Financial Crisis

[flying]

Very simply creating money by the Fed to buy USTs would create a profit that would go back to the treasury.

And most of all I do not think the Fed will take actions against its interests to save the economy.

I must be blind as I just dont see the logic of that.

They create the money out of nothing & nothing backs it except that which they do not own....( promise of future taxpayers labor) They sell UST to supposedly give that debt which was created by the creation of that money to others....

Then they create more money/debt out of nothing & buy those IOU's back?

As for whether they will take actions against their interest...They have already in so many ways.

Damien: Congressman, while we are waiting for a Fed audit, does anyone know what the Fed has been doing given that they have not fulfilled their government delegated duties as listed on the Federal Reserve website?

Congressman Grayson: They are performing a truly remarkable, surreptitious transfer of wealth from public to private hands. They are taking their ability to print money and shore up failed banks. They are simply stuffing money into the pockets of private interests.

In the case of the half a trillion dollars, they stuffed the money into foreign private pockets. In the case of another $230 billion, it has been tracked as a secret bailout to Citicorp in the US. The fact is the Federal Reserve continuously puts all of us on the hook for decisions they make to play favorites with private interests to the tune of trillions of dollars.

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/knowledge/inte...-money/?p=1878/

It was no secret Citi was to fall a month or so ago. Instead they secretly bailed them. How does that not hurt everyone? Including them? I think only in a sense that they have padded their personal futures in & out of the business world.

Good grief! Just last week, when the auction results were announced it was trumpeted to great fanfare that there was "more than sufficient" bid-to-cover, "strong demand" and all the rest.

And now it turns out that 47% (!) of the bonds that were taken by the primary dealers in that auction have been quietly bought by the Fed and permanently secreted to its balance sheet.

They didn't even wait a full week! A more honest and open approach would have been for the Fed to simply buy them outright at the auction but this way, using "primary dealers" and "POMOs" and all these other extra steps the basic fact that the Fed is openly monetizing US government debt is effectively hidden from a not-too-terribly inquisitive US press and public.

"The speed of the shell game is accelerating.

This immediate repurchase of newly auction bonds by the Fed tells us that demand for these bonds is not nearly as high as advertised, and that things are not quite as strong as represented.

And oh, by the way, don't expect any stock market weakness while so many billions are being shoveled out the Fed and into the pockets of the primary dealers. They'll have to do something with all that freshly minted cash....."

http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/fed-buy...y-auction/23880

Edited September 17, 2009 by flying

[flying]

A deluded G-20

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KI17Dj02.html

[12DrinkMore]

The new man on the block, or rather the MPC, seems to be a straight talker, for the moment

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/polit...ch-1789416.html

So Mr. Miles, how will the end of the recession affect us?

But Mr Miles, echoing remarks made this week by the Bank's Governor, Mervyn King, warned that the difference between recovery and recession may not be noticeable to many people. "This is going to be a protracted period of a return to a more normal level of activity," he said.

Oh dear! I was led to believe that the end of the recession was synonymous with "business as usual". Obviously sadly deluded.

But he does come up with an alternative definition

"If you ask the question, 'When will growth return to a level when, say, unemployment stops rising?' I fear that's a little bit further down the road and I think that's a more realistic definition of coming out of recession."

In a week when official unemployment rose to a 15-year high of almost 2.5 million, and the number of young people on the dole approached one million, Mr Miles said: "It is likely, unfortunately, that unemployment will continue rising for some months yet. There is already a substantial amount of slack. That degree of slack is likely to increase for some months yet."

Looks like it will be a long haul out of here, especially for the 65 year olds

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/educatio...ol-1788707.html

The inquiry, chaired by Professor Sir David Watson of London University's Institute of Education, concludes: "Policy should treat 75 as the normal upper age limit for economic activity, replacing the outmoded 60 to 65.

"This is not a call for everyone to work to 75 but a recognition that 'retirement' will increasingly become a gradual and uneven process lasting several years."

Oh jeeze, that's a bit foreboding, another decade on the treadwheel. But luckily there is a solution to this.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/he...fe-1789434.html

Cigarettes and alcohol will take 10 years off your life

GREAT! Pass the fags and bring a bottle across will ya!

Edited September 18, 2009 by 12DrinkMore

[12DrinkMore]

A deluded G-20

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/KI17Dj02.html

It paints a dark picture.

