02.20.09
Posted in Current Events, Money, Politics at 1:55 pm by Administrator
CNN.com had an article about who would and would not be bailed out by Obama’s give-away to people disinclined to pay their mortgages. In the piece Joe Martinez, who is part of what is wrong with our country at the moment, proclaims that “there’s just no point to stay here,” because the value of his home is “never going to come back.” Prior to that point in the story it is explained that the $600,000 house that Martinez bought 2 years ago had fallen in value to about $450,000. Martinez has a fixed rate mortgage and can still afford the payment but stopped paying a couple of months ago in hopes of being able to have the balance of his loan reduced by the Hope for Homeowners program (this is a program that should be scrapped if he is successful). I posted something about some people in a similar position last march.
After only two years he’s certain that he will never recoup the money he put into the house. Joe, I hope that the bank sues you for the money that you should have been paying on your mortgage and that someone gives you the kick in the balls that you deserve.
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02.13.09
Posted in Current Events, Money, Politics at 2:09 pm by Administrator
Chuck Schumer says that Americans don’t care if the government wastes money as long as they get their cut. He’s right, but that’s probably because forty-something percent don’t pay any taxes so they don’t have any skin in the game.
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.”
– Alexander Fraser Tytler
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02.09.09
Posted in Current Events, Politics at 10:29 pm by Administrator
President Obama spoke tonight about how the spending bill currently circling the bowl in the Senate would save us all from certain doom. He repeatedly claimed that the bill would “save or create” 4 million jobs. As it turns out there is no need to spend $800 billion.
Just today I saved 100,000 peoples’ jobs. That’s right, and according to estimates that I made on my lunch hour, I may be able to double that number tomorrow. Of course because it is impossible to determine exactly how many jobs were saved, my estimates are impossible to disprove. When you go to work tomorrow, remember all of the trouble I went to. You’re welcome.
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02.06.09
Posted in Current Events, Money, Politics at 1:31 pm by Administrator
Peter Schiff says that the result of the “stimulus” being debated by the Senate will be an “Unmitigated Disaster”. I’d say that just about sums it up.
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01.08.09
Posted in Current Events, Money, Politics at 11:15 pm by Administrator
So if you have to put together a government stimulus plan (and there really never is a good reason to), how would you do it? The president elect has indicated that he is interested in providing a payroll tax reduction of something like $40 every two weeks for taxpayers with incomes of less that $200,000 (and many people who don’t pay any taxes). Again, if the government is going to try to stimulate the economy by redistributing large quantities of money, this is a much better way to go about it than what Bush & Company came up with last year.
For one thing, it’s really easy to waste an extra $80 a month, and the whole point is to get everyone to spend the money instead of saving or paying down bills like they did with the Bush checks (for the record, I put that money down on a new house). Also, you cut out two expensive chunks last springs stimulus plan: (1) the self-congratulatory letter that the IRS sent out prior to the checks being issued, and (2) the actual costs associated with printing and distributing the checks themselves. Note that those who, like me, had their refunds from the year before electronically deposited, did not actually receive a paper check thus reducing costs somewhat. The estimated cost of the first letter was in the neighborhood of $42 million while the printing, distribution, and administration of the remainder of the program was estimated to be between $300 million and $1 billion.
This is rare praise for the Obama administration, they may have been able to trim a billion dollars out of an $800 billion plan. So I guess the moral of the story is that if you’re going to go ahead and spend the money — and I don’t think that anything is going to stop that train — save on the extras.
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12.10.08
Posted in Current Events, Money, Politics at 2:21 pm by Administrator
Politicians just can’t stop talking about the audacity of Rick Wagner, Bob Nardelli, Alan Mulally flying to Wasington on private jets to meet with law makers on November 19. There is actually talk of making the sale of those jets a condition of receiving bailout money from the feds. Because I don’t have anything better to do on my lunch hour, I googled Rick Wagner’s salary (of the big three, his company is alleged to be in the most trouble). According to mlive.com in 2007 he received a salary of $1.56M and incentive bonuses of another $1.8M; he also received stock options that, at least in April, were valued at about $11.7M — I’m going to count those as being worth zero now. That totals $3.36M for the year or about $1680/hr based on a 2000 hr work year.
I also looked up the distance from GM’s corporate office to Capital Hill — 526 miles according to Google, or about 9 hours drive one way. So for the round trip flying takes about 14 hours less than driving, or about $23520 if you use the conservative number that I estimated above; it could be even more if you count the stock options. That’s pretty comparable to the $30000 that it supposedly costs to fly the jet.
Plus, we are talking about a bunch of politicians who pissed away, what, 20 times as much money on TARP just a few months ago. That wasn’t acceptable either, but the outrage over the stupid jets is ridiculous and hypocritical.
As for the role of politicians in this whole deal, the line seems to be that bankruptcy is not an option, but it sure seems like the only real solution out there is chapter 11, at least for GM and probably Chrysler (maybe a merger). It would be bad for the many people who would undoubtedly lose their jobs, but you can’t stop that; GM’s own turnaround plan calls for releasing thousands of people anyway. Plus, if they could work out a way to loosen the UAW’s stranglehold on the entire industry (it is union campaign $ that make bankruptcy unfathomable for most politicos), that would be great for the country.
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11.24.08
Posted in Current Events, Politics at 2:06 pm by Administrator
First he snubbed Hillary for the VP slot and now Obama has picked Lawrence Summers to lead his National Economic Council after he said women weren’t smart enough to be professors in the fields of science and engineering (I paraphrased that). I have yet to hear anyone screaming about his potential appointment like they were when he resigned from Harvard.
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09.26.08
Posted in Current Events, Money, Politics at 11:51 pm by Administrator
John McCain proposes a spending freeze in tonight’s debate.
“How about a spending freeze on everything but defense, veteran affairs and entitlement programs.”
What else does the federal government spend money on? That’s like 95% of where federal money goes. Oh, I forgot about distressed mortgages.
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08.20.08
Posted in Current Events, Politics at 9:59 pm by Administrator
You could make an argument that it is for better or for worse, but according to the WSJ the 110th Congress has passed fewer bills than any other in the last two decades (apparently they didn’t keep track before that). On the RealClearPolitics.com composite, Congress has garnered an impressive 19% approval rating. How do they guys keep getting elected, and who are these people who actually approve of the job Congress is doing.
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08.01.08
Posted in Current Events, Politics at 1:11 pm by Administrator
Barack Obama released a policy paper detailing further his plan to redistribute wealth in America. The title in big bold letters reads:
“TAKE [steal] THE EXCESS PROFITS OF OIL COMPANIES TO HELP WORKING
FAMILIES DEAL WITH ENERGY COSTS WITH NEW $1,000 REBATE CHECKS
AND ENACT A $50 BILLION PACKAGE TO SAVE 1 MILLION JOBS”
That should send a shiver down your spine.
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