“Government Is A Racket That Benefits The D.C. Political Elite By Taking Money From Average People “

It’s A Very Merry Christmas For Washington Insiders

 

 

 

 

 

” I realize this is an unhappy topic to be discussing during the Christmas season, but the American people need to realize that they are being pillaged by the insiders that controlWashington and live fat and easy lives at our expense.

  If you don’t believe me, check out this map showing that 10 of the 15 richest counties in America are the ones surrounding our nation’s imperial capital.

  Who would have guessed that the wages of sin are so high?

  D.C., itself, isn’t on the list. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of people living large inside the District.

  Here are some interesting nuggets from a report in the Washington Business Journal:

D.C. residents are enjoying a personal income boom. The District’s total personal income in 2012 was $47.28 billion, or $74,733 for each of its 632,323 residents, according to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s Economic and Revenue Trends report for November. The U.S. average per capita personal income was $43,725.”

 

 

 

” Want some other examples of profitable Washington sleaze? Here are some excerpts fromRich Tucker’s column for Real Clear Policy:

The real place to park your money is in Washington, D.C. That’s because the way to get ahead isn’t to work hard or make things; it’s to lobby Washington for special privileges. Look no further than the sweet deal the sugar industry gets. It’s spent about $50 million on federal campaign donations over the last five years. So that would average out to $10 million per year. Last year alone, the federal government spent $278 million on direct expenditures to sugar companies. That’s a great return on investment.”

 

 

Read the whole piece on our Imperial Capital .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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GM Bailout Money Creates Jobs … In China

GM Got Bailout , Now Ships Jobs To China

 

 

 

” Saving General Motors from bankruptcy was among President Obama’s most frequently cited achievements when he ran for re-election last year. Democrats everywhere touted the company’s revival as proof of the 2009 bailout’s wisdom. That was then. Now, Obama has quietly released the auto manufacturer from a bailout requirement that it increase its production in the U.S. Instead, GM is spending billions of dollars building up its production capacity in … China.

This is happening despite the fact that the Treasury Department has to date recovered just $36 billion of its original $51 billion loan to GM. By most analysts’ predictions, American taxpayers will be out approximately $10 billion when the remaining stock is sold off. Which is a long way of saying that it now appears that taxpayers paid $10 billion to make it easier for GM to accelerate its foreign outsourcing and send more manufacturing jobs to China.

Here’s what happened: In exchange for the bailout in 2009, GM promised to meet certain domestic car production targets over the next four years. The obvious point of this stipulation was to ensure that GM jobs remained here at home and weren’t shipped overseas. The production targets started at 1.8 million in 2010 and were supposed to rise to 2.26 million by 2014. GM repeatedly missed the targets, beginning with an 81,000-unit shortfall the first year. Production increased thereafter, but never quite enough to meet the targets. Last year, GM fell about 13,000 cars short of its 2 million target.”

 

Source

   Face it , everyone but Obama’s union cronies got the shaft on his “signature economic success story” and now their time is about to come . Just like with Obamacare , he uses the unions as his foot-soldiers to force his way of things , but at the end of the day the unions end up footing the bill along with the rest of us .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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What Ever Happened To TARP?

Five Years Later Taxpayers Are Still Owed Tens Of Billions

 

 

” As the fifth anniversary of TARP approaches, here is a list of banks, mortgage lenders and insurance companies that received TARP funds from the government and what profit the government made on each loan or what debt they are still owed.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Do We Trust The Obama Administration ? LOL

Do You Trust This Administration?

 

 

 

” The Obama Administration has a few problems. From Benghazi to the IRS to the phone records of journalists and everyday Americans, it’s not difficult to call up a scandal with investigations pending in Washington.

So immigration reform makes for a nice distraction.

In his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama called immigration reform “an issue that the vast majority of Americans want addressed.”

This sounds like wishful thinking on his part, considering that unemployment is stuck at 7.6 percent and Americans consistently say that the economy is their No. 1 concern.

What the bill does do is give federal agencies more power.”

 

     By all means let’s give the Federal government more power . Our lives aren’t effed up enough yet . As you can see above the immigration reform issue is nowhere in sight as far as most voters are concerned . Ditto for gun control . How much more out of touch can an administration be ? 

    The trust deficit continues to grow as more revelations come to the fore regarding a seemingly endless stream of abuse of power by the government and this administration . 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Is There Such A Thing As “Too Big To Fail” Or Is It Just Cronyism ?

