Since taking office, Obama shamelessly betrayed his constituents by:
-- ignoring popular needs during America's greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression;
-- giving Wall Street crooks trillions of taxpayer dollars;
-- spending another $1.5 trillion annually on militarism, imperial wars, and related policies at a time America has no enemies;
-- waging war on organized labor and public education, as well as civil and human rights; and
-- claiming "tough choices" demand class warfare through neoliberal austerity for working Americans, mainly middle and lower income ones least able to afford it.
On April 13, he announced his latest plan through $4 trillion in largely social spending budget cuts over the next 12 years. More on them below.
The same day, New York Times writers Mark Landler and Michael Shear headlined, "Obama's Debt Plan Sets Stage for Long Battle Over Spending," saying:
Obama's Wednesday George Washington University speech "propos(ed) a mix of long-term spending cuts, tax increases, and changes to social welfare programs," omitting that they harm working Americans most.
A Times editorial headlined, "President Obama, Reinvigorated," saying:
"The man America elected president has re-emerged." His budget speech "was a reasonable basis for a conversation and is far better than its most prominent competitors. That is because it is grounded in themes of generosity and responsibility....(I)t was a relief to see Mr. Obama standing up for the values that got him to the table."
These aren't surprising comments from a broadsheet long associated with wealth and power interests, now pretending hammering working Americans is fair and just.
A supportive Washington Post editorial headlined, "President Obama's deficit plan: Benefits and drawbacks," saying:
Obama "made an important and welcome contribution to the debate over deficit reduction Wednesday...(S)orely needed presidential engagement on the nation's fiscal crisis has arrived at last."
A Wall Street Journal editorial, however, called Obama "The Presidential Divider," saying:
His speech was "toxic," "dishonest," (and) even worse (for) deficits and debt" by not matching Rep. Ryan's (R. WI) slash and burn plan even more draconian that his own - "in the midst of a fiscal crisis" both parties refuse to address responsibly, nor do major media reports, op-eds, and editorials explain it.
In fact, Obama largely embraces plans proposed by Republicans and his own deficit cutting commission, offering a different mix for the same purpose - protecting America's super-rich while hammering working Americans through "shared sacrifice."
In other words, middle and low income households "sacrifice" to let wealthy ones "share," his agenda since day one in office.
For example, his proposed tax increase plan is a sham, knowing Republicans won't agree. Moreover, since taking office, he broke every major campaign pledge, and twice, since December alone, capitulated to Republicans on taxes and spending:
-- last December, with Democrats controlling both Houses, by extending Bush's tax cuts to the rich after promising to end them; and
-- in April, agreeing to $38 billion in largely vital social services cuts after promising to preserve them, rationalized by arguing for "a willingness to give on both sides."
Representing wealth and power, his promises are empty. His April 8 budget deal includes significant social spending cuts including:
-- $3.5 billion from Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding;
-- $2.2 billion from nonprofit health insurance cooperatives;
-- $600 million from community healthcare centers;
-- $1 billion from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and other disease prevention programs;
-- $1.6 billion from EPA's clean/safe drinking water and other projects;
-- $950 million from community development grants;
-- $504 million from nutrition aid for poor Women, Infants, and Children (WIC);
-- $500 million from education programs;
-- $390 million from home heating subsidies to the poor, as well as $2.5 billion for the Low Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) announced in February;
-- $350 million from labor programs, including grants for community service jobs for seniors;
-- other social service cuts;
-- $786 million from FEMA first-responder funding;
-- $407 million from energy efficiency and renewable energy programs;
-- $260 million from National Institutes of Health (NIH) medical research;
-- $127 million from the National Park Service; and
-- billions less for public infrastructure and transportation spending, while increasing war appropriations by multiples more, including for conquering and controlling Libya.
Moreover, Obama agreed to more draconian FY 2012 cuts and corporate tax breaks as part of a deal to raise the debt ceiling before its limit is reached in mid-May. Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press April 10, senior White House advisor David Plouffe said he'd consider new austerity measures to raise the debt ceiling and reduce the deficit - an oxymoronic compromise, especially with unlimited defense spending and generous corporate handouts instead of major reductions.
