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14:00:02 12/15/10
C&L Opening Bell: Mitt Romney's Ass-Tastic Idea for Unemployment Insurance Edition
[LESS INFO] 4 VIEWS | ADDED 14:00:02 12/15/10
enlarge Happy Wednesday, campers! Mitt Romney yesterday engaged in a pathetic pander to Dittohead Nation by honoring their time-honored tradition of trashing the unemployed. Let's take a look at what our pal Mittens had to say : >
The system is also not designed for a flexible economy like ours in which some employees move from job to job for short periods, and are therefore ineligible for unemployment compensation when they are faced with a protracted spell without work.
To remedy such problems we need a very different model, perhaps establishing individual unemployment savings accounts over which employees would exercise direct control when they lose their jobs, or putting in place financial incentives for employers to hire and train the long-term unemployed. One thing is certain: While we cannot rebuild our flawed system overnight, we are surely not required to borrow the funds to pay for it. In spending $56.5 billion to extend benefits, the deal is sacrificing the bedrock Republican principle that new expenditures be paid for with offsetting budget cuts.
That last sentence is the most hilarious pile of horses*** I've read in a long, long time. Let's go through some of the wonderful Republican initiatives over the past decade and see if they were offset by budget cuts:
* The cost of extending the Bush tax cuts for the rich for the next two years will be $79 billion , or more than $20 billion more than the cost of extending unemployment benefits. Mittens sees no need to pay for these.
* The Iraq war has cost us close to $750 billion. Did the GOP try to offset those costs with tax increases or budget cuts? Pffffffft!
* And then there's TARP, the $700 billion bank bailout that had no guarantee of seeing any return on investment. Again, did the GOP insist on making cuts or raising taxes to pay for this? Nope.
So in Romney's world, government spending is only reckless if it benefits people who have lost their jobs. If it involves pointless wars, bank bailouts or tax cuts for Paris Hilton, though, it doesn't need to be offset by anything since all of those things are free. Why anyone takes this clown seriously -- or why Useless, Eh? Today felt the need to print his scribblings without the least bit of fact checking -- is beyond me.
Let's look at the rest of today's economic news:
* First, some happy news : >
New government data released Tuesday bolstered retailers' hopes that consumers are shaking off the recession and pulling out their wallets just in time for the most critical sales months of the year.
The Commerce Department reported a 0.8 percent increase in retail sales in November from the previous month, with big gains at clothing stores, sporting goods chains and department stores. It also revised its estimate for October upward, from a 1.2 percent gain to 1.7 percent.
The strong results, combined with the recent stock market rally, prompted an influential industry trade group to raise its holiday sales forecast Tuesday. The National Retail Federation said it now predicts that November and December sales will grow 3.3 percent compared with last year, one percentage point higher than its original estimate.
"It's been a while since we've really seen the retail industry drive strong economic growth," NRF spokesman Scott Krugman said. "Pent-up demand is meeting discounts, creating better than expected results for the holiday season.
I'm skeptical that this can last beyond a one-month blip but any good news is more than welcome. It's nice to write about the economy without sounding like a Leonard Cohen song every day, you know?
* More good news -- the lead AG on the Fraudclosure investigation wants to throw some of these SOBs in jail: >
The lead Attorney General of the 50-state foreclosure investigation, Iowa’s Tom Miller, said “We will put people in jail,” in response to questions during a meeting Tuesday with more than 100 people from 15 states representing community, faith, and labor organizations, foreclosure victims and struggling homeowners from across the country.
Miller also agreed that principal reductions, loan modifications, and compensation for defrauded homeowners are necessary to clean up the mortgage mess created by the big banks.
“One of the main tools needs to be principal reductions, just like in the farm crisis in the 1980s. There should be some kind of compensation system for people who have been harmed. And the foreclosure process should stop while loan modifications begin. To have a race between foreclosures and modifications to see which happens first is insane.”
To me the practices of the banks and the mortgage industry have been so clearly fraudulent that I will be somewhat shocked if some of these clowns didn't go to jail. Forging affidavits is typically not something the government looks fondly upon and I hope it's no different in this case.
* And hey, since we're on a happy news roll today, let's take in another one: Larry Summers has given his farewell speech ! That means he's no longer working in government!
The downside, of course, is that Tim Geithner's still there and I'm sure Obama will tap someone equally odious such as Roger Altman to replace him. Gotta get those Wall Street campaign donations back in line relationships with the business community in a better place, after all.
And that's about it for today, class, I'm letting you go a little early. And since my posting of Mendelssohn's violin concerto yesterday seemed to bring us some happier news, let's see if we can extend it by posting more cheerful classical music. This cheerful melody from "The Marriage of Figaro" is what I'll be humming on the first day the government makes arrests in the fraudclosure scandal:
See you tomorrow!
