Royal Kiss

Just call me a sentimental fool. (LOL)

Geithner Vows to Defend Strong U.S. Dollar Policy

What is this guy smoking, or does he just like to lie?  Today, Timmy made the following statement at a New York conference organized by the Council of Foreign Relations: "United States would never follow a strategy to weaken the US dollar.  Our policy has been and will always be, as long as I will be in office, that a strong dollar is in the interest of the country.  We will never embrace a strategy to weaken the dollar."

I find his statement completely detestable.  In the year to date, the dollar has lost 6.5% of its value compared with a basket of currencies held by our major trade partners.

When Will the Riots Start? Inquiring Minds Would Like to Know!

Shell Oil Company has announced it must scrap efforts to drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The decision comes following a ruling by the EPA's Environmental Appeals Board, which is under Executive Control of the President Obama, to withhold critical air permits that Shell needs.  Shell has spend five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil there.  The leases alone costs $2.2 billion.  In other words, our government has just stolen $2.2 billion from Shell.  This is how we will eventually pay at least $5/gallon for gasoline. 

The Real Common Sense Understanding of "Price Inflation"

First, food, fuels used at home and gasoline are  20% of the "average" consumer's household budget.  However, the government does not believe that those items are relevant.  Why?  Because its focus is on "core inflation," which eliminates food and energy.  From that perspective, price inflation is not a problem. I don't know about you, but I do use gasoline and eat food.  Now, let's look at what is happening to energy and food prices.   Three-month average change on Food is .87%, which is an 11% annualized price inflation rate.  Fuel oil and other fuels (household energy) have a three-month run rate of 4.7%, which is an annualized seventy-four percent (74%).  Gasoline has a three month run rate of 4.6%, which is an annualized seventy-two percent (72%) price inflation rate. 


How dumb does the government believe Americans are?  I guess pretty dumb because it seems to get away with it.

Why did the Federal Reserve Fork over $220 Million in Bailout Money to the Wives of Two Morgan Stanley (Wall Street) Bigwigs?

"It's hard to imagine a pair of people you would less want to hand a giant welfare check to — yet that's exactly what the Fed did. Just two months before the Macks bought their fancy carriage house in Manhattan, Christy and her pal Susan launched their investment initiative called Waterfall TALF. Neither seems to have any experience whatsoever in finance, beyond Susan's penchant for dabbling in thoroughbred racehorses. But with an upfront investment of $15 million, they quickly received $220 million in cash from the Fed, most of which they used to purchase student loans and commercial mortgages. The loans were set up so that Christy and Susan would keep 100 percent of any gains on the deals, while the Fed and the Treasury (read: the taxpayer) would eat 90 percent of the losses. Given out as part of a bailout program ostensibly designed to help ordinary people by kick-starting consumer lending, the deals were a classic heads-I-win, tails-you-lose investment."


Are you mad, yet?  I hope you are, because these types of transactions must stop.


Source: Matt Taibb

A look at the UK’s REAL GDP or Simply Substitute USA for UK

"The following chart is pretty simple to follow. First up the black line is the UK’s GDP going back all the way to 1970. The green line is the amount the government has borrowed as a percent of GDP and the red line is a simple subtraction of the government spending through borrowed money from GDP. So what does this tell us?

The government has no money, it only has what it can tax the people. When it wants to spend more than the revenue it generates it borrows this money. However, that borrowed money has to be repaid and the only way it can do this is by taxing in the future.

So when the government borrows money and pumps it into the economy, it can make the GDP numbers go up and make the economy appear stronger than it actually is. In essence the government is borrowing GDP from future years to make GDP in the here-and-now go up. However, this is all false because eventually that borrowed money has to be repaid through higher taxes (with interest) and all that ‘gained’ GDP will have to be given back."

You can read the full article at Gold News.

Government Motors' Crowning Achievement: Falling Steering Wheels

Who can forget the frenzied all out bashing of Toyota on all government propaganda stations after the brake pedal got stuck just at a time when Government Motors was emerging from bankruptcy, and before it was forced to engage in stuffing dealers with its bloated inventory.  Yet, very little if anything has been said about the curious case of the Chevy Cruze and the falling steering wheel.  (Curious minds would like to know!  Oh, it is Government Motors.  Now, I know why we have not heard about it.)

