How’s That Hopey Changey Thing Working Out For Ya?

45 Replies to “How’s That Hopey Changey Thing Working Out For Ya?”

1. Dig Barry, dig.
   Faster, deeper.

2. I am happy Krugmann is unhappy 🙂
   I notice that Emanuel, hot from the federal executive, is now in the real world doing what the feds must, but won’t, do.
   Interestingly the debt ceiling deal shows who and what was really the problem: the deal didn’t go through until the debt ceiling was raised sufficently to not be hit again until after the next presidential election. Obama was The One holding it back as this was HIS demand.

3. http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/tygrrrr-express/2011/jul/29/barack-obama-jayson-blair-presidency/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_must-read-stories-today
   Here’s an article just for ET,lauding the virtues of her hero,the subject of this post.

4. The key point in Krugman, that he glosses over….the debt ceilin could have been raised by the lame duck Dem congress…..they didnt because “O” in his infinite faith in his own boundless abilities thought he could cause a split in the GOP.
   “O” rolled the dice, calculated to put the US through this and failed to get what he was looking for, strategic fail!
   So Krugman wants to blame the GOP when the choice of battleground was set by “his guy”. The USA is paying a high proce for the education of Barrack. Maybe after 8 years he would actually be a decent president. The US just cannot afford it.

5. Maybe it just me but…
   The enormous amount of publicity surrounding this thing is not the sort of thing to influence investors to buy T-bills…now considered a “toxic asset.”
   Raising the “debt ceiling” is meaningless if nobody will lend these fools any capital.
   This has occurred before…..during Clinton’s reign a T-bill issue was not fully subscribed….pushing Clinton back to middle…hard.
   Emanual has just had to lay off 529 city workers…..
   Hollywood’s, Norman Lear has now attacked the Wisconsin GOP…ignoring the successful tranformation of Wisconsin’s deficit into a surplus by the “Archies” despite the violent tantrums of the “Maudes”.

6. whoops….must be a short ayyention span this AM. I blame Krugman……..
   -Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel says that 625 city employees will be losing their jobs as a result of cutbacks.
   Not 529…

7. Obama wanted the raise to last until after the next election. This give him a chance to pin the economic woes of the US onto the Tea Party. The MSM will help him greatly here, as we are hearing now that a small minority of extreme Republican (read Tea Party) have held the negotiations hostage and the country. They will state over and over again how they are willing to threaten the solvency of the US to get what they want by putting a gun to our heads. They have been called terrorists already. It’s going to be nasty.

8. I might add that the Progressive caucus of the Democratic congress – about equal in size to the Tea Party members of the Republicans will not support this legislation. Therefore it will be a mix of blue dog dems and moderate repubs that will pass this in Congress. This is a massive victory for the Repubs. – no tax increases, no new stimulus, and budget cuts to both discrectionary and entitlment spending – compared to where this began with the 2011 State of Union and Obama’s so called budget.

9. Leda nothing will be as nasty as where this all finally ends , it won’t be good, and it will be something people won’t ever forget for a long period of time.
   It will be said I think that the Tea Party and others where the only ones with the brakes on.

10. So they have agreed to cut $1.5t over ten years, or $150b a year.
    Putting that in perspective, it means the US will now be running annual deficits of $1.35 trillion.
    Or in other words, the deal means the USA has marginally slowed down the rate they are digging their own debt grave.
    Suicide is painless they say.

11. I’ll add the 2000 at Credit Suisse and 30,000 at HSBC though global but partly in the US.

12. Krugman is so nuts I could only stand to skim his article, but there is this: “Indeed, slashing spending while the economy is depressed won’t even help the budget situation much, and might well make it worse. On one side, interest rates on federal borrowing are currently very low, so spending cuts now will do little to reduce future interest costs.”
    Only in the lefty mind will cutting spending not help in a debt crisis. It is painfully obvious that the present problems are due to massive overspending over time, especially in the last 3 years: http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/79840/ As for not worrying about interest costs because rates are low now, what kind of idiot presumes that low rates will magically continue in the future? Treasuries are constantly being sold, and the rate the feds have to pay will probably rise as the debt becomes more and more scary. This is exactly what is happening over in the weaker European countries right now. Our day for that is coming, and it will reign in our spending at last, but with a lot of pain I bet.

