VERY QUIETLY OBAMA’S CITIZENSHIP CASE REACHES THE SUPREME COURT

AP- WASHINGTON D.C. – In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama’s qualifications for the presidency,the group “Americans for Freedom of Information”

has Released copies of President Obama’s college transcripts from Occidental College . Released today, the transcript school indicates that Obama, under the name Barry

Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate at the The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court

order in a suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of California. The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for

foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, forthe scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship.

This document would seem to provide the smoking gun that many of Obama’s detractors have been seeking. Along with the evidence that he was first born in Kenya and there is no record of him ever applying for US citizenship, this is looking pretty grim. The news has created a firestorm at the White House as the release casts increasing doubt about Obama’s legitimacy and qualification to serve as President article titled, “Obama Eligibility Questioned,” leading some to speculate that the story may overshadow economic issues on Obama’s first official visit to the U.K. In a related matter, under growing pressure from several groups,

Justice Antonin Scalia announced that the Supreme Court agreed on Tuesday to hear arguments concerning Obama’s legal eligibility to serve as President in a case brought by Leo Donofrio of New Jersey . This lawsuit claims Obama’s dual citizenship disqualified him from serving as president. Donofrio’s case is just one of 18 suits brought by citizens demanding proof of Obama’s citizenship or qualification to serve as president.

Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation has released the results of their investigation of Obama’s campaign spending. This study estimates that Obama has spent

upwards of $950,000 in campaign funds in the past year with eleven law firms in 12 states for legal resources to block disclosure of any of his personal records. Mr. Kreep

indicated that the investigation is still ongoing but that the final report will be provided to the U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder. Mr. Holder has refused to comment on

the matter.

LET OTHER FOLKS KNOW THIS NEWS, THE MEDIA WON’T !

Subject: RE: Issue of Passport?

While I’ve little interest in getting in the middle of the Obama birth issue, Paul Hollrah over at FSM did so yesterday and believes the issue can be resolved by Obama

answering one simple question: What passport did he use when he was shuttling between New York , Jakarta , and Karachi ?

So how did a young man who arrived in New York in early June 1981, without the price of a hotel room in his pocket,suddenly come up with the price of a round-the-world trip just a month later?

And once he was on a plane, shuttling between New York , Jakarta , and Karachi , what passport was he offering when he passed through Customs and Immigration?

The American people not only deserve to have answers to these questions, they must have answers. It makes the debate over Obama’s citizenship a rather short and

simple one.

Q: Did he travel to Pakistan in 1981, at age 20?

A : Yes, by his own admission.

Q: What passport did he travel under?

A: There are only three possibilities.

1) He traveled with a U.S. . Passport,

2) He traveled with a British passport, or

3) He traveled with an Indonesia passport.

Q: Is it possible that Obama traveled with a U.S.

Passport in 1981?

A: No.. It is not possible. Pakistan was on the U.S. State

Department’s “no travel” list in 1981.

Conclusion: When Obama went to Pakistan in 1981 he was

traveling either with a British passport or an Indonesian passport.

If he were traveling with a British passport that would provide proof that he was born in Kenya on August 4, 1961, not in Hawaii as he claims. And if he were traveling

with an Indonesian passport that would tend to prove that he relinquished whatever previous citizenship he held, British or American, prior to being adopted by his Indonesian step-father in 1967.

Whatever the truth of the matter, the American people need to know how he managed to become a “naturalborn” American citizen between 1981 and 2008..

Given the destructive nature of his plans for America , as illustrated by his speech before Congress and the disastrous spending plan he has presented to Congress,the

sooner we learn the truth of all this, the better.

If you Don’t care that Your President is not a natural born Citizen and in Violation of the Constitution, then Delete this and go into your cocoon.

If you do care then Forward this!

中國‧距離9.9000萬千米‧1月28早晨火星最近地球

（中國‧北京）中國天文專家週二（1月26日）表示，週四（1月28日）凌晨3時將是火星最接近地球的時刻。

中國著名天文教育專家、天津市天文學會理事趙之珩說，1月中旬到3月上旬是觀看火星最佳時機，而1月28日凌晨3時，將是2年多以來火星最接近地球的時刻，兩者之間的距離只有9900萬千米。

【圖話故事‧新星爆炸】科學家用日本和美國共同研發的X射線天文衛星“朱雀”，研究兩個超新星爆炸遺跡，圖為其中一個超新星爆炸遺跡W49B，在燃燒了數 百萬年後坍縮成黑洞，黑洞在吸進周圍氣體的同時，還將外層的一些物質，包括鐵、氣體拋射出去。當這些噴氣撞擊包圍恆星的稠密氣體時，便會發光。（圖：美聯 社）

火星每過687天環繞太陽公轉一圈，每過779天和地球接近一次。

30日“三球一線”

另外，1月30日凌晨4時，火星、地球、太陽“三球一線”，此時叫做“火星衝日”。

當晚8時許，舉頭向東方望去，一顆與眾不同的紅色亮星將出現在眼前，隨著時間的推移，它會漸漸上升，到了子夜時分升入正南方，到了黎明時分又從西南部天空落下。

天文專家提醒，肉眼觀看火星，只能見到一個小光點，無法看到圓面，最好使用天文望遠鏡，放大至40至100倍以上，就能比較清楚地看到火星的圓面，在南北極有白色的“極冠”，這是二氧化碳凍結的乾冰和水分凍結的水冰，在其他地方則充滿紅色的沙漠。

紐西蘭‧紐航提供臥舖‧經濟艙也能躺睡

（紐西蘭‧惠靈頓）經濟艙也能躺著睡！

長途飛行只能坐著睡，非常痛苦，紐西蘭航空公司近日在經濟客艙內提供臥舖服務。

紐航推出臥鋪服務，讓經濟艙乘客也可以躺著睡。（圖：互聯網）

乘客只需稍為付出多一些價錢，毋須購買頭等或商務機票，也可以享受舒適的長途旅程。

須購買前後3個相連座位

紐航推出這項名為“Skycouch”的服務，乘客仍舊是乘坐經濟客艙，但他們要同時購買前後3個相連座位的機票，機艙服務員會把這些座椅的椅背拉下，變成一張床，讓乘客有更多空間舒展骨筋，疲累時更可躺下來睡覺。

紐航發言人法伊夫表示，這項嶄新服務以夫婦及家庭旅客為對象。航空公司會提供優惠，每名乘客只需付出相對於兩個半座位的價錢，即頭尾兩個座位付全票，中間一個座位半價，便可享用3個座位的空間。機組人員會提供床單和枕頭。