Obama Proposes Draconian Cuts on Working Americans
According to White House.gov, Obama's plan over 12 years includes:
-- $4 trillion overall;
-- $770 billion from education, environmental, transportation, and other infrastructure cuts, as well as lower wages and benefits for federal workers when they need more, not less;
-- $480 billion from Medicare and Medicaid, besides another $1 trillion from Obamacare;
-- $360 billion from mandated domestic programs, including food stamps, home heating assistance, income for the poor and disabled, federal pension insurance, and farm subsidies;
-- $400 billion from military-related spending from unneeded weapons, as well as healthcare and other benefits for active service members and veterans - not priority items the Pentagon and war profiteers want to protect generous annual defense spending increases and supplemental add-ons, plus black-hole black budgets for intelligence and other nefarious purposes.
Like all his demagoguery, Obama hypocrically stressed we're broke and have to make shared sacrifices, suppressing how he's served wealth and power interests at the expense of working Americans during the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression.
The times demand stimulus, job creation, help for the working poor and unemployed, and much more, including:
-- programs to prevent banks from foreclosing on homeowners they defrauded;
-- slashing defense spending;
-- ending imperial wars and occupations;
-- using the funds for vital domestic programs;
-- breaking up the too-big-to-fail banks; prosecuting their officials guilty of grand theft;
-- reinvigorating public education;
-- strengthening Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as assuring universal healthcare;
-- guaranteeing every qualified student affordable higher education;
-- supporting organized labor;
-- instituting tough regulations to end monopoly and oligopoly power, punish corporate theft, curb speculation, end subsidies, and assure they all pay their fair share in taxes;
-- replacing today's dysfunctional tax system with a progressive one, making the rich share the burden they now avoid;
-- making social justice issue one at a time none exists, Democrats as mean-spirited as Republicans; and
-- instituting real government of, by and for the people, what's never existed and doesn't now under corrupted duopoly governance, ignoring people needs to serve Wall Street, war profiteers, and other corporate favorites.
The alternative assures greater militarism, social inequality and decay, growing poverty, eroding freedoms, police state harshness, and overall conditions too dire to imagine because public apathy let elected officials do nothing to change things.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
BRICS Rails at Financial Status Quo
President Dmitry Medvedev and other BRICS leaders called for sweeping reforms of international financial mechanisms, hinted at displacing the U.S. dollar as the world's major trade currency and condemned the NATO bombing of Libya at a summit of leading emerging economies in China on Thursday, but there were few actions to match the words.
Speaking at the summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in Sanya, China, Medvedev said he and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao had "agreed to intensify work on the eastern and western gas supply routes before the end of the year" during a bilateral meeting earlier in the day.
"We are talking about this year, I mean the basic conditions for approval. Naturally, the deliveries will begin later," he told reporters, adding that, although each side would push its own business interests in price negotiations, positions had generally moved closer.
China is a growing foreign policy priority for Russia. It is the world's biggest energy consumer and became Russia's main trading partner last year.
Medvedev promised during a visit to Beijing in September to supply China with all the gas it needs for economic development.
In 2009, China extended a $25 billion preferential-rate loan to Rosneft and Transneft in exchange for a 20-year oil supply contract.
Medvedev will go on an extended visit to China, following the BRICS meeting, with an appearance at China's Boao Forum and a visit to Hong Kong on Saturday.
Although the BRICS forum had criticized the world's reliance on the U.S. dollar, Medvedev played down speculation that the five countries might adopt the Chinese yuan as a trade currency.
"Of course, the Chinese economy is huge, and in this sense the role of the yuan is growing, but we haven't made any special decisions regarding the yuan, nor are they being discussed," he told reporters.
Earlier Thursday, the five countries signed a memorandum on cooperation among their national financial development institutions that paves the way for the countries to grant one another loans in their national currencies.
Vladimir Dmitriyev, head of Vneshekonombank, told Interfax that the document marked "the first practical step toward using national currencies in economic cooperation between these countries."
China Development Bank was the first institution to take advantage of the new measures, saying it was ready to extend 10 billion yuan in loans to Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa.
The loans are expected to focus on large oil and natural gas projects. China Development Bank chief Chen Yuan cited deepening cooperation with Brazil's Petro Bas when asked for specifics, Reuters reported.
No specific deals relating to Russian companies have emerged so far.
Medvedev also held bilateral meetings with Hu, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma during the meeting.
Thursday's was the first summit since South Africa joined the club of emerging economies, prompting Medvedev to make a flat joke.
"I don't know who came up with the BRIC abbreviation … but we've come up with a different acronym, and it has already become quite popular."