It also touches on the exit strategies from all this stimulus and QE.

Could the G-20 exit from its demand policies? An exit from unorthodox policies would be politically very difficult. It is easy to put these policies in place, however, it is much harder to retract them. Major G-20 governments would oppose an increase in interest rates as it will make their debt service unmanageable. A period of many years of very low interest rates seems inescapable. The reduction of public spending is a most difficult challenge, as government expenditure are always incompressible and political opposition rises to fight spending cuts.

I doubt whether the UK government will suck back in all the QE it has issued, and certainly not at the rate it was hosed out into the economy. Nobody knows exactly what effect it has had and how things might have turned out if King had been a little more frugal with the printing press. And nobody knows exactly what will happen if the money is taken out of existence. The path of not doing anything will surely be the easiest to follow, maybe even after King has send out another 50,000,000,000.

I have noticed that a handful of building societies are offering long term, 3 to 5 year deposits at 5% or so. I wonder if this means they need some cash or they think that interest rates are going to shoot up? There is no indication that the UK rates are likely to rise any time, indeed the BoE is threatening to charge banks for depositing money.

[teletiger]

Some "senior opinions" from the late 1920's.

"We will not have any more crashes in our time." - John Maynard Keynes in 1927 [NB: The authenticity

of this one is a little suspect.]

"I cannot help but raise a dissenting voice to statements that we are living in a fool's paradise, and

that prosperity in this country must necessarily diminish and recede in the near future." - E. H. H.

Simmons, President, New York Stock Exchange, January 12, 1928

"There will be no interruption of our permanent prosperity." - Myron E. Forbes, President, Pierce Arrow

Motor Car Co., January 12, 1928

"No Congress of the United States ever assembled, on surveying the state of the Union, has met with

a more pleasing prospect than that which appears at the present time. In the domestic field there is

tranquility and contentment...and the highest record of years of prosperity. In the foreign field there is

peace, the goodwill which comes from mutual understanding." - Calvin Coolidge December 4, 1928

"When the financial and business history of 1929 is finally written, developments of the past fortnight

will occupy a prominent place in what will doubtless be the chronicle of an exceptionally brilliant twelve

month period." - The New York Times, July 1929

"It becomes increasingly evident that, in many respects, 1929 will be written into the commercial history

of the country as the most remarkable year since the World War in point of sustained demand for

goods and services." - The New York Times, August 1929:

"There may be a recession in stock prices, but not anything in the nature of a crash." - Irving Fisher,

leading U.S. economist , New York Times, Sept. 5, 1929

"Stock prices will stay at high levels for years to come, says Ohio economist" - The New York Times, II,

Page 7, Col. 2, Oct 13, 1929 :D

"Stock prices have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. I do not feel there will be

soon if ever a 50 or 60 point break from present levels, such as (bears) have predicted. I expect to see

the stock market a good deal higher than it is today within a few months." - Irving Fisher, Ph.D.

More delights on:

http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/fil...ier_REPRINT.pdf

It's an old piece. May 2008. The accuracy of predictions is very good. Long too, but worth the read, if but for the faux pas.

Regards.

[teletiger]

"And most of all I do not think the Fed will take actions against its interests to save the economy."

The Fed's interests, of course, being it's shareholders. Big banks et al.

Regards.

[12DrinkMore]

And a splendid effort by Gordo "tax&spend" Brown

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business...ow-1789561.html

Net borrowing reached £16.1bn and now stands at £63.5bn for the first five months of the financial year so far - more than double 12 months earlier.

Official forecasts already put borrowing at a record £175bn this year but one expert said this could overshoot by almost £50bn at the current rate.

Another record in a record breaking term by Labour

:D

[AlexLah]

Ok Barak, Abrak,

Clear for the peanuts 300 Billion, but where did the money for the bailout (750 Billion) came from, and the alleged 500 Billion send to foreign banks and another multi Billion that secretly went to Citibank? Many say it is future taxpayers money so have they send funny pieces of paper that said to be received in the distant future by the holder of this document the sum of xxxx Billion fresh crispy notes?

By the way today I was sifting through the thousands of files I have here and remember reading a document from 2007 or 8 where indeed the retirement age was mentioned to be adjusted upwards to more recent life expectancy rates. As 12 mentioned they are thinking of retiring at 75? The Netherlands already proposed setting it at 67, ha ha! Working and saving for your pension for almost 50 years so you can go fishing for about ten years and then be refused a lifesaving operation because you are to old (read not significantly contribute to GDP and tax revenue).

(I am not talking about Naam with his Platinum world health care insurance)

Another thing I saw mentioned that Stiglitz supposed to have said that he thinks the recession/depression will be over around 2012. It makes me wonder who ever came up with that GDP fabricated figure as a measure of how well an economy is doing.

Why is it that when I want to buy some forks and knifes there are over a hundred different designs to choose from (Maybe even more).

Same for hand phones/mobiles and many other things. Why would someone think of designing a farting teddy bear, why are people even buying that kind of crap?

Have you ever looked at the things you have?

Think again and decide if you could live without it.

For example, I have a blender that I use maybe 4 times a year, could I live without it? Yes for sure!

What would happen if the world stopped buying those useless items and get back to only buy what is needed?

What would happen if people decided it would be better if only one parent is working and the other take care of the house and possible children?

[teletiger]

Now you're being retro Alex.

But come to think of it......What was wrong with that stuff?

Not enough profits......OK....now I got it.

Regards.

[flying]

What would happen if the world stopped buying those useless items and get back to only buy what is needed?

What would happen if people decided it would be better if only one parent is working and the other take care of the house and possible children?

Actually I think what you say is happening & not by choice but by necessity.

As for the single working parent that too is becoming reality & not by choice.

But that one I like for a different reason. Lowered tax income for this foolish government. They shot themselves in the foot & I hope they bleed out.

[Abrak]

"And most of all I do not think the Fed will take actions against its interests to save the economy."

The Fed's interests, of course, being it's shareholders. Big banks et al.

Regards.

Absolutely and that is my point Alexjah,

Why monetize debt when you can keep short term interest rates at zero and medium term interest rates are 3.7% and recapitalize the banks (in other words make the banks a lot of money)? Monetizing totally destroys your credibility. Just as importantly presumably you only monetize to reduce interest rates (and decimate the dollar). How is that in the interests of your shareholders or the banking system that you have just about pulled out everything you have to save? (Plus you dont get the economic multiplier that you get through the banking system.)

If you asked me the simplest and easiest way to solve US economic problems I would agree it would be to monetize debt, so I fully understand why people think it is going to happen and why it might. However, I do not (at the current time) see it in the best interest of the Fed or its shareholders, so I am guessing it aint going to happen.

Edited September 18, 2009 by Abrak

[flying]

Putin still at it

Russian premier Putin says US dollar issuance 'uncontrolled', calls for diversified reserves

Sergei Venyavsky, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SOCHI, Russia - Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Friday said other currencies besides the dollar should be used as global reserves to reduce the risks posed by swelling U.S. debt.

Putin, who spoke at an international investment forum in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, chided the United States for "an uncontrolled issue of dollars" and said the American currency's dominance had been "one of the triggers" of the global crisis.

Putin renewed Russia's call on the U.S. administration and global community to give the green light to alternative reserve currencies: "If there are several reserve currencies, this will not harm the U.S. economy in any way."

President Dmitry Medvedev's economic advisor, Arkady Dvorkovich, said Thursday that Russia would at next week's G20 summit in Pittsburgh press for more follow-through on measures to confront the global downturn and to change Western-dominated international financial institutions.

Russia and China have pushed for alternative reserve currencies, but being the world's largest holders of U.S. dollar assets - such as Treasuries - they are unlikely to abandon it. Dvorkovich stressed on Thursday that Russia is not out to replace the dollar, but only diversify.

Putin, meanwhile, also promised to encourage foreign investment in Russia by removing bureaucratic hurdles.

"Russia's economy is totally underinvested," and state spending alone is not enough to support a recovery, Putin said in Sochi, which is hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Russia's economy has been hurt by a deep slump in commodity prices and a credit squeeze. Russian stock markets have lost nearly 30 per cent of their value since August 2008 as oil and commodities prices took a hit.

Putin said he "appreciated" that even in the crisis-hit first half of the year, $17 billion of foreign investment was transferred to Russia. He pledged to take steps to "streamline the banking sector and stock market" to make them more attractive for foreign businesses.