法伊夫說：“夢想變成事實，經濟客艙乘客腰酸背痛，無法伸直身體睡覺的日子，將會成為過去。今後，兩夫婦坐飛機時也可以同床共枕，但記得不要脫光衣服。”

新加坡‧110公斤巨龍躉‧印尼海域捕獲

（新加坡）110公斤重的巨大龍躉魚被捕，出動6壯漢才搬得動，而且抬30米路，都顯得吃力費勁。

週一（1月25日）下午新民路第36座的咖啡店迎來巨大石斑魚（或稱龍躉），引起小騷動；巨大龍躉有大約1.6米長，光是嘴巴，就比一般小石斑魚大好幾十倍。

出動6壯漢搬動龍躉

買了龍躉的別有風味海鮮攤主廚馮藝銨（50歲）準備從羅里取貨，找人幫忙將龍躉抬進廚房裡。

從羅里走到廚房大約是30米的距離，6名壯漢（包括主廚和助手）分成3人兩組，龍躉兩旁各站一組分別抬魚頭、魚身和魚尾，才成功將龍躉搬到廚房裡處理和清洗。

馮藝銨說這已經是他們1月處理的第3條龍躉，也是當中最重的一條；1月5日和21日，馮藝銨分別買了一條62公斤重和68公斤重的龍躉。

和馮藝銨相熟的魚類批發商較早透露，漁夫在印尼海域捕到巨大龍躉，就問他有沒有興趣。

“我們通常會推薦清蒸方式烹煮，因為清蒸能帶出新鮮魚肉的美味。”

馮藝銨週一還特地叫員工提早4小時上班，為的就是處理和清洗龍躉，因為過程相當耗體力和耗時。

馮藝銨不透露購買龍躉的價格，但據瞭解，這麼大（110公斤）的龍躉，市場價格應該是上1000元左右（約馬幣2400令吉）。

新加坡‧7年內先後病逝‧3兄弟同月同日去世

（新加坡）3兄弟相繼去世，巧的是3人都是在同月同日去世！

這3名兄弟分別是金融界經理唐日輝、小販唐月輝和退休教師唐明輝，他們在7年內先後病逝。

當唐日輝和唐月輝兩名兄弟都在1月2日去世時，家人已經覺得太巧了，沒想到唐明輝今年也在1月2日去世，讓家人更覺得不可思議。

唐明輝的兒子唐先生（38歲，行政經理）週一（1月25日）晚上在荷蘭通道的住家受訪時說，父親有兩名哥哥和3名姐妹，大伯、二伯和其中一名姑姑已經去世。

他說，父親是在一年前患上肺癌，去年底情況惡化，在醫院住了兩週，今年1月2日去世。

唐先生出示父親和兩名伯伯的死亡證書證明，他的二伯唐月輝是在2003年1月2日過世，享年77歲。大伯唐日輝在2007年1月2日過世，享年82歲。

唐先生的父親唐明輝在這個月2日過世，享年76歲。

“當我們發現父親和兩名伯伯的去世日期都是1月2日時，我們都感到很驚訝。”

巧合1：生日忌日同一天

唐明輝的妻子錢玉香（71歲）說︰“丈夫從前都只慶祝農歷生日（11月25日），我們也沒有去記他的陽歷生日。

他過世後一週，我去翻查黃歷，赫然發現原來他的陽歷生日是1月2日，也就是他去世的日子。”

巧合2：老三出殯日是母親忌日

唐明輝的兒子說，祖母是在1973年1月6日過世，雖然父親三兄弟同月同日去世，但是因為停柩時日不一樣，父親是在1月6日出殯，正巧是祖母的忌日。

巧合3：名字有玄機？

唐先生說，他的大伯叫唐日輝，二伯唐月輝，而父親的名字是唐明輝，“明”是大伯和二伯中間名字“日月”

的結合。“父親3兄弟的名字相連，他們生前感情親密，去世也在同一天，你能說不巧嗎？”

讓兄弟父母骨灰安置一起

家人有意讓兩兄弟和父母的骨灰甕並排安置，一家人有個伴。

唐先生說，目前二伯和父親的骨灰甕都安置在光明山，但由於逝世的年代不一樣，因此沒有並列在一起。

“我的祖父祖母安葬在蔡厝港，因為期限到了，2月1日需要挖墳另作安置，我們正在考慮花多幾萬元，在光明山買下新的骨灰位，讓二伯、父親和祖父母並列安置在一起，大家有個伴。”

唐先生說，父親3兄弟一家人在中國出生，年輕時來到新加坡謀生，後來大伯因為工作關係搬到大馬居鑾定居，大伯一家人都在鄰國，因此大伯過世後，骨灰安置在大馬。

中國‧痴情女要挽舊愛‧懸賞整“世上最美臉蛋”

（中國‧上海）“現金懸賞，誰能把我整成世界上最美麗的臉蛋？”

上海一名自稱“小青姑娘”的21歲女子，由於男友極度迷戀被外國媒體評選為“全球最美臉蛋”的好萊塢性感女神謝茜嘉艾芭，經常讓小青戴假髮，化裝成她的模樣，而且不讓她卸妝，還要戴著假髮睡覺。

小青最終實在無法忍受，一怒之下分手。但分手後她卻茶飯不思，一心想挽回這段感情。

最終，她想到了一勞永逸之法——花錢打造“全球最美臉蛋”，將自己整容成男友夢中情人的樣子。

網上發求助帖引關注

不過，由於手頭拮据，她通過互聯網發出一則題為“現金懸賞，誰能把我整成世界上最美麗的臉蛋”的帖子，以她所能掏出的2010元人民幣（約馬幣1000零8令吉），求助於網友和整形機構。

帖子一出，立刻引起廣大網友的關注，各大知名論壇上爭相轉載這則求助帖。

大部份網友勸三思

儘管為愛整容其心可表，但大部份網友對小青的做法不以為然，勸她“三思後行，不要為愛丟失自己”。

小青在接受記者訪問時表示，儘管網友們的抨擊和勸誡讓她冷靜思考了很久，但她依然決定“整容”。

她說：“如果我做一些改變能夠換來幸福，那就是值得的。”

但她也補充：“不只是為了他，也為了我自己。以前我很軟弱，現在想要改變自己，既然決定了要做，就去完成。”

據悉，上海一家整形醫院已主動聯繫小青，為她做了初步檢查，但此院工作人員表示，小青眉目清秀，並無整容必要，她的心態與動機都不正確，院方也很謹慎，將為她做心理疏導，等她確實深思熟慮後再作決定。

