Is There Nothing That Obama Can't Do?

ya but think of all the jobs he has "created" in the money printing business . . . let the good times roll baby.

One day soon the lefties will see the light...mostly because with all the things that the big "O" is intent on jamming up everyone's azz there won't be any more room for lefties to shove their own head!

He can also insult the Special Olympics on late night TV and get the Associated Press to not even mention the gaffe in its coverage of his appearance.

I can't be the only boomer postponing retirement because of just this problem. What was a couple of good pensions and a robust 401K will now cover about 10 years if I'm lucky. I don't feel lucky.

The feds might get away with it for a while. The so-called "bond vigilantes" have been out of town for years. Plus, money supply growth has outpaced inflation for a long time.

I wouldn't bet on serious inflation until/unless the "Japan" mantra leads to general scoffing about the dangers of inflation. Then, the politicos have an opening to use a little 'moral suasion' on the central bank...not unlike the kind that Lyndon Johnson used on William McChesney Martin.

Say, isn't that the Obama Hockey Stick Graph?

Here I thought Kate crashed the NP's server.... But it's up on Drudge. :-)

As Corcoran points out in this article,

"And for how long will they [the American people] tolerate a President who berates business and corporations as dens of crime and malfeasance? If the majority Americans come to accept the caricatures of business as true, then America is closer to the end of its life as a global leader, as a champion of markets and individualism."

Obama's remedy for economic problems or indeed, any problem? Fling money at it; if you don't have it, print it.

What is Obama's America? He cheapens the value of money by assuming that money and only money solves problems. He destroys the value of work for in Obama's America, you are punished for working by taxes and rewarded for not working.

He ignores the Laws of America and its Constitution. Rather than telling Americans that he cannot prevent the AIG bonuses because they are legal documents and he is sworn to uphold the law and he cannot retroactively retract them because such is unconstitutional, he feigns ignorance, lies and pretends outrage and tries to get Congress to tax them.

He rejects values of integrity, trust and collaboration. Everyone is equal and everyone is beneath him. He insults and denigrates the UK Prime Minister (those WalMart DVDs, by the way don't work in the UK). He tells Iran that 'mutual respect' is the new strategy. His ministers reject the term 'terrorism' and reduce terrorist acts, which are intentional, to unintentional 'man-caused disasters'. Terrorism is now purely an accident. Incredible.

His third in power, Pelosi, rejects the immigration laws of the US and sides with illegal immigration. He moves to increase the power of unions, taking power away from the individual, removing their freedom to work. He attacks businessmen, small and large, accusing them of 'greed'.

What's his agenda? That's what puzzles me because he has never, at any time, displayed any knowledge of or interest in, any political ideology or infrastructure. His only focus has been on himself and putting himself into positions where he controls how others interact with him. That's his focus. As he constantly reminds us - and I mean constantly - 'I'm the President'. That means, to him and you, that he is in control of you.

Since he has no ideas about economic or political infrastructure, and doesn't analyze or think about them ..and has no capacity to to this..he delegates these tasks to others. That's why he MUST stand by Geithner now; there's no-one else, and I mean it - no-one else to take that job.
He relies on Pelosi, a vapid cocooned idealogue and others in the hard left Democratic BackRoom Gang to insert their socialist agenda. He, Obama, doesn't even bother to read the Bills he signs.

And when the going gets tough - and he gets criticism - he Goes To The People...and charms them..to get them to stand by him, against their Congress, against Business, against individuals.

The Rise & Fall of the American Empire.

"... show up on any of those "progressive" blogs?"

Nope.

One would think they were in collusion to destroy the USA. Fortunately that can't be true, they don't have a teaspoon full of brains between them. This is all an unforeseen consequence of well intentioned but stupid policies.

Unforeseen by the progressives, anyway.

Glenn Beck has a video (searchable) on this same graph. Now at Fox, he walked over to another set nearby and talked about how the line was horizontal during the Depression (gold standard), two wars (WWII and Korea), (gold std again) and then only started rising when Nixon removed the gold std. Then he got into a lift that he likened to Al Gore's gimmick in Incon.Tr. and went way up.

Recommended viewing.

"... show up on any of those "progressive" blogs?"

Hmm. And they call us conservatives "deniers"...

Nice metaphor - the Obama Hockey Stick Monetary Graph.

