Author's posts
Aug 19 2011
Federal Reserve Loaned Banks at Least $16.1 TRILLION
Surprise!
Just in case you missed this one-day story which Raw Story dug out of the first and only audit of the Federal Reserve…
The U.S. Federal Reserve gave out $16.1 trillion in emergency loans to U.S. and foreign financial institutions between Dec. 1, 2007 and July 21, 2010, according to figures produced by the government’s first-ever audit of the central bank.
Last year, the gross domestic product of the entire U.S. economy was $14.5 trillion.
That’s more than $500 billion per month every month for 32 months between December 1 2007 and July 21 2010, and it’s also more than one quarter of the net wealth of the entire United States.
So how much more has the Fed loaned the banks in the year since July 21, 2010?
The same rate of $500 billion per month adds up to another $6 trillion, for a very grand total of $22 TRILLION in free money for the same “too big to fail” financial institutions which produced the Second Great Depression where almost no ordinary American citizen can get a loan for anything.
But of course it’s always possible that the Fed cut off the banks last July, and never ever loaned them another penny.
Harharharhar!!!
At least $16.1 TRILLION!
More than the GDP!
More than the national debt!
More than all the mortgages in the United States!
And all of it at less than one percent interest!
Hurrah!
Aug 16 2011
“Once a nation of homeowners…”
“Once a nation of homeowners, U.S. turns to rentals”The percentage of people who own a home dropped to 65.9 percent during the second quarter — the lowest since the first quarter of 1998. That was down from a peak of 69.2 percent reached in late 2004, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, when lax lending standards were fueling home sales.
The change appears to be gaining momentum.
“Even in cases where it might make more financial sense — or it might actually be cheaper on a monthly basis to own a home rather to rent one, a lot of people are not making that purchase,” said Oliver Chang, head of U.S. housing strategy at Morgan Stanley.
“The trend that we’re on is going to continue,” he added.
Next… “Once a nation of renters, U.S. turns to tents.”
And next… “Once a nation of campers, U.S. turns to cardboard boxes.”
And… “Once a nation of shanty towns, U.S.turns to litter boxes” or whatever.
Lookin’ forward to four more years of Obama and his Republican playmates!
Aug 10 2011
“Just Do the Math” with Senator Orrin Hatch
“Just Do the Math,” says US Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), but he doesn’t mean the math that most of us learned in school, he means something more like faith-based math, which inevitably “proves” that every dime of taxes or government spending drives America one step closer to the Islamo-Communist Hell of Barack Obama and his satanic minions!
This is voodoo economics, as George H.W. Bush described it way back in 1980 (before he sold his soul to Ronald Reagan), but it’s a paragon of scientific accuracy compared to the nauseating absurdity of pretending that Barack Obama isn’t pushing us all in exactly the same direction as the Republicans.
The Republicans, Speaker Boehner or Majority Leader Cantor did not call for Social Security cuts in the budget deal. The President of the United States called for that.
–US Representative John Conyers (D-Michigan)
But for the Republican faithful that probably looks like the Hand of God emerging from the back of Orrin’s head and “demonstrating” yet again that government is the problem!
Just do the (faith-based) math!
But what if we ask somebody who can actually add and subtract about the Republican debt-hysteria which Obama continually endorses?
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/06/the-arithmetic-of-near-term-deficits-and-debt/
Amid all the debt hysteria, it’s worth taking a look at the actual arithmetic here – because what this arithmetic says is that the size of the deficit in the next year or two hardly matters for the US fiscal position – and in fact the size over the next decade is barely significant.
Start with interest rates. What matters for debt sustainability is the real interest rate, since what matters is keeping real debt, not nominal debt, from growing. (World War II debt never got paid off, it just eroded in real terms to the point where it was trivial). As of yesterday, the US government could lock in 30-year bonds at a real interest rate of 1.25%. That means that a trillion dollars in extra debt would mean $12.5 billion a year in additional real interest payments.
Meanwhile, the CBO estimates potential real GDP in 2021 at about $18 trillion in 2005 dollars, or around $19 trillion in 2011 dollars.
Put these together, and they say that an extra trillion in borrowing adds something like 0.07% of GDP in future debt service costs.
Aug 09 2011
Flowering Palm
Aug 08 2011
A Nuclear Lobbyist
Westinghouse Nuclear and the rest of the nuclear industry had a very good day in the US Senate on Tuesday, August 2, 2011, and although Senators Dick Durbin and Barbara Boxer actually mentioned Fukushima, the five NRC Commissioners agreed to do absolutely nothing about anything, unless you count “reviewing” whatever and “re-evaluating” whatever else as doing something, and then you can rejoice about plans for…
Re-evaluating earthquake and flooding hazards.
Reviewing with operators the location and operation of “hardened vents” that are supposed to get rid of any hydrogen created in an accident so that it does not cause explosions, as it did at the Japanese reactors.
Reviewing the status of extra pumps, hoses and other emergency equipment added after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
And…
Making sure operators are trained in the use of that emergency equipment.
So Westinghouse Nuclear was grinning from ear to ear, and that’s all there was to it.
Aug 03 2011
Why Obama Bought Off Hillary Clinton
Obama/Plouffe/Axelrod offered Hillary Clinton a fancy title in 2008 and of course that silly cow jumped over the moon for it. Secretary of State! Wowie zowie!
And now the first page of a Google News search for “Hillary Clinton” produces…
“Gaga Gunning For Tim After He Disses Hillary’s Pantsuits!”
So Obama can sell out Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and millions of jobs while the Left looks around for somebody, anybody to run against that stinking con-man in the Democratic primaries, and meanwhile Hillary Rodham Clinton is promoting a rap concert with will.i.am.
