Day: December 11, 2008

Auto Bailout Moves To Senate

A proposal to bail out the big three U.S. automakers passed the House of Representatives but its prospects looked grim in the Senate where supporters faced an uphill struggle on Thursday to keep it alive.

But prospects for passage in the Senate were grim. Democrats were short the 60 votes necessary to overcome procedural hurdles. Without the support of a dozen or more Republicans the bill would fail, a Democratic aide said.

Let us be real….the Repubs have been trying for years to break unions and this is an opportunity to break one of the biggest.  The sad part is they will sacrifice the economy and jobs for Americans to do it.

Sen. Shelby of Alabama is the leading opponent to the auto bailout, ask him how much in incentives and tax breaks and cuts did his state throw at Toyota to get them to locate in the state.  It would be a godsend to Toyota and Alabama if the Big 3 were to fail.  Bet the total would be close to the amount of the first installment to the Big 3.  The insincere crap about wanting to help the auto industry and save jobs is just a lie.

This assault on the American auto industry will have lasting effects and has all the earmarks of coming back to bite them in the ass.

Where Is The Confidence?

Some money-market funds that invest mostly in Treasurys are closing their doors to new investors as low yields on government securities drag down their yields.

As the credit crisis and market volatility send investors flocking to the safety of Treasurys, yields on the government debt have fallen drastically and several Treasury funds have barred new investors. Some funds also have cut their fees to keep their yields in reasonable territory.

If the Federal Reserve moves to further cut interest rates, the possibility of “negative yields” exists, some experts said. More funds may be forced to turn back investments or waive expenses, and the difficult conditions could cause some smaller fund complexes to reconsider whether they want to remain in the money-market-fund business.

Treasury’s three-year note yielded 1.245% Wednesday after a $28 billion three-year note auction. In a sign of how much investors currently value safety, the Treasury Department sold more than $30 billion in four-week bills Tuesday at a yield of zero for the first time.

As of Dec. 1, Evergreen Institutional 100% Treasury Money Market Fund closed to new investors until further notice. In light of the current low yields in the Treasury market, the money manager determined that it was appropriate to close the fund to protect shareholders’ interests, said Laura Fay, a spokeswoman for Evergreen Investments, the investment management arm of Wachovia Corp.

A negative yield on your money is a real possibility, so you will be paying the government for the use of your money.  That will not last long and if everyone pulls their money from the treasuries, the economy will get even worse than it is now.

Treasury Gets Criticized

My first impulse was to yell, “YA THINK?”

Lawmakers criticized the Treasury Department’s handling of its $700 billion financial-industry rescue program, saying the effort had been mismanaged, and warned that no additional money would be forthcoming barring significant improvements.

In a hearing Wednesday, members of the House Financial Services Committee questioned Treasury Assistant Secretary Neel Kashkari over his agency’s handling of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, citing critical reports by the Government Accountability Office and an oversight panel appointed by Congress.

Lawmakers faulted Treasury for what they said was its failure to address the record numbers of foreclosures that continue to weigh on financial institutions and the broader economy after TARP was implemented in October in response to a credit crisis sparked by woes in the housing market. They also criticized what they described as the agency’s reluctance to ensure that banks are using billions of dollars in federal funds to lend to consumers and businesses.

Treasury has used or committed most of the money available in the first tranche of funds under TARP, with $15 billion remaining out of an original $350 billion. With financial markets still weak and the broader economy in recession, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has been trying to decide whether to seek access to the second half of the funds.

Geez, where were these people when the bailout was being pushed through Congress?  It is a little late to worry about how the money is being spent.  These guys were inept at handling the crisis which was predicted almost a year ahead of the fact.  If they could not see it coming, why would we trust them to fix it once it was broke.

Do You Remember Joe The Plumber?

Heeeeee’s baaaack!

You remember Joe the Plumber, aka: Joe Wurzelbacher, the unlicensed plumber who John McCain used as a prop in the waning days of his campaign.

Well, he’s got a book out (who doesn’t?).  And in the fine tradition of Scott McClellan, he’s biting the hand that fed him.  Or perhaps snarking down the whole arm.  We don’t know.  The book’s not quite out yet. He’s just promoting it.

So he went on Glenn Beck’s radio program yesterday to discuss “Fighting for the American Dream”.  What can we expect?  The vaunted “inside look” at the campaign.  Why?  Because, according to Joe, he’s smarter than most.

“I like to think I’m a little more educated than some out there in politics just because it is interesting to me,” he said.

How’d he like the campaign?

“I honestly felt more dirty after I was on the campaign trail and saw some things that took place,” Wurzelbacher said.

Like what?

He really doesn’t say.  He was doing the “promote-a-book” thing where you tease someone with enticing parts of an expose’ to get you to buy the book (which is out later this month).

