National Debt

[Shapley]

Our international reputation was ruined and fell from one of deep sympathy and support for the US by other countries, to outright hatred.

I don't entirely agree. However, you should be happy to note that our international reputation is returning to one of sympathy, or perhaps mourning...

[jamiebk]

Our international reputation was ruined and fell from one of deep sympathy and support for the US by other countries, to outright hatred.

I don't entirely agree. However, you should be happy to note that our international reputation is returning to one of sympathy, or perhaps mourning...

Here's a novel idea...instead of continually griping about the situation why don't the Republicans get their freakin' act together and come up with some decent platforms and candidates that can actually win an election

[Shapley]

Here's a novel idea...instead of continually griping about the situation why don't the Republicans get their freakin' act together and come up with some decent platforms and candidates that can actually win an election

They won elections on their platform for over a decade. Now they've lost two, one mid-term and one Presidential, largely because they shifted from that platform. The platform may need a few new planks, but it is still structurally sound. They have the platform, they just need the candidates who can stand on it with credibility.

I should point out that people were writing the Democrat's obituaries about six years ago. The bookstores were full of books about how the Republicans had 'created a permanent majority', etc. Many, many writers were expending paper telling the Democrats that they had to 'move to the right' if they were ever going to be significant again. They didn't. They ran on a simple "we're not them" platform, and won. Soon, the fickle public will tire of the current circus that is the Democrat-controlled Washington, and Republicans will re-emerge.

[Haggis@wk]

Uhhhh....Right....All of this damage was inflicted in just 4 months.

Yes

[jamiebk]

You have displayed the result of the economic trauma we have been subjected to...not the cause of it. The spending is an attempt to ease us out of this mess we are in. YOu can argue whether that is the correct path, but I do not believe that the graph would look anything like it does if we had not enetered a severe recession at the end of the Bush white house.

[Haggis@wk]

You have displayed the result of the economic trauma we have been subjected to...not the cause of it. The spending is an attempt to ease us out of this mess we are in. YOu can argue whether that is the correct path, but I do not believe that the graph would look anything like it does if we had not enetered a severe recession at the end of the Bush white house.

How many times can you say that? The cause of that red ink currently sits at 1600 Penn. Ave. It's his budget (not even talking about the "stimulus") His. The recession was bad but not on Depression standards and certainly not on any standards that risk the future of our country’s financial health.

And, if you’ll recall, my original statement is that the world’s powers, alarmed at the current proposed levels of spending are looking for another global currency.

And BTW, the chart is apparently wrong, it worse than the chart shows. Robert J Samuelson, who’s been doing this stuff a long time (and whose recent book The Great Inflation I highly recommend to my fellow economic amateurs interested in the longer view on how we got here), put it this way in a WAPO column earlier this week:

Even these totals may be understated. By various estimates, Obama’s health plan might cost $1.2 trillion over a decade; Obama has budgeted only $635 billion. Next, the huge deficits occur despite a pronounced squeeze of defense spending. From 2008 to 2019, total federal spending would rise 75 percent, but defense spending would increase only 17 percent. Unless foreign threats recede, military spending and deficits might both grow.

Obama’s engaged on a scale of spending never seen in our country. We are in unknown and uncharted waters and that situation is giving the rest of the world pause and anxieties on the future of the U.S. Dollar.

The Democrat controlled government is totally and completely in charge of developing this horrendous planned spending and the blame will lie on them when your grandchildren realize what they will have to pay for their grandparent’s profligacy, Democrats.

[jamiebk]

If they screw up I am sure that the Republicans will have the opportunity to take matters over. i.e. "we were right all the time"...."gee, if you'd only listened to us then" etc. etc. ad nauseum. Put forth a sound financial plan that helps the greatest number of people...that's all you need to do. So far, I ain't seen one from the Republicans...which distresses me because I have always been a "fiscal Republican"

[Haggis@wk]

If they screw up I am sure that the Republicans will have the opportunity to take matters over. i.e. "we were right all the time"...."gee, if you'd only listened to us then" etc. etc. ad nauseum. Put forth a sound financial plan that helps the greatest number of people...that's all you need to do. So far, I ain't seen one from the Republicans...which distresses me because I have always been a "fiscal Republican"

I won't disagree with you re: Republicans. I can recommend one fiscal step; stop the d**n spending!! That's a train wreck that we might not recover from.

[Haggis@wk]

Just a little friendly congressional intervention in the marketplace to shift risk from people who can’t afford the product to people who can. Hey — it’s worked out so well with mortgages.

Now Congress is moving to limit the penalties on riskier borrowers, who have become a prime source of billions of dollars in fee revenue for the industry. And to make up for lost income, the card companies are going after those people with sterling credit.

Banks are expected to look at reviving annual fees, curtailing cash-back and other rewards programs and charging interest immediately on a purchase instead of allowing a grace period of weeks, according to bank officials and trade groups.

“It will be a different business,” said Edward L. Yingling, the chief executive of the American Bankers Association, which has been lobbying Congress for more lenient legislation on behalf of the nation’s biggest banks. “Those that manage their credit well will in some degree subsidize those that have credit problems.”…

The industry says that the proposals will force banks to issue fewer credit cards at greater cost to the current cardholders.

