Who's next?...

I expect a huge increase in consolidation as the Empire implodes upon itself. I believe the only retailer left will be Walmart for all practical purposes. Very few grocery stores with union contracts will survive. Right now our store is only hiring part time. Kids quit and they aren't being replaced on my crew. Expect a small bonus this year for Xmas then that comes to a screeching halt as sales drop off a cliff.

Only advantage we have is that Walmart can give food a way at cost to bring in sales. Multiply this across the country and you can see what i mean about the demise of union companies.

I'm glad I left California because it ain't going to be pretty in those "hoods" and what's left of the middle class has to watch their houses being repossessed.

My sister and her husband down there have moved in  with their daughter to survive. Expect a lot more of that.

Patty and I will be out of debt, with no house or car payment in about 20 months. We could make it with out the car but that shouldn't be a problem. Trying to help someone else will not be fun. You never know about recessions (or depressions) we could all be in the poor house.

Anheuser-Busch shareholders bless InBev deal - MarketWatch

Anheuser-Busch shareholders bless InBev deal
By Matt Andrejczak, MarketWatch
Last update: 1:21 p.m. EST Nov. 12, 2008
Comments: 9
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Anheuser-Busch Cos. said Wednesday a majority of its shareholders voted to approve its proposed combination with rival beer giant InBev NV.
When the deal closes, Anheuser-Busch shareholders will get $70 in cash for each share of Anheuser-Busch stock they own.
The deal, which creates the world's largest beer company, is valued at $52 billion. The new company will be called Anheuser-Busch InBev.
A closing date has not been set, but the companies expect the merger to be done before the end of the year. InBev shareholders had approved the merger on Sept. 29

Could Greenspan destroy our system on purpose....

Ayn Rand was a nut. One of her right hand men was Alan Greenspan. Makes you wonder though.

The Daily Reckoning

Ron Paul: In the 1960s, I was studying and reading Austrian economics and I received the Objectivist newsletter that Ayn Rand put out. Alan Greenspan had a piece in the newsletter and it was a delightful article - it said all the things I believed in. One day, we had a personal meeting with Greenspan just to get our pictures taken and chat for a few minutes, and we knew that was coming up. So I dug out my original copy, and I took that with me, so when we were getting ready to get our picture, I flipped it open to his article and said, "Do you remember this?" and he said he did. Then I asked him to autograph it, so he got out his pen and he was signing it, and I said, "Do you want to write a disclaimer on this article?" He said, "No, I wouldn't do that. I just read this recently and I fully support everything I wrote." Which is interesting because you don't know exactly what he means. If he fully supports what he wrote, why was he managing a monetary system that was exactly opposite of what he wrote in 1966?

Alan Greenspan, Ayn Rand, Ron Paul

This guy is nuts......

Only these left.wing nut jobs can get the Nobel prize, right? Paul Krugman, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, etc. Read the whole piece and let your mind boggle over the most ridiculous piece ever written on economics. Of course, Lord Obama will make it all better. Right.

Op-Ed Columnist - When Consumers Capitulate - NYTimes.com

For the fact is that we are in a liquidity trap right now: Fed policy has lost most of its traction. It’s true that Ben Bernanke hasn’t yet reduced interest rates all the way to zero, as the Japanese did in the 1990s. But it’s hard to believe that cutting the federal funds rate from 1 percent to nothing would have much positive effect on the economy. In particular, the financial crisis has made Fed policy largely irrelevant for much of the private sector: The Fed has been steadily cutting away, yet mortgage rates and the interest rates many businesses pay are higher than they were early this year.

The capitulation of the American consumer, then, is coming at a particularly bad time. But it’s no use whining. What we need is a policy response.

The ongoing efforts to bail out the financial system, even if they work, won’t do more than slightly mitigate the problem. Maybe some consumers will be able to keep their credit cards, but as we’ve seen, Americans were overextended even before banks started cutting them off.

No, what the economy needs now is something to take the place of retrenching consumers. That means a major fiscal stimulus. And this time the stimulus should take the form of actual government spending rather than rebate checks that consumers probably wouldn’t spend.

Let’s hope, then, that Congress gets to work on a package to rescue the economy as soon as the election is behind us. And let’s also hope that the lame-duck Bush administration doesn’t get in the way.

Maybe Jesus is coming after all......

Where do they invent these polls at? Wait a year and make a redo.

CBS News Poll: Americans Optimistic About Next Four Years - Horserace

CBS News Poll: Americans Optimistic About Next Four Years
Posted by Vaughn Ververs| Comments12


Whether they voted for him or not, Americans are optimistic about the next four years with Barack Obama as president, according to a new CBS News poll. Seventy-one percent of all Americans say they are optimistic about the next four years, including nearly half (48 percent) of all those who voted for John McCain. Just 17 percent of all Americans are pessimistic, including 40 percent of McCain voters.

Kind of convenient don't you think......

Every few years we run out of oil, then we find more. All we need is a price increase or tax cut. This time the economy collapsed when it happened. No really.

Oil prices are set to spike again | Well prepared | The Economist

The cost of production is no more static than the price of oil. Falling prices for important raw materials, such as steel and natural gas, should help to bring down development costs. By the same token, the cost of hiring some kinds of drilling rigs is falling. The strengthening dollar also helps, points out Paul Sankey of Deutsche Bank, since that tends to increase oil firms’ dollar-denominated revenue relative to expenses in other currencies.

But according to Francisco Blanch of Merrill Lynch, the rising cost of capital is likely to outweigh all these benefits. Tar-sands schemes, like most oil projects, are very capital-intensive and so very sensitive to changes in financing costs. He believes that higher borrowing charges could push the cost of new tar-sands developments as high as $150 a barrel by 2010. So if demand for oil has started growing again by then, and if tar sands remain the source of marginal production, then the oil price will have to rise back to this summer’s levels to stimulate increased supply. “The age of easy oil”, warns the Emirati minister, “is gone forever.”

Definitlily give these guys a bail out....

Who needs unions anyways. Dems get all that union money then ship their jobs to Russia! Only in America!

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

New Way Of Doing Business

In keeping with Pelosi's spirit of a "New Way Of Doing Business", GM Opens $300 Million Russian Plant to Boost Sales.

General Motors Corp., the world's biggest carmaker, opened a $300 million factory in Russia as it looks to compensate for slumping sales in western Europe and North America.

The plant in the Shushary district on the outskirts of St. Petersburg will produce 70,000 Chevrolet Captiva sport-utility vehicles and the Opel Astra, with plans to manufacture the Chevrolet Cruze compact car next year.

"Our strategy is to become the leading manufacturer in Russia," Carl-Peter Forster, GM's chief for Europe, told reporters during the plant opening today. "For us Russia is not an emerging market. Russia emerged long ago."

So instead of losing jobs to Mexico, China, and India, GM's "New Way Of Doing Business" will be to lose jobs to Russia. I am quite sure the Treasury and House Speaker Pelosi will be excited by this development.

Most of what we are hearing is Bull....

Plenty of money out there but why should the big banks lend any when they can get billions by not doing so. The fed just ladles tons of cash to them and they buy each other up.

Until the governments around the world stop this will continue. "Corrections" are normal when fraud and greed are punished by spending cuts. Like any pyramid scheme eventually you run out of suckers to pay 25% interest on credit cards and half or more of your income on house payments. Living on credit doesn't work for very long.Price correction is what's going on.
Government panics to save their contributors only make it worse.

Check out the Daily Reckoning blog:

Deflation Now…Inflation Later

Yes, dear reader, everything is going according to plan. But whose plan? It's not the plan of consumers - who counted on having more and more money to spend. It's not the plan of investors; they're getting hammered by the markets. It's not the plan of Bernanke or Paulson either; they're desperately trying to stop it.

No, it's Nature's Own Plan…in which bubbles always pop…what goes up eventually comes down…and people always get, neither what they expect nor what they hope for, but what they deserve.

"Nature in her wisdom, and God in His grace," we wrote in Financial Reckoning Day, "make sure people get what they've got coming…"

Remember, a correction is equal and opposite to the deception that precedes it. A few years ago, we predicted that based on the level of mass hallucination in the markets in '05-'06, the coming correction "ought to be a doozy."

Now we find out what a doozy looks like.

I'm now a Ron Paul republican.......