英國‧蒙娜麗莎是誰？意大利要挖達文西驗證

（英國‧倫敦）帶著一抹神秘微笑的蒙娜麗莎，究竟是何方神聖？挖達文西來驗，也許可以揭開謎底！

《蒙娜麗莎的微笑》是達文西的千古名畫，但畫中的蒙娜麗莎的真實身份，眾說紛紜，有人說是達文西的媽媽，有人說是佛羅倫斯商人的妻子麗莎‧吉拉蒂尼，有人甚至認為，蒙娜麗莎根本就是有同性戀傾向的達文西本人。

部份學者稱，達文西可能具有的同性戀傾向，以及他對難解之事的熱愛，導致他透過畫筆將自己描繪成一名女性。

如今，意大利的研究團隊準備挖出達文西的遺骸，透過臉部重建的方式，看看蒙娜麗莎是否真是達文西的自畫像。

該研究團隊已向達文西遺體所在的法國方面，提出挖掘遺體的要求，並且獲得原則上的同意，預料今年夏天就可以收到正式的許可。

研究人員表示，他們第一件要做的事，將是確認遺骸的身份是否屬於達文西，所用的方法包括碳14年代測定法、比對骨骸的DNA和幾位達文西後代子孫遺骸的DNA。

中國‧新疆“7.5”暴亂又4人死刑

（中國‧北京）媒體週二（1月26日）報導，中國新疆烏魯木齊市中級人民法院再將涉嫌“7.5”暴亂事件的4人判處死刑。

此項最新的判決，使涉嫌“7.5”事件被判死刑的人數達致至少26人，其中至少有9人已被執刑。

從名字看來，4名被判死刑的人皆為維吾爾族。

新華社報導，有一人被判死刑，緩刑兩年，另有8人被判終身監禁。

中國‧新疆雪崩14死‧至今27人死於寒潮 Extreme weather kills Mongolia livestock

（中國‧北京）中國新疆省伊犁哈薩克自治州週二（1月26日）發生嚴重雪崩，造成14人被大雪活埋而喪命。新疆雪災災情經過多日仍未好轉，迄今已有至少27人死於寒潮。

中國國際廣播電台報導指出，事發地點伊犁哈薩克自治州與哈薩克斯坦邊界接壤，當地居民多為哈薩克人。

報導沒有透露進一步詳情。

根據官方媒體本週一（1月25日）公佈的數據，共有13人死於這場60年來最嚴重的雪災，其中的12人是被雪崩活埋喪命。

中國今年迎來一場特大寒潮，西北部大片地區均受暴雪襲擊，其中新疆省的災情最為嚴重。

報導指出，數以千計的居民因房子被積雪壓跨而遷離家園，另外還有無數的牲口因難抵嚴寒，不是被凍死就是被餓死。

The United Nations has warned that extreme winter weather has killed more than a million livestock in Mongolia.

The organisation said this was likely to harm the country's food supply and worsen poverty.

It said 19 of Mongolia's 21 provinces had been hit by heavy winter snow and -40C temperatures.

Mongolia suffered a severe drought during the summer months, which prevented the stockpiling of food for livestock.

More than a third of Mongolians herd livestock for a living in the poor, landlocked country.

"The poor did not have the resources to stockpile food or fuel for heating, and the supplies in the now inaccessible villages as a whole are stretched," said Rana Flowers, the UN's resident coordinator in Mongolia.

Ms Flowers said UN agencies were trying to reach the worst-hit people, and are particularly concerned about pregnant women cut off from medical facilities by the heavy snow - three have reportedly died in childbirth so far, she said.

The agencies are also worried about pneumonia rates among children and pregnant women, and increasing malnutrition.

The UN is coordinating all donor contributions to Mongolia, after the government asked for food, medicine, heating supplies, warm clothing and money to buy and deliver food for livestock.

新加坡‧最低票價331令吉‧名勝世界請脫衣舞男表演

（新加坡）聖淘沙名勝世界請來美國著名脫衣舞男團體“Chippendales”，瘋狂大跳全裸脫衣舞，將讓女觀眾度過1個瘋狂的夜晚。

名勝世界週二（1月26日）通過面子書（Facebook）宣佈，Chippendales將在3月5日至10日，連續6個晚上到名勝世界演出，最低票價138元（約馬幣331令吉20仙），包括1杯酒精飲料，最高票價則是200元（約馬幣480令吉）。

首度在亞洲演出的Chippendales，已經和脫衣舞男畫上等號，曾到25個國家表演。

名勝世界說︰“不論你是25歲、35歲或是45歲，是單身、已婚、離婚，應該都曾想過完美男子究竟存在嗎？我敢說你的祈禱實現了，因為Chippendales將來到獅城！”

只用手絲布遮擋下體

Chippendales官方網站的資料顯示，Chippendales在其他國家的表演非常大膽，會在台上脫得一絲不掛，公然露出他們的“8月15”，並只用手、絲布或帽子遮擋下體。

據瞭解，過去新加坡夜店也曾經請來脫衣舞男，但多數都只能脫剩內褲。

此消息宣佈後，在短短2個小時就有29名網民通過網絡舉起拇指贊好，其中不少是女網民，更紛紛表示很期待Chippendales的演出。

大多是洋帥哥
男舞蹈員高大威猛

Chippendales舞蹈團的男舞蹈員，個個長得高大威猛，肌肉發達，他們多數是黃頭發、藍眼楮的洋帥哥、但也有黑人和混血兒帥哥們。

Chippendales總共有24名成員，但通常每次表演只有6名猛男在台上。

名勝世界力邀公眾投選最喜歡的Chippendale男星，以贏取一對入門票。

新加坡‧精通賭千術“一物治一物”‧幹探進駐賭場揪老千

（新加坡）30名精通各種賭術及千術的幹探，將進駐新加坡賭場，成為賭桌上的老千克星。

這30名幹探都接受過嚴格的訓練，有的出國學習賭術千術，有的在新加坡接受外國專家的教導。

他們在今日（週三，1月27日）開始正式加入警察部隊剛成立的“賭場罪案調查組”（CCIB），並且將在兩間賭場正式啟用後，配合賭場管制局（CRA）全天候24小時駐扎賭場內，監督賭場內的各項治安。

代警察總監黃裕喜週三早上在中央警署為“賭場罪案調查組”主持推介儀式時表示，隨著2家賭場將相繼運作，警方相信將會有許多不法之徒，企圖趁機為非作歹，賺取不義之財。“賭場開始運作後，對警方來說將是1個重大挑戰，因為警方必須竭盡所能確保賭場的治安。”