 

 

Resolving Too-Big-To-Fail Banks In The US

 

 

” The issue of size became important in 1984, when the government bailed out Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust (“Continental”), the seventh largest bank at the time. This bailout occurred because of concerns about systemic risk due to the bank’s size. The FDIC infused $1 billion in new capital into the Continental Illinois Corporation, the bank’s holding company, in exchange for preferred stock convertible to 80 percent of the equity. These funds were then downstreamed to Continental as equity capital to recapitalize the bank. When the government bailed out Continental, Stewart B. McKinney, a Connecticut congressman, declared that the government had created a new class of banks, those too big to fail (TBTF).2 Ever since this bailout, there has been a belief that certain banks or bank holding companies are TBTF, which we call the “TBTF problem.”

This belief that some banks are TBTF was behind the regulatory response to the financial crisis of 2007–2009, when the government bailed out the biggest banks in the country. Many individuals consider the biggest banks to have largely caused the crisis, and this belief has focused far greater attention on the TBTF problem. Indeed, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”) of July 2010 created a new federal receivership process pursuant to which the FDIC may serve as the receiver for big banks whose failure poses a significant risk to the financial stability of the United States. The FDIC’s new authority is intended to eliminate the TBTF problem once and for all.

This paper looks at the historical treatment of troubled banks by the FDIC. It examines how the FDIC resolves troubled banks and the sources of funds available to it in the event resolutions are costly. This examination focuses on the treatment of big versus small troubled banks to assess the importance of the TBTF issue. Given the enormous costs involved in bailing out the biggest banks during the recent financial crisis, we discuss the FDIC’s new receivership process to handle troubled big banks. We then assess whether this process will indeed eliminate the problem of large bank failures.”

Related articles

• FDIC & Bank of England Create Resolution Authority for Unlimited Cyprus-Style “Bail-Ins” for TBTF Banks! (silverdoctors.com)
• Are All G20 Bank Depositors Exposed to a Cyprus Style Seizure of Deposits for a ‘Bail-in?’ (jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com)
• Government: Too Big To Fail? (adask.wordpress.com)
• Fisher: Ending ‘Too Big to Fail’ (ritholtz.com)

 

 

 

 

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Money For Everyone , Except America

Obama Wants $130 Billion to Bail Out Europe

 

 

 

” President Barack Obama wants to double the U.S. quota subscription in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to $130 billion from its current $65 billion level. This is the foreign aid organization that has been busy bailing out Greece, Portugal, and Ireland with $86.6 billion.

U.S. taxpayers have been responsible for about 20 percent of those bailouts, or approximately $17 billion so far, even as the Eurozone continues to crumble and the debt crisis spreads to Italy and Spain.

Obama’s call to double down comes afterformer Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner had sworn under oath to the House Financial Services Committee in 2012 that “we have no intention to seek additional U.S. resources for the IMF.” ”

 

 

 

 

 

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Related articles

• BANK HOLIDAY: Government To Seize 10% Of All Savings & Deposits In Cyprus (secretsofthefed.com)
• IMF says Europe’s banking sector still fragile (miamiherald.com)
• EXTREMELY DISTURBING: IMF Goes Directly After Bank Depositor Money (economicpolicyjournal.com)
• While Americans Focus On Gun Control Central Bankers And Finance Ministers Push For Global Currency (princevega.com)
• Eurozone, IMF agree 10-bn-euro Cyprus bailout (worldbulletin.net)

 

 

 

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Clueless Economic Leadership Rules The Day

10 Hilarious Examples Of How Clueless Our Leaders Are About The Economy

 

 

” They didn’t see it coming last time either.  Back in 2007, President Bush, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and just about every prominent voice in the financial world were all predicting that we would experience tremendous economic prosperity well into the future.  In fact, as late as January 2008 Bernanke boldly declared that “the Federal Reserve is not currently forecasting a recession.”  At the time, only the “doom and gloomers” were warning that everything was about to fall apart.  And of course we all know what happened.  But just a few short years later, history seems to be repeating itself.  Barack Obama, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and almost every prominent voice in the financial world are all promising that the U.S. “economic recovery” is going to continue even though Europe is coming apart like a 20 dollar suit.  But the economic fundamentals tell a different story.  Our national debt is more than $6,000,000,000,000 larger than it was back in 2008, the number of Americans on food stamps just hit another brand new all-time record, and the bankers up on Wall Street are selling gigantic mountains of the exact same kind of toxic derivatives that caused so much trouble the last time around.  But all of our “leaders” swear that everything is going to be okay.  You can believe them if you want, but denial is not just a river in Egypt, and another crash is inevitably coming.

Sadly, many Americans are not even going to see the crash coming because they still have faith in the “experts”.  They haven’t figured out that the “experts” really do not know what they are doing.

The blind are leading the blind, and in the end the results are going to be absolutely tragic.