13. In the business world recessions although dreaded are vital occurrences. Without them companies would become bloated, inefficient, and their product lines would become stagnant and outdated. During recessions old businesses die and new businesses begin. Some of those new businesses will survive the next recession some will not.
    The problem we all have is that there is no ‘natural recession’ in the public sector. Entrenched bureaucracies just get bigger and more cumbersome. We need to create some method of pruning the public sector so that needed programs are retained but the deadwood is removed on a regular basis.

14. Joe:
    Unless you’re an American, I wouldn’t sweat it.
    Harper has already clearly stated that when Canada’s baby boomer civil servants start retiring, they won’t be replaced.

15. That is quite the list and only the tip of the iceberg. Does this look like a double dip recession is on the way?
    Joe, your last paragraph is absolutely right.

16. Speaking of public sector cuts, we still need to trim tax money spending by the public sector.
    “Moore made the remarks in Montreal while announcing that the federal government is spending $23 million to fund 252 arts projects.”
    http://www.630ched.com/News/National/Article.aspx?id=297112

17. No one wanted to cut spending except a very small number of Republicans.
    If I’m reading it right, the “deal” contains no cuts, just a promise that spending will increase at a slower rate and the promise of a vote on a balanced budget amendment.
    This should tear the Republican party apart.

18. Obama has done what no other person has. He actually dug a hole straight to China.
    When he falls in , so do the rest of us.

19. HSBC pulled in $11 billion in profits this year, 0.3% more than last year.
    They will be laying off 25,000 people – or 10% of their workforce.
    Which begs the question – is there a correlation between bad performance and laying off?
    Or have we reached a point where $11 bn isn’t a large enough profit – not large enough to keep 25,000 people (a small town) employed. Would they have kept their jobs if HSBC had made $12bn in profits? I doubt it.

20. Don’t gloat that the GOP won the battle absolutely; they won but only in the sense that they can continue the fight. This is admittedly important; it’s vital.
    If they had held out for the real cuts and budget constraints they want – they would have lost the whole fight and been blamed (as Obama wanted them to be blamed) for the default..
    Obama got some of what he wanted for his re-election. He has the debt ceiling raised until AFTER his re-election. That was vital, absolutely vital to him; it was indeed, the key ‘no negotiation’ factor to him. Obama doesn’t want the public reminded how bad His economy is..during his campaign speeches. Obama is a pathological liar; he’ll be telling everyone how great the economy is and how great he is..for the next year.
    This debt ceiling will also give him some money to play with, to use to bribe the electorate. Watch what he does…offering ‘new deals’ and ‘new bonuses’..
    The ‘no new taxes’? Well, that was a key point for the GOP. They got that, on the surface, but there is NOTHING to stop these interim commissions from suggesting that taxes be raised.
    The notion of a balanced budget? Well all the GOP got was ‘we’ll agree to talk about it’. Period.
    The CEO of PIMCO, the big US bond trading institution, Mohamed El-Erian, has warned that dealing with the debt ceiling isn’t enough; there have to be genuine cuts and budget balancing…The US could still lose its triple A rating.
    The next thing to watch, with Obama, is his agenda of destroying the Tea Party, i.e., commonsense America…and destroying small business America. First – watch him attack the Tea Party. This time, he failed to destroy them, which was, I maintain, his key agenda in this current default situation.
    After all, Obama and crew could have dealt with the debt ceiling a year ago; they didn’t..not wanting to upset the electorate during the 2010 elections. Obama lost that one anyway.
    He could have dealt with it, as others have noted, in the Lame Duck pre-January session; he didn’t. Why not? Because he wanted the default crisis..to blame on the Tea Party. His agenda is to destroy them..Wow – that’s quite the President, attacking his own citizens.
    So, Obama has, now, the money and silence-on-the economy until he’s re-elected? Yes and No. The GDP and unemployment figures remain..and he can’t hide them.
    The Tea Party remains; he failed to destroy them – and that will be his key focus in the next months.
    Not the economy. Heh. Not Obama; he’s only interested in his own power.

21. Posted by: SDH at August 1, 2011 11:29 AM
    We’ll see what the identity of the Republican Party turns out to be next November.
    Posted by: say what? at August 1, 2011 11:37 AM
    What is your idea of the correlation of profitability and the amount of people necessary to do the job?

