The Fiscal Cliff

[Uncle Ted]

It's the capital of Texas, dammit!

They only meet down there every other year for some brisket at Franklins.

[byu71]

I like senator Coburn. Conservative, but reasonable. He wan't a fan of the Cruz tactics. I guess he just called Harry Reid an A-hole. I really, really like Coburn now.

[Jacob]

Lee had a big speech yesterday. Good stuff. I don't know what other senators are giving us this kind of stuff. But Lee's stuff is great. Here's the transcript:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...s-sen-mike-lee

Here's the main bullets for his proposals. He of course speaks in much more detail:

I submit that the great challenge of our generation is America’s growing crisis of stagnation and sclerosis — a crisis that comes down to a shortage of opportunities.

This opportunity crisis presents itself in three principal ways:

immobility among the poor, trapped in poverty;

insecurity in the middle class, where families just can’t seem to get ahead;

and cronyist privilege at the top, where political and economic elites unfairly profit at everyone else’s expense.

The Republican party should tackle these three crises head on.

[byu71]

Lee had a big speech yesterday. Good stuff. I don't know what other senators are giving us this kind of stuff. But Lee's stuff is great. Here's the transcript:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...s-sen-mike-lee

Here's the main bullets for his proposals. He of course speaks in much more detail:

I have heard this rhetoric from just about everyone. Just like everyone, I don't see where his dynamic, workable solutions are. By workable I mean solutions he could get support from his own party and some support from the dems.


If you were being sarcastic, good job I didn't catch it.

[Uncle Ted]

Apparently the policy known as quantitative easing has done nothing for the economy but our current administration keeps going with this program full steam ahead toward the cliff...

Andrew Huszar: Confessions of a Quantitative Easer

I can only say: I'm sorry, America. As a former Federal Reserve official, I was responsible for executing the centerpiece program of the Fed's first plunge into the bond-buying experiment known as quantitative easing. The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main Street. But I've come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time.

[...]

You'd think the Fed would have finally stopped to question the wisdom of QE. Think again. Only a few months later—after a 14% drop in the U.S. stock market and renewed weakening in the banking sector—the Fed announced a new round of bond buying: QE2. Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, immediately called the decision "clueless."


That was when I realized the Fed had lost any remaining ability to think independently from Wall Street. Demoralized, I returned to the private sector.


Where are we today? The Fed keeps buying roughly $85 billion in bonds a month, chronically delaying so much as a minor QE taper. Over five years, its bond purchases have come to more than $4 trillion. Amazingly, in a supposedly free-market nation, QE has become the largest financial-markets intervention by any government in world history.

And the impact? Even by the Fed's sunniest calculations, aggressive QE over five years has generated only a few percentage points of U.S. growth. By contrast, experts outside the Fed, such as Mohammed El Erian at the Pimco investment firm, suggest that the Fed may have created and spent over $4 trillion for a total return of as little as 0.25% of GDP (i.e., a mere $40 billion bump in U.S. economic output). Both of those estimates indicate that QE isn't really working.


Unless you're Wall Street. Having racked up hundreds of billions of dollars in opaque Fed subsidies, U.S. banks have seen their collective stock price triple since March 2009. The biggest ones have only become more of a cartel: 0.2% of them now control more than 70% of the U.S. bank assets.


As for the rest of America, good luck. Because QE was relentlessly pumping money into the financial markets during the past five years, it killed the urgency for Washington to confront a real crisis: that of a structurally unsound U.S. economy. Yes, those financial markets have rallied spectacularly, breathing much-needed life back into 401(k)s, but for how long? Experts like Larry Fink at the BlackRock investment firm are suggesting that conditions are again "bubble-like." Meanwhile, the country remains overly dependent on Wall Street to drive economic growth.


Even when acknowledging QE's shortcomings, Chairman Bernanke argues that some action by the Fed is better than none (a position that his likely successor, Fed Vice Chairwoman Janet Yellen, also embraces). The implication is that the Fed is dutifully compensating for the rest of Washington's dysfunction. But the Fed is at the center of that dysfunction. Case in point: It has allowed QE to become Wall Street's new "too big to fail" policy.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...83680751473884

[byu71]

Apparently the policy known as quantitative easing has done nothing for the economy but our current administration keeps going with this program full steam ahead toward the cliff...


http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/...83680751473884

The Economist I have followed the most since 2002 basically said the same thing. He said those who keep touting excuses for what the Fed has done will pay the piper when inflation hits.

He isn't a gold bug nor has he been one. As a matter of fact he was booked to be on the Glen Beck show in late '08 when it seemed financial world as we know it was coming to an end. When Beck found out he was positive on the future and the market, Beck canceled him.