Government has usurped the power granted to us by the Constitution. Wait til the Shit hits the fan over the next decade and there is blood in the streets. All this power will be directed at the citizens and our liberty will be crushed.

We should not forget that we got Mac as our candidate because of Dems,  "independents"and airhead "moderates" voted that way in the primaries. we fiscal conservatives didn't have a voice. This guy was dead meat until this happened. Everyone who voted for Mac in the primary campaigns raise your right hand.

Thought so.

Ron Paul has been warning us about this for years. Nothing matters to the criminal gang in Washington except winning to maintain power. Just look at the treatment of Sarah Palin by the Media.

Be ready: Save, cut spending on foolishness, line up credit sources, especially credit union credit cards.  It helps if you got a government check to fall back on. Because jobs are the first things to go.

In a few short years everything will be on sale. After the coming bust (you ain't seen nothing yet) we can go nuts and buy everything we want at half price or less. Happens every time in history as an Empire implodes. Rome did it. England especially gave it's wealth away through "free trade" borrowing itself into the poor house and now rapidly becoming a third world hangout for Moslem fascist.

Check this guy out for further info.

The Daily Reckoning

Today, if we had to pay for fighting this war and financing our welfare state, there would be a tax revolt in this country because it would cost so much. But they can delay this by borrowing, by inflating. That is literally just creating money out of thin air to pay the bills and delaying the payment. So the whole idea of these deficits we run up and the fact that we have a financial monetary system that helps encourage politicians to do exactly the wrong thing instead of working to limit the size of government and maximize individual liberty and maximize the marketplace… Politicians end up doing the opposite because they get rewarded. Most incumbents win by being errand boys, coming to Washington and delivering the goods. But my point over the years has been that eventually that system breaks down, and it's very, very dangerous and very harmful to everybody concerned.

moslem fascist

Weired.....

Protestors Explode Over Prop 8; Riots Turns Ugly ~ Griffs Scrapyard

Protestors Explode Over Prop 8; Riots Turns Ugly

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Thursday, November 6th, 2008
by Griff

Thousands of protesters have flocked to the streets in California in a raging fury, and it’s all thanks to Proposition 8, which aimed to ban all gay marriages, and discard any that had previously existed in California.

In a show of complete intolerance and disregard to civil rights, Proposition 8 won a majority vote and is currently on it’s way to modify California’s very Constitution. While the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) has opened a number of lawsuits against the Proposition, calling it unconstitutional, a number of people have decided that they simply can’t wait, and instead have taken to the streets for their voices to be heard.

Constitution... We don't need no stinkin Constitution....

Deleveraging the World Economy

If there ever was an event where our elected representatives showed their complete and utter disdain for the numbskulls who elected them, this was it.

By the way, some of you may have wondered how a spending bill could originate in the U.S. Senate. Doesn't the Constitution require that all appropriation bills begin in the House of Representatives? (Not that anyone in Washington, on either side of the aisle, pays any attention to the Constitution anymore.)

Here's how that particular trick was done. The Senate took a bill that had been passed in the House some time ago - in this case, the Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007 - and voted to replace all of the text with their spanking-new measure. Presto-chango, a new (but unconstitutional) spending bill was transformed into an appropriations bill that originated in the House.

Did I already mention how this measure, more than any other I've seen, shows the total and complete disdain our representatives have for us? I guess it doesn't really matter if its origins were strictly Constitutional, since the measure itself will finance the biggest government takeover of business we've ever seen in this country. Would someone please show me where the Constitution says that the Treasury can take taxpayers' money to buy stock in a bank, an insurance company, or another financial institution?

But I keep forgetting; we don't operate under the Constitution any more. Haven't for decades.

Who the Hell's idea was it ....

I couldn't have found an easier candidate for Ob to beat. How did this guy win the primaries. Answer: Dems infiltrated the primaries as "independents". Besides what Coulter points out the basic difference between OB and Mac is that one was white.

Ann Coulter : The Reign of Lame Falls Mainly on McCain - Townhall.com

After showing nearly superhuman restraint throughout this campaign, which was lost the night McCain won the California primary, I am now liberated to announce that all I care about is hunting down and punishing every Republican who voted for McCain in the primaries. I have a list and am prepared to produce the names of every person who told me he was voting for McCain to the proper authorities.

Ann Coulter, primary

Birds of feather flock together....

Obie is a good snake oil salesman. Why are we surprised?

boortz.com: Nealz Nuze Today's Nuze


AND IT BEGINS ...

Less than 24 hours after his acceptance speech, Barack Obama is working on creating his White House staff. To be expected. But the rumors and whispers came to fruition ... his first act as president-elect was to ask Democrat Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel to be his chief of staff. And you elected this guy to be the beacon of change? Rahm Emanuel is the epitome of old-school, established Washington partisan politics. He was a top dog washer for Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1998. In 2006, you can thank Rahm Emanuel for the Democrat take-over of the Congress ... he was the Chairman of the Democrat Congressional Campaign committee. This He recognized the fact that they Republicans had blown it. And he capitalized. Big time.

Watch money......

The government will tell you when, where, and how to spend. Might as well.

No Savings Allowed

we have "total catastrophe" to look forward to! And sure enough… Look!

Or perhaps it is as Ayn Rand said, circa 1959 - according to a clip sent by Ed Steer of CaseyResearch.com - who also nailed it when she said, "Watch money. Money is the barometer of a society's virtue. When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion - when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing - when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but protect them against you - when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice - you may know that your society is doomed."

And although society is doomed by the execrable actions of the morons at the Fed and Congress for these last few decades, that does not necessarily mean that we are all doomed, as gold, silver and oil will always do very well in times like these, which I say with such powerful authority that you can see the sincerity shooting out of my eyes like incandescent sparks because for the last 4,500 years when an idiot government did this kind of crap, gold and silver protected their owners, while nothing else really did! Nothing!

Give the Dem's the Depression.....

The next few years are going to be traumatic. No conservative is going to be happy. Borrow and spend will be the call. State governments will be in line for bailouts. For that matter, everyone and their brother will be in line. Any way you cut it, finding new entities to tax will will become unavoidable from this point on.

Anyways, expect a debt moratorium of some kind, raising "sin taxes" and more kickbacks to taxpayers to save the Washington elite's asses. Either way avoiding the pain is impossible. They can only make the situation worse by temporarily staving off the collapse by re inflating big time.

A deflationary collapse after boom and bust policies go awry is no fun. Expect radical changes in our military usage world wide as the Empire retrenches and continues moving to China. Only they have the consumer base to create and sustain a new inflationary bubble that the system needs to support capitalism's  underlying constituencies. (every one wants something for nothing, hand it over.)

It must be understood that the West has temporarily exhausted itself. That's why China will have it's day in the sun. We may expect the Moslems to take over most of Europe and convert these economies to permanent depressed areas like the Middle East without oil.

As far as the Middle East is concerned  oil begins to disappear from the scene  as a viable economic engine for progress in all these countries under a Democrat regime. Think renewable. This guarantees conservative religion in power becoming the norm.
Expect turmoil to become endemic as the wealth dries up and fundamentalism takes over . Unfortunately,In order for Israel to survive the nuke may come in to play.


Talk radio gets it in the chin with the "fairness doctrine". Wall street will get cleaned out of people who formally supported the Republicans. Government takes over most of the the banking system and gives out large handouts to the Dems constituencies. The ''rich" are already lining up with Obie staying under the class warfare radar (The rich always buys a seat at the table).Historically banks are in bed with the Dems and Wall Street owns the Repubs.

Let's not forget though, that the Boomers are still in full power and can change most of this by saving and investing for the future if we stay employed. I've argued for years that free trade, i.e giving our economic base away to foreign entities therefore destroying the working class is nuts. We, the working class (blue collar) who fought all the wars, paid all the taxes and made the world safe for democracy, have been sold down the river by con artists, quick buck guys and Ivy league grads without a lick of sense or shame. We are broke.

As far as the current election cycle is , you would think Republicans have learned by now that it takes more than opposition to abortion  to keep us at the polls. Time will tell if they have learned not to lie about their agenda. Small government is not wishful thinking but a winning time tested winner. However,  since when is bailing out their buddies on Wall Street, politically the kiss of death, part of controlling spending. Hello!