22. in various article, and even lefty Krugman, it is apparent that even hard core lefties are aware of Ozero’s inablility to lead. There has been one call to have him challenged in a primery, I wouldn’t be surprized to see more such calls, as it is becoming clear that there are certain segments of the electorate that Ozero is alienating, and there are other lefties who may just stay home on election day because of their disappointment in the Fool. These disenfranchized voters are of a broad range of lefies, from blue dogs(neo-cons:-)) to the Liberals

23. “Would they have kept their jobs if HSBC had made $12bn in profits? I doubt it.”
    Maybe. Maybe not. What was the return on the investors money? What do they see coming next year? Would they make more if they just put the $12B in the bank instead of gambling it with Obama, the EPA and Obamacare breathing down their necks. If it looked like their expenses were about to double and they were going to start losing money they would have no choice but to close up shop.

24. like i said yesterday gym
    i foresee it being very difficult for obama to get-out the vote of the “entitled” demos (blacks, youth) this time around as there is nothing in it for them. I recall line-ups around the block for hours of people who were voting for Obama and “free rent”. i can’t realisitically see these “entitled” demos sacrificing their real time and energy again for nada. there’s nothing in it for them this time. just a guess.

25. I never thought I would see the greatest country in history, collapse before my eyes.
    I pray that I’m wrong.

26. @set you free
    It really depends. If a fully profitable company starts laying off folk, who takes care of the folk? The welfare state?
    Its one thing firing people when you’re bleeding money or breaking even. But when you pull in $11.5 bn in profits over 6 months (not annually, as I had earlier mistakenly believed), you have to wonder if companies have some responsability to the welfare of society – ie keeping people off the dole as long as they are profitable to the companies. Radical, I know, but the flip side is that whatever extra profits HSBC makes from cutting these folk is essentially going to be funded by taxpayers paying for these unemployed folk. At what point does the company start being responsible to society by keeping folk employed?
    @ $ FKA gord
    Thats $11.5bn in 6 months. Not annually (my mistake). Blaming the government when a highly proiftable company starts culling people to become even more profitable – and we all know whos going to be paying for the unemployed folk – I think thats a bit of a stretch. Obamacare may well make a great scapegoat for this, but odds are that even if those profit margins were 14,15,16 bn, those jobs would have been culled for the extra 2bn ANNUALLY (or 1 bn every six months) that its going to bring in. At what point is profit just enough. And at what point are you going overboard, to the detriment of society as a whole?

27. Quote:
    “What Republicans have just gotten away with calls our whole system of government into question.
    After all, how can American democracy work if whichever party is most prepared to be ruthless, to threaten the nation’s economic security, gets to dictate policy?” – Paul Krugman
    It just doesn’t add up:
    Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Zwei parties ?…

28. What’s the matter with Paul Krugman? It’s the Democratic Party and Obama who are threatening the US economic security. Not the GOP.
    This debt ceiling crisis was a deliberate ploy by Obama and the Democrats to create an apocalyptic scenario and even go into default – and blame it all on the GOP and the Tea Party.
    Obama has only one interest. Himself. Don’t stray from that concept; again, Obama has only one interest. Himself. He has no interest in the US, Americans, the economy. One interest: Himself.
    The Democrats could have dealt with this debt ceiling a year ago; they didn’t, worried about its effect on themselves during the 2010 election. He could have dealt with it in the Lame Duck Nov-Dec 2010 period; he didn’t – Instead, Obama deliberately left it ..and left it. No budget. Sneering with contempt at the GOP Paul Ryan’s budget.
    Sneering at the Cut, Cap and Balance of the GOP, and openly declaring he’d veto it – which meant that Harry Reid couldn’t even bring it to a Senate vote.
    Sneering at Boehner’s attempt to deal with the debt, repeating that he’d veto it – with the result that the spineless Reid against refused to allow the Senate to vote on it.
    Hoping for a default to blame on the GOP. Now, they have a last minute deal – and Obama has a great deal of what he wanted:
    – debt dealt with until after his re-election;
    – enough slush money to play with to bribe the electorate;
    – possibility of new taxes!..raised by that ‘Commission’..and remember, the Bush tax cuts end in a year;
    The GOP/Tea Party? They retained their power to keep on fighting. Don’t underestimate this power. If they had held out for the default – and Obama still hopes they’ll reject the plan – he gets to blame everything..everything, even his own failures in the economy…on them.
    Obama has ONE agenda: destroy the Tea Party..which means, to destroy independent commonsense America, destroy small private businesses in America. That’s his agenda.

29. Krugman:
    After all, how can American democracy work if whichever party is most prepared to be ruthless, to threaten the nation’s economic security by spending so much more than we take in, gets to dictate policy? And the answer is, maybe it can’t.
    There, fixed that for ya.

