Day: October 11, 2008

What Of Main Street?

Bailing out Wall Street without fixing Main Street is like fixing the cracks in the wall while your foundation is crumbling. The measures listed above, as well as more basic changes, are necessary. But with more than 100,000 families losing their homes each month, I would like to focus on one critical part of the foundation — stopping foreclosures and keeping families in their homes.

The root of the crisis is that working families have been squeezed from all sides, especially since the recession of 2001. Household income has been falling behind the increasing cost of necessities. The squeeze has been aggravated by the decline of medical coverage and retirement plans, shifting these costs, along with soaring costs for education, food and energy, onto over-strained family budgets.

Many have dealt with this strain by going into debt. They were pushed deeper by the mortgage brokers, real estate agents, appraisers, and credit card vendors, who piled on fees, charges, and hidden interest rates, often based on wildly inflated housing prices. Even when this debt was not the result of outright fraud and conspiracy by the financial and real estate industries, it was in violation of any reasonable banking standards. Financial institutions, staffed by MBAs, PhDs and other highly-trained experts, made loans that no first-year economics student should have approved.
The immediate cause of the financial crisis on Wall Street is this mountain of debt smothering people on Main Street. In simplified form, here is what happens.
● Hard-pressed families fall behind on their mortgage and credit card payments.
● When homeowners can’t make payments, the banks foreclose, but the home frequently stands empty and the bank is unable to recover much of the outstanding loan..
● The bank, with less money coming in, has trouble paying other banks and investors that it borrowed money from.
● Those other banks and investors have trouble paying banks and investors they borrowed from.
● Banks, investors, and ordinary businesses are afraid to lend money to other banks, investors and ordinary businesses.

Families owe more on their mortgages and their credit cards than they can ever pay back. And their effort to save their homes and meet creditors’ demands is undermining their families, their neighborhoods and the local economy, as family members work multiple jobs and cut back on health care, local purchases, local taxes, utilities, and home maintenance.

The bailout package just approved by Congress doesn’t address this problem at all. Homeowners and consumers still have the same debt, still face the same monthly payments. The only change is that the U.S. government has become a collection agent for the banks and investors.

You Are In The Army Now

You are in the army now,

you not behind plow,

you will never get rich

you son-of-a-bitch

you are in the army now

The economic crisis could help the military recruit and retain troops, Pentagon officials said Friday, potentially ending years of extraordinary bonuses and waivers that have become necessary to keep enough troops to fight two wars.

“We do benefit when things look less positive in civil society,” said David S.C. Chu, undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. “That is a situation where more are willing to give us a chance. I think that’s the big difference — people willing to listen to us.”

Chu said all the services met their recruiting goals for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The active Army recruited 80,517; the Marines signed up 37,991; and the Air Force and Navy signed up 66,333. All the branches met their re-enlistment goal except the Air Force, which fell just short of its goal, Chu said.

The U.S. military spent $750 million of its $115 billion personnel budget on bonuses in the past year, he said. The Army currently offers an $18,000 signing bonus, which it gives recruits who come from households earning a median income of $48,616.

In addition, the Army and Marines aggressively encourage troops to re-enlist, for a bonus of as much as $40,000. In Iraq and Afghanistan, most large bases include at least one recruiter who pitches troops at the mess hall, as they prepare to leave base for a mission and at their bunks. If they sign up overseas, they can collect their bonuses tax-free.

But retired military officers and others fret that the Pentagon has let standards fall too far, allowing more high school dropouts and convicted felons to sign up, particularly in the Army.

Something for the poor to look forward…..vist beautiful exotic palces, meet new people, then kill them.

Conservatives: Truth Not Spoken

This is the season for labels…it is the election season and all stops are pulled out to label a candidate as this type of person or that. If you are a Republican then everyone else is a liberal and if you are a Democrat then just about everyone else is a conservative. Of course, none of this is true, but it is kept simple so that no one needs to hurt themselves trying to discern what the political leanings are of a candidate. To me, I find it offensive that someone would assume that I am incapable of distinguishing the candidates without such label.

Now that I have said my piece on that…what exactly is a conservative?