"We will step up our efforts to get rid of the administrative barriers," he said. "Russia is open for foreign investment."

Putin hailed President Barack Obama for his move Thursday to scrap the Bush-era missile defence plan for Eastern Europe, but challenged Washington to also cancel all existing restrictions on trade with Russia and give the go-ahead to World Trade Organization membership for Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

"I very much hope that this right and brave decision will be followed up by the full cancellation of all restrictions on co-operation with Russia and high technology transfer to Russia as well as a boost to expand the WTO to embrace Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan," Putin said.

Putin stressed that the Cold War-era trade restrictions hurt American business as much as Russia. He lashed out at the U.S. administration for using the so-called "CoCom lists" to discriminate against Russia.

CoCom, or Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls, was established during the Cold War to tightly control technology exports to the Soviet Union and its allies.

"This hurts Russia's co-operation with its partners, first of all with the United States," he added. "This also hurts American business because it hampers development of their business contacts in Russia."

Russia has spent years trying to get the U.S. to scrap a handful of restrictive laws on bilateral trade, including the Jackson-Vanik amendment, Cold War-era legislation that has been a key irritant in relations between Moscow and Washington.

-

Associated Press writer Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed to this report from Moscow.

http://www.tmxmoney.com/en/cpnews/b091821A.html

Edited September 18, 2009 by flying

[flying]

Remember the news about the two guys smuggling 134 Billion in UST through Italy a few months back?

http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&...eme=&size=A

How is it that these counterfeits as we were assured back then are still be examined by the SS?

How is it that they are still trying to determine if they are counterfeit? Dont they know months after?

Pretty weird & something is lout of whack with this story. It also said the two men were in custody...Later in the story it said the two men disappeared???

Sept. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Secret Service is examining more than $100 billion of U.S. government bonds confiscated in northern Italy in August, just two months after $134 billion of allegedly fake securities were seized in a nearby town.

The Secret Service is analyzing whether the bonds taken in August may be counterfeit, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Rome. Italy’s financial police in Varese, north of Milan, arrested two individuals carrying the securities in a briefcase, according to a person involved in the case.

The two men currently are in custody as prosecutors in the town of Busto Arsizio carry out their investigation, the person said. The seized notes include securities with face values of $500 million and $1 billion, Italian daily MF reported today, without saying where it got the information.

“There must be a well-organized group behind these alleged crimes,” Fabio Polimeni, a Milan lawyer specializing in counterfeiting cases, said.

Italian authorities seized U.S. treasuries on June 4 with a face value of more than $134 billion from two Japanese travelers attempting to cross into Switzerland. The two men later disappeared and the case is still under investigation. The U.S. government bonds found in the false bottom of a suitcase carried by the men were fake, a U.S. Treasury spokesman said June 18.

“As financial markets become more sophisticated, creative and bigger, we can expect criminal activity to go with it and it’s happening everywhere,” Livia Oglio, a Milan lawyer, said. “The amount seized is phenomenal.”

Since the beginning of the year the police at border stations in Italy have seized 1.7 million euros of genuine money and bonds, and have confiscated more than 100 million euros of bonds that have been determined to be false, according to an Italian finance police statement in July.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=new...id=afX0BWHToC1g

Edited September 19, 2009 by flying

[midas]

As someone rightly said " watch this vid go viral " - hope so

OUTRAGE: TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

[flying]

OUTRAGE: TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

I have seen a few of his vids in recent months.

Sad part is its true what he is saying. But when you hear it all strung

together just makes you wonder...how did it ever become so easy to

be so openly corrupt. Was it always this way & most never noticed?

At times I think it is just too blatant so I want to know what the other hand is

doing. They would not wave this corruption so blatantly if they were not trying to

herd everyone somewhere would they?

[midas]

.

Sad part is its true what he is saying. But when you hear it all strung

together just makes you wonder...how did it ever become so easy to

be so openly corrupt. Was it always this way & most never noticed?

At times I think it is just too blatant so I want to know what the other hand is

doing. They would not wave this corruption so blatantly if they were not trying to

herd everyone somewhere would they?

flying I am lost for words

There are just a small handful of people that seem to be willing to stand up.

How can this be happening? And is Nancy Pelosi just preparing people

for the appropriate goverment reaction to an inevitable act of violence ?