Other graphs are interesting. Rasmussen polls on the daily presidential ratings show that Obama's approval is starting a negative slope,i.e., moving downwards, while disapproval has been a consistent and strong positive slope. The difference between the two is now only +4, his lowest rating so far.

With regard to illegal immigration, and this ties in with Pelosi's wooing of these illegal immigrants - the popular poll is against Obama's actions. Most voters want strong enforcement of immigration laws..and Obama has stopped such enforcement; most voters want employers sanctioned and Obama is indifferent; and 79% want US troops on the border against the drug violence. Obama not only ignores all this, but, I suspect is going after the illegal population in his new census to get them on the voter's lists.

Oh, and 61% are in favour of the secret ballot for union membership, while Obama, working with the unions, wants no secret ballot. Such a loss of secrecy would enable unions to bully and intimidate people to 'join' a union'. But only 9% of non-union workers want to join a union. Heh, that's not the point - the agenda is to strengthen the unions. By the way, any company or project accepting federal bailout funds has to use union workers. heh.

To be fair -- and I'm enjoying the festival of incompetence and demagoguery as much as anyone and think Obama's making things worse -- that spike is from August of last year. So you can't really pin that on him.

See: http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/AMBNS

Full marks to andycanuck for his brillinat observation. Dr, Chu loves sticks and reminded Bamma of the solution. I never thought of it even whilst chewing on a tree ring.

Geithner knew about the bonuses at least by Mar 3.
Contradicts what he said before.
From Hot-Air:-
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/03/20/video-congress-geithner-knew-about-bonuses-on-march-3rd/

Here's what Krauthammer has to say, with reference to the faux outrage of the AIG bonuses.

"It is time for the president to state the obvious: This recession is not caused by excessive executive compensation in government-controlled companies. The economy has been sinking because of a lack of credit, stemming from a general lack of confidence, stemming from the lack of a plan to detoxify the major lending institutions, mainly the banks, which, to paraphrase Willie Sutton, is where the money used to be.

Obama has been strangely passive about this single greatest threat to the country. In his address to Congress and his budget, he's been far more interested in his grand program for reshaping the American social contract in health care, energy and education.

Obama delegates to Geithner plans for a bailout -- and Geithner (thus far) delivers nothing. Obama delegates to Nancy Pelosi and her congressional grandees the writing of all things fiscal -- and gets a $787 billion stimulus package that is a wish list of liberal social spending, followed by a $410 billion omnibus spending bill festooned with pork and political paybacks.

That bill, we now discover, contains, among other depth charges, a Teamster-supported provision inserted by Sen. Byron Dorgan that terminates a Bush-era demonstration project to allow some Mexican trucks onto American highways, as required under NAFTA.

If you thought the AIG hysteria was a display of populist cynicism directed at a relative triviality, consider this: There are more than 6.5 million trucks in the United States. The program Congress terminated allowed 97 Mexican trucks to roam among them. Ninety-seven! Shutting them out not only undermines NAFTA. It caused Mexico to retaliate with tariffs on 90 goods affecting $2.4 billion in U.S. trade coming out of 40 states.

The very last thing we need now is American protectionism. It is guaranteed to start a world trade war. A deeply wounded world economy needs two things to recover: (1) vigorous U.S. government action to loosen credit by detoxifying the zombie banks and insolvent insurers, and (2) avoidance of a trade war.

Free trade is the one area where the world indisputably turns to Washington for leadership. What does it see? Grandstanding, parochialism, petty payoffs to truckers and a rush to mindless populism. Over what? Over 97 Mexican trucks -- and bonus money that comes to what the Yankees are paying for CC Sabathia's left arm. "

So, Obama focuses on trivialities and red herrings. Why? Because he has no intellectual capacity for understanding economic or financial or business infrastructures. He delegates that to others, who naturally, leave the analysis to him, ignoring that he can't do it..and focus on their own agendas.

In the case of Pelosi and other Democrats, it's to promote leftist elitist projects of The Guardian Elite helping the Hapless (illegal immigrants, people who can't afford to buy homes..etc..) and making them dependent on The Guardians.

When will Americans take back their country?

The real problem is the central banks - the Federal Reserve, BoC etc.

People think these are governent departments but they are far from it. They are private organizations that do not have to report to anyone even the President & Congress / PM & HoC. They can 'print' all the $$$ they want and give it to whom ever they please. If you add all of TOTUS's undunded promises that graph shoots up to around $15 trillion.