有者出國接受訓練

他說，這個專案小組成立以來，獲得各國和各地區的警察部隊配合及支持，部份小組成員出國接受訓練，來自美國、英國、澳洲及澳門的警察部隊，也派專家來新加坡進行交流和教導，進一步讓新加坡的幹探瞭解賭場的操作，以及如何應對賭場罪案。

“賭場罪案調查組”（CCIB）主任洪國威警監受訪時說，小組共有20至30名成員，他們都是至少有3年調查經驗的幹探。

他說，賭場罪案調查小組將會在2間賭場內的辦公室24小時駐扎，配合賭場當局及賭場管制局，進行維持治安的任務。

新加坡‧生意失敗‧夫當皮條客‧妻怕染愛滋鬧離婚

（新加坡）商人生意失敗關掉工廠，竟到芽籠當皮條客，妻子擔心被傳染愛滋病，決定離婚。

30來歲的少婦申訴，她與丈夫結婚多年，育有兩個孩子。丈夫原本經營家族生意，後來炒股票燒到手，欠下大筆債務，公司大約3年前周轉不靈而倒閉。

厚顏無恥炫耀管女人

她聲稱，丈夫變成另外一個人，流連於芽籠花街柳巷，經常遲歸，有時甚至不回家。

在她追問下，丈夫承認在芽籠當皮條客，還厚顏無恥炫耀他管的女人，來自中國、菲律賓和越南等地，一副你奈何不了我的樣子。

“我又傷心又氣憤，兩個孩子還小，我得靠他養，唯有忍氣吞聲，希望有一天他醒悟，找份正當的工作。”

起初，她與丈夫仍維持夫妻關係，但每次都擔心丈夫會把性病傳給她。後來，她與丈夫的的關係越來越淡，形如陌路人。也就是在這時，她發現丈夫經常去馬來西亞，懷疑他在外面有情婦。

20萬元教育基金剩5萬

她申訴丈夫背著她把錢花光，20萬元教育基金，只剩5萬。

少婦說，丈夫在炒股票燒到手時，他們把5房式組屋賣掉，入住3房式組屋。他們開了一個聯名戶頭，將賣屋子所得的20萬元存進去，打算用來作為將來兒女的教育基金。

“聯名戶頭的存折和提款卡都由他保管，後來我發現他在短短一年內多次提取戶頭內的款項，20萬元的教育基金只剩下5萬元，我當面質問他，他卻沒有解釋。”

她對丈夫完全失望，決定跟他離婚，並且到診所進行愛滋檢驗，確保自己無恙。

Banks pull another $1 billion from small business lending

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The nation's biggest banks cut their collective small business lending balance by another $1 billion in November, according to a Treasury report released late Friday. The drop marked the seventh straight month of declines.

The 22 banks that got the most help from the Treasury's bailout programs have cut their small business loan balances $12.5 billion since April, when the Treasury began requiring them to file monthly reports on the tally. The banks' total lending has fallen 4.6% in that seven-month period, to $256.8 billion.

As Wall Street megabanks return to health -- and celebrate with lavish bonuses -- President Obama and his administration have been pushing financiers to help spur a Main Street recovery. Small business owners are still reporting difficulty finding banks willing to extend the credit they need to launch, run and grow their ventures.

In December, the President met with a dozen CEOs of the nation's biggest banks to pressure them to reverse their small business lending declines.

Hitting bottom: There are some signs the credit drop may be at or near its nadir.

Five of the 22 banks reported higher small business loan balances in November than they did in April. At others -- such as Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500), by far the biggest small business lender -- the totals have fluctuated month to month.

But 10 of the 22 banks have cut their small business balances every single month since April. That list includes firms such as JPMorgan (JPM, Fortune 500) that are now posting monster profits. In the past seven months, JPMorgan's small business loan balance has dropped by almost $962 million, or 3.7%.

On Friday, JPMorgan Chase reported earnings of $3.3 billion in the last three months of 2009. JP Morgan said its compensation expenses rose 18% during the year to $26.9 billion, much of which will be distributed as bonuses.

JPMorgan was the first major bank up to bat to report financial results. Later this week, Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500) and Morgan Stanley (MS, Fortune 500) are all slated to release their fourth-quarter and full-year numbers.

Bonus backlash: American taxpayers are sour on the idea that the bankers they bailed out are pocketing super-sized end-of-year bonus checks.

The day before JPMorgan reported its earnings, President Obama called on Congress to tax the largest banks in a so-called "financial crisis responsibility fee."

As the backlash gained steam, one representative in Congress proposed a bill that would siphon money from Wall Street bonuses directly to into small business coffers.

Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., introduced a bill on Thursday calling for a 50% tax on bonus compensation in excess of $50,000 at banks that received government assistance. All revenue raised from the tax would go directly to the Small Business Administration to fund a new direct lending program. Twenty-three members of the House of Representatives co-signed the bill.

"With double-digit unemployment in a recession they helped cause, there's no justification for seven- or eight-digit banker bonuses," said Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, one of the bill's co-sponsors.

SBA-backed lending has begun to rebound from last year's wipeout. The agency's flagship program funded 37% more loans last quarter than it did a year earlier, totaling $3.8 billion.

Chicken or egg? Banks say they are lending less for two key reasons: Small businesses are risky borrowers, and fewer entrepreneurs are looking to borrow and take on more debt in the face of slower sales.

But small business owners tell a different story. They say that tighter lending standards leave too many viable businesses unable to access the credit they need to grow or finance routine operations like buying materials to fulfill customer orders. Lending standards have been growing steadily more restrictive for nearly three years, according to the Federal Reserve's most recent Senior Loan Officer Study, released in October.

Edward Yingling, CEO of the American Bankers Association, says that finding the right balance between caution and investment is critical to spurring economic recovery.

"Bank regulators need to be prudent without being so punitive that they choke off lending in communities across the country," Yingling said last month. "Just as too much risk is undesirable, over-correction will impede economic recovery if banks are prevented from making good loans to creditworthy borrowers."

Copenhagen’s Elephant in the Room

Rather than accepting the tempting conclusion of overwhelming futility towards expressing any dissenting views about the present climate talks in Copenhagen, I have decided to use this space for any and all of its potential. and so, not so modestly, I propose ideas like this:

Recently in AM New York, one of our two free daily papers here in NYC, the headline was “A World Divided: Nations struggle over best way to stop global warming. To its left, one of the side headlines read, “Gifts for the little women in your life.” The bitter irony hit me like a sledgehammer — are they really that dim? Among all the international media hype about these talks (which hasn’t really been THAT much, considering the fate of all life on ear this at stake), among the specifics (whenever they are rarely mentioned) of “renewable energy,” “cleaner” technologies, and other “advanced” alternatives that different businesses and empires are proposing, there’s one question that’s so simple, so obvious, that no one (not even the guy from Moldives, bless his heart) dares to broach:

What about consumption?

