NASA's Hansen prefers rule by decree to fight 'global warming'
November's election made it quite clear that the people of the United States do not want to radically change our society in the name of global warming. Pretty much every close House race went to the Republicans, while the Democrats won all the Senate squeakers. The difference? The House on June 26, 2009, passed a bill limiting carbon-dioxide emissions and getting into just about every aspect of our lives. The Senate did nothing of the sort.
The nation's most prominent publicly funded climatologist is officially angry about this, blaming democracy and citing the Chinese government as the "best hope" to save the world from global warming. He also wants an economic boycott of the U.S. sufficient to bend us to China's will.
NASA laboratory head James Hansen's anti-democracy rants were published while he was on a November junket in China, but they didn't get much attention until recently. On Jan. 12, the hyperprolific blogger Marc Morano put them on his Climate Depot site, and within hours, the post went viral. In a former life, Mr. Morano was chief global-warming researcher for Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican.
According to Mr. Hansen, compared to China, we are "the barbarians" with a "fossil-money- 'democracy' that now rules the roost," making it impossible to legislate effectively on climate change. Unlike us, the Chinese are enlightened, unfettered by pesky elections. Here's what he blogged on Nov. 24:
"I have the impression that Chinese leadership takes a long view, perhaps because of the long history of their culture, in contrast to the West with its short election cycles. At the same time, China has the capacity to implement policy decisions rapidly. The leaders seem to seek the best technical information and do not brand as a hoax that which is inconvenient."
Read The Rest of the Article at washingtontimes.com
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
« CHART UPDATE: Fed's balance sheet hits record high in latest week on new bond purchases - Fed Weekly Report »
After flattening out, it headed higher 8 straight weeks with QE2, until dipping just slightly last week, and then exploding to a new, all-time record high this week.
When the Fed wants to sell MBS and other securities, who's gonna buy?
The rest of the Fed's weekly report is inside, including foreign holdings.
---
Full Weekly Fed Report Is HERE - Including Reports From Past Weeks
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/
---
(Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve's balance sheet rose to a new high in the latest week as the U.S. central bank increased its holdings of Treasury securities as part of its $600 billion quantitative easing program, Fed data released on Thursday showed.
The balance sheet -- a broad gauge of Fed lending to the financial system -- expanded to $2.451 trillion in the week ended Jan. 12 from $2.418 trillion the prior week.
The central bank's holdings of U.S. government securities totaled $1.062 trillion on Wednesday, up from $1.031 trillion last week.
Meanwhile, the Fed's overnight direct loans to credit-worthy banks via its discount window averaged $23 million a day in the week ended Wednesday, less than the $100 million daily pace last week.
Continue reading at Reuters...
---
More Fed headlines...
Foreign central banks' U.S. debt holdings fall - Fed
Jan 13 (Reuters) - Foreign central banks' overall holdings of U.S. marketable securities at the Federal Reserve fell in the latest week, data from the U.S. central bank showed on Thursday. The Fed said its holdings of U.S. securities kept for overseas central banks fell $8.99 billion in the week ended Jan. 12 to $3.346 trillion.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSNLLDCE7T420110113
---
Swaps with foreign cenbanks total $70 mln - NY Fed
(Reuters) - The Federal Reserve in the latest week provided $70 million of liquidity to the European Central Bank via its swap lines for foreign central banks, the New York Fed said on Thursday. The ECB was the sole institution to tap the swap lines in the week ended Jan. 12, swapping the full amount. The terms for the ECB swap were 7 days at 1.18 percent, the New York Fed added.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN139863820110113
---
Full Weekly Fed Report Is HERE - Including Reports From Past Weeks
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/
###
Answer this important question Bernanke:
---
More charts:
---
Related stories...
Alan Grayson - Congratulations America! You Own Bankrupt Red Roof Inns
Fed's Maiden Lane Spins Crap Assets Into Tungsten
CHART SHOCK: The REAL Unemployment Rate Is 22%
Not So Well Known - Tracking The Fed's OTHER Debt Purchase Program
---
Slideshows...
True State Of The Economy - You'd Better Be Darn Scared
The damnable lies that continue out of lazy, corrupt media mouthpieces regarding the true state of the economy is nothing short of reprehensible. We expect politicians to lie every time they open their mouths. We expect ethically bankrupt crooks like Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner to lie every time they open their mouth to protect their banking interests. However, a free media is supposed to be the watch dog for government corruption and report the facts, not propaganda. Not so for a long, long time for what is known as the "mainstream" media. Fools they are because like tens of millions of others, they will also be reduced to penury. Lackeys for their corporate masters no longer question numbers; perhaps they are as ignorant as the majority of adults in this country when it comes to fiat currency and taxation.
The pathological liar camped out in the White House recently upchucked, "'We're digging ourselves out of a hole"' when the fake unemployment numbers allegedly show the jobless rate had dropped to the lowest level for 19 months. Bernanke, master in the art of deception, was pumping more false hope last month: "The Chairman of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke says until the U.S. economic system is completely stabilized, the country will be slow to climb completely out of its latest recession and that could mean high unemployment rates for a few more years. A native of Dillon, Bernanke made the remarks during a rare interview on CBS, "60 Minutes, which aired Sunday night."
