50 ratio is, no doubt, the problem with diabetes and obesity.

Category: Economy, National News, Wall Street | 69 Comments »
Tags: Eating Out Expense, Food Costs

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 29, 2011

Looks like eating out is a growth business…hmm!

The “eat out” numbers fell in 2009. But they recovered in 10’ and are headed higher again in 11’. We had recession. A big one. But consumers barely batted an eye. It’s a surprisng result.

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, National News | 10 Comments »
Tags: Diner Out, Eating Out, Restaurants

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 28, 2011

Yesterday, the U.S. GDP for the third quarter of 2011 unexpectedly surprised to the upside at +2.5% vs +.7% in the second quarter….

You’re not alone wondering how it was possible for Q three GDP to post such a substantial improvement driven by mostly a surge in Personal Consumption expenditures?   Well, so do we! 

Looks to us like it was at the expense of savings, which was 5.3% in June but now sits at 3.6% as of September…that’s our best guess.

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commodities, Economy, National News, Wall Street | 34 Comments »
Tags: gdp, Third Quarter

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 27, 2011

Americans have about $950 billion in student loans, and it’s more than all other credit-card debt totals…so the one thing’s for sure, this problem isn’t  getting better until the economy does!

The weight of those IOUs is a frequent refrain for Occupy Wall Street protestors and their online supporters. On the “We Are the 99 Percent” Tumblr blog, which features hundreds of pictures of people holding handwritten signs describing their desperate financial situations, student loan concerns exceed those about children, unemployment, and health care, according to an analysis by Mike Konczal, a fellow with the nonprofit Roosevelt Institute.

Desperation may have something to do with that outcry. Two out of five Americans with federal student debt can’t make monthly payments and either defer, default or are delinquent, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Fastweb.com, a free scholarship-matching service, and FinAid.org, a source of student financial aid information…

William Prince, of Rosenberg, Texas, knows just how inescapable student loans can be. The 52-year-old father of two started paying off $51,000 in college debt 15 years ago and now owes $57,000. “I don’t expect to pay these loans off in my lifetime,” he says. Prince, a criminal justice major who works in private security, had to defer payments during three bouts of unemployment, and the accumulated interest left him deeper in debt.

www.thedailyreckoning.com

Category: Commentary, Economy, Education and Schooling, National News, Wall Street | 54 Comments »
Tags: Educational Debt, School Loans, Student Debt

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 25, 2011

In a recent poll, 89% of Americans say they distrust government to do the right thing, 74% say the country is on the wrong track and 84% disapprove of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike.

Also…

On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office released a new study concluding that income distribution had become much more uneven in the last three decades. The wealthiest Americans saw their income nearly triple in the three decades to 2007, substantially more than all other segments of the population.  Our only question is, why did it take 4 years to finish this study? Oh, we think we know, to many chiefs watching and not enough indians working on things!

CBO finds that, between 1979 and 2007, income grew by:

• 275 percent for the top 1 percent of households,
• 65 percent for the next 19 percent,
• Just under 40 percent for the next 60 percent, and
• 18 percent for the bottom 20 percent.

 And…

The share of income going to higher-income households rose, while the share going to lower-income households fell.

• The top fifth of the population saw a 10-percentage-point increase in their share of after-tax income.
• Most of that growth went to the top 1 percent of the population.
• All other groups saw their shares decline by 2 to 3 percentage points.

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Wall Street | 553 Comments »
Tags: Approval ratings, congress, income distribution, Wall Street

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 24, 2011

This all makes sense…and we agree, but the problems at hand need to be dealt with first. At some point going forward the tables will turn, and “Made in America, Again” will begin a new!  The groundwork is being set now.  Best guess….things could get rolling by 2016-2017!

The “shale gas revolution”  has turned America into the world’s number one producer of natural gas, ahead of Russia.

Now the technology of hydraulic fracturing – breaking rocks with jets of water – will also bring a quantum leap in shale oil supply, mostly from the Bakken fields in North Dakota, Eagle Ford in Texas, and other reserves across the Mid-West.

“The US was the single largest contributor to global oil supply growth last year, with a net 395,000 barrels per day (b/d),” said Francisco Blanch from Bank of America, comparing the Dakota fields to a new North Sea.

Total US shale output is “set to expand dramatically” as fresh sources come on stream, possibly reaching 5.5m b/d by mid-decade. This is a tenfold rise since 2009.

The US already meets 72pc of its own oil needs, up from around 50pc a decade ago.

“The implications of this shift are very large for geopolitics, energy security, historical military alliances and economic activity. As US reliance on the Middle East continues to drop, Europe is turning more dependent and will likely become more exposed to rent-seeking behaviour from oligopolistic players,” said Mr Blanch.

Meanwhile, the China-US seesaw is about to swing the other way. Offshoring is out, ‘re-inshoring’ is the new fashion.

“Made in America, Again” – a report this month by Boston Consulting Group – said Chinese wage inflation running at 16pc a year for a decade has closed much of the cost gap. China is no longer the “default location” for cheap plants supplying the US.

A “tipping point” is near in computers, electrical equipment, machinery, autos and motor parts, plastics and rubber, fabricated metals, and even furniture.