Our way of life is disappearing before our eyes and we ain't happy. The next couple of election cycles will prove it. The establishment is in deep shit. Repeat, constantly lying to win elections doesn't cut it for long. Bring back Reagan's campaign promises for God's sake and run on it.


What has become obvious for the immediate future is that it's the  affordability index which counts the consumer's ability to buy big ticket items that counts. At this point in time, people's wages haven't caught up with inflation. Also, it should be no surprise to anyone that bankrupt people can't pay more for  houses, stocks or credit cards even if you give it to them without a down, without credit checks or by using interest rate gimmicks. Any time you accede the consumer's carrying capacity for debt, you get a stop in buying. Nobody buys, nobody sells, nobody works, everybody screwed.


We'll have a mess for awhile until the system is cleared of all the junk bonds, sleazy loans and incompetent criminals in Washington. Expect unemployment to sky rocket and emergency measures to be taken until then.
Until this situation improves the government is simply wasting it's time. No one ever consumed themselves out of a bust. Period!

Sorry all you dreamers but only when we spend less and save more than we consume is there a surplus to invest for the future. No matter what the criminal class in Washington does! Remember: save and invest is the mantra.

Works everywhere it's tried.

boomers, depression, bust, affordability index, sin taxes, deflationary collapse, fundamentalism, Washington elites

Run this guy for president......

Hurry!

Epoch Times - The Financial Crisis Symptom of Unsound Economy

Where is the voice for rebuilding the American economy through re-industrialization?

America's fundamental problem is that the economy is fundamentally unsound. it is hollowed out--a consumer economy that depends on persuading people to buy stuff they don't need with money they don't have.

That's a cruel scam, not an economy.

In other words, stabilizing the markets and solving the unprecedented liquidity crisis is only the first step. Long-term, what is needed is a plan to seriously incentivise American companies to manufacture, mine, and drill in America.

financial crisis

Poor Babies......

Maybe Lord Obie will kiss it and make it all better

China Confidential

Oil Price Plunge Shakes Iran
AP reports from Tehran:

Three weeks ago, a hard-line cleric close to Iran's president gloated publicly that the world financial crisis was God's punishment on the United States. The laughter, however, was short-lived.

Iran plunged this week into a bitter storm of political recrimination, largely directed at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as officials and ordinary Iranians realized with shock that the Islamic republic faces a severe economic crisis of its own.

The reason: As oil prices plunge because of the global slowdown, Iran is caught in a classic crunch. Ahmadinejad's government failed to save enough of the billions in oil windfall it earned during the good years to now cushion the bad.

The same crunch afflicts Venezuela and to a lesser extent, Russia, as all three struggle with falling oil prices.

But in Iran, the economic crisis has quickly turned political. Economic woes are the key issue as Ahmadinejad — already deeply unpopular and suffering from exhaustion, he said this week — seeks re-election next summer in a tough vote. And they are shaping up as his weakness.

china, oil prices

I got mine.......

I have two guns as a matter of fact. Come and get 'em.

China Confidential

Dateline USA....

As election day nears, gun stores around the country are reporting booming sales. Buyers are concerned that The Candidate of (Communist-backed) Change will (a) win, and (b) eventually empower states to outlaw both guns and self-defense. A.W. R. Hawkins, writing in Human Events, illuminates the issue:

With the 2008 presidential election upon us, the National Rifle Association is making their case against Barack Obama. They unflinchingly describe him as “the most anti-gun presidential candidate in American history” and have dedicated large sums of money to exposing his anti-gun agenda.

An in-depth look at his record justifies their position. Not only is Obama the economic socialist Rush Limbaugh has said he is, he is also a gun-banning associate of 1960s radicals who cannot wait to take away one of America’s greatest freedoms - - the right to keep and bear arms.

The NRA points out the fact that Obama supports handgun bans while Obama frequently excuses himself by saying he supports the Second Amendment but believes states, cities, and municipalities should be able to regulate types of handguns and implement local restrictions. (This convolution is an example of the type of reasoning he uses to explain how he can both find handgun bans and the Heller case, which banned handgun bans, to be “reasonable.”)

I got my stock.....You better get yours.....

One of the few stocks going up over the last year. About 30%. The Empire rules!!

FT.com / Companies / Retail - Wal-Mart sees opportunities amid the crisis

Wal-Mart sees opportunities amid the crisis

By Jonathan Birchall in New York

Published: November 2 2008 17:51 | Last updated: November 2 2008 17:51

Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, has said it believes it could see “extraordinary opportunities” in the global retail landscape created by the disruption of financial markets.

Lee Scott, chief executive, told investors and analysts this week that “there are probably things that the government might allow you to do that they would not have allowed you to do in the past”, while saying that the retailer would take a “thoughtfully aggressive” approach to any opportunities.

walmart

Rising tide under Bush years.....

Hard to dispute these facts. Every "stable" household in America is better off. Stable means "steadily employed".

Problems coming to light are printing press money. Lowering interest rates to avoid losing elections generates huge deficits  which robs savings. Borrowed money then leads to speculation on credit spreads and currencies. Money always flows to highest immediate return. This has been happening steadily now for last 10 years or so. Once the Republicans abandoned "Reaganomics" and inflated . The deficits exploded taking them our of power. Maybe for a generation.

The reason? Not allowing political constituencies to lose in the short term leads to everyone losing through inflation and eventually bankruptcy. This gives your enemies a chance to humiliate you for lying to your voters. Causing cynicism and dispare.

Politically it is imperative that the Dems win this cycle of elections to bring the bust to it's head. There is no painless answer ever found in history to this dilemma. Other than to bankrupt the treasury. Last time this happened in the 30's the Republicans lost all claim to power for a whole generation .

The housing bubble  created by deficit spending lead to gambling that we would be richer in the future. Borrowing money leads to this feeling of getting something for nothing. Anything goes wrong and this house of cards fallin crushes everything in it's path.

US Census Press Releases

Household Income Rises, Poverty Rate Unchanged,
Number of Uninsured Down

Real median household income in the United States climbed 1.3 percent between 2006 and 2007, reaching $50,233, according to a report released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. This is the third annual increase in real median household income.

Meanwhile, the nation’s official poverty rate in 2007 was 12.5 percent, not statistically different from 2006. There were 37.3 million people in poverty in 2007, up from 36.5 million in 2006. The number of people without health insurance coverage declined from 47 million (15.8 percent) in 2006 to 45.7 million (15.3 percent) in 2007.

These findings are contained in the report Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2007 [PDF]. The data were compiled from information collected in the 2008 Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC).

Also released today were income, poverty and earnings data from the 2007 American Community Survey (ACS) for all states and congressional districts, as well as for metropolitan areas, counties, cities and American Indian/Alaska Native areas of 65,000 population or more.

Current Population Survey
(Primarily the source of national-level statistics)

The 2008 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) reveals the following results for the nation:

Income

Race and Hispanic Origin (Race data refer to people reporting a single race only. Hispanics can be of any race.)

* Real median income (adjusted for inflation) for black and non-Hispanic white households rose between 2006 and 2007, representing the first measured real increase in annual household income for each group since 1999.
* Real median household income remained statistically unchanged for Asians and Hispanics.
* Among the race groups and Hispanics, black households had the lowest median income in 2007 ($33,916). This compares to the median of $54,920 for non-Hispanic white households. Asian households had the highest median income ($66,103). The median income for Hispanic households was $38,679.

Don't worry Obie will fix it....

As soon as the Lord gets elected happy times will be back, yea right.

California Cities Cut Police Budgets - WSJ.com

VALLEJO, Calif. -- When the economic crisis deepened this fall, this city already was losing scores of police and firefighters because it could no longer afford the rich salaries and benefits it offered after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Now, with crime on the rise and tax revenue sinking, this San Francisco Bay area city faces more cuts in police and fire department budgets.

crisis

Why are we not surprised?....

Don McNay: Credit Cards In The World of Taxpayer-Owned Banks

The American people ponied up $700 billion to supposedly bail out some big banks on Wall Street. So far, we have not seen the banks what banks are supposed to do, lend people money. Instead they are doing the thing that Wall Street raiders do, take over other companies. PNC and Fifth Third were the first banks to make deals, backed by taxpayer dollars.

Bush and Paulsen encouraged bad behavior in their bailout bill. They gave big banks money and tax incentives to gobble up small banks. They made sure that their buddies on Wall Street were taken care of.

