China’s economy to collapse???

A good news article at politico.

Is China headed toward collapse?

Chang argues that inconsistencies in Chinese official statistics — like the surging numbers for car sales but flat statistics for gasoline consumption — indicate that the Chinese are simply cooking their books. He speculates that Chinese state-run companies are buying fleets of cars and simply storing them in giant parking lots in order to generate apparent growth.

The world economy is on the brink due to debt of governments, they loan each other fake paper money and then pretend everything is OK.

Maybe Obama Finally gets it

Obama Says U.S. Long-Term Debt Load ‘Unsustainable’

May 14 (Bloomberg) — President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.

“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

Holders of U.S. debt will eventually “get tired” of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. “It will have a dampening effect on our economy.”
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Us conservatives have been railing against government spending for many, many years and have been saying it is not long term sustainable and will cause huge inflation and high interest rates.

We will see if he actually does cut government costs significantly (25-50%) or is another lip service politician which says one thing and does another, like add a few trillion more in government spending for universal health insurance for the 3 or 4 million American citizens which do not have insurance for the long term.

Adding the 12 to 15 million uninsured illegal immigrants will bankrupt any government system. The other 12 to 15 million which are already eligible for government insurance (SCHIP or MEDICAID) and do not use those programs. That is 25 to 30 million of the 45 million the Single Payer Health insurance people talk about, then there are 10 million transient people (between insurance coverage) and 5 to 10 million who do not choose to buy health insurance.

Economy is OK if the news is NOT AS BAD AS EXPECTED

Recent news which is said to be good since it is not as bad as predicted.

Fed’s Bank Results ‘Reassuring,’ Show No Insolvency

…….
Federal Reserve stress tests on the 19 biggest lenders show Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co. and Citigroup Inc. together require about $54 billion, said people familiar with the conclusions.
…….
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs yesterday suggested that the Obama
administration may seek management changes at some banks. Officials will want to “ensure that going forward they felt that the management was in place to remedy the situation and ensure long-term viability without continued government assistance,” he said.

Bank of America Chief Executive Officer Kenneth D. Lewis, 62, was ousted as chairman on April 29 ……….

Jobs Report Giving Investors Mixed Picture On US Economy

The pace of layoffs slowed in April when employers cut 539,000 jobs, the fewest in six months. But the unemployment rate climbed to 8.9 percent,………………..

Job losses in February and March turned out to be deeper, according to revised figures. Employers cut 681,000 positions in February, 30,000 more than previously reported.
They cut 699,000 jobs in March, more than the 663,000 first reported. The deepest job cuts of the recession —741,000 came in January.

Jobs: A little less bleak

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Wachovia senior economist Mark Vitner and Gilliam both say they’re worried about the impact on jobs in coming reports from the bankruptcy at Chrysler, which will result in a 30-to-60 day shutdown at all of its plants, and the possible bankruptcy at General Motors (GM, Fortune 500). The loss of jobs — not just at those companies but at their dealers and suppliers — will be substantial.

And Vitner said that while Wachovia is projecting that there will be economic growth by the fourth quarter of this year, it’s projecting that unemployment will continue to rise into 2010, topping out at 10.8% in April of that year.

“We are moving in the right direction, but the recession is not over, and even when it’s over that’s not an end of the tough times,” said Vitner.

Wow a bank stress test with an 8.4% unemployment shows the banks will be OK, current unemployment is 8.9% and expected to exceed 10% in the next year.

I wonder if a new stress test will be needed so that the federal government can take over the banks.

Saturday’s cartoons – politics

from townhall.com

Eminent domain and publicity seeking politicians destroy private lives

There has been a project that the politicians in the Rochester, NY area have been pushing for 5 years now. As part of this project it was announced multiple private properties would be taken using eminent domain laws. 5 years ago, the building which were occupied and had rent paying tenants, now the tenants have all left and the owners of the building owe property taxes that they can’t pay due to the loss of tenants. The owners wanted to sell but nobody would buy the buildings at market prices knowing that the government was going to take them eventually.

Here is the full article
Pittsford couple desperate for payday from vacant RenSquare properties

Edwin Cohen has been a member of Rochester’s downtown real estate scene for about five decades, planning a retirement around his investments.
Now in failing health, Cohen finds his retirement dreams on hold.
His last four investment properties are at East Main Street and North Clinton Avenue and slated to be condemned to make way for Renaissance Square.
Cohen, 82, would be a willing seller, but the project’s delays since it was announced with great fanfare in early 2004 have prompted his tenants to leave, drying up income from the buildings.
He and his wife, Phyllis, are now struggling to get by, waiting for a payday that has thus far eluded them.
Now, that payday will yield far less than originally hoped.
The loss of rental income from the buildings has caused Cohen to fall behind in his taxes. The county sold its liens on the properties to American Tax Funding Services, an action the county took knowingly, said County Attorney Daniel DeLaus. The city worked out a payment agreement for back taxes with Cohen, but he has not fulfilled it, and the city is preparing to sell its liens on the properties to the same company at the end of the month, said City Treasurer Charles Benincasa.
The back taxes, more than $322,366, must be paid back once the buildings are purchased for Renaissance Square.
A price for the buildings hasn’t been agreed on between project planners and Cohen, but the couple’s lawyer said he would press to make sure they are compensated for the building’s value before the project was announced. American Tax Funding Services is not interested in owning property, and tax liens do not prevent the owners from selling and can be paid at closing, said Vice President Tadgh Macaulay.
Edwin Cohen’s parcels — at 170-172 E. Main St., 186 E. Main St., 190-194 E. Main St. and 9-17 N. Clinton — are now assessed at $675,000, according to city records. American Tax Funding is owed about $15,366 in unpaid taxes and the city is owed more than $307,000.
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The reason this project has taken so long is that the local government announced the wish for this project long before any money at any level of government had been allocated. Then the local officials looked to the federal government for funding, since the local politicians will actually never try to pay for something with local money, the money always has to come for the federal government. This is a major problem with America today, local governments are dependent on the federal government for funding of local projects. What value will a new local bus terminal and local community college campus have on the nation as a whole.