“A surprising amount of work that rushed to China over the past decade could soon start to come back,” said BCG’s Harold Sirkin.

Boston Consulting expects up to 800,000 manufacturing jobs to return to the US by mid-decade, with a multiplier effect creating 3.2m in total. This would take some sting out of the Long Slump.

As Philadelphia Fed chief Sandra Pianalto said last week, US manufacturing is “very competitive” at the current dollar exchange rate. Whether intended or not, the Fed’s zero rates and $2.3 trillion printing blitz have brought matters to an abrupt head for China.

In the end…..The switch in advantage to the US is relative. It does not imply a healthy US recovery. The global depression will grind on as much of the Western world tightens fiscal policy and slowly purges debt, and as China deflates its credit bubble.

More at:http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Wall Street, World News | 8 Comments »
Tags: american made, made in america, Made In The U.S., Reverse China Trend

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 23, 2011

We’ve all heard about what’s going on in Greece…but this bubble chart will help explain how other countries in Europe compare.

Category: Charts and Graphs, Commentary, Economy, Finance, National News, Wall Street, World News | 55 Comments »
Tags: Bubble Chart, CDS, defaults

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 19, 2011

We think most everyone respects Steve Wynn, the famous Las Vegas developer…but maybe even more so now!  Here anew are Steve Wynn’s own words on Prsident Obama, “You cannot sustain these deficits, you cannot undercut the people that form the jobs and create the employment in this country.  Now, that is simply a statement of fact. It isn’t a partisan political pitch.”  “It’s simply a statement of fact from a businessman (myself) who has supported probably more Democrats than Republicans. But I say right now that the Democratic agenda of spend and bribe the public has bankrupt this country, and until it stops, the citizens of this country are in for more hard times.”  Period!

“I am watching my employees standard of living drop off because of deficits. I think that the American public is beginning to make the connection between deficits and their own loss of the standard… I say right now that the Democratic agenda of spend and bribe the public has bankrupt this country, and until it stops, the citizens of this country are in for more hard times. And fancy speeches aren’t going to change that. Only a fundamental realization that citizens are going to have to take real, sophisticated responsibility for how we allocate the resources of this country.”

It’s very interesting about the folks who are occupying Wall Street. That group is quite diverse. There are people in there that think the government should give them more, just because they are alive, regardless. There are people there who are opposing government spending. There are people there that are opposing bailouts. That group is not homogeneous by any means. What you do have on Wall Street is a reflection of the anxiety, insecurity and the fear that is endemic in the United States of America about the way government a has gotten into the business of people’s life and the validity of the government, unintelligently, seeing these deficits, and government spending professionally to the point that everybody’s financial security. I am watching my employees standard of living drop off because of deficits. I think that the American public is beginning to make the connection between deficits and their own loss of the standard.

Rich people are now being defined by the administration as people who make a million dollars. Well, most of the businesses in America, other than giant corporations, are paying taxes under chapter S, partnerships or individual proprietorships. So somebody shows that they make $3 million or $2 million this year and they pay personal taxes on that money. They subtract their cost of living and then what’s left, and that does not show that probably 25 or 30% of their profits are tied up in accounts receivable or inventory, stuff that they can’t spend or get their hands on, but to support their business and their employment, and then they take whatever is left, these so-called millionaires, and they open up another shop or another office and that, that is the only known engine of growth of the United States of America, and we have an administration that is fanning the fires that this is somehow undeserved, profligate millionaires, and it is worse than hypocrisy. It is totally dishonest.

It represents by young people who don’t know the difference, simple misunderstanding and lack of understanding of how the economy works for what’s going on in America, but if it’s politician that does it, or a union leader, then it represents something much more pernicious. It represent as deliberate misleading of the public. And I think that Americans are waking up to this. And it’s taking the form of anger and dissatisfaction with the government. And I think that’s probably just right because until there is a change, until this all stops, it’s only going to get worse, no matter what anybody says in some fancy speech, even if it is the president, it is going to get worse. People say we’re angry at the government for not compromising both sides. Well, we don’t really have a situation that lends itself to what reasonable people would call compromise. We’ve got a situation that requires a change. That is to say one side is right here and the other side is wrong.

You cannot sustain these deficits, you cannot undercut the people that form the jobs and create the employment in this country.

Now, that is simply a statement of fact. It isn’t a partisan political pitch.

It’s simply a statement of fact from a businessman who has supported probably more Democrats than Republicans. But I say right now that the Democratic agenda of spend and bribe the public has bankrupt this country, and until it stops, the citizens of this country are in for more hard times.

And fancy speeches aren’t going to change that.

Only a fundamental realization that citizens are going to have to take real, sophisticated responsibility for how we allocate the resources of this country.

www.zerohedge.com

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Wall Street, World News | 5,501 Comments »
Tags: millionaires, Occupy Wall Street, Rich, Standart Of Living, Steve Wynn

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 19, 2011

Yep…It takes a lot of lawyers and money to tie knots in a political system like ours (and this is home to the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers) …sounds like the protesters should be headed for Washington D.C. in short order. Total compensation for federal workers, including health care and other benefits, last year averaged $126,369.  “There’s a gap that’s isolating Washington from the reality of the rest of the country,”  “They just get more and more out of touch.”