And now they are using the same techniques as that small country

over in the Middle East to shut people up - just for asking questions they immediately

jump and call you a racist ?

[12DrinkMore]

OUTRAGE: TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

I'm with this guy.

But where are the Brits?

Same problems, same fraud, same cronyism, same corruption and same bullshit.

But nobody up there on YouTube or elsewhere telling them to get up off their lard <deleted>, turn off the TV, complain to their MP, march on Parliament.

So just what is occupying the thoughts of the Brits, as the GBP sinks lower, Brown is building up the biggest deficit every seen and unemployment rising to 3,000,000? Lets take a peek shall we, and here we go the most popular articles in the Telegraph today

1. The Lost Symbol and The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown's 20 worst sentences

2. Google easter eggs: 15 best hidden jokes

3. New 'Montauk Monster' spotted in Panama

4. Boy, 12, is having sex change, school announces

5. 20 most bizarre Craigslist adverts of all time

OH! Then lets try the Independent

1 The 50 best stately homes

2 100 Best Films: The final countdown, 20-1

3 How this man taught me to kill in four moves

4 Movie heaven: Anthony Quinn's 100 Best Films, Day 4, 40-21

5 Lily Cole: The catwalk queen who conquered Hollywood

6 Victory for lawyer who protected the elderly

7 Ferguson: Can City be top dogs? 'Not in my lifetime'

8 How a botched execution revived death penalty debate in America

9 The funniest football chants

10 The Ten Best Sex Toys

11 Police thought suicide mother 'over-reacted' to gang attacks

12 Lloyds desperate to pull out of toxic-asset insurance plan

13 Movie heaven: Anthony Quinn's 100 Best Films, Day 3, 60-41

14 London: The city of broken dreams

15 A battle of wills: Gayatri Devi's £250m legacy

Nah, the Brits don't care, as they settle down into the sofa with the takeaway, beer and fags. Pass the remote will you?

[midas]

But where are the Brits?

Same problems, same fraud, same cronyism, same corruption and same bullshit.

But nobody up there on YouTube or elsewhere telling them to get up off their lard <deleted>, turn off the TV, complain to their MP, march on Parliament.

Forget MSM now - they are covering what those in power want the sheeple to read and hear

What is needed in UK is someone ( or a group ) like Wayne Allyn Root in USA -a citizen politician

who wants every American voter to simply pledge to VETO (vote against) every incumbent politician in the United States of America in 2010. “I'm the only politician in America who wants to INCREASE unemployment- by at least 435 members of Congress (and a few Senators too). Can you imagine the headlines across the globe the morning after election day? ALL 435 MEMBERS OF U.S. CONGRESS HEAR: YOU'RE FIRED!”

http://www.american-election.com/2009/09/0...ne-of-them-out/

[Naam]

FED = yawn

FDIC = yawn

Ron Paul = yawn

Geithner = yawn

bank failures = yawn

US-Dollar collapse = yawn

Gold = yawn

Bernanke = yawn

DOW = yawn

gloom = yawn

S&P = yawn

O'Bama = yawn

Democrats = yawn

Republicans = yawn

doom = yawn

IRS/income tax = yawn

Chancellor Darling = yawn

blogspots = yawn

apocalypse now (or perhaps a bit later) = yawn

Baht crashing = yawn

Goldman sucks = yawn

Gordon Brown = yawn

Shittibank = yawn

mortgages = yawn

CD rates = yawn

best grilled rat in Nakhon Nowhere = yawn

fiat money = yawn

interesting times = yawn

best burger in BKK = yawn

double pricing for Farangs = yawn

deep fried cockroaches = taste is in the buds (butts ) of the beholder

missing rainy season Eastern Seaboard =

Farang tourists in Thailand =

wife insisisting on "no Mia Noi!" =

markets closed Sat/Sun =

to be continued...

[flying]

FED = yawn

FDIC = yawn

Ron Paul = yawn

Geithner = yawn

bank failures = yawn

US-Dollar collapse = yawn

Gold = yawn

Bernanke = yawn

yawn

yawn

yawn

You sound like the folks 12G just mentioned

You need to drink more coffee..smoke something & get fired up. Not necessarily in that order mind you.