[Uncle Ted]

The Economist I have followed the most since 2002 basically said the same thing. He said those who keep touting excuses for what the Fed has done will pay the piper when inflation hits.

He isn't a gold bug nor has he been one. As a matter of fact he was booked to be on the Glen Beck show in late '08 when it seemed financial world as we know it was coming to an end. When Beck found out he was positive on the future and the market, Beck canceled him.

Yeah, economists say all kinds of crap but when the guy that was right in the middle of this all says "I am sorry, America"... WTF?

I am starting to think like most Americans, it is time to audit the Federal Reserve: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publ...ederal_reserve

So if it is true that democracy rules the land why are we not doing the audit?

[byu71]

Yeah, economists say all kinds of crap but when the guy that was right in the middle of this all says "I am sorry, America"... WTF?

I am starting to think like most Americans, it is time to audit the Federal Reserve: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/publ...ederal_reserve

So if it is true that democracy rules the land why are we not doing the audit?

The Fed is way too powerful. They are supposed to prevent crap from happening. I think often their policies can cause it. They actually intervene to keep market forces from working. A lot of people think Alan G's policies actually created the real estate bubble. I am fairly sure Mr. B's policy has created a government bond bubble. I just hope it doesn't spill into a late 70's early 80's scenario.

The way to redistribute the wealth is not the dems method. The way to do it is when these financial wizzards screw up they should go BROKE, not saved. These guys aren't all that bright except in the way to use other peoples money for their gain. The Fed enables them in this. Not sure, but I think the hedge fund dopes have access to easy money again.

In memory of Viking, I will say I am not referring to all hedge funds. Just the ones that leverage to the hilt, go out and get their butt's kicked and do it again.

Here is another really sickening example. There is a development with a golf course built up somewhere near Park City. The developers went under after borrowing say $18 million (don't know exact numbers). Later they were able to borrow money and buy the project back for around $10 million. Why the hell were these guys ever allowed to borrow money again???

[Uncle Ted]

The Fed is way too powerful. They are supposed to prevent crap from happening. I think often their policies can cause it. They actually intervene to keep market forces from working. A lot of people think Alan G's policies actually created the real estate bubble. I am fairly sure Mr. B's policy has created a government bond bubble. I just hope it doesn't spill into a late 70's early 80's scenario.

The way to redistribute the wealth is not the dems method. The way to do it is when these financial wizzards screw up they should go BROKE, not saved. These guys aren't all that bright except in the way to use other peoples money for their gain. The Fed enables them in this. Not sure, but I think the hedge fund dopes have access to easy money again.

In memory of Viking, I will say I am not referring to all hedge funds. Just the ones that leverage to the hilt, go out and get their butt's kicked and do it again.

Here is another really sickening example. There is a development with a golf course built up somewhere near Park City. The developers went under after borrowing say $18 million (don't know exact numbers). Later they were able to borrow money and buy the project back for around $10 million. Why the hell were these guys ever allowed to borrow money again???

You're not paying attention... thanks to the fed doing all this quantitative easing the banks have other people's money to loan to these guys the money to buy the golf course again. Of course, we, the tax payers, are out something like $4T dollars.

[byu71]

You're not paying attention... thanks to the fed doing all this quantitative easing the banks have other people's money to loan to these guys the money to buy the golf course again. Of course, we, the tax payers, are out something like $4T dollars.

and money to loan speculating in the stock market, oil market, gold market. FDIC insured money. LOL

[byu71]

It's a sad thing that most Americans get their "business" type policy information from journalists. Not necessarily business journalists, but pundits like Chuckie Tood. This morning he went off on corporate welfare. States giving breaks to companies to lure them to stay in the state or come to the state.

Welfare? He then went on to say little companies can't get such breaks. Uh Chuck, if these huge companies hire thousands in a state do you think it could help the smaller companies. Is it possible they will do more business.

Sure a discussion can be had whether these companies get too big of a break, but "welfare". I think I watch just to assure myself how ignorant these pundits are when it comes to real life and economics.

By the way, where is Cali? I would like to have someone debate me on this who is the equivalent of ISU in economics. Just kidding.

[Bo Diddley]

I don't like Congress. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their House, I hate their Senate, I hate everything.... I think the whole Congress, their Senate and their House, is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year, and they did a whole bunch of nasty things, and I don't respect them, and they deserve to lose.

Bump.

[Uncle Ted]

LOL... The White House called the dems "obstructionist losers".

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[Bo Diddley]

We have two days' worth of food sitting in our kitchen for our 400 soldiers that didn't train this weekend. What to do with all that thawed chicken? I told them to donate it to a homeless shelter. It's either that or we crank up the Traeger.

[myboynoah]

LOL... The White House called the dems "obstructionist losers".

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Proof that Steven Miller is calling the shots.