Bloomberg was reporting the bonuses in Jan:-
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&refer=home&sid=avGnUgGMu1q4

NY Post in Dec.
"Some executives in the group of 130 recipients will get more than $500,000 to stay through 2009, about 200 percent of their salaries, said the person, who declined to be named because the information hasn't been publicly disclosed."

And wasn't Geithner in charge of the first AIG bailout which specifically included plans for bonuses?

http://www.nypost.com/seven/12052008/business/details_of_aig_retention_pay_142745.htm

Interesting article at counterpunch, about where the publics attention SHOULD BE! The AIG bonus story is a red herring.

http://www.counterpunch.org/hudson03182009.html

[quote]He ignores the Laws of America and its Constitution. Rather than telling Americans that he cannot prevent the AIG bonuses because they are legal documents and he is sworn to uphold the law and he cannot retroactively retract them because such is unconstitutional, he feigns ignorance, lies and pretends outrage and tries to get Congress to tax them.[/quote]

ET,
The issue was never the contracts or thier legality (any contract can be successfully challenged in or out of Court) The constitutionality, or lack of, any Congressional act can only be judged by the US Supreme Court. The Congress did pass a taxation law & if is broad enough, will most likely (IMO) pass muster. The damage has been done not to the consitution, but the market

The Obama administration, or the general public, lacks an understanding of the business model of high-risk finance. The Corporations do not label/mark employees that are minor screw-ups as total failures and fire them in a brutal way. This would forever damage the careers of the very people that must take risky positions on a daily basis.

The mistake was that AES called them a Bonus, rather than the "retention & severance" contracts that they actually represented. It's a common practice that a soft landing severance does not discourage new talent from working for the Company. Who would take a high-risk job if each risk could be career ending?

The fact that the Obama administration & Congress could not explain, and lied, why it was important that the retention & severance of the most knowledgeable managers was the key to the successful unwinding of the bad business units, is why government mentality has no place in the high-risk, high-reward market.

I reiterate my call for a medium-sized meteor to strike DC.

None will be missed and the government would function much better without them.

Apparently Terence read my post on the end of the American empire a few weeks back..

BO's strategy/tactic is to blame others for the problems rather than accept any or at least as little as possible. Trying to spread around the blame minimizes one's own guilt and confuses the public trying to sort out which party's argument is the better one.

What looks to be happening now revolves around Geithner. Obama has staked a lot on him and BO's ineptitude in getting the dept up to full staffing strength will be really exposed (more than it already is as it is well known to those more tuned into the politics of the day) if Geithner is told to step down or volunteers his resignation as seems more likely by the hour. With giethner gone there would literally be no one at the dept who is up to speed to take his place from within until another nominee is found.

This would arguably be the biggest managerial failing by a POTUS in the past 50 yrs at least.

Philip Shaw -yes, I'm aware of the real nature of 'bonuses' but that's what they are called, even by those in these financial high risk positions.

I don't think that the Congress's new tax bill of taxing 90% of these bonuses in companies that receive federal funding will affect these AIG 'bonuses' - which were legal contracts before this tax bill. It's unconstitutional (Article 1, Section 9) to file a retroactive law.

The question remains, as you point out, whether such taxes and restrictions on these bonuses will harm rather than help these financial institutions. I'd suggest they will greatly harm them, for the MO of these institutions, as you point out, absolutely requires them. These jobs are not the same as 9-5 or no risk executive jobs. They aren't 'managerial jobs' but require contacts, in-depth knowledge, networks and risk-taking.

gord tulk - as you point out, Obama is both incompetent, delegates all responsibility, refuses to accept blame..and since he doesn't understand infrastructures, babbles about ideology (health care, education, love-ins for terrorists)..

But he can't afford to lose Geithner. He has no-one else. He'll do anything to retain him. And that includes attacking Congress for suggesting that Geithner be fired.

Virtually every country in the world is now on Fiat money - paper with no hard peg.

Obama is free to print. Presto ! Money pulled from thin air !!

The people have more money. Gov'ts have more money. Debt, including gov't debt, becomes cheaper to pay back. Same with mortgages. Interests rates can be low, zero even. Negative even. Banks have lots to lend. People have lots to spend !!