This project and every other project around the country like it should be 100% funded by the local government and not the federal government. If the local leaders think it is that necessary for the betterment of the local way of life then let’s pay for it ourselves.

The problem with the project is most of the local people think it will be a colossal waste of money, just like our local fast ferry project was a few years ago.

Any fan of “The Simpson” TV show will know this reference, the local fast ferry was our version of the Springfield monorail.

Thanks to the heavy hand of government two people’s live have been pretty much been destroyed. I am sure similar scenarios are playing out all across America. This is a shame and why people mistrust government.

US Government spending will bankrupt the world

The US federal government is in the process of bankrupting the world as accounting practices that the federal government does not allow private companies to use are used to hide the real government debt. This cuts across party lines and the end of liberty and personnel freedom in the world.

The total economic of the world based on the ponzi scheme known as government spending is close (if not already beyond) the tipping point. Paper currency will be virtually worthless since the governments that print them have no possible way to back their value.

Government spending is the problem and drastic government spending cuts (real cuts not decreasing the rate of increase) of 50 to 90+% in some cases are required.

Federal obligations exceed world GDP, Does $65.5 trillion terrify anyone yet?

As the Obama administration pushes through Congress its $800 billion deficit-spending economic stimulus plan, the American public is largely unaware that the true deficit of the federal government already is measured in trillions of dollars, and in fact its $65.5 trillion in total obligations exceeds the gross domestic product of the world.

The total U.S. obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits to be paid in the future, effectively have placed the U.S. government in bankruptcy, even before new continuing social welfare obligation embedded in the massive spending plan are taken into account.

The real 2008 federal budget deficit was $5.1 trillion, not the $455 billion previously reported by the Congressional Budget Office, according to the “2008 Financial Report of the United States Government” as released by the U.S. Department of Treasury
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“The federal government is bankrupt,” Williams told WND. “In a post-Enron world, if the federal government were a corporation such as General Motors, the president and senior Treasury officers would be in federal penitentiary.”

Assuming 330 million Americans, 65.6 trillion debt is equal to $198,484 per American. This is on top of any state, local or personnel debt.

If you want to really understand the what the future holds and the consequences read the A Citizen’s Guide published by the treasury department.
It would be nice if government would live by this motto in the report.

Using the government accounting methods that if any private business used, the CEO, CFO and board of directors would be in jail, here are some tables from the report on future predictions.

These projects do not take into account the money spent since Oct 1, 2008. TARP and the new stimulus plan are on top of this staggering debt.

Americans need to hold our employees the elected government officials responsible. New blood is needed.

Geither, Stimulus Plan Cartoons

All from Townhall.com

Why is Obama Changing who runs the 2010 Census?

It seems strange that Obama is putting a White House political operative who is not required by law to report to congress or make public the method that the census will use to count people public record.

I wonder how many democratic congress people will demand that Obama’s political appointees make the trip to capital hill to testify before congress under a congressional subpoena like they did for the Bush political appointees or will the Obama administration claim executive privilege just like Bush did and was widely criticized for this.

White House grabs 2010 census power

Time for wait and see but the potential for conflicts of interest, falsifying records and corruption due to a lack of openness is far to possible.

Politics as usual.

Obama supports Daschle

Obama says ‘absolutely’ stands by Tom Daschle

WH spokesman on Daschle: “Nobody’s perfect”

Nice to see there is an open and honest discussion.

Lesson is learned, make “mistakes” on taxes and the taxes do not have to be paid until you are announced as a cabinet appointment. I wonder how this will work for us regular people at the next tax court hearing.

NY York Politics – Corruption, Corruption, Corruption

For those not in NY, Bruno was one of 3 men in a room who made all the decisions around what laws were passed, what taxes were raised, what was paid for in the budget from 1995 to 2007. The other were Governors Pataki (R) (1995 to 2006) and Spitzer in 07, early 08 and Sheldon Silver.

Former state Senate leader Bruno charged with public corruption

NY has the most closed legislative processes for decades with power in the hands of 3 men to rule NY with an iron fist, the rest of the legislative body follow the leaders like lemmings off the cliff. If rank and file assembly people and senators have no power and can only go along for the ride.

I am not surprised by this since POWER CORRUPTS, ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY.