03/25/09 thoughts

Courtesy of BH

"This is just awsome. Even the EU is calling Obama out for what he is.

So long "shining city on a hill", hello Cabrini Green Section 8 Projects.

EU presidency: US economic plans 'a way to hell'

European Union president, calls US economic measures 'a way to hell'

STRASBOURG, France (AP) -- A top European Union politician on Wednesday slammed U.S. plans to spend its way out of recession as "a way to hell."

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, told the European Parliament that President Barack Obama's massive stimulus package and banking bailout "will undermine the stability of the global financial market."

A day after his government collapsed because of a parliamentary vote of no-confidence, Topolanek took the EU presidency on a collision course with Washington over how to deal with the global economic recession.

Most European leaders favor tighter financial regulation, while the U.S. has been pushing for larger economic stimulus plans.

Topolanek's comments are the strongest criticism so far from a European leader as the 27-nation bloc bristles from recent U.S. criticism that it is not spending enough to stimulate demand.

They also pave the way for a stormy summit next week in London between leaders of the Group of 20 industrialized countries.

The host of the summit, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, praised Obama on Tuesday for his willingness to work with Europe on reforming the global economy in the run-up to the G-20 summit.

The United States plans to spend heavily to try and lift its economy out of recession with a $787 billion economic stimulus plan of tax rebates, health and welfare benefits, as well as extra energy and infrastructure spending.

To encourage banks to lend again, the government will also pump $1 trillion into the financial system by buying up treasury bonds and mortgage securities in an effort to clear some of the "toxic assets" -- devalued and untradeable assets -- from banks' balance sheets.

Topolanek bluntly said that "the United States did not take the right path.".

He slammed the U.S.' widening budget deficit and protectionist trade measures -- such as the "Buy America" -- and said that "all of these steps, these combinations and permanency is the way to hell."

"We need to read the history books and the lessons of history and the biggest success of the (EU) is the refusal to go this way," he said.

"Americans will need liquidity to finance all their measures and they will balance this with the sale of their bonds but this will undermine the stability of the global financial market," said Topolanek.

Obama insisted Tuesday that his massive budget proposal is moving the nation down the right path and will help the ailing economy grow again. "This budget is inseparable from this recovery," he said, "because it is what lays the foundation for a secure and lasting prosperity."

Obama also claimed early progress in his aggressive campaign to lead the United States out of its worst economic crisis in 70 years and declared that despite obstacles ahead, the U.S. is "moving in the right direction."

AP Business Writer Aoife White in Brussels contributed to this report"

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Good Article on Obama's Presidency ...and I really like the response below.

When you've brought to economy to its knees, it can only go back up. Even if Obama didn't do anything, things would have still turned around.

We were told that we had to pass the stimulus bill over night or the economy would fail in a matter of days. Yet, once the bill was passed - nothing happened. He promised to pass all bills in the "light of day". He did exactly the opposite.

Seems like Obama's policy is this - since the economy is suffering, let's spend money on everything else that's not.

["I suspect some of those Republican critics have a short memory," Obama said, in response to a question about his deficit-busting budget. "As I recall I'm inheriting a $1.3 trillion annual deficit from them."]

Questions:
+ Who controlled the congress during Bush's second term?
Answer: The Democratic Party

+ Who CHOSE to run for the presidency?
Answer: Obama

+ Who voted Bush in the office TWICE?
Answer: The American People?

+ Who found a loop-hole to give them selves a pay raise without anyone watching?
+ Answer: Congress (Democratic Party)

+ What types of states are failing more than others?
Answer: Those managed by Democrats

Additionally, Who are is this "them" that Obama speaks of? One day its all about "let's work together" and the next they "they are to blame". So if the system works for him, all is well. And when the system doesn't work for him, blame-blame-blame.

We know that we can NEVER expect Obama to fully serve as a president who will stop pushing blame on others and step up to the plate. The only plate he has ever stepped up to are the dinner plates at the White House parties (while the market tumbles week after week).

I love Obama's move to have Joe watch the stimulus money. Joe has no future political aspirations - so should there be any issues on misspending the money, Obama will hang Joe out to dry

Note to Joe: When Obama leaves you holding the Stimulus Bag - consider writing a book as part of your retirement strategy.

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Urban Survival...

Not that I'm the only skeptic that the right medicine has been administered yet to cure-what-ails-us: Paul Tharp's got a good story in the NY Post this morning headlined "Nobel Laureates trash plan for toxic assets. One key quote (which mirrors what I've been telling you for who long?) goes like so:

"Three Nobel winners Edward Prescott, president of the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis, and economics Professors Vernon Smith and James Buchanan stood by their joint statement months ago that Congress was playing in fantasyland with the huge bailout.

They call the rescue effort "a triumph of hope over experience to believe that more government will help the United States today."

So with all this going on, the biggest story of the day may turn out to be the start of the Fed coming into the market today to start purchasing of Treasuries to unfreeze the credit mess. As I've warned before, this a a 'snake-swallows-its-own-tail' kind of thing. Once started down that path in previous economies, the snake starts to get a real appetite going.

Am I the only financial reporter who's got a $105-billion in expired Zimbabwe dollars taped on my office wall to remind me how hungry that kind of snake gets?

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Things are bad when...

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Here's a world-changer for you: The U.S. Navy has a research team which has experimental confirmed cold fusion according to an article this week in EE Times. This is the best article I could find on it and it has the diagram of the experimental container, too.

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Feeling Better

Here: You judge the quip and the dead:

"I'm getting the feeling that these people are falsely comforted by the fact that somehow by having the word trillion at their disposal means that the concept of a trillion has meaning when in fact they might just as well be speaking of infinity."

Shhh!!! You'll be giving Robert Mugabe and the band of Washington socialist wannabe's ideas: "One-infinity, two-infinites, three-infinities....."

Simple choice: Hard government & soft money, or hard money & soft government... easy, huh?

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One more to ponder: "An armed society is a polite society" notes a ham radio friend. Yup.