Any downside you say ? Yes. Inflation. Hyper-inflation even. And those holding cash will see their dollars (CDs, bonds, treasuries, ect) loose value. Lots. Will make the Dow's slide look good.

But would Obama do that intentionally ? Let me see - would his friends be holders of cash or loans, mortgages ?

Currency is like any other commodity - increase the supply a little and the price, value will drop a lot. Obama is increasing the supply at an unprecedented rate.

Terrance Corcoran knows of what he speaks - check his track record.

[Note: IMO, Bush pulled lots of boners also - the biggest being bio-fuels.]

China has already given notice that they will not buy US paper if the US dollar is devalued---which devalues their considerable holdings of US paper.
The Fed obtusely printing $1,300,000,000,000 (that's a lot of 0's) has devalued the dollar and will likely cancel the POTU/TOTUS credit card.
End of problem........

I've seen similar charts on several blogs. The original data seems to come from the St Louis Fed:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/BASE

more evidence we are in for a period of hyperinflation on the US$

end times here we come !!!

Ron, excellent point on Mr. Bush.

George is NOT a conservative, he is in fact a big government, small "L" liberal. His worst program IMHO was Homeland Security, that's a black hole down which a LOT of money has already fallen and a lot more is going to.

He was also AWOL on the illegal immigrant issue, obviously the bank leverage/toxic mortgage paper issue, and he pushed manufacturing in the wrong direction for eight years. Out of America into China is the wrong direction.

And Barry The Messiah is making the guy look GOOD. Making a big government liberal who grew the US federal bureaucracy more than any other president in history look like the very soul of fiscal prudence and restraint.

That's not an easy thing to do. Wait until Al Quaeda gets a torpedo past the suddenly disabled Homeland Security dorks, y'all are going to be pining for George even harder.

Populism, Demographics, and South America.

David Frum in yesterday's NP:

"A contract signed by the U.S. government is something more than an ordinary contract. There can be no reneging. The only thing worse than contract-breaking by the U.S. government would be an attempt by Congress to impose special onerous taxes on a small, discrete group of unpopular people. If that's not unconstitutional, it ought to be."

"...Congress has behaved in ways that are simultaneously hysterical, thuggish, and deeply hypocritical. Barney Frank's demand for the release of the names of bonused employees is the lowest, an open invitation to lynch law."

"I fear, I truly fear, that AIG may mark an ideological turning point in American history, a moment that marks the beginning of a sharp turn toward more regulation, more statism, and more populist anti-business feeing. Bitterly ironically, it will be the people who did most to provoke today's outrage whose party will benefit most from it."

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/03/19/david-frum-ten-thoughts-on-aig.aspx

Printing money isn't purely a bad thing, at least in the short term. Apparently, it really can help get an economy out of downward spiral (at the cost a rise in inflation).

There's an article about this in Maclean's March 23 edition (only in print I think) called "Confidence Man". They explain how the Bank of Canada's Mark Carney would consider this option for Canada if things get sufficiently bad. It's sometimes called resorting to "the nuclear option", and the purpose is apparently to reduce the high longer-term rates in the corporate bond market (the buying of which is what the money is usually spent on).

At least that's what the Macleans article says - I'm no economist.

(any contract can be successfully challenged in or out of Court)PGS. A contract may be challenged but when a government is doing the challenging, don't be so certain of the outcome.

There are lots and lots of examples where the government simply bulldozed its way through, law or no law, right or wrong - no mater. Besides the US Supremes are O'Bomb-a backers. You've got the trifecta against it - I don't like the odds.

Here's a post, (not mine), I took from a Breitbart thread:

"Polls show that a large percentage of those who voted for Obama had no real idea what he or his running mate stood for, and really didn't care because he was "cool" and promised them stuff. I saw interviews where Obama supporters believed that the McCain platform was Obama's and didn't even know who his running mate was. The sad part is that more and more of our citizens are not looking for extraordinary people who love their country and want to do the best, they just want someone who is the right color or sex or religion who speaks well, looks good, is "cool", and "an ordinary guy." I think things will just continue to get worse and worse since these people have no desire to be well-educated, patriotic, or follow the Constitution. They want an MTV government."

The last line sums it up.

Rosco- a contract may theoretically be challenged but not necessarily overturned. Furthermore, a nation whose government insisted on its citizens nullifying contracts would be one that essentially rejected the Rule of Law and the Trust in Contracts.