The conservative view of of human nature is not entirely positive or egalitarian. Basically, conservatives believe some people contribute more to society than others and therefore should be more honored by society. However their view of human nature can be kindly and benign when ordinary folk have the good sense to keep to their place. This can be illustrated by John McCain in his past two debates; he never mentioned the middle class at all. As if he is ignoring their existence. That sports fans is a form of elite arrogance. You may disagree with that assumption, that is your prerogative.

To the conservative it is clear who should govern, but not always as clear on the proper domain of the government.

I know that there will be a ton of folks who will not agree with my definition, but I want to remind them that this is a classical view and not some made up BS by me. Like it or not conservatives have always been the ones that had a “divine” right to run the government. Yes there have been “mavericks” in the conservative movement that will use wording and action to be more flexible and not as dogmatic. Conservatives have this thinking that it is their responsibility to bring the blessings of “civilization” to those less fortunate.

And that Irene is a look at what a conservative believes.

The Palin Page

There is so much happening in the world according to Palin that I need to make a seperate page so that it will be all together in one place.

1–Palin is heard saying that Obama’s message is “wearing thin”–sorry girl but the polls say it is you that is “wearing thin”. I hear the media saying that she has something something special that the people love. That is doubtful, she is something they have never seen on a Repub presidential ticket–a woman!

2–Palin’s hubby is taking the rap for “trooper-gate”–he is saying that he is the one that made the requests not her and that she knew nothing about it. Nice–if true why was that not stated in the beginning of this stuff? I guess a kie is needed over the truth before Nov.4th.

3–“terrorist”, “Kill him”, “off with his head” and “treason” all these have been yelled out at McCain rallys about Obama. The RNC has condemned these outbursts and all are saying that Palin did not hear them while at a rally. Really? She did not have a problem hearing a protesyer at a rally in Florida and responding to him. So that shoots that line of crap down about her not hearing them.

So by using the McCain/Palin logic–they are endorsing what the commenters were saying.

4–Ms Sarah is on the cover of Newsweek and the camp is up in arms. Why? They say the close-up reveals all the pores and wrinkles in her face and even shows a bit of a moustash beginning. They, the campaign accusses Newsweek of being in the can for Obama because they did not touch up the photo.

I guess if it is not FOX News or Laura Inghram coddling her then everyone else is in the bag for Obama. I mean how dare the media ask her a follow up question or a clarification. They are just picking on her. Was not it the Repubs that said if Obama did not have a thick skin then he should not be in politics? Just wondering?

This whole thing would be just flippin’ hilarious if it was not so damn pathetic.

“A Wide Range Of Tools”

Words of encouragement from GW on the direction of the economy.

The U.S. president said the government has acted on several fronts, including injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into the financial system, coordinating a global cut in interest rates, and expanding the amount of money that is insured in savings accounts.

“Fellow citizens, we can solve this crisis and we will,” Bush said.

`Aggressive’ Plan

“The plan we are executing is aggressive,” Bush said. “It will take time to have its full impact. It is flexible enough to adapt as the situation changes. And it is big enough to work.”

Bush meets tomorrow with finance ministers from the Group of Seven industrial nations, as his predecessor, former President Bill Clinton, did with the group during a 1998 financial crisis.

Tomorrow’s meeting will be at 7:15 a.m. at the White House, and the president will make a statement at 8:05 a.m., White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Perino, responding to questions, said Bush remains “open to the idea of a G-8 meeting at some point.” The G-7 includes the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada. The G-8 includes Russia as well.

The G-7 ministers and central bankers are meeting today in Washington, facing a breakdown in investor confidence in their ability to end the credit freeze endangering the global economy.

Threatened by the worst economic outlook in a quarter century, officials arrived in Washington still without the broad- based strategy that investors were seeking, raising the risk of further turmoil if their remedies disappoint.

Among the options: a proposal by U.K. Chancellor Alistair Darling for nations to guarantee lending between banks, a suggestion that U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson hasn’t ruled out.

I feel so much better about everything now. But may I suggest that they need to pick a tool and get to f*cking work!