The following are 10 hilarious examples of how clueless our leaders are about the economy…

#1 When I first came across the following chart the other day, it made me chuckle.  It is a chart that supposedly tells us the “probability” of a recession, and it was taken from the website of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.  According to the chart, right now there is a 0.16% chance of a recession… ”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Related articles

• 10 Examples Of The Clueless Denial About The ‘Real’ Economy (zerohedge.com)

 

 

 

 

 

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‘DISTRICT OF CORRUPTION’ …

… EXPOSES THE PLAYERS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

 

 

  ” Judicial Watch has teamed with Victory Film Group and Stephen K. Bannon, the stalwart award-winning writer/director of “Occupy Unmasked” and “The Undefeated,” to produce a compelling documentary exposing the corruption that has snaked through the last three presidential administrations.

“District of Corruption,” which opened Friday in Phoenix at the AMC Desert Ridge 18, and is also playing at the AMC Lennox Town Center 24 in Columbus, Ohio, is produced in association with Constant Motion Entertainment. The film focuses on the enduring and epic battle Judicial Watch, the nation’s most powerful watchdog organization, has waged against government scandal, secrecy and corruption, with special emphasis on the constant scandals of the Obama Administration, including Operation Fast and Furious, illegal alien amnesty, election integrity, crony capitalism, and bailouts and Solyndra. “

 

 

Illustration By Michael Ramirez

Related articles

• New Victory Films Trailer: District of Corruption (culturalhegemony.wordpress.com)
• Judicial Watch Obtains Documents Detailing the Cost to Taxpayers for Michelle Obama’s Family Trip to Africa (oyiabrown.com)
• Judicial Watch: Judicial Watch Press Room (sohereandnow.wordpress.com)
• The District of Corruption Trailer (Video) (redalexandriava.com)
• ‘District of Corruption’ Rocks Box Office in Limited Release (rubinoworld.com)
• Breitbart, Judicial Watch Voter Survey: 65% of Election Day Voters “Strongly Support” Voter ID (sys-con.com)
• Obama admin lawyers fight to obstruct public access to White House logs (humanevents.com)

It’s Still The Economy, Stupid — But …

… The Economy Alone Is Not Enough For Romney 

” The real unemployment rate — the rate when you factor in those who have given up looking for a job or are underemployed — sits at almost 15%. Real wages have declined. Gas prices have soared. While the Obama team would like to trumpet the recent dip in the official unemployment rate to below 8%, the fact is that many Americans do not feel like a recovery is underway.

President Obama’s promises from the 2008 campaign have come back to haunt him. For example, he promised healthcare premiums would go down under his plan — they haven’t, pinching families even harder in tough economic times. He promised he would have us on the road to independence from foreign oil — and though he has benefited from the discovery of shale gas, prices at the pump have skyrocketed, and the optics of holding up the pipeline from Canada further dispels his narrative.

President Obama promised his stimulus package would create 5 million new “greenjobs.” Instead, the American taxpayer has been left holding the bag for billion-dollar boondoggles like Solyndra, with the grant process having heavily relied on a series of losers

Cartoon by Nate Beeler

Related articles

• One day to go: Obama, Romney make their final case (news.yahoo.com)
• Despite 171,000 new jobs, US unemployment rate rises (thehindu.com)
• How to use the jobs report to make any case you want for Obama’s reelection chances (qz.com)
• The Battle Over Ohio’s Unemployment Rate (nationalreview.com)
• Romney Slams Obama on Unemployment Rate (voanews.com)
• Will the October Jobs Report Help President Obama? (usnews.com)

Thievery , Obama Style

“General Motors’ Share Price Tanks: Taxpayers On the Hook“

 

“General Motors claimed record profits in 2011, but the company’s share price just hit an all-time low. The 40% decline from the bailed-out company’s IPO share price of $33 to $19.36 follows upon news of government-inflated sales figures and risky lending practices.

The approaching bankruptcy of GM in 2009 put taxpayers on the hook for $50 billion, but the entire taxpayer “investment” in the failed union-dominated enterprise has been at least $82 billion. Former “Auto Czar” Steven Rattner admitted in December 2011 that taxpayers would lose at least $14 billion in GM sponsorship”

 

 

US banks unable to pay back government loans

Geithner: US Knew of LIBOR Issue; Used for AIG

More Public Debt , More Private Bailouts

   When will this criminal madness end ?

“The government has been bailing out the giant, insolvent banks for years. (Many of the bailed out banks are foreign.)
That is preventing the economy from recovering… like countries that have grabbed the bull by
the horns .
   The government has allowed the amount of derivatives to reach 1.2 quadrillion dollars . “

TARP: Billions in Loans in Doubt

Our leader’s investment record leaves something to be desired