Why is it that we don’t question our need to buy more (and, we believe, better) stuff every day — especially at this time of year — even when our credit card bills are looming, and our closets are full of things that we never use? Don’t you think there’s some correlation between the facts that the U.S. and China together produce 40% of the world’s greenhouse gases, and the U.S. is the world’s biggest economy, while it seems like everything here is made in China? (Everything from dollar-store knick-knacks to the high-tech iPhones, yes.) When Canada has the Tar Sands oil fields — possibly the most environmentally destructive project in the world — and China has the Three Gorges Dam, where a nation is willing to destroy the homes of millions of people for the mouth of more energy, we would be joking to claim we could build enough geothermal, wind, and solar power plants in the next 5-10 years (the window we have to turn around global warming, according to NASA climate scientist James Hansen) to replace all of these gigantic toxic power structures.

It’s time we start seeing every dollar we spend on new products as one dollar too many. It’s come down to that. There is simply NO WAY our global economy can continue this scale of production for the next 50 years and expect to be able to have enough resources left (and I’m talking basic things, like clean air, water, and land) to survive another generation. Take the example of oil. Everyone talks about oil when the greenhouse gas issue comes up…. people talk about cars and consider them inevitable for their lifestyles, and think wistfully or sarcastically about the new hybrids. But look inside the interior of that Prius, and what do you think it’s made out of? Derivatives of oil, of course! Look at the pen in your hand — OIL! Your tube of toothpaste, your lawn chairs, your insulation, your comb, even your medicines, and you’ll find the same thing — OIL. The media isn’t going to mention that when their broadcast tapes are made from oil. Nearly everything we buy is made from, if not oil, than dead trees, or some mass-produced monoculture crop that requires huge amounts of oil-based pesticide and fertilizer as well as water, or mined from some place that destroys its surroundings and will eventually run out.

So far, even in this short analysis, we’ve touched on two main sources of greenhouse gases: oil emissions/production and direct industry pollution. Then there’s the third – methane – as a result of livestock waste — not for any fault of the animals, but because we’ve bred BILLIONS of them, an increasing majority of which live in intensive confinement — and there’s no way any environment can support that long-term. The global agriculture industries have pushed intensive meat production at a much higher rate in the last few decades, causing even more production of a highly consumptive industry that harms everyone from the workers to the land to the water, and most of all, the animals themselves. And don’t forget the other major source of methane, landfill off-gassing! We throw away so much crap every day that it actually becomes more toxic over time; or else, the trash incinerators end up burning a lot of plastic, which people already know is a toxic thing to do.
So what are we supposed to do about this? Just sit and sulk, from Copenhagen to Christmas? No, actually, the unthinkable IS possible. There is a way we can all contribute. It all comes down to two words:

BUY LESS.

We have to learn to leave well enough alone. If we have something that already works, why get a new one? If it’s broken, seek out that old appliance repair shop before it goes out of business — it might be a simple fix. Shoe repair shops can be very affordable. Ask your grandmother how to sew and knit. Imagine how happy your loved ones would be if you made something new and beautiful out of some old clothes that needed repair! You could go the tech route and fix your friend’s old laptop, upgrade it to run really well, and decorate the front, to make it a truly unique piece. Make it easy to reuse. If you want some new clothes, music, toys, or furniture, scour the thrift stores or garage sales for the most enjoyable, unique pieces, and find something special. Find some music from previous generations, that costs next to nothing on vinyl or cassette, and convert it to CD or digital files. Learn how to fix your mp3 player! Teach the skills you’ve learned to your friends and family. The internet is such a vast resource that we can learn how to do almost anything.

Our production is so bloated right now that we have enough right here, already, to satisfy our needs for the foreseeable future. If we can rely on what we have, we can cut down on the never-ending waste stream of industrialized nations like ours, survive better on less money while incurring less debt, and finally reclaim the creative skills we have neglected for most of our lives. Sure, all the media will say that “consumer spending is down,” that this is hurting the economy — but on the long term, this is the only thing that will save us. We have to consider the impact of every purchase, every material that our possessions are composed of, the transportation and the labor involved in every facet of every last thing that we buy, and realize that THIS, from global warming to habitat destruction to species extinction – is what is destroying our planet. It may look pretty pretty good to us right now, but by the time the effects of global warming really kick in, it will be too late to reverse. The global warming symptoms that we’re seeing now are from the pollution of 50 years ago – when our global population was a small fraction of what it is now. Global warming WILL get worse — but if we don’t radically change our lifestyles right now, our fate will be inevitable.

Obama's proposed budget cuts spare foreign aid

Um, Hellooo!!! Am I the only one who sees something seriously wrong with this picture???

Obama's three-year spending freeze will be part of the budget Obama will submit Feb. 1, senior administration officials said, commenting on condition of anonymity to reveal unpublished details.

* * *

The savings would be small at first, perhaps $10 billion to $15 billion, one official said. But over the coming decade, savings would add up to $250 billion.

* * *

The Pentagon, veterans programs, foreign aid and the Homeland Security Department would be exempt from the freeze.

A country that can't afford to spend on its own domestic expenditures has no goddamn business "aiding" other countries!

Apparently, we'll never see any real change in America unless Americans thrash their congressmen and women right there in front of their precious obelisk, for all the world to see.

Verizon to Cut 13,000 Jobs as Businesses Reduce Lines (Update2)

(Updates share price in fifth paragraph.)

By Amy Thomson

Jan. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Verizon Communications Inc., coping with subscriber losses at its fixed-line phone business, plans to cut about 13,000 jobs at the division this year after posting fourth-quarter revenue that missed analysts’ estimates.

The cuts will follow reductions of a similar size last year, Chief Financial Officer John Killian said on a conference call today. This year’s eliminations equal to 11 percent of the staff at the unit, which had about 117,000 workers at year-end.

Sales rose 9.9 percent to $27.1 billion, missing the $27.3 billion average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Fixed-line revenue fell 3.9 percent, muting mobile-customer gains that beat some analysts’ projections. High unemployment hurt sales to companies and damped growth at Verizon’s FiOS Internet and TV service, said Stifel Nicolaus & Co. analyst Christopher King.

“The economy, first and foremost, we really see no signs of improvement there,” said Baltimore-based King, who advises investors to buy the shares and doesn’t own any. “I would have expected to see a little bit more signs of stabilization in the fourth quarter.”