"After the accession of South Africa, the Russian abbreviation BRYuKI emerged," Medvedev told reporters in Sanya, China. Bryuki means "pants" in Russian.
It may have been a weak joke, but he was right to say the group has changed.
BRIC — Brazil, Russia, India and China — was born as an acronym thought up by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill as shorthand for the world's leading emerging markets.
But it has become a club for countries — including now South Africa — with a common interest in turning their growing economic strength into political clout on the world stage.
All five are currently members of the UN Security Council.
In this spirit, the five issued a joint statement calling for an overhaul of the international financial system and reform of the International Monetary Fund, criticizing dependence on traditional reserve currencies like the U.S. dollar and condemning NATO-led air strikes against Libya.
"This is not a format where countries decide things; it is much more about showing the emergence of new structures as opposed to old organizations," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs.
Nonetheless, there are differences in the group.
In the March 17 Security Council vote authorizing military action in Libya, Brazil, Russia, India and China abstained. South Africa voted in favor, along with other African Union countries.
Speaking at the summit of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa in Sanya, China, Medvedev said he and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao had "agreed to intensify work on the eastern and western gas supply routes before the end of the year" during a bilateral meeting earlier in the day.
"We are talking about this year, I mean the basic conditions for approval. Naturally, the deliveries will begin later," he told reporters, adding that, although each side would push its own business interests in price negotiations, positions had generally moved closer.
China is a growing foreign policy priority for Russia. It is the world's biggest energy consumer and became Russia's main trading partner last year.
Medvedev promised during a visit to Beijing in September to supply China with all the gas it needs for economic development.
In 2009, China extended a $25 billion preferential-rate loan to Rosneft and Transneft in exchange for a 20-year oil supply contract.
Medvedev will go on an extended visit to China, following the BRICS meeting, with an appearance at China's Boao Forum and a visit to Hong Kong on Saturday.
Although the BRICS forum had criticized the world's reliance on the U.S. dollar, Medvedev played down speculation that the five countries might adopt the Chinese yuan as a trade currency.
"Of course, the Chinese economy is huge, and in this sense the role of the yuan is growing, but we haven't made any special decisions regarding the yuan, nor are they being discussed," he told reporters.
Earlier Thursday, the five countries signed a memorandum on cooperation among their national financial development institutions that paves the way for the countries to grant one another loans in their national currencies.
Vladimir Dmitriyev, head of Vneshekonombank, told Interfax that the document marked "the first practical step toward using national currencies in economic cooperation between these countries."
China Development Bank was the first institution to take advantage of the new measures, saying it was ready to extend 10 billion yuan in loans to Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa.
The loans are expected to focus on large oil and natural gas projects. China Development Bank chief Chen Yuan cited deepening cooperation with Brazil's Petro Bas when asked for specifics, Reuters reported.
No specific deals relating to Russian companies have emerged so far.
Medvedev also held bilateral meetings with Hu, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and South African President Jacob Zuma during the meeting.
Thursday's was the first summit since South Africa joined the club of emerging economies, prompting Medvedev to make a flat joke.
"I don't know who came up with the BRIC abbreviation … but we've come up with a different acronym, and it has already become quite popular."
"After the accession of South Africa, the Russian abbreviation BRYuKI emerged," Medvedev told reporters in Sanya, China. Bryuki means "pants" in Russian.
It may have been a weak joke, but he was right to say the group has changed.
BRIC — Brazil, Russia, India and China — was born as an acronym thought up by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill as shorthand for the world's leading emerging markets.
But it has become a club for countries — including now South Africa — with a common interest in turning their growing economic strength into political clout on the world stage.
All five are currently members of the UN Security Council.
In this spirit, the five issued a joint statement calling for an overhaul of the international financial system and reform of the International Monetary Fund, criticizing dependence on traditional reserve currencies like the U.S. dollar and condemning NATO-led air strikes against Libya.
"This is not a format where countries decide things; it is much more about showing the emergence of new structures as opposed to old organizations," said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of Russia in Global Affairs.
Nonetheless, there are differences in the group.
In the March 17 Security Council vote authorizing military action in Libya, Brazil, Russia, India and China abstained. South Africa voted in favor, along with other African Union countries.
Banks Face $3.6 Trillion 'Wall' of Debt: IMF
The world's banks face a $3.6 trillion "wall of maturing debt" in the next two years
and must compete with debt-laden governments to secure financing, the IMF warned on Wednesday.