30. Which begs the question – is there a correlation between bad performance and laying off?
    Posted by: say what? at August 1, 2011 11:37 AM
    Sorry to be pedantic, but…..you meant to say, “Which raises the question.”
    The phrase ‘beg the question’ is a specific term in logic, more commonly known as a circular argument, when a premise presupposes the very conclusion it leads to.
    Your misuse has become commonplace in the popular vernacular, so don’t feel badly. It’s just a bugaboo of mine, which I try to point out when I can, in polite fashion.
    ~~~~~~~~~
    On topic … bravo once again to ET. Excellent analysis. The man-child in the White House is driven by pure politics. He cares not for the well being of the state or its citizens. His lust for power trumps all. If he comes up with good policy once in awhile, it simply means his interests have intersected with the common interest. No more, no less.
    It will be a good day when this malignant narcissist is tossed from the White House.

31. Posted by: say what? at August 1, 2011 1:56 PM
    A corporation’s only responsibility is to its shareholders.
    It’s up to the individual to save enough money in case he gets laid off or, inevitably, needs money to support himself in retirement.
    The ‘civil service’ is a construct which takes money from the stupid primary producers (farmers, for example) and portrays themselves as those wise enough to know how to spend other people’s money.
    Once this parasite is lifted off a society’s back, most people will have to figure out a way to make a living … by growing, raising and hunting their own food, for example.
    We’re not at the point where we should be swatting the wise guys to death and making sure we look out after ourselves.
    Really, there is no other alternative. Keep the parasite alive? No way.

32. Now that the deal has been struck, Romney has come out against it. Heh. Now that it’s safe to e against it.
    If the GOP nominate him – they are finished.

33. Southern newfies. i m o
    Except they’re going to need China not Canada to keep their unemployment insurance .

34. HSBC announced 30,000 layoffs and the closure or selloff of approximately 195 branches in the US. They plan to put more investment into Latin America instead.
    When the major banks make decisions like this, it’s prudent to listen.
    Of course Obamba will have plans for a single state run bank eventually, sometime after he disarms people who may not agree with his dreams of a communist utopia. I suppose most Americans back in 2008 never stopped to ask who’s “hope & change” they were callously giving their votes and freedom to.

35. Oops missed the previous comments in this thread about the HSBC layoffs/ selloffs.
    The original report I heard was 30K and others later 25K.
    Same same, it’s important and telling news regardless.

36. Why do you right wingers always make the news sound bad?

37. JLK, does that news sound good to you?

38. BHO’s narcissistic supply is increased with each and every crisis. He creates crisis’ in order to be needed and seen as the hero in saving the world from the crisis’ he himself orchestrated in the first place.
    Prepare for very tough times ahead. Off the charts inflation resulting in famine within the next three years; if not sooner. I can’t see anyway around it. The world’s economy is barely hanging on by a hair as it is.
    I’m doing my best to remain optimistic, yet having a difficult time doing so in light of world events in the past year and those looming on the horizon.

39. On summer vacation this year went through Lake Placid and Bar Harbor. The number of vacant store fronts in Lake Placed was shocking. In Bar Harbour we practically had a sea front restaurant to ourselves for lunch in what is probably the busiest holiday week of the summer.

40. JLK YYC Ab >
    “Why do you right wingers always make the news sound bad?”
    Why do you left wingers live places like Calgary a historical/ prominent conservative stronghold of the country?

41. “Why do you right wingers always make the news sound bad?”
    Because if we wanted to live in la la land we would all be on the left! Reality is often nasty. Get used to it.

42. having family member return from the east coast – NS, NB the one remark I overheard was how quiet it was tourist wise.
    The American’s aren’t coming up like they used to, and Canadians don’t really care to visit the cozy warm feeling Maritimer stereotype BnB’s.

43. Joe, that is a twofer.

44. This debt ceiling raise will not result in the desired outcome. The US will lose its AAA rating within a year – likely within 3 months.
    The US had 2 groups to satisfy: creditors and the credit agencies. I don’t believe they satisfied either. Thanks to current political climate – the blame game will continue.
    I’d be checking my investments and pensions to ensure minimum exposure to US Treasuries. With the glass half full: Canadian T-bills are looking good.

45. Dave:
    Did you figure that out when Moody’s put the US on credit watch Friday?
    Three months and they’re downgraded.