Verizon, the second-largest U.S. phone company, fell 51 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $30.17 at 4:01 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The New York-based company’s stock declined 2.3 percent last year.

The company had a pretax expense of $3 billion last quarter related to job cuts, pushing it to a net loss of $653 million, or 23 cents a share. A year earlier, it had a profit of $1.24 billion, or 43 cents.

Excluding some costs, profit fell to 54 cents a share, matching analysts’ projections.

Fixed-Line Slump

Sales to global enterprises declined 4.5 percent from a year earlier. The company has said that its fixed-line unit will recover alongside the unemployment rate, which reached a 26-year high in October, according to U.S. Labor Department data.

Consumers also appeared to cut back. Verizon added 153,000 subscribers each to its FiOS Internet and TV services, missing the 225,000 forecast by Todd Rethemeier, a New York-based analyst at Hudson Square Research.

Earlier this month, Verizon said 2009 earnings per share fell as much as 15 cents, signaling that fourth-quarter profit missed analysts’ original estimates. The company coped with a higher pension expense and subsidized phones for new customers.

“It could be a while before there’s any uptick in the trend in enterprise, and we’re starting the year with a price cut in wireless,” said Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York, who rates Verizon “underperform” and doesn’t own the shares. “2010 looks like it’s going to be another tough year.”

Apple Tablet

Verizon Wireless, which the company co-owns with U.K.-based Vodafone Group Plc, added 1.2 million retail subscribers, beating its own goal. Brett Feldman, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities in New York, estimated 1 million contract-customer additions for the quarter.

Verizon is focused on building up the wireless business, which accounts for more than half of revenue. The company is adding new devices and cutting prices for some of its plans to encourage customers to buy subscriptions for data use. Verizon is the largest U.S. wireless-phone carrier and is second to Dallas-based AT&T Inc. in total phone customers.

Growth in devices such as a tablet computer that Apple Inc. is expected to unveil tomorrow should drive growth industrywide, Killian said in an interview today.

“It will attract more and more data customers, more and more usage over the network,” Killian said. “Devices like that will be, long term, very positive for the wireless industry.”

(The company held a conference call to discuss the results at 8:30 a.m. New York time. For a replay, go to LIVE .)

--Editors: Ville Heiskanen, Lisa Wolfson

What happened to those inventions of the future?

The launch of Apple's new iPad is set to change computing forever but real life hasn't always lived up to the visions of science fiction in books and movies.

A child robot with biomimetic body

The launch tomorrow of Apple's new iPad, or iSlate, the all-singing, all-dancing gizmo that's expected to change computing forever, has led many people to claim that we're finally catching up with the visions of the future laid out in science-fiction.

Yet the shameful truth is that the modern world has been a letdown. If you grew up in the 1950s, by 2010 you would have expected to see bases on the moon and a robot in every house. As recently as the 1980s, we were told to expect flying cars and hoverboards by now. And what do we have? Touchscreen mobile phones and Wikipedia. It's not what we signed up for.

So, in the absence of jetpacks – or even an old-fashioned post-apocalyptic dystopia – it's time to hold people to account. What were we promised? When were we promised it by? Who are the liars who got our hopes up?

A totalitarian new world order

When 1984

Where Nineteen Eighty-Four

Who George Orwell

We suspect that a lot of people will be thinking Orwell was largely spot-on in his prediction of a world where personal freedoms are trampled and our every move is recorded on camera; we leave that judgment to you. But what Orwell got wrong was the idea of an all-powerful government that controls every facet of its subjects' lives. Instead, we have governments that can't even control their own ministers. It's comforting, in a way.

Androids indistinguishable from human beings

When 1992

Where Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Who Philip K Dick

The robots in Dick's novel, loosely adapted by Ridley Scott into the film Blade Runner, were so similar to humans that when they went rogue, trained bounty hunters were called in to perform psychological tests to see whether suspected androids lacked human empathy. Yet the nearest thing available today is "the world's first sex robot", the profoundly creepy Roxxxy, which went on sale this year.

Time travel

When 1994

Where Timecop

Who Peter Hyams

In an audacious move, the film Timecop – a vehicle for the arguable talents of Jean-Claude Van Damme – posited that time travel would take place in the year that it was released. It was wrong.

Cryogenic freezing

When 1996

Where Demolition Man

Who Marco Brambilla

We should qualify this: cryogenic freezing that actually works. Rich Americans have been freezing themselves for years in the hope that science will discover the secrets of immortality; it is widely, and falsely, rumoured that Walt Disney's head has been kept in a Californian chiller cabinet since his death in 1966.

Unfortunately, the technology to bring them back to life is nowhere to be seen. So when Sylvester Stallone's maverick cop is incarcerated in a "CryoPrison" in a dystopic 1996, we can safely say they've jumped the gun. Although there's still time for a non-violent, Utopian society to develop by 2032, when Stallone's character is defrosted, we have to be suspicious of the predictive powers of a film whose homicidal arch-criminal glories in the name of Simon.

War with the machines

When 1997

Where Terminator 2

Who James Cameron

"Skynet began to learn at a geometric rate," intones Sarah Connor portentously. "It became self-aware on August 29, 1997." This from a film that was made in 1991. They weren't completely off the mark; in 1997, a computer did beat humanity in a battle that gripped the world. Fortunately, that computer was IBM's Deep Blue; humanity was represented by Garry Kasparov; and the battle took place on a chessboard.

Intelligent robots

When 1998

Where I, Robot

Who Isaac Asimov

Not the appalling 2004 film starring Will Smith, which danced merrily over Asimov's grave by cannibalising one of the author's greatest works for exactly the sort of sub-Faustian morality tale he despised. This was his original 1949 short story collection; specifically the first story, Robbie. Powered by a "positronic brain", Robbie is a robot nursemaid, confidant and friend to a child called Grace.

In real-life 1998, robots were still largely limited to spray-painting Ford Mondeos. However, in an interesting twist, robot carers for the elderly are sometimes used in Japan, preparing food and carrying out domestic tasks for those incapable of looking after themselves. We doubt, however, that they're especially cuddly.

Overpopulation-inspired cannibalism

When 1999

Where Make Room! Make Room!

Who Harry Harrison

The novel that inspired the film Soylent Green, Harrison's story, written in 1966, suggested that Earth's rapidly increasing population would force us into a horrible necessity: eating each other, both to provide food and to keep the population down. That has not materialised, but the reality is almost as unpalatable: an explosion of smug cooking programmes in do-gooders patronisingly explain how to feed your children on polenta and curly kale for less than £5 a day.

