Free Republic

Einstein once said that doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result, is the definition of insanity. But some people think it is the definition of wise policy. These people have been in charge in California for years. Now they are trying to do to the nation what they did to California.

Even though some homes in Detroit literally sell for $1, we're still surprised to see how little an entire stadium fetches. In this case it's the famous Pontiac Silverdome Detroit News: Nearly 25 years after taxpayers spent $55.7 million building the Pontiac Silverdome and a year after a $20 million sale fell through, city officials have sold the arena once called the most desirable property in Oakland County. The price: $583,000. The broker, David J. Leitch, is quite upset about the final selling price. And hey, can you blame him? "The property alone, at $10,000 an acre, should have gone...

Days after lawmakers agreed to ask voters for $11.1 billion in debt for water projects, the state had to pay more than expected to sell its most recent bond issue. Brokers underwriting the sale of $1.9 billion in state general obligation bonds originally thought investors would demand a 3 percent yield. Instead, as the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday, "the state was forced to offer a 4 percent annualized tax-free yield to lure investors." That pushed the state's cost of borrowing at least a third higher than originally projected. That means the state, in order to borrow $1.9 billion, will...

Experts Warn Of 'Deluge' Of Insolvencies To Come In The UKInsolvency experts have warned that there will be a "deluge" of business failures next year. Begbies Traynor said 134,000 business are currently showing "material signs of distress", although this is a fall on the 149,500 in the previous quarter. It said the UK was at the "midpoint of a 'W'- shaped recession, with a deluge of business failures likely in 2010". By Rupert Neate Published: 5:39PM BST 20 Oct 2009 Ric Traynor, executive chairman of Begbies Traynor, said: "The UK may be in the eye of the storm. The well-intentioned...

This is the first Zero dollar created that does not have a back image to it. I suggest that you can use any of the Pelosi Zero bills' back side images, or any of the Obama Zero bills' back side images nicely with this front picture. Send one to Pelosi and Barak (White House spelling). Make their day. And if you're a constituent of Pelosi's make sure a nice note goes along with it and that you'll be working harder than ever with time and money to kick her ass off the public payroll and into a public option plan.

Another insult to long suffering Chicago Cubs fans. ----- WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — The Chicago Cubs are seeking Chapter 11 protection, a step that will allow its corporate parent to hand the team to new owners. The team filed for bankruptcy in Delaware on Monday. The move was anticipated as the Tribune Co. looks to complete an $845 million sale of the team, Wrigley Field and related properties to the family of billionaire Joe Ricketts. Tribune, which also owns the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, filed for bankruptcy protection in December, but the Cubs were not included in...

Congressional budget analysts gave an important political boost Wednesday to a Senate panel's health-care overhaul, projecting that the $829 billion measure would dramatically shrink the ranks of the uninsured and keep President Obama's pledge that doing so would not add "one dime" to federal budget deficits. With the report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the measure crafted by the Senate Finance Committee has emerged as the only one of five bills by various panels that achieves every important goal Obama has set for his top domestic initiative. White House budget director Peter Orszag applauded the analysis, saying the bill...

Various economic reports have come and gone over the past few months, but the worst so far, at least for California, is the latest UCLA Anderson Forecast. It painted a grim picture for the Golden State, with unemployment going above 12% and lingering in the double digits until 2012. The Anderson report, which comes out quarterly, pretty much says the state is in a tailspin -- something we've actually known all along.

Mitt Romney is an empty suit. He puts his finger up and sees which way the political winds are blowing, then takes a position. Mitt signed MassCare (with Ted Kennedy no less in the background smiling about it) into existence in 2006, and it has been a proven failure. There are plenty of stories and analyses out there describing the abject failure that MassCare is. The essential storyline is that MassCare is basically Obamacare in one state. That state has gone bankrupt trying to give everyone there universal coverage, and the result of putting so many more people into the...

Hussein told senior citizens "trust me". (They can trust these deviants to trust them - to handle them like they do their millions of unwanted babies.) Judges Greer and Whitemoore paved the way in the Terri Schiavo case. It is now permissible to kill conscious people and cover it up with a euphemism. I wrote about that a few years back at Table Of Wisdom .com in a column titled “Greer & Whitemoore Saved Social Security”. With many seniors receiving more in benefits than they ever paid into SS - while the country is going bankrupt from the program -...