Many European banks need bigger capital cushions to restore market confidence and assure they can borrow, and some weak players will need to be closed, the International Monetary Fund said in its Global Financial Stability Report.
The debt rollover requirements are most acute for Irish and German banks, with as much as half of their outstanding debt coming due over the next two years, the fund said.
"These bank funding needs coincide with higher sovereign refinancing requirements, heightening competition for scarce funding resources," the IMF said.
Overall, the IMF said global financial stability has improved over the past six months.
The most pressing challenges in the coming months will be funding of banks and sovereigns, particularly in vulnerable euro area countries, it said.
The IMF and European Union bailed out Greece and Ireland, and are in talks with Portugal on a lending program as sovereign borrowing costs surge.
Many investors have questioned whether Spain can avoid a similar fate, but the IMF said Spanish authorities were taking the right steps to address the country's debt problems.
"The actions that have been taken in Spain recently have managed to decouple, in the views of markets, the fortunes of Spain relative to those of Portugal" and Ireland, said Jose Vinals, director of the IMF's Monetary and Capital Markets Department.
European banks hold large amounts of euro zone sovereign debt, making them vulnerable to losses if countries are forced to restructure.
Vinals said lending programs in Greece and Ireland were built on the assumption there would be no such restructuring, and the programs needed time to work.
Still, worries about bad debt exposure have heightened investor concerns about bank balance sheets, making it even more important for firms to shore up their capital.
US banks built up capital buffers in 2009, when regulators completed a set of stress tests that revealed some large holes.
But European banks still need to raise a "significant amount of capital" to regain access to funding markets, the fund said.
"It is ... imperative that weak banks raise capital to avoid a pernicious cycle of deleveraging, weak credit growth, and falling asset prices," it warned.
Living Dangerously
The European Central Bank's upcoming stress tests provide a "golden opportunity" to improve bank balance sheet transparency and reduce market uncertainty about the quality of assets on banks' books, the IMF said.
European banks won't be able to obtain all the necessary capital from markets, and public money may have to fill some of the gaps, it added.
Banks could also cut dividends and retain a larger portion of earnings.
"Overall, a comprehensive set of policies -- including capital-raising, restructuring and where necessary resolution of weak banks, and increased transparency about banking risks -- is needed to solve banking system vulnerabilities," it said.
"Without these reforms, downside risks will re-emerge." The IMF said banks' exposure to troubled sovereign debt is "uncertain," which adds to the funding strains.
It said government debt was generally high and on a worrying upward path in many advanced economies.
It repeated its warning that the United States and Japan faced particularly dangerous debt dynamics.
The fund said government interest bills would likely rise, although the burden should generally remain manageable provided countries proceed with deficit reduction plans.
For 2011, Japan and the United States face the largest public debt rollovers of any advanced economy at 56 percent and 29 percent of gross domestic product, respectively.
"While the United States and Japan continue to benefit from low current (borrowing) rates, both are very sensitive to a potential rise in funding costs," it said.
and must compete with debt-laden governments to secure financing, the IMF warned on Wednesday.
Many European banks need bigger capital cushions to restore market confidence and assure they can borrow, and some weak players will need to be closed, the International Monetary Fund said in its Global Financial Stability Report.
The debt rollover requirements are most acute for Irish and German banks, with as much as half of their outstanding debt coming due over the next two years, the fund said.
"These bank funding needs coincide with higher sovereign refinancing requirements, heightening competition for scarce funding resources," the IMF said.
Overall, the IMF said global financial stability has improved over the past six months.
The most pressing challenges in the coming months will be funding of banks and sovereigns, particularly in vulnerable euro area countries, it said.
The IMF and European Union bailed out Greece and Ireland, and are in talks with Portugal on a lending program as sovereign borrowing costs surge.
Many investors have questioned whether Spain can avoid a similar fate, but the IMF said Spanish authorities were taking the right steps to address the country's debt problems.
"The actions that have been taken in Spain recently have managed to decouple, in the views of markets, the fortunes of Spain relative to those of Portugal" and Ireland, said Jose Vinals, director of the IMF's Monetary and Capital Markets Department.
European banks hold large amounts of euro zone sovereign debt, making them vulnerable to losses if countries are forced to restructure.
Vinals said lending programs in Greece and Ireland were built on the assumption there would be no such restructuring, and the programs needed time to work.