Finally, he came up with the bailout.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.  The bailout.

“When I was on the bus with him, I asked him a lot of questions about the bailout because most Americans didn’t want it to happen – yet he voted for it,” he said.  “At the same time he’s talking about making someone famous if they even think about putting pork in the bill.  We all know how much pork was in the $700 billion bailout package.  Why did he vote for it?”

“I asked him pretty direct questions, and some of the answers you guys are going to receive … they appalled me,” he said apparently alluding to the promise that his book will be a tell-all.  “I was angry.  I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him.”

Why didn’t he?

“Because the thought of Barack Obama scared me even more,” he said.

Hmmmm…. OK, Joe.  We’ll see if your strategy of throwing Senator McCain under the bus works out – even if he didn’t discard you when he could have.

Thanks to Christian Science Monitor for above.

Joe is a piece of …….(pause)…..work….his book will be out and it will become the new fruitcake at Xmas time.  You know past around from person to person as a gift and no one really reads it.  But I hear it has mazes and pop ups for those who do try to read it.

Pizza And A Beer

Five years after Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant hired private security because of excessive calls to police about disturbances, officers are making even more trips for fights and other problems at the children’s party restaurant.

Invariably, restaurant officials say, it’s the adults, not out-of-control children, causing the worst problems at the restaurant.

The Town of Brookfield Police responded to the location at 19125 W. Blue Mound Road 81 times since the beginning of 2007, according to police records. Fifteen of those calls involved serious fights, battery or disorderly conduct in progress. The remaining calls included responses for thefts, 911 hang-ups, accidents and other traffic-related matters.

Police were there another 15 times just to walk through the restaurant and parking lot to ensure peace, something the department started doing after another wave of incidents in 2003. There were 40 police responses to the restaurant that year.

But wait there is a problem.

Following that incident, the Town of Brookfield police told Chuck E. Cheese’s they could not have armed guards, Imler said. The town has an ordinance that requires a permit for armed security, which the restaurant did not have.

Have you ever been in a Chuck E. Cheese?  Not only is it one of the most irritating places on earth, but the pizza sucks.  And there is the problem.  Bad pizza and flat beer, would piss anybody off.

Employee Free Choice Act

Business and labor groups are intensifying their battle over a measure that would make it easier to organize unions, offering a preview of what is certain to be one of the earliest and hardest-fought legislative battles in the new Congress.

The Employee Free Choice Act, which would be the most significant overhaul of federal labor law in six decades, would give workers who want a union two options: a card check or an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board.

Unlike current law, employers would not be able to demand that workers cast secret ballots. The legislation also would require employers and unions to submit to binding arbitration if they are unable to reach a contract agreement within 120 days.

Democratic congressional leaders have said they plan to move on the bill quickly once Congress convenes in January. Labor leaders and other supporters said the measure would help restore bargaining power to workers whose wages have fallen behind inflation in recent years.

Labor organizers said current rules allow companies to pressure workers through campaigns that often include closed-door meetings. They also said that the arbitration rule is necessary to prod employers to bargain in good faith. Currently, roughly one-third of new unions fail to reach agreements on contracts with their employers, said Kate Bronfenbrenner, a Cornell University researcher.

Passage of the legislation would mean “that the 60-plus percent of people in the country who have expressed the opinion that, if given a fair choice, they would be in a union job, would actually get to be in a union job,” Freiboth said. “This is about allowing workers the fair opportunity to form or join a union and to restore the promise of the National Labor Relations Act passed in the ’30s that has been undermined.”

Greg Denier, spokesman for the labor coalition Change to Win, framed the issue as an economic-recovery package. “Workers’ wages are what drive consumption,” he said. “If [workers’] wages are stagnant, you are undermining the foundation of economic growth.”

The Economy And Emergency Readiness

From an article in USA Today.

The economic crisis is jeopardizing the nation’s ability to handle public-health emergencies and possible bioterrorist attacks, according to government leaders and a new report.

Federal and state governments are cutting programs that help communities respond to disease outbreaks, natural disasters and bioterrorism incidents, and that “could lead to a disaster for the nation’s disaster preparedness,” a report released Tuesday warns.

If emergency medical supplies are not maintained or if hospitals can’t handle a huge influx of patients, the result will be more deaths and illnesses, Levi said.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff underscored the concerns in an interview Tuesday with USA TODAY editors and reporters. His top concern, Chertoff said, is a “mass event: a big outbreak of plague or some other kind of biological weapon or a nuclear explosion.”

Chertoff said it’s difficult for government and private agencies to spend money to prepare for major attacks “because you’re asking people to invest in something that they haven’t seen yet — or haven’t seen since the anthrax attacks of 2001. Therefore, it seems less urgent than, how do we repair the schools today.”

The economic crisis in the USA could undo years of investment, planning and research, the trust said.