Manned interplanetary flight

When 2001

Where 2001: A Space Odyssey

Who Arthur C Clarke and Stanley Kubrick

The 1968 film and novel made many bold predictions: homicidal computers, bases on the Moon, suspended animation, video phones (they got that one right, sort of, although they've never been all that popular). Chief among them was the idea of frequent, easy space flights, with "MoonBuses" regularly shipping people to our lunar satellite, and oddly dressed space-hostesses serving drinks on a rotating space station. The trip to Jupiter (or Saturn in the novel) on which the plot centres is seen as more of an event, but still comfortably within the technology of the time.

In the real world, a mere nine years after Clarke and Kubrick's deadline, Sir Richard Branson reckons he'll soon be able to take a few super-rich thrill-seekers briefly into a low orbit for several hundred thousand pounds a time, while Nasa seems to be quietly shelving plans to send astronauts to Mars. Nearly right, then.

Discovering alien life

When 2010

Where 2010: Odyssey 2

Who Arthur C Clarke

Nine years after the events of 2001: A Space Odyssey, a second trip to the outer planets finds alien life in the oceans of Europa, one of Jupiter's moons, and gaseous beings in the clouds of Jupiter itself. Apart from the fact that no one is likely to be going near Jupiter any time soon, this is not too unreasonable: Europa is considered by astrobiologists the most likely candidate for extraterrestrial life of any world in our solar system, due to its liquid water and geothermal activity. The next bit of the novel, where Jupiter collapses and forms a second sun, is probably less likely. Still, there's another 11 months left before we can fully rule it out.

Hoverboards

When 2015

Where Back to the Future II and III

Who Robert Zemeckis

According to the Back to the Future series, the inarticulate youth of the future will be hurtling across the nation's car parks a foot above the ground, using anti-gravity skateboards. A generation of children grew up wanting one in their Christmas stocking. What they got instead was a series of disappointingly "futuristic" toys such as Tamagotchi or Robosapiens. Unless someone working for Mattel invents anti-gravity in the next five years, Zemeckis will be blamed for single-handedly ruining Christmas for kids worldwide.

Deadly game shows

When 2019

Where The Running Man

Who Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman)

Say what you like about the decline of television: whatever Jonathan Ross has done recently, it's not as bad as The Running Man, the mercifully fictional government-sanctioned game show in which political prisoners are chased by deadly hitmen through a ruined America for the diversion of its enslaved populace. Although it was made into a camp film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, which looked like a no-holds-barred version of Gladiators, the original novel was a darker, sadder affair. However, real
life has singularly failed to keep up, despite the valiant efforts of Endemol and Channel 4.

Commercial Real Estate and Tishman and Blackrock Walking Away from a $4.4 Billion CRE Deal. How to Lose 66 Percent on an 11,000 Unit Property. ......

Commercial Real Estate and Tishman and Blackrock Walking Away from a $4.4 Billion CRE Deal. How to Lose 66 Percent on an 11,000 Unit Property. Why Walking Away from CRE is no different from Walking Away from Residential Real Estate.

It is becoming more of a preferred strategy to systematically walk away from commercial real estate debt. We have now had two large Wall Street organizations in Morgan Stanley and Tishman and Blackrock Inc. deciding, by voluntary choice, to walk away from their contractual obligations on commercial real estate. Now much has been made regarding the commercial real estate debacle because some $3.5 trillion in commercial real estate debt is outstanding. This number is enormous and many of the bank failures that we’ll be seeing on Fridays this year will come from bad loans in the commercial sector.

Part of the problem with commercial real estate is the way deals got financed. Many of the loans are made under 5 to 10 year terms and unlike a 30 year loan, need to be refinanced at the end of the deal. Well this is a problem when the property securitizing the loan is now valued at 30, 40, or even 50 percent lower. Unlike residential real estate that saw loan and home values peak in 2005 and 2006, commercial real estate loans saw volume peak in 2008:

So what we have is a similar situation as in residential real estate except it is delayed by two to three years. In other words, the major problems start this year. Bad commercial real estate deals are not something new. But this time the amount of bad loans made is astronomical because of the way the banking system securitized the loans. Just think for a minute how a loan is usually made. A careful evaluation of the property is made assuring the loan is actually reflecting the value of the underlying asset. The loan is then made under the assumption the borrower will pay the loan back under the contractual terms. If the borrower doesn’t pay the amount back, then you as a responsible lender will be able to take back a property that ideally would be valued at terms that would make a sale to recoup some money realistic. At least this was the older system of doing business.

This time, property values were never realistically assessed and banks never had in their equation the possibility of taking the property back:

“(WSJ) The decision comes after the venture between Tishman and BlackRock Inc. defaulted on the $4.4 billion debt used to help finance the deal. The venture acquired the 56-building, 11,000-unit property for $5.4 billion in 2006-the most ever paid for a single residential property in the U.S. The venture had been struggling for months to restructure the debt but capitulated facing a massive debt load and a weak New York City economy that has undercut rents and demand for high-priced apartments.

The property’s owners signaled they would be unable to reach a deal with lenders and instead decided to allow creditors to proceed with what amounts to an orderly deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, which means a borrower voluntarily gives the property back to lenders to avoid a foreclosure proceeding.

“It has become clear to us through this process that the only viable alternative to bankruptcy would be to transfer control and operation of the property, in an orderly manner, to the lenders and their representatives,” the venture said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. “We make this decision as we feel a battle over the property or a contested bankruptcy proceeding is not in the long-term interest of the property, its residents, our partnership or the city.”

Now you might be asking yourself, this is a rather significant deal and certainly anyone loaning out $4.4 billion is going to make sure that they place some kind of conservative valuation on this commercial real estate deal. So how much is the property currently worth?

“By some accounts, Stuyvesant Town is only valued at $1.8 billion now, less than half the purchase price. By that measure, all the equity investors-including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, a Florida pension fund and the Church of England-and many of the debtholders, including Government of Singapore Investment Corp., or GIC, and Hartford Financial Services Group, are in danger of seeing most, if not all, of their investments wiped out.”

Now walk through this deal. The place was purchased at $5.4 billion. It was financed with $4.4 billion in commercial real estate loans. The place is now estimated to be valued at $1.8 billion. This is a $3.6 billion loss. Now the first buyers are making a conscious business decision to walk away from their obligation to pay on this property. Clearly Tishman and Blackrock have the money to make the payment if they wanted to but they don’t. But who is the big loser here? Those that they sold the securities to. This is how the banking industry is setup. It is designed to punish those who really have little knowledge of the interworking of Wall Street finance yet the current system is designed to use taxpayer money to gamble on these sorts of deals. This is what we are bailing out and why there is such outraged geared towards Wall Street.