2 Views
14:00:10 11/23/10
C&L Opening Bell
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 14:00:10 11/23/10
enlarge Note: I'm experimenting with a new (hopefully) daily feature that attempts to recap the day's economic news in a way that's informative and entertaining. There's a lot of insane stuff going on in the world of economics and finance and my goal will be to explain it without making your eyes glaze over. So let's get started!
C%L Opening Bell, 11-23-10
* The big news of the day was in Ireland, where the Irish government finally acknowledged that bailing out its banks has rendered it insolvent. Taoiseach Brian Cowen said that he plans to dissolve Parliament and call for new elections juuuuuust after the sure-to-have-its-ass-handed-to-it Fianna Fáil coalition passes its next budget.
And what a budget it's expected to be! In exchange for a loan of up to €90 billion from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, Ireland will have to implement further austerity measures that involve raising taxes and cutting services. And whose services are getting cut, you're wondering? Do you even have to ask ? >
Deep cuts to the minimum wage and welfare benefits loom as part of the price the country pays for its huge emergency bailout loan as Brian Cowen insisted he was "not the bogeyman" who had led Ireland to financial crisis.
So the poorest people in the country are essentially paying to bail out the Irish banks' creditors. Pretty remarkable.
* Zero Hedge points us to the following video from Jim Rogers that lays out an alternative plan for the Irish: Just declare bankruptcy and restructure your debt already:
Here's the key part: >
This is ludicrous. This will cripple the Irish economy for years to come. In the future Ireland will be crippled because everything they earn will go to pay off old debt. There is no reason why taxpayers around Europe or in Ireland should pay for other people's mistakes. The bondholders and the stockholders of banks should lose money.
And this is what we should keep in mind when we hear about "bailing out Ireland." It's really about bailing out the Irish banks' creditors .
* It also goes without saying that this situation blows a hole in the meme that austerity is the best way to head off a recession. The Irish implemented spending cuts and tax increases long before most of the other PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) ever did. The result was the country was still deeply in debt and in need of a rescue. More than anything, though, this crisis shows that there are structural flaws in the Eurozone single currency that are probably impossible to resolve. I can't really see anyway for countries to be able to issue their own debts but not their own currencies.
* Over in the States, meanwhile, things aren't exactly better. The banks' fraudulent foreclosure activity (which our own Susie Madrak has covered extensively ) has created a buttload of anxiety in the housing market : >
The ongoing controversy surrounding foreclosures is taking its toll as homebuyers refused to look at distressed properties in October, and foreclosure sales suffered from delays, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance Monthly Survey. [...]
News reports that major servicers were pulling REOs off the market, including some already under contract, spooked would-be homebuyers. The monthly survey found that 14% of owner-occupant homebuyers and 6% of investors refused to view foreclosed properties in October. Homebuyer fear was worse for short-sale properties where 30% of owner-occupant buyers, and 20% of investors refused to view these homes.
As I told two friends who were looking to buy a home, you'd have to be N-U-T-S to think of buying a foreclosed home right now.
* On the somewhat-happier side of things, the FBI raided two hedge firms yesterday as part of its sweeping investigation into insider trading. The Wall Street Journal got the scoop on this probe over the weekend: >
Federal authorities, capping a three-year investigation, are preparing insider-trading charges that could ensnare consultants, investment bankers, hedge-fund and mutual-fund traders, and analysts across the nation, according to people familiar with the matter.
The criminal and civil probes, which authorities say could eclipse the impact on the financial industry of any previous such investigation, are examining whether multiple insider-trading rings reaped illegal profits totaling tens of millions of dollars, the people say. Some charges could be brought before year-end, they say.
The investigations, if they bear fruit, have the potential to expose a culture of pervasive insider trading in U.S. financial markets, including new ways non-public information is passed to traders through experts tied to specific industries or companies, federal authorities say.
Reading those words gave me a tingly feeling in my pants. I do hope this investigation is legit and that the government won't just take a wad of "We're Sorry!" Cash from the banks and call it a day. We have a wealthy criminal class in this country that never pays for its crimes and is often rewarded for them at taxpayer expense. If we want to keep living in a democracy, this sort of thing will have to stop.
* News of the hedge fund raid sent key financial stocks down today, as Bank of America's shares were down 3%, JP Morgan's were down 2.25% and the Vampire Squid was down nearly 3.5%.
* And finally, let's take a look at what I call the "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!11!!!" index of key measurements to see how much investors across the world are crapping themselves with fear. Basically, it goes like this: When U.S. Treasury yields go down and the price of gold goes up, that means investors are fleeing risky assets for things they consider to be safe investments. If the reverse is happening, then investors are likely feeling they can handle more risk on a given day.
Gold futures rose 0.4% to $1,357.80 yesterday.
10-year Treasury yields fell 1.41% to close at 2.80% on the day.
In other words, the chances of the world exploding just got greater. Have a happy day!