If any and all Contracts are rendered meaningless, who would work for such a business or in such a nation? That's the so-calleld Banana Republic mode.

Kindly provide some proof that the US Supreme Court is politically aligned with Obama and, furthermore, would reject the Constitution.

The contract with AIG is not signed by the US government (what is David Frum talking about?!) but even so, as long as it is a legal contract, and it is, the US govt cannot override the Law. It operates WITHIN the law. Not outside of it.

Certainly, Obama is carrying out a 'witch-hunt' against capitalism in the US, defining the results of hard work, wealth, as 'greed' and 'sin'. He's denigrating the very basis of American innovation and industrialism - its entrepreneurs and people 'who want to make good'. He's substituting a population who are dependent on Govt..and on Obama.

He's learned the rhetoric of the Rev Wright. Those 20 years spent listening to anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-individual freedom...that's Obama. Actually, I suspect it's Michelle Obama rather than Obama himself who is committed to these socialist ideals. Obama is a narcissist and his focus is only on making people curry favour with, and be dependent, on him.

Worth repeating: When you elect clowns to office, you should not be surprised when a circus starts up.

This could have all been prevented if voters were required to have a minimum IQ of say 95. If the US survives we may see such a requirement to prevent a repeat of this unfolding disaster.

At the risk of sounding like Ricky in "Trailer Park Boys", who opined "I toed you so"..

I've been saying, long and loud, buy gold. At 950, you still have an opportunity. 3, 4 years from now, you'll be kicking yourself, saying "Oh, I wish...".

eastern paul: Thanks for the link - he is absolutely right. Focusing on AIG bonuses as opposed to the $185,000,000.00 AIG was given is indeed a bait and switch to hide the distribution of this money and the ponzi scheme. The bonuses are a mild outrage compared to this information.

eastern paul: Thanks for the link - he is absolutely right. Focusing on AIG bonuses as opposed to the $185,000,000.00 AIG was given is indeed a bait and switch to hide the distribution of this money and the ponzi scheme. The bonuses are a mild outrage compared to this information.

The attacks on BO - all correctly stated - don't really help the situation. What would be the best help?

In this humble (ok, not so humble) Ontario man's opinion, it would be:

* Let Bernake continue his course at the Fed - without any political influence
* Strip out everything but tax cuts and productive infrastructure projects in the recent budget/proposal/TOTUS speech
* Regulate Mortgage Brokers - and find and jail the f***ers who helped submit false applications
* Work with Wall Street to build a better regulator
* Tell the American public that the recession is going to last at least another year, due primarily to incompetent government intervention over the past 6 months
* Tell Americans to SAVE and pay down debt, NOT borrow to consume. Consumption can wait until household debt loads are at reasonable levels.
* Say NO to the next 10 companies/industries/whiners who ask for a bailout. There shouldn't be an 11th.
* Pass the Peace Pipe around continuously until the end of 2010

If only productive infrastructure projects - e.g. projects whose results will be used effectively and usefully through 2025 and beyond - the cost will be worth it regardless of the expense.

One more thing: congress should take a 12 month recess, preferably in Afghanistan.

The US economy is out of control.

The world economy is going along for the ride.

There is no one man/woman/child (or combination there of) that is smart enough to know where we're headed for sure, or how to fix our predicament.

That is why my solution, along with many others, was to let Mr Market sort things on its own.
Although brutal, the justice is quick and efficient and we would not be looking at 5 to 10 more years of muddy road.

Gee, can a First World country really sublimate directly to a Third World country without going thru the Second World stage?

This whole bonus was a diversion. There was another trillion or so spent while they ranted about millions they will most likely pay anyway. I agree with Philip at 1:04. If a legal contract is not upheld by the courts there will be no trust. That is a very big part of investing. The rules do not change retro-actively or nothing but the mattress will do.

I don't find the money creation by the Federal Reserve to be overly troubling in what is clearly a deflationary episode. It can be destroyed just as quickly as it was created in order to control inflation. This is a normal if little used function of central banking. World War Two wasn't financed by the nation's savings accounts it was financed by the constitutional money creation powers of the central banks. Bernanke is a very well respected scholar of the Great Depression and I doubt that he is willing to repeat the mistakes of his predecessors who actually reduced the money supply during a recession. The rest is, as they say, history.