Most big banks didn't need bad behavior encouragement. They've been able to do harmful things long before the government started subsiding them.

Read it and weep........

Bear Warning

Warning to Outdoorsmen

Only the Empire works for all......

Planned Chaos: Introduction (Part 1 of 11) by Ludwig Von Mises -- Capitalism Magazine

Planned Chaos: Introduction (Part 1 of 11)
by Ludwig Von Mises (November 1, 2008)

The characteristic mark of this age of dictators, wars and revolutions is its anticapitalistic bias. Most governments and political parties are eager to restrict the sphere of private initiative and free enterprise. It is an almost unchallenged dogma that capitalism is done for and that the coming of all-round regimentation of economic activities is both inescapable and highly desirable.

Nonetheless capitalism is still very vigorous in the Western Hemisphere . Capitalist production has made very remarkable progress even in these last years. Methods of production were greatly improved. Consumers have been supplied with better and cheaper goods and with many new articles unheard of a short time ago. Many countries have expanded the size and improved the quality of their manufacturing. In spite of the anticapitalistic policies of all governments and of almost all political parties, the capitalist mode of production is still fulfilling its social function in supplying the consumers with more, better and cheaper goods.

Ludwig von mizes, capitalism

No we will call this a Depression....

Short lived until the boomers retire over the next 10 years and cash out their stocks. Currently it's the law. By the age of 70 401 k's have to be liquidated. Doesn't matter if they change the law, we are broke and don't have enough new taxpayers. So, we need to import Mexicans to pay for our Social Security. Better bone up on your Spanish, amigo.

Up here in Idaho we have guns to eat with. What have you got. Obanomics?

Bloomberg.com: Worldwide

Oct. 31 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. consumer spending tumbled in September and a purchasing managers' survey showed the biggest deterioration since 1968, foreshadowing a deepening economic slump.

``Consumers have thrown in the towel,'' said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Massachusetts, who correctly forecast the drop in purchases. ``They have no choice but to cut back on spending in a very big way. This is going to be a fairly deep, long recession.''

The 0.3 percent drop in purchases matched the biggest slide in four years and followed no change in August and July, the Commerce Department said today in Washington. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago said its business index fell to 37.8 this month, below all 58 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.

Job losses, increases in food and fuel costs and falling property values brought an end to the longest expansion in spending on record and made the economy the most important issue in next week's presidential election. The collapse in lending and sentiment this month indicate Americans will keep retrenching.

Today's Commerce Department report also showed that the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation cooled last month. Receding price pressures mean the Fed has ``more room to maneuver'' with interest rates, Behravesh said. San Francisco Fed President Janet Yellen said yesterday policy makers may cut the key rate close to zero percent should the economy remain weak.

Employment Costs

Labor Department figures showed separately that employment costs rose 0.7 percent in July to September, the same pace as the previous two quarters. That's a sign that rising unemployment is stifling gains in wages and benefits.

bloomberg, guns, broke

I want one......

Click on it for the picture.

Alaskan Clydesdale

Alaskan Clydesdale

Only in Alaska ....... This guy raised an abandoned moose calf with his horses, and believe it or not, he has trained it for lumber removal and other hauling tasks. Given the 2,000 pounds of robust muscle, and the splayed, grippy hooves, he claims it is the best work animal he has. He says the secret to keeping the moose around is a sweet salt lick,although during the rut he disappears for a couple of weeks, but always comes home.... impressive!

Where is Obie going to get the money for for his daydreams.......

We are broke. Can't get moola from broke people. Our savings have disappeared in a spasm of greed and fear on the great gambling hall called the stock market. All we will be able to do is sell off what's left to the highest bidder. Obie has to win to save the clowns that got us in to this mess. He'll have to dismantle our military. No where else is any money left. Everything else is untouchable i.e. Social Security, Medicaid, Welfare for his voters, pork for dem's in Congress, etc.

Mac faces the same problems except his constituents are the military. Congress will belong to the socialists so he get's nothing done except inflate the currency as a compromise or watch millions lose everything they have in the coming Depression and face a third party revolution.

Expect war in the streets as Obie's supporters smell the election was stolen from their Lord. I 'll stay up here in Walmart Heaven idaho.

Speaking of Pat Buchanon yesterday....

::: Patrick J. Buchanan - Official Website

PJB: Comrade Obama?

By Patrick J. Buchanan

If Barack Obama is not a socialist, he does the best imitation of one I’ve ever seen.

Under his tax plan, the top 5 percent of wage-earners have their income tax rates raised from 35 percent to 40 percent, while the bottom 40 percent of all wage-earners, who pay no income tax, are sent federal checks.

If this is not the socialist redistribution of wealth, what is it?

A steeply graduated income tax has always been the preferred weapon of the left for bringing about socialist equality. Indeed, in the “Communist Manifesto” of 1848, Karl Marx was himself among the first to call for “a heavy progressive or graduated income tax.”

pat buchanan, walmart, socialist

The Empire is not American.....

The Empire is capitalism. Enforced by the American military and financed originally by the American, and now the world's, consumer. The ruling elites who control the political process could care less their or your nationality. As long as world trade is unimpeded you and I can do pretty much believe what we want. But just try to vote for a Ross Perot or Pat Buchanan and see how far you get standing in their way.

Personally, I believe someone has to control it. Imagine a world with out peaceful trade and you get the 1930's all over again. Conflicts between trading parties have to be settled at the upper levels because we all have nukes. Unfortunately, xenophobia keeps rearing it's head and threatening the status quot.

Archdruidreport

1. The End of American Empire

Right now America is as addicted to empire as any inner-city crackhead to cocaine. We support the world’s most bloated military, with troops and bases in more than a hundred countries, in order to enforce a global economic order that allows the 5% of the world’s people who live in the United States to use roughly a third of the world’s resources. At the same time, empires are costly pets, and ours – like every other empire in history – is becoming an economic burden our nation can no longer support; at the same time, the drastic decrease in US living standards that would follow the end of American empire is a political time bomb nobody wants to touch. Caught in that dilemma, the United States seems determined to follow the usual course of past empires, allowing its imperial commitments to drag it down.

A depression, however, would force the issue. In the midst of economic collapse, the United States would be no more able to maintain a global military presence than Russia was after its own collapse. The troops would have to come home – not just from Iraq and Afghanistan, but from the whole far-flung web of US military bases – and resources now being drained by the incubus of empire would be available for more constructive tasks, such as preparing for the onset of peak oil.

American Empire, Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan

Next comes a debt moratorium.....

You ain't seen nothin yet. My generation will start taking money out of the stock market over the next few years to pay their over priced houses and other bills. The boomers are collectively broke. We have to look at a few facts to get some answers.

First of all it's the affordability index that matters. When I sold and bought real estate in the late 80's-, most people could afford a house around 80000 (payments of 450) on the median income of 24000. When this crisis began to develope in 2005-2006 the avg median household was closer to 44000. (Now you it's gone up to around 52000 .) Who amoung us making this much money  can afford 2100 per mo. for a avg. house in California, Florida, or Arizona? let alone come up with 60000 for a down payment. Now throw in 500 for or more for cars, 250 for credit cards and add nutso gas prices? No one in their right mind would give these people more credit now that their piggy bank of a house they bought is upside down in value!

Let's just say that we ran out of suckers. Proof is in the stock market crash-down 40 % over a years time. The market ran out of buyers when speculation developed in oil futures and currency trading. Where else could all those trillions go when the debt parade hit a ditch. Fortunately we have a chance of benefiting from it. During depressions people who saved and increased their credit limits bought everything for pennies on the dollar. But wait. We are early in the cycle. Read my first paragraph. Until we collectively change our spend and borrowing ways, well......

What happens when interest rates hit zero or negative 1? Every thing booms again. Are you ready? All those trillions of printing press money has to go some where. Last time 2003-2004 it went into real estate and stocks. In Sept. 2001 that down dropped to approximately 8500. It just , after 7 years , hit that mark again this week. Are you getting the idea.

Hey, it's not over until it's over.

Wait until we discuss credit cards. Weee!!!!

Plans swirl about how to save trouble global economy - Oct. 24, 2008

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Governments and central banks of the world's leading nations have taken unprecedented coordinated actions in the past month to help out battered financial markets and economies around the globe.