[flying]

"Option" mortgages to explode, officials warn

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government and states are girding themselves for the next foreclosure crisis in the country's housing downturn: payment option adjustable rate mortgages that are beginning to reset.

"Payment option ARMs are about to explode," Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller said after a Thursday meeting with members of President Barack Obama's administration to discuss ways to combat mortgage scams.

"That's the next round of potential foreclosures in our country," he said.

Option-ARMs are now considered among the riskiest offered during the recent housing boom and have left many borrowers owing more than their homes are worth. These "underwater" mortgages have been a driving force behind rising defaults and mounting foreclosures.

In Arizona, 128,000 of those mortgages will reset over the the next year and many have started to adjust this month, the state's attorney general, Terry Goddard, told Reuters after the meeting.

"It's the other shoe," he said. "I can't say it's waiting to drop. It's dropping now."

Continued............http://www.reuters.com/article/wtUSInvestingNews/idUSTRE58G5U320090917

[Naam]

.

Sad part is its true what he is saying. But when you hear it all strung

together just makes you wonder...how did it ever become so easy to

be so openly corrupt. Was it always this way & most never noticed?

At times I think it is just too blatant so I want to know what the other hand is

doing. They would not wave this corruption so blatantly if they were not trying to

herd everyone somewhere would they?

flying I am lost for words

There are just a small handful of people that seem to be willing to stand up.

How can this be happening? And is Nancy Pelosi just preparing people

for the appropriate goverment reaction to an inevitable act of violence ?

And now they are using the same techniques as that small country

over in the Middle East to shut people up - just for asking questions they immediately

jump and call you a racist ?

please be more specific Midas. are your referring to Zimbabwe or to Botswana?

[AlexLah]

I strongly suggest a cup of coffee Naam and find out if you can get back the money payed for your schooling.

Topography lessons in specific..............

[flying]

Should this guy be wagging his finger at the rest of the world?....Now?

Obama Says Financial Regulations Must Be Strengthened Globally

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said tougher financial regulations are needed worldwide to protect consumers, provide economic stability and prevent future crises.

With the leaders from the Group of 20 nations set to meet next week in Pittsburgh, Obama said in his weekly address on the radio and Internet that international cooperation has “stopped our economic freefall.”

“We know we still have a lot to do, in conjunction with nations around the world, to strengthen the rules governing financial markets and ensure that we never again find ourselves in the precarious situation we found ourselves in just one year ago,” Obama said.

The administration has proposed an overhaul of U.S. financial regulations including oversight of the systemic risk large financial institutions pose to the economy, new ways for the government to dismantle failed companies and a regulator to oversee financial products for consumers.

Obama reiterated his calls for Congress to act on his regulatory proposals, which he also made in a speech on Wall Street Sept. 13.

“As I told leaders of our financial community in New York City earlier this week, a return to normalcy can’t breed complacency,” Obama said in today’s address. “Our government needs to fundamentally reform the rules governing financial firms and markets to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”

Oversight for Consumers

Obama said a central element to this regulatory overhaul is a new agency to oversee consumer products, including mortgages and credit cards.

“We need clear rules, clearly enforced. And that’s what this agency will do,” Obama said.

Obama said lobbyists for financial institutions are already fighting against new regulations.

“We cannot let the narrow interests of a few come before the interests of all of us,” Obama said. “We cannot forget how close we came to the brink, and perpetuate the broken system and breakdown of responsibility that made it possible.”

In the Republican address, North Carolina Representative Sue Myrick focused on Obama’s health-care proposals, which are being debated in Congress. She said the plan being offered by Obama and congressional Democrats would lead to government-run insurance and that would mean delays in care.

Access to Care

“Every family that confronts a serious illness should have access to the highest-quality care at the lowest possible cost, with no delays,” Myrick said.

Obama has said he favors a government-run insurance program to compete with private insurers. While he has suggested he wouldn’t make it a requirement as part of final legislation, other Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California have said it must be part of any bill.

“Replacing your current health care with a government-run system is not the answer,” Myrick said.

Myrick also said the health-care proposals would lead to tax increases on small businesses that would lead to the elimination of more than 1.6 million jobs.

“This is the worst possible time to be imposing new, job- killing taxes,” Myrick said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=aNRS9zQAgnBQ

[midas]

please be more specific Midas. are your referring to Zimbabwe or to Botswana?