3 Views
14:00:10 11/23/10
C&L Opening Bell
[LESS INFO] 3 VIEWS | ADDED 14:00:10 11/23/10
enlarge Note: I'm experimenting with a new (hopefully) daily feature that attempts to recap the day's economic news in a way that's informative and entertaining. There's a lot of insane stuff going on in the world of economics and finance and my goal will be to explain it without making your eyes glaze over. So let's get started!
C%L Opening Bell, 11-23-10
* The big news of the day was in Ireland, where the Irish government finally acknowledged that bailing out its banks has rendered it insolvent. Taoiseach Brian Cowen said that he plans to dissolve Parliament and call for new elections juuuuuust after the sure-to-have-its-ass-handed-to-it Fianna Fáil coalition passes its next budget.
And what a budget it's expected to be! In exchange for a loan of up to €90 billion from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, Ireland will have to implement further austerity measures that involve raising taxes and cutting services. And whose services are getting cut, you're wondering? Do you even have to ask ? >
Deep cuts to the minimum wage and welfare benefits loom as part of the price the country pays for its huge emergency bailout loan as Brian Cowen insisted he was "not the bogeyman" who had led Ireland to financial crisis.
So the poorest people in the country are essentially paying to bail out the Irish banks' creditors. Pretty remarkable.
* Zero Hedge points us to the following video from Jim Rogers that lays out an alternative plan for the Irish: Just declare bankruptcy and restructure your debt already:
Here's the key part: >
This is ludicrous. This will cripple the Irish economy for years to come. In the future Ireland will be crippled because everything they earn will go to pay off old debt. There is no reason why taxpayers around Europe or in Ireland should pay for other people's mistakes. The bondholders and the stockholders of banks should lose money.
And this is what we should keep in mind when we hear about "bailing out Ireland." It's really about bailing out the Irish banks' creditors .
* It also goes without saying that this situation blows a hole in the meme that austerity is the best way to head off a recession. The Irish implemented spending cuts and tax increases long before most of the other PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) ever did. The result was the country was still deeply in debt and in need of a rescue. More than anything, though, this crisis shows that there are structural flaws in the Eurozone single currency that are probably impossible to resolve. I can't really see anyway for countries to be able to issue their own debts but not their own currencies.
* Over in the States, meanwhile, things aren't exactly better. The banks' fraudulent foreclosure activity (which our own Susie Madrak has covered extensively ) has created a buttload of anxiety in the housing market : >
The ongoing controversy surrounding foreclosures is taking its toll as homebuyers refused to look at distressed properties in October, and foreclosure sales suffered from delays, according to the latest Campbell/Inside Mortgage Finance Monthly Survey. [...]
News reports that major servicers were pulling REOs off the market, including some already under contract, spooked would-be homebuyers. The monthly survey found that 14% of owner-occupant homebuyers and 6% of investors refused to view foreclosed properties in October. Homebuyer fear was worse for short-sale properties where 30% of owner-occupant buyers, and 20% of investors refused to view these homes.
As I told two friends who were looking to buy a home, you'd have to be N-U-T-S to think of buying a foreclosed home right now.
* On the somewhat-happier side of things, the FBI raided two hedge firms yesterday as part of its sweeping investigation into insider trading. The Wall Street Journal got the scoop on this probe over the weekend: >
Federal authorities, capping a three-year investigation, are preparing insider-trading charges that could ensnare consultants, investment bankers, hedge-fund and mutual-fund traders, and analysts across the nation, according to people familiar with the matter.
The criminal and civil probes, which authorities say could eclipse the impact on the financial industry of any previous such investigation, are examining whether multiple insider-trading rings reaped illegal profits totaling tens of millions of dollars, the people say. Some charges could be brought before year-end, they say.
The investigations, if they bear fruit, have the potential to expose a culture of pervasive insider trading in U.S. financial markets, including new ways non-public information is passed to traders through experts tied to specific industries or companies, federal authorities say.
Reading those words gave me a tingly feeling in my pants. I do hope this investigation is legit and that the government won't just take a wad of "We're Sorry!" Cash from the banks and call it a day. We have a wealthy criminal class in this country that never pays for its crimes and is often rewarded for them at taxpayer expense. If we want to keep living in a democracy, this sort of thing will have to stop.
* News of the hedge fund raid sent key financial stocks down today, as Bank of America's shares were down 3%, JP Morgan's were down 2.25% and the Vampire Squid was down nearly 3.5%.
* And finally, let's take a look at what I call the "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!11!!!" index of key measurements to see how much investors across the world are crapping themselves with fear. Basically, it goes like this: When U.S. Treasury yields go down and the price of gold goes up, that means investors are fleeing risky assets for things they consider to be safe investments. If the reverse is happening, then investors are likely feeling they can handle more risk on a given day.
Gold futures rose 0.4% to $1,357.80 yesterday.
10-year Treasury yields fell 1.41% to close at 2.80% on the day.
In other words, the chances of the world exploding just got greater. Have a happy day!