Yet, the global meltdown in stocks continued Friday. And this lack of confidence and sense of panic has left experts wondering what can be done next to assure investors and get banks to operate normally once again.

Obie never met a gun he didn't want to ban......

Don't say you weren't warned.

Gun BaN Obama

Obama Campaign Threatens Legal Action Over NRA Ads
MORE NEWS
9/25/2008 -

Fairfax, VA-Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign has sent threatening letters to news agencies in Pennsylvania and Ohio to stop airing ads exposing his anti-gun record sponsored by the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF).

The kicker? NRA-PVF's Ohio’s ads have not yet begun running.

“Barack Obama and his campaign are terrified of the truth,” declared Chris W. Cox, Chairman of NRA-PVF. “Sen. Obama's statements and support for restricting access to firearms, raising taxes on guns and ammunition and voting against the use of firearms for self-defense in the home are a matter of public record. NRA-PVF will make sure that everyone knows of Obama's abysmal record on guns and hunting.”

The Obama campaign sent cease and desist letters to news outlets in Pennsylvania and Ohio, denouncing the ads and demanding their removal from the airwaves. All stations where NRA-PVF has purchased or plans to purchase ads have been provided with documented evidence of Sen. Obama's anti-gun record.

Eco-freaks are us.......

A new religion has arrived in the last couple of decades. Starting with Rachel Carson's" "Silent Spring" It's taken on a huge movement even in Psychiatry. But the big news is that it is "Big Business". Nothing like that old religion putting money in your pocket.

www.peakoilblues.com blog

Easiest Way to Green: Buying to Save the Planet
Porter Novelli, then, helps international corporations figure out how to turn consumers’ climate fears into increased corporate profitability through “green” purchases. They do this by defining what is “green,” and how “green” someone is:

To determine this, they asked people whether they thought any of these actions were important to protect the environment and whether participants actually acted on any of these actions: (1) buying energy-efficient appliances, (2) buying environmentally-friendly products, (3) buying products made from recycled paper or plastics, (4) using cloth bags to put what you buy into, or (5) buying products that use less packaging. One choice involves “not buying” as a way of punishing companies with bad environmental records, while another option was “recycling–” what’s already been “bought.” Two other choices include “not buying stuff, or at least buying a lot less” and using “less energy at home.”

big buachel Carsonsiness, green, silent spring, R

dallas and Tampa Bay Suck....

Who's the weakest looking of the two? Damn if I know.

He this guy question the Messiah, Obama.....ow dar

The media vs. Joe the Plumber - Los Angeles Times


Jonah Goldberg
October 21, 2008


At a John McCain rally in Virginia on Saturday, Tito Munoz had come to face the enemy: the news media, which had declared war on Joe Wurzelbacher.

"Why the hell are you going after Joe the Plumber?" he yelled at a group of reporters, including my National Review colleague, Byron York. "Joe the Plumber has an idea. He has a future. He wants to be something else. Why is that wrong? Everything is possible in America. I made it. Joe the Plumber could make it even better than me. ... I was born in Colombia, but I was made in the U.S.A."

Who knows what it will do for McCain in the end, but the Joe the Plumber phenomenon is real. At the rally, supporters carried handmade signs reading "Phil the Brick Layer" and banners proclaiming "Rose the Teacher." Wurzelbacher symbolizes an optimistic, individualistic vision of America sorely lacking -- until recently -- in McCain's rhetoric.

joe the plumber, john mccain

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.......

All right bring it back.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Jamaica puzzled by theft of beach

Jamaica puzzled by theft of beach
By Nick Davis
BBC News, Ocho Rios, Jamaica

People on a beach in Jamaica (file)
A good beach is seen as a valuable asset to hotels in Jamaica

Police in Jamaica are investigating the suspected theft of hundreds of tons of sand from a beach on the island's north coast.

It was discovered in July that 500 truck-loads had been removed outside a planned resort at Coral Spring beach.

Detectives say people in the tourism sector could be suspects, because a good beach is seen as a valuable asset to hotels on the Caribbean island.

But a lack of arrests made since July have led to criticism of the police.

MMMM.....lunch time....

PETV

Don't eat anything without a face...

If god didn't want people to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?
Oxnard,CA-July 07,2004-Research scientists at Oxnard UNC Medical Center have proven that plants, including vegetables, feel pain when subjected to trauma such as being yanked out of the ground, peeled, cooked, and eaten. "Veggies and plants initiate a massive hormone and chemical barrage internally when they suffer any kind of injury," says professor Harry Simeon. "This response is akin to the nerve response and endorphin release when an animal is injured. We cannot ignore the similarities." When Baker asked professor Simeon and his research team what they thought this finding might mean, they responded unanimously, "Nobel prize, baby!"

Other agencies and the sum total of the world's hard-core vegetarians (known as vegans) registered formal complaints against the research. Their team of lawyers has already submitted a motion to have the results of the research destroyed or sealed. Others fear the damage has already been done. A spokesman said, "This is bad for us. Most of our members haven't eaten anything since hearing about the results. Our lawyers are looking into suing Mother Earth for false advertising, but concede that the suit will probably be inconclusive. In the meantime we'll be surviving on vitamin supplements and water."

In an ironic related story, a dozen protesters picketing the Hungry Carnivore Steak House in Dallas were allegedly assaulted by three patrons of the restaurant. Eyewitnesses say that the picketers were making their typical nuisance display of scorn and righteous indignation over the willful consumption of "the flesh of murdered animals" outside the Hungry Carnivore when two unidentified men and a woman stepped out of the establishment and sprayed the picketers with several gallons of what appeared to be blood. Victims and bystanders alike were surprised to discover that the liquid was actually V-8 juice. The truly shocking result of the alleged attack was the reaction of the picketers. All of the protesters were wracked with convulsions and suffered hours of dry heaves while many of the bystanders merely laughed. This reaction within vegetarianism's great bastion of faith has many true believers reconsidering their dietary requirements. Others are quietly making funeral arrangements and the Environmental Protection Agency is considering declaring vegans an endangered species.

mobile homes, houses, credit, Florida,

Light at the end of tunnel??......

Lot of houses on the market are being bought back by banks. Big time losses for now. Guy with good credit could get a house for next to nothing next year if or when credit loosens up. However, I'm convinced thousands of people will only be able to afford a used mobile home in the near term. Maybe time to get rich. Borrow from an owner on terms like I did here in Idaho (5000 down-500/mo for 3 years) . It will be years before banks lend on any mobile homes let alone used. Probably able to buy for very little and sell on terms for a nice profit.
     I like this better than selling houses for payments that few will be able to afford. After all everyone has to live somewhere. If banks evicts all these borrowers upside down on their loans, and they will, these people have to have a place to live. Do you see an opportunity in your town?

Tampa’s existing home sales on the rise - Tampa Bay Business Journal:

More homes were sold in the Tampa Bay area in September than the previous September, but median home values continue to fall.

Existing home sales for Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater climbed to 2,174 last month, up 29 percent from September 2008 while Lakeland was up 27 percent to 284 homes sold in September.

Sarasota didn’t have the same success, but its 7 percent drop to 550 units was the most contained drop of any market in the state.

In fact, only five of the 20 markets tracked by the Florida Association of Realtors showed declines with the statewide average up 24 percent over the previous year.

Values haven’t followed, however. The median home price in Tampa dropped 20 percent from $200,700 last year to $160,500 last month. In Lakeland and Winter Haven, the median home price fell 16 percent to $139,500, while in Sarasota-Bradenton, the median price was down 29 percent but remained just above the $200,000 mark.

Statewide, the median price dropped 22 percent year over year from $224,700 to $175,100.

mobile homes, houses, credit, Florida,

China farts........

The economy is gloomy? Wait until it hits 5% or less. Heh heh

China: Where 9% GDP growth is recession - Top Stocks Blog - MSN Money

China: Where 9% GDP growth is recession
Posted Oct 20 2008, 06:46 AM by Douglas McIntyre

China's big stock index, the Shanghai Composite, has fallen from a 52-week high of over 6,000 to 1,974. Idiot math would say that is equivalent to the DJIA trading at 4,600. That may be a simpleton's view of the world, but the perspectives of the foolish as not always wrong.

China announced that its GDP grew only 9% in the third quarter. That number was supposed to be closer to 10%.

According to Reuters, "A gloomy outlook lies ahead after the third quarter, and concerns about the slowdown now outweigh concerns about inflation," said Chen Jinren, an analyst at Huatai Securities.