Geithner says the U.S. government is broke, but look at his role in facilitating the coming collapse! Everything done by the private banking cartel [FED] with the full cooperation of Geithner is exactly the same destructive path taken by FDR. One of the most accurate and comprehensive writings on how the "New Deal" made the situation even worse back during the "Great" Depression is a piece by Lawrence W. Reed titled, Great Myths of the Great Depression. You will see the same programs touted by the communist in the White House are near twins of the failures promoted by FDR. While Lawrence's piece is 16 pages, it is well worth the time to get a good education on what didn't work and actually prolonged the depression by a decade. We are reliving history.
More lies from the media:
"The nation's unemployment rate is 9.8 percent. South Carolina's unemployment rate stands at 10.2 percent. Bernanke says what concerns him now is the length of time many America's have been out of the workforce."
Unemployment in this country is at depression levels. By 1933, unemployment peaked at 25%. The criminal syndicate out in DC ("our" government) claims unemployment is 9.8%. Really? The "official" unemployment number is 14, 443,867 Americans out of work. The actual number is 25, 684,164. Staggering numbers. 25.6 MILLION Americans have no jobs thanks to the Outlaw Congress and reckless spending by the states.
Stabilize the economy? Pray tell, Bernanke, how will do you that without jobs being created? How will you do that when ONE MILLION homes were foreclosed on last year and an estimated 20 MILLION homeowners will have underwater mortgages by the end of 2011? Someone tell me how you grow the economy with those numbers when the only real wealth for most Americans is their home?
Read the rest of Devvy's column at http://www.devvy.com.
---
Deep layoffs take effect in struggling NJ city
CAMDEN, N.J. – Some firefighters turned in their helmets and police officers their badges Tuesday as part of deep municipal layoffs destined to further erode the quality of life in Camden, already one of the nation's most impoverished and crime-ridden cities.
About 335 workers, representing one-sixth of the local government work force, lost their jobs, according to Mayor Dana Redd. It was worst in the public safety departments, where nearly half the police force and close to one-third of the city's firefighters were laid off.
Laid-off firefighters walked eight blocks together from the police union hall to Fire Department headquarters, snaking past City Hall, then lined up their helmets in front of the building, picked them back up and started to turn them in along with their other gear.
"It's one of the worst days in the history of Camden," said Ken Chambers, president of the firefighters union.
Redd blamed the public safety employee cuts on their unions, saying they have not been willing to make job-saving concessions or accept the reality that the state government will no longer bail out the city as it has for the past two generations.
"Instead of protecting and serving the city, the residents of Camden, they're choosing to protect their high salaries," she said.
The mayor said she was willing to continue negotiating with unions to try to reach cost savings that would allow the city to bring back some of the laid-off workers.
Redd said a proposal to the rank-and-file police union, the Fraternal Order of Police, was to be voted on Wednesday. She would not say exactly what the proposal entailed or how many jobs it could save. But she said that if the unions agree to concessions, about 100 police officers and most of the firefighters could be brought back.
Chambers said residents should not expect to be safe as the number of fire companies is reduced. He said the union will continue to meet with city officials to try to reach a deal under which some firefighters could be brought back.
Police officers had begun turning in their badges Monday as it became clear that no last-minute deal was going to save many jobs.
Located directly across the Delaware River from Philadelphia, Camden is rampant with open drug-dealing, prostitution and related crimes. More than half of Camden's 80,000 residents, mostly black and Hispanic, live in poverty.
A local pastor says "the fear quotient has been raised," and a police union took out a full-page newspaper advertisement last week warning that Camden would become a "living hell" if layoffs were not averted.
The city was the nation's second-most dangerous based on 2009 data, according to CQ Press, which compiles such rankings. Camden ranked first the previous two years. In 2009, the city had 2,380 violent crimes per 100,000 residents — more than five times the national average, the FBI said.
The anti-crime volunteer group Guardian Angels says it will patrol Camden, as it has Newark, where there were major police layoffs in November.
The Fire Department has already been relying on help from volunteer departments in neighboring towns. Interim Fire Chief David Yates, who retired Jan. 1, has warned that that layoffs will increase response times.
« Texas lawmakers faced with $27 billion budget shortfall »
http://dailybail.com/home/texas-lawmakers-faced-with-27-billion-budget-shortfall.html
Video - In her January 2011 revenue estimate, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs explains how she got it so wrong - allow me to summarize - she was an idiot...
---
Check out the slideshow...
Heads up - Fans of women's swimming (and high heel shoes) might want to make sure to see pic #4...
---
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas lawmakers will have a revenue shortfall of at least $15 billion for general-purpose spending for the next two-year budget compared to current state spending, according to figures released Monday.
Some analysts say the true shortfall could be much higher — closer to $27 billion — if lawmakers intend to maintain spending at current levels and still pay for enrollment growth in public schools and on Medicaid rolls, cost increases and other variables. That figure amounts to almost a third of discretionary state spending in the current budget.