$2,000,000,000,000. That's the amount by which the Obama administration raised its ten-year estimate of the nation's budget deficit from the one it made only a few months ago. Now, $2 trillion is a lot of money. But even more significant is the fact that this revision represents almost a 30 percent increase -- no tiny percentage of the earlier $7 trillion figure. It seems that expenses are higher -- up 24 percent this year, the largest increase since the height of the Korean War -- than originally estimated, and revenues are lower. The resulting deficit, says Peter Orszag, Obama's budget...

Health Reform Lessons from Massachusetts, Part IVThe new math, or maybe it’s the old By Trudy Lieberman Campaign Desk — July 21, 2009 12:43 PM Three years ago, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts enacted a far-reaching health reform law that politicians and the media hailed as a model for other states and the federal government. That law has become the major blueprint for health system change on a national scale, and its advocates, with Sen. Edward Kennedy at the top of the list, are aggressively marketing some variation of the Massachusetts plan as the reform of choice. Until recently, there has...

In a call asking for support on health care reform from liberal bloggers, President Obama admits that he is not familiar with a key provision of the bill he is pushing. The health reform bill is a legal document that is more than 1,000 pages long, and by every measure requires a good amount of time to go through and digest. The health care reform legislation is massive in scope and in impact, so it seems logical that the executive and legislative branches should take the time to read it. President Obama admitted that he was "not familiar" with a...

(CNSNews.com) – Vice President Joe Biden told people attending an AARP town hall meeting that unless the Democrat-supported health care plan becomes law the nation will go bankrupt and that the only way to avoid that fate is for the government to spend more money. “And folks look, AARP knows and the people with me here today know, the president knows, and I know, that the status quo is simply not acceptable,” Biden said at the event on Thursday in Alexandria, Va. “It’s totally unacceptable. And it’s completely unsustainable. Even if we wanted to keep it the way we have...

“Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’” Biden said. “The answer is yes, that's what I’m telling you.”

A group of the biggest U.S. banks said they would stop accepting California's IOUs on Friday, adding pressure on the state to close its $26.3 billion annual budget gap.

Regulation: Ignoring the first rule of holes, a bankrupt state passing out IOUs welcomes an EPA waiver allowing it to further kill its economy. Too bad the state can't stop the air pollution imported from a growing China. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday granted California its long-standing request — denied by the Bush administration — for a waiver to allow it to impose even more stringent air pollution rules than currently required by the federal government.The way is now clear for implementation of a 2002 state law requiring new cars to increase their fuel economy 40% by 2016....

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky addressing over 500 Chicago area residents and local political leaders at the Health Care For America Now rally in Chicago. The rally called for quality, affordable health care for all in 2009.

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (9th, IL) speaks to a group of sheep regarding the government plans for universal health care.

For now, folks living in New York can watch the soap opera playing out in California from a comfortable, continent-sized distance. But after that drama plays out, New York is next. Smart Money: Right now, at least 47 states are facing significant shortfalls in their 2009 and/or 2010 budgets, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank in Washington, D.C. And many of those states are looking to tax hikes to help fill the gaps. “Pretty much everyone is doing poorly,” says Kim Rueben, senior research associate at the Tax Policy Center. “It’s just a question...

Just when market conditions appear to be stabilizing, financial advisers now have something else to keep them awake at night: Both Social Security and Medicare are on a pace to disappear even sooner than expected. The economic crisis has put both systems — the primary health care and income sources for millions of retirees — on life support, according to reports issued by the government this month. And advisers now find themselves confronted by concerned clients asking whether either program will exist when they retire. “You now have to plan for the absolute worst-case scenario,” said Erin Botsford, president and...

California state workers outraged at possible layoffs By Jon Ortiz jortiz@sacbee.com Published Friday, May. 15, 2009 State workers were outraged and anxious on Tuesday after learning that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to lay off 5,000 of them in the coming weeks. Although the administration didn't break down which departments would lose jobs, it did say the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which runs the state prison system, would lose the most positions. And one official said the state may need to cut more jobs if California's recession worsens and the state's general fund revenue keeps dwindling. "This may not be...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that thousands of state employees must be laid off and billions of dollars must be slashed from the budget to deal with a deficit that tops $15 billion and could widen again within days.