In the U.S. and Europe, a recession is still probably defined at two consecutive quarters of GDP shrinkage. In a world where 4% growth is burning up the track China's increase of 9% seems unattainable. But, in an economy which relies on rapid growth to build a middle class and huge industrial base, even a modest drop in a torrid quarterly improvement pattern probably spells significant problems.

china, gnp.recession

his chick will make a great sec. of Interior for Obie.....

Switzerland Places Ban on the Humiliation of Plants : Planetsave

Switzerland Places Ban on the Humiliation of Plants
Written by Meg Hamill
Published on October 18th, 2008
49 Comments
Posted in International, Legislation
A new amended law in Switzerland protects the dignity of vegetation.

A law protecting the dignity of plants? Laugh if you will. I’m down on my knees in respect and awe. At last the Western World is realizing the dire importance of taking other species into account.

Recently, the Swiss Parliament asked a panel of philosophers, lawyers, geneticists and theologians to determine the meaning of dignity when it pertains to plants.

Lo and Behold, the team published a treatise on “the moral consideration of plants for their own sake.” The treatise established that vegetation has innate value and that it is morally wrong to partake in activities such as the “decapitation of wildflowers at the roadside without rational reason.”

planetsave, "plant dignity"

N.Y. Times to the rescue......

The government got us into this mess by allowing every broke dick in the country to have a house. It's the affordability index, stupid. In Idaho a house sells let's say for 185000. I can afford 135000 on my income. No buy this year. Or next. Until I and millions of average income people can afford it, the economy stays in the tubes.
   In the past few years  I could have bought a home and by now been paying 50% of my income to keep it. Might as well rent a house. Or as I'm doing, buy a mobile home and have it paid for in a couple of years. That's the plan. Why spend my old age slaving for these crooks in the finance industry, hmmm?
    What's your plan to get through the depression? By the way all this printed money, 2 trillion and counting will cause the boom to reignite. The next bust will even be worse. Keep your eye on China. There economy has dropped to 9 % growth. Break even so far. Disaster if it falls below 5%.

May you live in interesting times. Pay off your bills. Keep your lines of credit open and save cash. Then if you want to buy something you'll have your choice. I'm thinking buying older mobile homes in retirement parks, remodeling and flipping them. Being able to finance them is the key. No one will lend money on them and everyone has to have a place to live.

Economic Scene - With Rescue Money Available, Who Wouldn’t Line Up? - NYTimes.com

The idea of helping Main Street has an undeniable appeal. Housing is at the root of the financial crisis, and preventing foreclosures could bring a double-barreled benefit. It would allow families to remain in their homes and could also help keep the housing market from spiraling out of control. The more foreclosed homes that are dumped on the market, the more home prices will fall.

But before any of the various rescue plans reaches the point of inevitability — and these days, ideas can go from unlikely to inevitable in about 48 hours — I think it’s important to stop for a moment and consider how complicated any such plan would be. Every one of them, in fact, faces an inherent conflict: coming up with a large-scale homeowner bailout without also helping millions of people who don’t need help is almost impossible.

China, credit.casheconomic, "mobile homes"

Jesus... all this and no toilet paper

This is so rich. Imagine these sissies in charge. Why do we take these seriously.

Musings on Money, Personal Finance, Frugality, Debt, and Other Matters — Money, Matter, and More Musings

Ike Is Closing In And TV Reporters Are Going Crazy

by golbguru on September 12, 2008

It’s probably just a few more hours before we lose electric power, and have trees flying around. I don’t know long it will be before we have electricity back up, so I just thought of dropping a line here.

If you don’t have anything better to do, follow the eye of the storm closely and you would be able to zero in on my current geographical location.

Anyways, about TV reporters - man, those guys get so animated (even when other people in background are going about peacefully doing whatever they are doing). Interestingly, this afternoon, one of them even suggested this as a part of “survival tips for hurricane”:

People who use electric toothbrush should buy manual ones, and people who use electric shaving machines should get manual ones …

It's all in your head.....

Seems that psychology is more important than reality. Just look at all the "I can't get it up" pills on the market. Must be a billion guys running around unable to get a hard on. No wonder the divorce rate is so bad. Na, people are just stupid.

14 Wild Ideas

In the 1970s, the RAND Health Insurance Experiment randomly assigned 5000 adults to free or full-price health care over 3-5 years. Free care folks got more eyeglasses and teeth filled, and spent ~30% more, but were otherwise no healthier. This result is consistent with typical time-series and cross-sectional analyses. I'm willing to extrapolate from this 30% change to a 50% cut. More here.)

"health care"

I know how to be frugal....

Patti says I'm tight. Matter of fact I give scrooge a run for his money. After all a year ago we were technically homeless. Got my own place again and will be payment free in a year or so. Beats camping out in my son's backyard. Here's a site where the yuppies can can commiserate because the cost of bri and croisants have gone up.

iwillteachyoutoberich

Americans don’t know how to be frugal — yet
Things will get more expensive. Taxes will eventually go up. They have to. Costs of ordinary goods will go up. They always do. If you’re expecting it to get easier, you’re wrong. The key is to make more money and cut your costs. Sadly, Americans are poorly versed in being frugal. You think it makes sense to buy a new car every few years? You think it’s normal to eat out 5 times per week (lunch and dinner)? You feel good about yourself for ordering water when you go to a restaurant, but you blew $50,000 because you didn’t take the time to understand your mortgage? You’re not frugal. But a few more years of an economy like this and things just might change.

frugal, rich

Best way to save for the common man....

Food. Big expense. Big pain in the ass. Best tip that I can give is to create a menu for every meal. List and then buy only items on that list. Stay out of restaurants. Shop around with ads in hand. Remember Walmart rocks (the Empire made me put that in).

8 Ways to Cut Your Grocery Bill at SmartMoney.com

The resulting higher costs are swiftly passed down the production food chain to grocery store shelves. "It's like when the price of oil goes up, and you see a difference at the pump in the next day or two," says Al Ferrara, national director for consulting firm BDO Seidman's retail and consumer product division. Constantly produced fresh items like milk (up 10% compared with 2007, according to the USDA), eggs (up 7%) and bread (up 16%) are more apt to reflect changes on a nearly daily basis.

With a little legwork, savvy shoppers can keep their grocery bills at pre-2008 levels — if not lower. Here's how:
Stockpile

Most items are discounted just once during a 10-to-12-week sales cycle, says Teri Gault, founder of shopping site The Grocery Game. Seasonal items (think barbecue sauce in summer, soup in winter) show up every one to two weeks, while highly-competitive categories (cereal, soft drinks) cycle in every three to four. While it's not necessary to buy, say, eight jars of peanut butter, it's better to buy one jar while your favorite brand is on sale now than one at full price after you run out in two weeks.
Explore the store

Saving at the supermarket requires more effort than a quick dash and grab. Some of the best deals aren't obvious unless you take the time to price compare, says Phil Lempert, founder of Supermarket Guru. Cheese, for example, can be purchased from the cheese counter, the deli and the dairy case. "New York cheddar is New York cheddar no matter where you buy it," says Lempert. "But the price may be cheaper in one section than in another."

Keep an eye out, too, for sales. There are twice as many unadvertised sale items in the store as there are in the weekly circular. But be cautious. The longer you spend in stores, the more susceptible you are to sneaky supermarket tricks that entice you to spend more. Make a list, and stick to it.
Try store brands

walmart, money, food, groceries

No conspiracy here.........

Oct 17, 2008 Wall Street Monsters & Meat (You) Jim Willie CB 321gold ...inc ...s

TOP DOWN SOLUTION FAVORS THE ELITE

The top-down approach used to date aids the wealthy bankers, while the homeowners are denied aid. That aid is promised but rarely arrives. The fundamental problem here is that billion$ are devoted to shore up insolvent banks, to redeem their worthless (or nearly worthless) bonds, and to give a giant pass to the executives. Trust has eroded throughout the system. Banks distrust each other's collateral. The result is that eventually the USEconomy will enter not a recession, not a depression, but a DISINTEGRATION PHASE.

"wall street", depression, gold

I wonder why?.........

Let's see.

Why are they even going to bother. I don't think they will be allowed get too involved with what happened because too many Washington big shots are in up to their ass cheeks These guys gave Dod and frank way to much "help". 