The Texas Legislature will begin to grapple with the bleak budget picture when the session opens Tuesday.
"The recent recession has had its impact on the state revenue outlook as major revenue sources, such as the sales tax generated less money in the last couple of years," state Comptroller Susan Combs told reporters. "While we have turned the corner to an economic recovery, the revenue estimate I'm releasing today is for moderate growth."
The numbers cover the 2012-2013 budget, and include a $4.3 billion deficit in the current state budget.
Texas also will have about $9 billion in the so-called Rainy Day Fund, but that money can't be used without a two-thirds vote of the Legislature — a hurdle that may be too high with the new wave of fiscally conservative freshman Republican lawmakers.
The estimate, which gives the Legislature a roadmap as it embarks on the budget-writing process, has for months been the topic of election-year rhetoric, with Republican incumbents trying to downplay the severity of the budget mess.
"I don't think we have a budget hole," Gov. Rick Perry said in an interview with The Associated Press on Monday. "I think we have a budget of $76.5 billion and we're going to live with that. . . . It's only a budget hole when somebody has wished that they had more money."
Because of the recession, state tax receipts for the 2010 budget year have fallen behind projections, leaving a deficit in the current budget. The state is also on the hook to fill a hole of about $11 billion left by federal stimulus money and other state savings that were used last year but are no longer available. Added cost pressures from increased enrollment in public schools and health care programs for the poor and disabled, and spikes in health care costs, will compound the massive hole.
"When increased population and higher costs are taken into account, Texas is at least $26.8 billion short of the general revenue needed to provide for current services into the next biennium," said F. Scott McCown, executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for needy Texans. "In other words, we are short by at least 25 percent."
---
Texas is $27 billion short...
---
Video - Incoming Texas house members discuss the budget shortfall...
Complete story inside including video, links and more. I also built a little Texas slideshow once I started finding so many potential photos for this story.
Check out the slideshow...
Editor's Note - Fans of women's swimming might want to make sure to see pic #4...
---
« Bankruptcy of U.S. is ‘Mathematical Certainty,’ Says Professor & Former CEO of Nation's 10th Largest Bank »
http://tinyurl.com/5u4s48h
Video: John Allison - Runs 2 minutes - More on the National Debt...
Great clip. Quotes transcribed inside.
(CNSNews.com) - John Allison, who for two decades served as chairman and CEO of BB&T, the nation's 10th largest bank, told CNSNews.com it is a “mathematical certainty” that the United States government will go bankrupt unless it dramatically changes its fiscal direction.
Allison likened what he sees as the predictable future bankruptcy of the United States to the problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose insolvency he also said was foreseeable to those who studied their business practices and financial situation.
“I think the first thing we have to realize is where we’re going and to face it objectively,” Allison told CNSNews.com, when asked about the trillion-dollar-plus deficits the federal government has run for three straight years, the more than $13 trillion in federal debt, and the $61.9 trillion long-term shortfall the government faces (according to the analysis of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation) if the government is to pay all the benefits it has promised through entitlement programs.
“If you run the numbers, on all those numbers that you just talked about, which I think are accurate, very accurate, in 20 or 25 years, the United States goes bankrupt,” said Allison. “It’s a mathematical certainty.
“It reminds me very much of that story I told you about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae,” said Allison. “We were running the numbers, and Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae went bankrupt, and we got there. In 20 or 25 years, the United States goes bankrupt.
“Now, countries don’t go bankrupt the way companies do,” said Allison. “They don’t file bankruptcy. They usually hyper-inflate. They print a bunch of paper money, or they become Third World economies like Argentina--unless we change direction. So, we absolutely have to change direction. And the irony of that is it requires an interesting combination. It requires both discipline, but it also requires a focus on growing our economy. And it means a fundamental philosophical change from where we are today, from the idea of redistributing wealth to the idea of creating wealth.”
In his interview with CNSNews.com Allison said that when belonged to the Financial Services Roundtable they examined Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and determined they were going bankrupt. Congressional leaders, however, did not heed their analysis.
“I was on a committee, a Financial Services Roundtable, for nine years trying to do something about Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae,” said Allison.
“You couldn’t help but see it coming,” he said. “You ran the numbers, particularly the last several years, and it was mathematically certain Freddie and Fannie were going bankrupt.”
“We met with Congress. We met with [House Financial Services Chairman] Barney Frank and [Senate Banking Chairman] Chris Dodd and they absolutely wouldn’t see it,” said Allison.
Allison became president of BB&T in 1987 and was elected chairman in 1989. He remained CEO through 2008. He is now distinguished professor of practice at the Wake Forest University Schools of Business. By 2009, according to rankings done by SNL Financial, BB&T had grown into the nation's 10th largest bank.
##
Allison: Give Young People Option to Get Out of Social Security
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/give-young-people-option-get-out-social
---
Check out the newest slideshow...
Editor's Note - Fans of women's swimming might want to make sure to see pic #4...
---
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)