You know very well it is " they who cannot be named "

And on a related topic....................

The Next Crisis Nobody Is Talking About

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-pos...y-talking-about

[samuibeachcomber]

OUTRAGE: TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

I'm with this guy.

But where are the Brits?

Same problems, same fraud, same cronyism, same corruption and same bullshit.

But nobody up there on YouTube or elsewhere telling them to get up off their lard <deleted>, turn off the TV, complain to their MP, march on Parliament.

So just what is occupying the thoughts of the Brits, as the GBP sinks lower, Brown is building up the biggest deficit every seen and unemployment rising to 3,000,000? Lets take a peek shall we, and here we go the most popular articles in the Telegraph today

1. The Lost Symbol and The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown's 20 worst sentences

2. Google easter eggs: 15 best hidden jokes

3. New 'Montauk Monster' spotted in Panama

4. Boy, 12, is having sex change, school announces

5. 20 most bizarre Craigslist adverts of all time

OH! Then lets try the Independent

1 The 50 best stately homes

2 100 Best Films: The final countdown, 20-1

3 How this man taught me to kill in four moves

4 Movie heaven: Anthony Quinn's 100 Best Films, Day 4, 40-21

5 Lily Cole: The catwalk queen who conquered Hollywood

6 Victory for lawyer who protected the elderly

7 Ferguson: Can City be top dogs? 'Not in my lifetime'

8 How a botched execution revived death penalty debate in America

9 The funniest football chants

10 The Ten Best Sex Toys

11 Police thought suicide mother 'over-reacted' to gang attacks

12 Lloyds desperate to pull out of toxic-asset insurance plan

13 Movie heaven: Anthony Quinn's 100 Best Films, Day 3, 60-41

14 London: The city of broken dreams

15 A battle of wills: Gayatri Devi's £250m legacy

Nah, the Brits don't care, as they settle down into the sofa with the takeaway, beer and fags. Pass the remote will you?

when the shit hits the fan in the UK,it will be the unions who will muster the support to demonstrate.either that or it will be the under 25's(jobless and in despair)who will indiscriminately turn to uncontrolled violence.Or if we are to believe a total collapse of the western financial system and we all lose our money maybe we will all take to the streets.safest place will be back on the farm in Isaan

[midas]

So the joke going around China now is that even a dog in the USA

can get a credit card.........................

bear that in mind when you read about Najibullah Zazi at the center of an Al Qaeda terror cell probe.

Zazi opened credit card accounts with Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, Discover and Citibank and ran up a debt of more than $50,000.

and when he filed for bankruptcy, Zazi said he hadn't worked in two months.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2...o_cut_deal.html

[midas]

As some people in Washington DC go to collect their foodstamps.........

they should know what it takes for Michelle Obama to go shopping at farmers market

Let's say you're preparing dinner and you realize with dismay that you don't have any certified organic Tuscan kale. What to do?

Here's how Michelle Obama handled this very predicament Thursday afternoon:

The Secret Service and the D.C. police brought in three dozen vehicles and shut down H Street, Vermont Avenue, two lanes of I Street and an entrance to the McPherson Square Metro station. They swept the area, in front of the Department of Veterans Affairs, with bomb-sniffing dogs and installed magnetometers in the middle of the street, put up barricades to keep pedestrians out, and took positions with binoculars atop trucks. Though the produce stand was only a block or so from the White House, the first lady hopped into her armored limousine and pulled into the market amid the wail of sirens.

Then, and only then, could Obama purchase her leafy greens. "Now it's time to buy some food," she told several hundred people who came to watch. "Let's shop!"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1703679_pf.html

[Naam]

I strongly suggest a cup of coffee Naam and find out if you can get back the money payed for your schooling.

Topography lessons in specific..............

you are excused Alex as you obviously missed the lesson when the teacher explained "irony" and "sarcasm". but i'm sure you excelled in the subject "naïveté".

addendum: and i suggest you google to find out the difference between "topography" and "geography"

Edited September 20, 2009 by Naam

[Naam]

please be more specific Midas. are your referring to Zimbabwe or to Botswana?

You know very well it is " they who cannot be named "

stupid me! i forgot that any mentioning of aliens from the gamma quadrant is politically incorrect.