I guess it's nice someone is trying. But I don't have much faith in justice being served.

Lehman Execs Subpoenaed in Criminal Probe at SmartMoney.com

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed 12 current and former executives of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LEHMQ), including CEO Richard Fuld, in connection with three grand jury investigations into the famed brokerage's recent bankruptcy, according to news reports Friday.

Also among those receiving subpoenas are former Lehman chief financial officer Erin Callan, former chief operating officer Joe Gregory and chief financial officer Ian Lowitt, CNBC's Charles Gasparino reported.

At a hearing Thursday in Manhattan, according to the New York Post, bankruptcy lawyer Harvey Miller, representing Lehman, confirmed that the U.S. attorney's offices in the Eastern and Southern districts of New York and in the District of New Jersey are leading those probes.

Miller didn't identify the nature of the investigations, but sources say the focus is whether executives made false comments about the health of Lehman before it collapsed. The 158-year-old Wall Street firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 15. read more at SmartMoney.com

Rednecks rule.......

Could have been my sister. Na she can't afford dressin up.

Rate My redneck

Redneck Woman Submitted By: phip42 on 12/11/2006 Debra Jackson said she likes shopping at the Dollar Palace because it is convenient and casual. "I don't have to get all dressed up like I'm going to Wal-Mart or something," she said... more Tags: redneck walmart woman

A Basic Primer to Reading Hands in Hold 'em

A Basic Primer to Reading Hands in Hold 'em: "Read No.1

Several players take the flop. You are in late position and the action gets checked to you. You bet and several players call before the good player to your right checkraises. He likely does not yet have a hand but is drawing to a flush or open-ended straight.

Analysis

If the preflop betting was such that the good player had no reason to believe that a player to his left would bet the flop, you can likely rule out a big hand because he surely would have bet (from his late position) instead of looking for a checkraise. After all, he could not know with any degree of certainty that you MORE

Damned if I know.......

The Improbability of God

Much of what people do is done in the name of God. Irishmen blow each other up in his name. Arabs blow themselves up in his name. Imams and ayatollahs oppress women in his name. Celibate popes and priests mess up people's sex lives in his name. Jewish shohets cut live animals' throats in his name. The achievements of religion in past history -- bloody crusades, torturing inquisitions, mass-murdering conquistadors, culture-destroying missionaries, legally enforced resistance to each new piece of scientific truth until the last possible moment -- are even more impressive. And what has it all been in aid of? I believe it is becoming increasingly clear that the answer is absolutely nothing at all. There is no reason for believing that any sort of gods exist and quite good reason for believing that they do not exist and never have. It has all been a gigantic waste of time and a waste of life. It would be a joke of cosmic proportions if it weren't so tragic.

Why do people believe in God?

The Union Lable,,,,,

The gangs never stop trying to muscle in on the Empire. We rule a large part of the world. Deal with it. Resistance is futile......


Bloomberg.com: Canada

WalMart Closes Quebec Tire Center After Labor Accord (Update1)

By Frederic Tomesco and Kevin Bell

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, said it closed a unionized Quebec tire and lubrication shop because of costs tied to the first labor agreement imposed at any of its North American locations.

The closing is effective immediately because it would have raised operating costs by at least 30 percent and triggered ``dramatic'' price increases on products, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer said today in a statement. The Quebec Labour Relations Board imposed the three-year labor contract in August after the union and company failed to reach an agreement.

Read more here

It's a depression if I lose my job.......

Been working the Walmart Empire now for over a year. They just threw our whole crew from 11am-8pm to 4-1am. Of course customer service will suffer but Wally World doesn't have to worry about that . Our sales are still up. Who needs service when we have cut rate pricing. I guess. anyways, changes are a coming. The Bentonville boys are trying to get ahead of the curve. Collapsing economies are right up our ally. Walmart has the muscle to gain market share while competitors go broke scrambling for financing their future inventory. We'll just squeeze suppliers and employees. More for less is the new mantra for everyone. If my job, inventory control, goes away, you will have nothing to buy because it won't be in the stores. You have to keep track of the goods to have them to sell. Of course, if sales fall off a cliff here in Redneck Heaven, we still have our guns until Obie gets elected.

By the way, where do you live?


smart money

NEW YORK (Dow Jones) -- Foreshadowing what may be a grim holiday selling period, initial results from U.S. retailers showed disappointing September sales, as a global financial crisis made shoppers even more reluctant to spend.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) said Wednesday that its sales excluding fuel in the five weeks ended Oct. 3 rose 2.4%. On that basis, the company missed the 2.5% average estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Wal-Mart said total sales were hurt by 0.4 percentage point from the impact of Hurricanes Gustav, Hanna and Ike, which resulted in 341 store closings. However, Sam's Club sales rose 4.6%, exceeding estimates of a 2.8% increase.

Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST) sales rose a less-than-expected 7%. Sales at rival BJ's Wholesale Club Inc. (BJ) also missed estimates. Target Corp.'s (TGT) sales dropped a worse-than-expected 3%, and the company said it may miss analysts' third-quarter profit estimate.

read more here

Socialism R Us.......

The Empire has imploded upon itself perhaps destroying what gave the world a vast magical wealth machine pretty much guaranteeing that if everyone works everyone eats. We have been on the cusp of giving literally everyone on the planet a real chance at 3 meals a day, roof over their heads and shoes on their feet.

This machine was called Capitalism.

Now history takes a step backwards and we all work directly for the government. Beg the government for loans. Retire if the gov. deems it appropriate. And shit when, where or if the government decides (literally anywhere on the planet).

This machine is called Socialism.

In the last couple of days governments have gotten together and grabbed all the money by nationalizing the global banking industry . This is means the ones controlling the governments will completely control the money.

And who ever controls the money controls all of us.

I'm thinking it might be a good time to become Democrats and hold our hand out for crumbs at the new table. Here's the proof:


a href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/economy/fleshes-plan-buy-stakes-banks/">U.S. Fleshes Out Plan to Buy Stakes in Banks - FOXBusiness.com

Joanna Ossinger
FOXBusiness

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President George W. Bush 10-14-08

U.S. officials announced Tuesday morning a broad range of measures designed to shore up the struggling financial system, including the purchase of stakes in some of the country’s largest banks and guarantees for most new debt issued by insured banks.

President George W. Bush made a general announcement just after 8 a.m. Eastern time about the developments, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair held a joint news conference later that hour to elaborate on the planned steps.

"Clearly the time had come for a more comprehensive and broad-based solution," Bernanke said at the news conference. "Waiting too long to act has usually led to much greater direct costs of the intervention itself and, more importantly, magnified the painful effects of financial turmoil on households and businesses."

What did he say?.......

I read this 4 or 5 times and I still don't get it. Where did all the stock market money go? Some one's got all these trillions. Patti and I bought bonds for our retirement account and we didn't get it. How about you? Stick 4 or 5 million in you back pocket?

Answer Desk: Where did the money go? - Answer desk- msnbc.com

John W. Schoen
Senior producer

The financial market collapse of the past few weeks has destroyed trillions of dollars in wealth. So where, exactly, did all that money go?

Tell me again which one is the Republican?....

McCain is not being beaten. He just can't run against people he pretty much agrees with. Money talks in politics. In politics everyone believes in the system. The system generate the power, prestige and psychological gratification. No one can successfully argue that the system is not working and remain inside it. Even Reagan's deciples couldn't crack the power structure and make our system work for the common people paying for it. Corruption is endemic in any Empire by it's very nature. Ours is no different. Remember, our "system" chooses winners and losers. The system has decided........

Intellectual Conservative Politics and Philosophy

5 reasons why John McCain is in big trouble — and none of them have to do with Barack Obama.

A few weeks ago I wrote an article listing ten reasons “Why Obama Lost the 2008 Election”, ranging from the hidden racism of rank and file Democrat voters, to Bill and Hillary’s not-so-hidden desires to see Obama lose in 2008 so Hillary could run again for president in 2012.

In an almost textbook example of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, John McCain has managed to transform the political landscape in less than five weeks into one that no longer favors his candidacy, but may actually be preparing the way for an Obama presidency.

Like my previous analysis,

Now if the Bible could only outlaw human nature......

This speaks for itself.....

Why Can't I Own a Canadian?