We’re already helping to pay off deadbeats’ homes. Why not help free them up to rack up some more credit-card debt too?

I’m watching this closely. I use 2 credit cards, AMEX and a MC airline miles card. I pay them off every month and never run a balance. The fees on both are already high and I spoke with the MC people this morning and told them that any increase in my annual fee will cause me to close the account, a probability at any rate. I’ll miss the miles, they helped by adding to my existing miles and allowed the MRHYN and I to go to England in August, but I’m at the point where “cash only” is looking better all the time. Buying with cash puts you in a very good position today. I usually ask for and get discounts on tools, furniture and services. If you got cash, barter.

[jamiebk]

Yeah, Haggis...and the credit card companies are going to start charging interest/fees to even those of us who pay the full balance each month. If that happens, there will be no reason to use a credit card at all (for me). Sure, I enjoy the "float", but I have never charged that which I could not pay off when I receive my statement. If they lose people like you and me (and the other worthy credit users), the card companies will be left with deadbeats and bad credit risks...is that what they want? Don't think so.

[Shapley]

Again, the left wing knoweth not what the left wing doeth. At a time when they are demanding that banks raise more capital, they are removing one of the mechanisms for the raising of it.

Perhaps no one told Mr. Obama that credit cards are issued by banks...

[Haggis@wk]

Yeah, Haggis...and the credit card companies are going to start charging interest/fees to even those of us who pay the full balance each month. If that happens, there will be no reason to use a credit card at all (for me).

Me neither. I'll go to a pure debit card and cancel all credit cards with the possible exception of my AMEX. It's gold (and expensive) but since paying off every moth is the main requirement of AMEX, I can't see that AMEX will make any changes.

I've been toying with that combo (AMEX, Debit Card) for the last month and right now I don't see any reason to keep the MC.

[Shapley]

Yeah, Haggis...and the credit card companies are going to start charging interest/fees to even those of us who pay the full balance each month. If that happens, there will be no reason to use a credit card at all (for me).

Me neither. I'll go to a pure debit card and cancel all credit cards with the possible exception of my AMEX. It's gold (and expensive) but since paying off every moth is the main requirement of AMEX, I can't see that AMEX will make any changes.

I've been toying with that combo (AMEX, Debit Card) for the last month and right now I don't see any reason to keep the MC.

I could live without mine, except for online purchases. I suppose I could always go back to checque writing, but that is tedious. Credit Cards are convenient for that.

For travel, once can purchase an American Express Visa, which has pretty much replaced the travelers checque. It's really just a prepaid Visa, but it has loss protection. I think it costs $10-$15, and is reloadable.

I set out about two years ago to get rid of all my unneeded cards, and now only have two. They almost cry when you cancel an account, even one you don't use. I would think having an unused account would cost them money, so they would be happy to see them closed out. Not so, it seems.

[Haggis@wk]

I also purchased some British pounds today. The Dollard Pound exchange rate has been low in the last few month but started inching upwards in recent weeks. Traditionally it's between $1.60 - $@ a pound and I see no reason why it won't return to that rate soon. At the rate the Mint is printing new, fiated currency Inflation is inevitable, it's only a matter of severity.

As I said, I'm buying gold stock and foreign oil stock (BP) while I have a few (uninflated) bucks.

[Haggis@wk]

Just a little friendly congressional intervention in the marketplace to shift risk from people who can’t afford the product to people who can.

This nugget provides insight into where the Obama administration is coming from on the issue:

Austan Goolsbee, an economic adviser to President Obama, said that while the credit card industry had the right to make a reasonable profit as long as its contracts were in plain language and rule-breakers were held accountable, its current practices were akin to "a series of carjackings."

"The card industry is giving the argument that if you didn't want to be carjacked, why weren't you locking your doors or taking a different road?" Mr. Goolsbee said.

This is stupid to an unusual degree, even by Obama administration standards. Does Obama's economic adviser actually believe that charging fees to credit card borrowers who don't follow the rules is the same is stealing a stranger's car at gunpoint? Maybe so; it's hard to say what this administration could do or say that would surprise us.

[Haggis@wk]

Bankruptcy next week for GM, another $30 billion in federal loans coming

[Haggis@wk]

U.S. Expected to Own 70% of Restructured G.M.

I’m curious, does anyone here believe that GM will ever return to profitability? Am I alone in thinking that this is just an inevitable massive slow motion train wreck? How many of our billions are going to be wasted on this before a (probably Republican) president turns off the patient’s life support?

[BigJon@Work]

GM could be profitable, but massive structural changes would neeed to take place. Nobody on the inside has the spine for such bloodletting, so I guess it is left up to the Whitehose.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

... the Whitehose.

Love that. May use that. Was it an accident or a stroke of genius?

[Haggis@wk]

... the Whitehose.

Love that. May use that. Was it an accident or a stroke of genius?

Brillant!

Cats and dogs sleeping together; in other news a Communist Regime more fiscally responsible than the world’s largest free market:
China warns Federal Reserve over ‘printing money’.

“China has warned a top member of the US Federal Reserve that it is increasingly disturbed by the Fed’s direct purchase of US Treasury bonds.”

So am I. Plus, over $99 Trillion in unfunded pension and health-care liability

“built up by a careless political class over the years.”