The WSJ writes: "Imagine turning your car’s steering wheel, or giving it a gentle tug, and having it break away from the steering column.  Now you’re speeding along holding the suddenly useless wheel.  It sounds like a vision from a cartoon, or every driver’s nightmare. And it happened to at least one driver of a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze compact car last month, and General Motors Corp. is recalling 2,100 of the cars as a result."

The $38 Billion Budget Cut FARCE!!!!!!

Folks, we are dealing with close to a $1.6 trillion federal deficit for fiscal 2011.  But, Congress did cut a whopping $38 billion from the budget, which amounts to $3.6 trillion, or slightly more than a 1% cut.  They just don't get it.  Shame on you Democrats and Republicans.  And, where is the outcry from the Tea Party?  Where is the outcry from anyone?

The following graph depicts and illustrates the sorry state of affairs:

Source: Market-Ticker

Seven Things That I Know That Really Make Me Upset

1. Five U.S. banks control over 50% of the entire banking industry.
2. The top 1% of U.S. families have a greater share of the nation’s wealth than any time since 1930.
3. Wall Street profits in 2009 and 2010 totaled approximately $80 billion.  Bonuses over this two-year period totaled $43 billion.  (It is amazing that an industry that had a near-death experience in 2008 has made such a spectacular return to profitability.  I guess it is simple when you not only control the organization, Fed, that prints the money but the accounting firms who do your books, FASB.)
4. The Fed’s balance sheet has increased to $2.2 trillion as it purchased $1.3 trillion of toxic assets that it purchased from Wall Street.  The Fed paid 100% on the dollar for assets worth 50%, more likely 30%.  (What a great business model.  Your assets are only worth thirty cents, but your Sugar Daddy gives you $1 for all those worthless assets.)
5. Auditors are not really independent when it comes to Wall Street firms.
6. Fannie and Freddie will end up costing taxpayers at least $400 billion.
7. The biggest borrowers from the Fed were foreign banks during the so-called financial crisis week in October 2008, accounting for at least 70 percent of the $110.7 billion borrowed.  (Where is the outrage?)

Jobs Report Signals Improving Economy

You have to be kidding me, right?  I can not believe that this was the headline in today's Wall Street Journal online edition.  Shame on you, WSJ.  Take a look at the following chart, and you decide if things are really getting better.

Government Motors (GM) Hits Record: 574,000 Cars In Dealer Inventory, Despite No Interest Loans, Highest Car Discounts

Government Motors is offering buyers interest-free financing on some 2011 models after the company increased discounts and incentives to lead all major automakers’ U.S. sales gains last month."  Isn't that great. Now, desperate car buyers who can't rub two dimes together, can drive to the local unemployment office in the luxury of their brand new Chevy, which are now offered at either 72 or 60 months of interest-free loans. And get this: GM raised discounts 12% from a year earlier to an estimated $3,732 per vehicle last month, the most among major automakers and 45% more than the average, according to researcher Autodata Corporation.  


You got to love our federal government for giving all your "hard-earned money" to GM so those that can not afford a car can now drive one to the unemployment office.  Bless you, my brother!

Bureau of Lies and Scams (BLS)

March’s Non-Farm Payroll (NFP at 216,000), which came in above expectations of 190,000.  The main source of the improvement was the infamous “Birth Death” that added 117,000 jobs. (Fiction, Fiction, and more Fiction)  The unemployment rate came in at 8.8%.  Manufacturing payrolls were below expectations at 17,000 on expectations of 30,000.  But the real kicker, as usual, continues to be the Labor Force Participation rate, which continues to be at a 25 year low of 64.2%.  Once again, it is all about job creation, which we do not have.  Without “real job creation,” we do not have revenue to tax.  It is really that simple

When Does This Insanity Stop?

WSJ: "If you want to understand better why so many states—from New York to Wisconsin to California—are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, consider this depressing statistic: Today in America there are nearly twice as many people working for the government (22.5 million) than in all of manufacturing (11.5 million). This is an almost exact reversal of the situation in 1960, when there were 15 million workers in manufacturing and 8.7 million collecting a paycheck from the government.  It gets worse.  More Americans work for the government than work in construction, farming, fishing, forestry, manufacturing, mining and utilities combined. We have moved decisively from a nation of makers to a nation of takers. Nearly half of the $2.2 trillion cost of state and local governments is the $1 trillion-a-year tab for pay and benefits of state and local employees."

Is it any wonder that so many states and cities cannot pay their bills?  We, as a nation, have completely lost our sanity and way.