Dr. Laura Schlessinger is a radio personality who dispenses advice to people who call in to her radio show. Recently, she said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22 and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following is an open letter to Dr. Laura penned by a east coast resident, which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative:

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate. I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them:

When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

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All roads lead to oil.....

Oil is thicker than water. Oil booms economy crashes. Oil crash economy booms. Duh!!!

The Oil Drum | Discussions about Energy and Our Future

The Official Demise of the Oil Bubble

On Sept. 11, 2007, the price of crude oil closed at $78.23 a barrel — the last time oil closed below $79 a barrel, until Friday. What seemed like a bewildering ascent in the price of crude at the time is now a relief to traders, who watched oil fall $8.98 a barrel to close at $77.61 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest closing price in more than a year.

Like a number of other commodities, oil’s move went from a steady ascent to a vertical bounce in the spring of 2008, topping out near $150 a barrel before speculative excess started to drain from the market. And those who believed that the oil price was justified by fundamentals — being, as it is, an actual product, rather than an Internet company’s vague promise of revenue — are smarting.

“This is a market that is basically returning to the price level of a year ago which it arguably should never have left,” says Tim Evans, energy analyst at Citigroup. “We pumped up a big bubble, expanded it to an impressive dimension, and now it is popped and we have bubble gum in our hair.”

Now look.... I only work there......

I tried to tell them but they wouldn't listen.

 Hordes of Horny Geezers Storm Wal-Mart’s Dating Night < Satirium

Hordes of Horny Geezers Storm Wal-Mart’s Dating Night

Frightened Female Shoppers Hide in Bathrooms, Dressing Rooms
Wal-Mart hurriedly canceled the national rollout of its “Love in the Aisles” program after hordes of horny geezers filled more than 200 stores Friday hoping to find dates. Startled female shoppers of all ages fled to bathrooms, dressing rooms, and garden centers for refuge.

“We regret any inconvenience to our customers and offer our sincere apologies to anyone who had an unpleasant shopping experience,” the nation’s largest retailer said in a terse statement.

The program made its debut Friday night at 200 stores nationwide and was seen by retailing experts as a clever marketing ploy. Shoppers of both sexes who wanted to participate registered as they entered the store and were given a red heart to attach to their shopping cart.

More...

Let's see..... anyone in either presidential campaign innocent?.......

How come no fire in the belly about the banking crash in last night's debate? hmm....Good ol boys sticking together perhaps?. Just because both candidate's staff and advisers were in it up to their eyeballs. Get ready for the next bust. This is just a beginning. History shows that debasing the currency destroys every culture that does it.

Thank God for foreigners.....

OK what would we do without the Commies? We sold our manufacturing base back in the 80's impoverishing our blue collar middle class. Now it comes home to roost. Print money is all we have left. Don't worry, this is not the big bust. That comes when China's economy collapses....
24/7 Wall St.: Will China Save The US Financial System

Will China Save The US Financial System

China

When it comes to the potential failure of the US economy and banking system, China has an especially large dog in the fight. The central government and a number of large banks own hundreds of billions of dollars in US Treasury notes and paper from companies including Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE). An American disaster could turn into one for China as well.

According to Reuters, "speculation is swirling that Beijing could also chip in with a vote of confidence by pledging to hold onto its vast dollar assets and even buy more to help fund the massive bailout of the U.S. financial system now under way."

Fanny and Freddy Mac....Your government at work......

Old warren Buffet hits the nail on the head. He didn't get rich for nothingMr. BUFFETT: And they sat there, made reports to the Congress, you can get
them on the Internet, every year. And, in fact, they reported to Sarbanes and
Oxley every year. And they went--wrote 100 page reports, and they said,
`We've looked at these people and their standards are fine and their directors
are fine and everything was fine.' And then all of a sudden you had two of the
greatest accounting misstatements in history. You had all kinds of management
malfeasance, and it all came out. And, of course, the classic thing was that
after it all came out, OFHEO wrote a 350--340 page report examining what went
wrong, and they blamed the management, they blamed the directors, they blamed
the audit committee. They didn't have a word in there about themselves, and
they're the ones that 200 people were going to work every day with just two
companies to think about. It just shows the problems of regulation.

Print money like it's cost free and history bites you in the ass...

Check out one of the new rich and what they have to say.(You'd think this is all new)        

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

If you think history doesn’t repeat itself, you’re nuts. In fact, 10 years ago this month, Long Term Capital Management, a huge hedge fund, nearly caused a global financial collapse. Yet here we are — with the same words being thrown around. Does anyone really think investment bankers won’t make their same salaries at some point in the future? Or that we won’t gradually move back to huge executive compensation? Still, as I pointed out last week, none of that really matters to the individual investor. What matters is picking the right strategy and sticking to it.

The Empire is real.......

stop the Congress

The Secret History of the American Empire

Here's my answer to the melt down...

stop the Congress

This is the sure fire way to fix the mortgage mess......

Dave Ramsey

Years of bad decisions and stupid mistakes have created an economic nightmare in this country, but $700 billion in new debt is not the answer. As a tax-paying American citizen, I will not support any congressperson who votes to implement such a policy. Instead, I submit the following three steps:

Common Sense Plan. I. INSURANCE A. Insure the subprime bonds/mortgages with an underlying FHA-type insurance. Government-insured and backed loans would have an instant market all over the world, creating immediate and needed liquidity.

B. In order for a company to accept the government-backed insurance, they must do two things: 1. Rewrite any mortgage that is more than three months delinquent to a 6% fixed-rate mortgage. a. Roll all back payments with no late fees or legal costs into the balance. This brings homeowners current and allows them a chance to keep their homes. b. Cancel all prepayment penalties to encourage refinancing or the sale of the property to pay off the bad loan. In the event of foreclosure or short sale, the borrower will not be held liable for any deficit balance. FHA does this now, and that encourages mortgage companies to go the extra mile while working with the borrower—again limiting foreclosures and ruined lives.

2. Cancel ALL golden parachutes of EXISTING and FUTURE CEOs and executive team members as long as the company holds these government-insured bonds/mortgages. This keeps underperforming executives from being paid when they don’t do their jobs. C. This backstop will cost less than $50 billion—a small fraction of the current proposal.

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Try this bailout

Found this solution on theSF Chronicleof all places....

     if the government buys the mortgage-backed securities, that does nothing - absolutely nothing - to make the underlying mortgages more valuable or more likely to be paid, stabilize home prices or help homeowners in distress. It does nothing - absolutely nothing - to directly benefit the real economy.

But another proposal does. Use the $700 billion on the table and stabilize housing. Make that money (actually only a fraction would be needed) available to homeowners who live in their homes (not speculators). Here's how: Offer any financial institution (or require it, although no financial institution in its right mind would refuse the offer anyway), that owns a mortgage of an owner-occupied home in distress, to provide that homeowner, in lieu of any penalties or foreclosure, a government guarantee of the current or missed payments under the mortgage. If the homeowner agrees to have the government take over the payments, the financial institution would inform the government, the government would make the payments, and the homeowner in exchange would sign a note agreeing to repay the government some years in the future (say, 10), with interest at the same rate currently required under the homeowner's mortgage.

Meanwhile in t5he hairy great white north......

Bigfoot Sasquatch Ontario Sightings

Pelosi mean to me....

Pelosi sets up the Republicans.  Tells her vulnerable seats to vote no because Repubs are going to the slaughterhouse. No repub in his right mind would vote to give the Demo's fat cats a blank check to get away with making loans to bums, homeless, stupid or dead people. Follow the money and see how much Dod, Franks and the rest got. Repubs in on it headed for the tall grass a long time ago. Remember Barney Franks own Banking committee, bought and paid for, didn't vote for the fat cat rescue pkg.

bail outs are us.....

 got an idea. Let's let the con artist in Congress get us out of this, yeah that will work.

Pelosi put her foot in mouth

The Dem's deserve this dumb bitch.

YIPPEE

94 democrats vote against bailing out the crooks in the banking industry.Who would of thunk it!!!!

Suckers are us.....

re we buying a $700 billion 'maybe'? - MSN Money

Everybody getting in on the ripoff except for the taxpayer. All these bastards in Wall Street are making money off this deal because the crooks have bribed our beloved leaders who will retire very well thank you.

BFRO Report 11070: Fisherman sees bipedal, human-looking animal in river

check this out