From Bloomberg:

Federal employees compensation now averages more than $126,000, and is home to the nation’s greatest concentration of lawyers. This helped Washington D.C. edge out San Jose, California as the wealthiest U.S. metropolitan area in the United States, government data show.

The typical household in the Washington metro area earned $84,523 last year or 1.7 times more then the national median income for 2010 of $50,046. 

The figures demonstrate how the nation’s political and financial classes are prospering as the economy struggles with unemployment above 9 percent and thousands of Americans protest in the streets against income disparity, said Kevin Zeese of Prosperity Agenda.

“There’s a gap that’s isolating Washington from the reality of the rest of the country,” Zeese said. “They just get more and more out of touch.”

Total compensation for federal workers, including health care and other benefits, last year averaged $126,369, compared with $122,697 in 2009, according to Bloomberg News calculations of Commerce Department data. There were 170,467 federal employees in the District of Columbia as of June. The Washington area includes the District of Columbia, parts of Northern Virginia, eastern Maryland and eastern West Virginia.

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Personal Net Worth, Wall Street | 628 Comments »
Tags: Federal Workers, Income

Posted By thestatedtruth.com on October 18, 2011

Mort Zuckerman has for years owned U.S. News and World Report Magazine. He says in 1986 its Moscow correspondent Nicholas Daniloff was seized without warning by the KGB.

Mr. Zuckerman immediately flew to Russia but returned home when Soviet officials refused to release their new prisoner. “I worked in the White House for the next four weeks virtually every day and through that I met Reagan,” says Mr. Zuckerman. Ronald Reagan secured Mr. Daniloff’s release in a swap that included a Soviet spy held in the U.S.

“Reagan surprised me,” says Mr. Zuckerman. “He got the point of every argument. . . . He was very decisive. And everybody loved working for him. They followed his lead because they really respected his decisiveness and his instincts.” ‘I was not a Republican and I was not an admirer of his before I knew him,” continues Mr. Zuckerman.   He said the president has to be someone who can persuade the American people to do what they don’t want to do and to like it. And that’s what you have to do. Somebody like Reagan had that authority. He was liked so much and he had a kind of moral authority. That’s what this president has lost.”

More from James Freeman of the Wall Street Journal…

‘It’s as if he doesn’t like people,” says real-estate mogul and New York Daily News owner Mortimer Zuckerman of the president of the United States.

As Mr. Zuckerman ponders the Occupy Wall Street movement, he concludes that “the door to it was opened by the Obama administration, going after the ‘millionaires and billionaires’ as if everybody is a millionaire and a billionaire and they didn’t earn it. . . . To fan that flame of populist anger I think is very divisive and very dangerous for this country.”

This doesn’t mean that Mr. Zuckerman opposes the protesters or questions their motives. When pressed, he concedes that the crowd in Lower Manhattan may include some full-time radicals, but he argues that the protesters are people with a legitimate grievance, as the country suffers high unemployment and stagnant middle-class incomes.

It is a subject he has obviously studied at length, and he explains how the real unemployment rate is actually well above the official level of 9.1%, which only measures people who have applied for a job within the previous four weeks. In fact, he says, unemployment has even surged beyond the Department of Labor’s “U-6” number of 16.5% that has received increasing attention lately because it includes people who have given up looking for work within the past year, plus people who have been cut back from full-time employees to part-timers.

Mr. Zuckerman says that when you also consider the labor-force participation rate and the so-called “birth-death series” that measures business starts and failures, the real U.S. unemployment rate is now 20%.

At that time he supported Mr. Obama’s call for heavy spending on infrastructure. “But if you look at the make-up of the stimulus program,” says Mr. Zuckerman, “roughly half of it went to state and local municipalities, which is in effect to the municipal unions which are at the core of the Democratic Party.” He adds that “the Republicans understood this” and it diminished the chances for bipartisan legislating.

Then there was health-care reform: “Eighty percent of the country wanted them to get costs under control, not to extend the coverage. They used all their political capital to extend the coverage.

“Even if you want to do this to revive your support in the base, to revive your credibility on the issues of the economy and jobs, which has fallen off the table, this isn’t going to accomplish it. Another speech from this guy? The country knows this is just another speech. They understand it almost instantaneously, and his numbers have continued to go down for that reason. What the country wanted was some way of coming up with a solution.”

The only solution Mr. Zuckerman sees now to juice the economy “is to broaden the tax base and simplify and lower tax [rates]. To me that will be as close to revenue-neutral as you’re going to have so it isn’t going to be seen as a budget buster.” He views GOP candidate Herman Cain’s “9-9-9 plan” as a “little bit simple-minded,” but he says that a reform that closes loopholes and reduces compliance costs will stimulate both business and consumer spending.

Sounds like our best shot, let’s see if it happens?

Category: Commentary, Economy, National News, Wall Street, World News | 561 Comments »
Tags: Loopholes, Mort Zuckerman, Protesters, Ronald Reagan, Tax Base