Still, worries about bad debt exposure have heightened investor concerns about bank balance sheets, making it even more important for firms to shore up their capital.
US banks built up capital buffers in 2009, when regulators completed a set of stress tests that revealed some large holes.
But European banks still need to raise a "significant amount of capital" to regain access to funding markets, the fund said.
"It is ... imperative that weak banks raise capital to avoid a pernicious cycle of deleveraging, weak credit growth, and falling asset prices," it warned.
Living Dangerously
The European Central Bank's upcoming stress tests provide a "golden opportunity" to improve bank balance sheet transparency and reduce market uncertainty about the quality of assets on banks' books, the IMF said.
European banks won't be able to obtain all the necessary capital from markets, and public money may have to fill some of the gaps, it added.
Banks could also cut dividends and retain a larger portion of earnings.
"Overall, a comprehensive set of policies -- including capital-raising, restructuring and where necessary resolution of weak banks, and increased transparency about banking risks -- is needed to solve banking system vulnerabilities," it said.
"Without these reforms, downside risks will re-emerge." The IMF said banks' exposure to troubled sovereign debt is "uncertain," which adds to the funding strains.
It said government debt was generally high and on a worrying upward path in many advanced economies.
It repeated its warning that the United States and Japan faced particularly dangerous debt dynamics.
Advanced economies were "living dangerously" with high debt burdens, and faced the difficult task of trying to pare deficits without choking off the economic recovery.
The fund said government interest bills would likely rise, although the burden should generally remain manageable provided countries proceed with deficit reduction plans.
For 2011, Japan and the United States face the largest public debt rollovers of any advanced economy at 56 percent and 29 percent of gross domestic product, respectively.
"While the United States and Japan continue to benefit from low current (borrowing) rates, both are very sensitive to a potential rise in funding costs," it said.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
World's largest bond fund bets against U.S. debt
The world's largest bond fund began betting against U.S. government debt last month on the expectation that shaky finances will jolt interest rates higher.
PIMCO, through its outspoken co-chief investment officer, Bill Gross, have been raising alarms about a lack of buyers for Treasuries once the Federal Reserve ends its own bond purchase program, also known as QE2, in June.
In February Gross revealed his ultra-bearish view on the United States by dumping all of his fund's U.S. government-related debt holdings.
The portion of PIMCO's $236 billion Total Return Fund held in long-term U.S. government debt, including U.S. Treasuries, declined to "minus 3" percent in March from zero in February and 12 percent in January.
In a short position, an investor sells a borrowed security on a bet it can buy the bond back later at a lower price.
Cash equivalents, including Treasury bills and other debt with maturities of less than a year, rose to 31 percent of the fund's assets from 24 percent in February.
PIMCO also expects the lingering U.S. budget deficit and the Fed's easy monetary policy will fuel faster inflation and hurt the dollar.
PIMCO's vote on the state of U.S. finances comes just as Washington narrowly averted a government shutdown on Saturday after Democrats and Republicans agreed on cutting $38 billion in spending for the fiscal year.
The 11th hour compromise probably had little impact on the investment strategies of Gross, who said in an April newsletter that the U.S. government was "out-Greeking the Greeks," a reference to the out-sized government debt in Greece that forced the country to ask for a bailout.
"We are smelling $1 trillion deficits as far as the nose can sniff," if the government fails to address the biggest entitlement programs: Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, Gross said in his outlook.
PIMCO's move mirrors a broader dislike of U.S. Treasuries. Some exchange-traded funds that bet against the Treasury market have seen a jump in volume lately. Volume in the ProShares Short 20+ year Treasury , which shorts the Barclays Capital U.S. 20+ Year Treasury Bond Index, on Thursday of last week had its most active session since February 24.
And speculators went net short on Treasuries for the first time in six weeks as of April 5, according to the latest data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
U.S. Treasury yields have moved higher since the Fed began purchases of the securities in its second quantitative easing program in November. Yields on 10-year Treasury notes have risen 80 basis points since then to 3.59 percent.
Copyright 2011 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
Inflation Actually Near 10% Using Older Measure
After former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was appointed in 1979, the consumer price index surged into the double digits, causing the now revered Fed Chief to double the benchmark interest rate in order to break the back of inflation. Using the methodology in place at that time puts the CPI back near those levels.