The reason this is important is because there has been this moralizing of walking away. There has been this guilt trip put on average Americans that they need to put every penny to their house payment even if it means starving. Yet here we have Wall Street organizations with billions in funds making a conscious business decision to walk away from billion dollar deals. This isn’t some homeowner unable to make a $100,000 mortgage payment on a home valued at $70,000. The bank will technically lose $30,000 in this case by taking the home back. Here, someone somewhere is going to lose billions. As John Getty once said, “If you owe the bank $100 that’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that’s the bank’s problem.”

And that is the core of the commercial real estate problem. Values have collapsed:

By most estimates, commercial real estate values are down over 40 percent from their peak. Many loans that are now coming due for refinancing will simply fail. In fact, there are claims that many borrowers have already stopped making payments but banks simply keep rolling over the loans like some debt snowball as to avoid writing down the real value of the underlying asset.

This is an enormous problem. It is amazing so little is discussed about this in the open. My guess is the government and Wall Street realize that bailing out the commercial real estate market would garner little to no sympathy from the American public. After all, these were big banks that supposedly knew a thing or two about financing big deals. So for them to come out publicly and say they had no idea, which is really the reality, would not play well in bailing out a $3.5 trillion industry. The bottom line is someone is going to pay and so far most of the paying has come from the American taxpayer through bailouts to the corporatacracy.

And So The Great Recession Continues...

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Economy flounders, despite the stimulus

Editor's note: Ron Paul is a Republican congressman from Texas who ran for his party's nomination for president in 2008.

(CNN) -- A year after a nearly $800 billion stimulus package was passed, the U.S. economy still finds itself mired in mediocrity.

Economic growth is stagnant, unemployment remains higher than almost any time since the Great Depression and millions of Americans are upset that trillions of taxpayer dollars have been committed to numerous government bailout programs with no improvement of the economy within sight.

They question, rightfully, is where this money is going and why it hasn't been as helpful as the government has claimed.

The problems with stimulus packages are manifold. The primary reason they fail is because they do not address the roots of the problem. If you are unable to identify the cause of your problem, then your solution is doomed to fail.

In the case of the current economic crisis, it had its root in loose monetary policy and easy credit that skewed the allocation of resources within the economy.

Combined with other measures to promote home ownership, these easy money policies caused a massive housing bubble. Money that would have been put to other uses was used to produce raw materials, hire workers and loaned to homebuyers, all while home prices spiked.

The boom was, of course, unsustainable, as many prognosticators pointed out during the housing bubble's peak. But the damage was done, and now that the bubble has burst, we need to stand back and allow the mess to unwind. Yet the government does everything in its power to stave off true recovery and is attempting to re-inflate the bubble.

Rather than allow prices to fall so that the housing market returns to a sustainable level, the government does everything in its power to try to keep housing prices elevated.

The reasoning behind the stimulus package was that underconsumption was to blame for the collapse of the housing bubble and the resulting economic crisis. The government seems to think that if consumption can be spurred, then the economy will be return to normal.

In reality, the collapse of the economy was not caused by a sudden lack of consumption but rather a malinvestment of resources into sectors of the economy that were unsustainable without easy credit. The rise in housing prices was not, in fact, indicative of the new normal but rather an indicator that something was seriously wrong.

Government attempts to boost the economy through measures such as stimulus packages merely take money from hardworking taxpayers and throw that money into unproductive endeavors, into the sectors of the economy that already suffer from malinvestment or into make-work projects. Washington is throwing good money after bad, wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars and accomplishing nothing.

As the eminent economist Frederic Bastiat once pointed out, there is a difference between what is seen and unseen.

The government likes to tout the number of jobs that have been created or saved by the stimulus. But even if these numbers are accurate, they do not count the number of jobs that are not created in other more productive or self-sustaining sectors of the economy. Nor do they count the jobs that will be lost in the future when tax rates will have to be increased to pay off the interest on the debt that is financing much of the stimulus package.

Finally, the stimulus package enables the government, rather than the market, to pick winners and losers.

Whenever the government doles out money, political factors come into play. Firms that are politically well-connected or located in important congressional districts will benefit, while those firms without political connections, the ability to navigate bureaucratic hurdles or that exist in isolated areas unimportant to Washington will lose out.

Once the stimulus money runs out, the companies and jobs dependent on that handout will find themselves once again struggling.

A company that cannot satisfy consumer needs in the marketplace and that requires a government stimulus to remain competitive is a company that should not be in business.

The last thing this country needs is more government spending, especially on such wasteful measures as stimulus packages. We have wasted trillions of dollars in the past year and a half in stimulus packages, bailouts and guarantees to unsound companies.

We have run up our national debt to unprecedented levels. We are destroying the dollar. And it seems as if there is no end in sight.

Loose monetary policy, easy credit and too much debt created the bubble and got us into this economic crisis. Unless the government learns its lesson and opts for restrained monetary and fiscal policy, it risks a complete implosion of the U.S. economy.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Ron Paul.

Pete DuPont: Coming Tax Hikes Will Cause Greater Economic Collapse Than 2008-09

Wall Street Journal op-ed, An Economic Time Bomb: Even If Congress Does Nothing, Tax Hikes Will Hit Hard a Year From Now, by Pete DuPont (Chairman of the Board, National Center for Policy Analysis):

Weather-wise it has been a very cold January, and politically the Scott Brown Senate victory has chilled Washington Democrats even further. But if the Democratic economic policies continue nevertheless, this year will be nothing like the bitter economic January we will be living in a year from now.

Government spending has already hugely increased, and so has the size and scope of government, but next year there will also be substantial tax increases for a great many Americans. ...Add on to all of these increases the biggest government deficits and spending increases (to 26.5% of gross domestic product from 21%) in half a century, the protectionism of free trade downsizing through the "buy American" requirements, China import restrictions, and the administration limitations of Columbia, South Korea, and Panama free trade agreements, and we have a very different, and not very prosperous, America ahead of us. ...

[W]hen the huge tax-increase agenda arrives a year from now, the economy will begin to decline, and will be some 3% to 4% smaller than it otherwise would have been. The artificially high growth in 2010 followed by artificially low growth in 2011 would "represent a larger collapse than occurred in 2008 and early 2009," Mr. Laffer writes.

Faber on Alex Jones - World Economy Is Doomed

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"Fear the Boom and Bust" a Hayek vs. Keynes Rap Anthem

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