Inflation, using the reporting methodologies in place before 1980, hit an annual rate of 9.6 percent in February, according to the Shadow Government Statistics newsletter.
 |
Getty Images |
Since 1980, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has changed the way it calculates the CPI in order to account for the substitution of products, improvements in quality (i.e. iPad 2 costing the same as original iPad) and other things. Backing out more methods implemented in 1990 by the BLS still puts inflation at a 5.5 percent rate and getting worse, according to the calculations by the newsletter’s web site, Shadowstats.com.
“Near-term circumstances generally have continued to deteriorate,” said John Williams, creator of the site, in a new note out Tuesday. “Though not yet commonly recognized, there is both an intensifying double-dip recession and a rapidly escalating inflation problem. Until such time as financial-market expectations catch up with underlying reality, reporting generally will continue to show higher-than-expected inflation and weaker-than-expected economic results in the month and months ahead.”
The pay-site and newsletter by Williams, an economic consultant for the last 30 years to companies, has gained a cult following among bloggers hungry to criticize Bernanke these days. The mission statement of the newsletter, according to the site, is to expose and analyze “flaws in current U.S. government economic data and reporting…net of financial-market and political hype.”
Investors are anxiously awaiting the release of March’s CPI reading on Friday. The consensus estimate from economists is for an annual inflation rate of 2.6 percent.
“Given ongoing inflation problems with food and the spreading impact of higher oil-related costs in the broad economy, reporting risk is to the upside of consensus expectation,” said Williams, citing a 10 percent jump in gasoline prices in March, in the note.
“While the federal government would have us believe the numbers are rather tame, our own personal gauge leads us to believe inflation is running between 5 percent to 6 percent annually,” wrote Alan Newman in his latest Crosscurrents newsletter that refers to Williams’ statistics.
Newman uses recent comments from Walmart CEO Bill Simon that inflation is going to be “serious” to back up the much higher CPI figures from him and Williams.
 |
“Given Walmart’s [WMT 53.63 
To be sure, the BLS argues that the changes it has made over the last three decades more accurately reflect a true change in the cost of living. For example, in response to its hedonic adjustments, the BLS web site states, “to measure price change accurately, the CPI must be able to distinguish the portion of price change due to this quality change.
Still, going by recent strong comments from Federal Reserve officials, even members of the central bank must believe inflation is being underreported. Dallas Federal Reserve President Richard Fisher said in a speech last week that the central bank was reaching a “tipping point” as far as changing its policy so it can react to inflation. Maybe Fisher stumbled across Shadowstats.com. The voting member did, after all, mention Volcker in the same speech.
“The need to break the back of that (budgetary debt) spiral is as dire now as was the need for Paul Volcker to break the back of inflation in the 1980s,” said Fisher on April 8th. “As a result of his steadfast determination to press on with exorcising inflation, Mr. Volcker is today among the most respected living Americans and widely considered an exemplar for public servants worldwide.”
 |
For the best market insight, catch 'Fast Money' each night at 5pm ET, and the ‘Halftime Report’ each afternoon at 12:30 ET on CNBC.
Paul Ryan Dodges Question On Whether GOP Budget Will End Corporate Welfare
http://tinyurl.com/3hnsltp
Video - Paul Ryan - Apr. 3, 2011
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) said Sunday that the GOP 2012 budget will exceed even the $4 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade recommended by President Barack Obama's debt commission.
But Ryan wouldn't commit that his new budget would follow the debt commission's lead and end corporate welfare for oil and gas companies.
"Widely reported that your budget will cut spending by $2 trillion over the next decade. True?" Fox News Chris Wallace asked Ryan during their Sunday interview.
"Well, it's more than that," Ryan said. "Quite a bit more than that."
"$4 trillion?" Wallace wondered.
"Looking at more than that right now. We're fine-tuning the numbers. Congressional Budget Office literally today, over the weekend. We'll cut more than that," Ryan explained.
"We will be exceeding the goals that were put out in the president's debt commission," he added.
Franklin Raines: "Our assets are so riskless that it doesn't matter if we're levered up 80-1"
http://tinyurl.com/68cfuqh
Watch pols (mostly Democrats) make asses of themselves defending the GSE's, plus watch Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Raines claim that "these assets are so riskless" that it doesn't matter if we're levered up 80-1. Gotta love the internet for keeping this footage around forever. We might not get them all tossed in jail, but we can sure ruin their reputations by pointing out their hypocrisy. Again and again and again.
Related:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)