The trustees' prediction is the bleakest assessment in years for the nation's health plan, which will soon face further pressures as baby boomers enter the system. Underscoring the urgency of the current push in Washington to rein in skyrocketing healthcare costs, Medicare's trustees warned today that the program's biggest fund would run out of money in just eight years. The prediction -- issued in an annual report on Medicare and Social Security finances -- offered the bleakest assessment of Medicare's future in years and reflects growing concerns among policy experts that the nation's healthcare spending is unsustainable. "The Medicare trustees...

To the Stockholders of General Motors Corporation: General Motors Corporation (“we,” “us,” “our” or “GM”) is undertaking a restructuring as part of a plan to achieve and sustain long-term viability. A key element of this plan involves us pursuing transactions in which we would issue GM common stock in satisfaction of certain of our outstanding debt obligations and retiree healthcare obligations. In connection with the foregoing, we are currently in discussions with the U.S. Department of the Treasury (the “U.S. Treasury”) regarding the terms of a potential restructuring of our debt obligations owed to the U.S. Treasury, pursuant to which...

Here's the good news: future costs of Social Security and Medicare won't require higher taxes. Now here's the bad news: the reason these programs won't require higher taxes is that they'll be so expensive that there's no possible way to pay for them through taxes. Everything in the US (not counting people) is worth about $50 trillion and those two programs will cost $80 trillion, unless they are reformed. Wharton insurance and risk management professor Kent Smetters, a former deputy assistant Treasury secretary and economist for the Congressional Budget Office, explains that the only way for these problems to survive...

The B-word is in the headlines like never before. There were 7,843 commercial bankruptcy filings in March, according to AACER, a bankruptcy data management company. That's up 23% from the previous month and a staggering 65% from a year earlier. And the number of filings is accelerating. "Bankruptcy typically has a lag behind what is going on in the marketplace," says Mike Bickford, the president of AACER, or Automated Access to Court Electronic Records. "So I think you are going to see increases in bankruptcy. . . at least over the next 12 to 18 months." One potential victim: Blockbuster...

FAIRBANKS -- The Fairbanks Catholic Diocese has filed a reorganization plan with the U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Court. The filing Tuesday comes 13 months after the diocese declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The plan calls for the diocese to mortgage or sell church properties and commit to fundraising and donor appeals to establish a fund to be used primarily for paying the claims of victims of sexual abuse. "This is just the first step that we feel we can come up with," said Robert Hannon, diocesan chancellor. "We project we can offer claimants more than $8.6 million." Hannon said the projected insurance...

Hey all you big money conservatives. Here's our chance to have at least one big movie studio that puts out movies that aren't filled with pervy stink trash, and mental child molesting pervoganda! MGM. which has allready been working on a skeleton staff, having recently been owned by a bank, just let go of another 3 to 4% of their employees at their just recently ended contract year, may soon be up for sale! Just think, buy it, go in and fire all the freakazoids, rebuild the actors stable system, and start making movies that are family frindly, and reinforce...

Here is 2009 outlook for commercial real estate from Deutsche Bank. It does not paint a pretty picture. Run through it (it is mostly graphs). Commercial Real Estate Outlook 2009 So? What to make of it? The short answer is there is still pain hovering out there for banks if they allow these loans to default.....if. First we need to segment the commercial owners into categories. The owner who holds mortgages on a single strip mall in Des Moines vs. the REIT that hold 100 or more properties. What about the little guy who gets in trouble? Sorry bud but...

Nassim Taleb is an unlikely choice to play the Jimmy Stewart role in a 21st-century remake of the Depression-era classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington [1]. But the tale of a naive do-gooder who tries to remind a corrupt political class of its obligations was re-enacted this week when Taleb attended the Wall Street Journal's Future of Finance conference in Washington, D.C. A French- and Arabic-speaking former options trader with a taste for obscure Greek philosophers and the ambition to be seen as a literary figure, Taleb has grown famous for his book The Black Swan [2], which has sold...

Modern American college students are some of the most fortunate people ever to inhabit the earth. Why should we feel sorry for them? Because they’re saddled with “the most oppressive debt in U.S. history,” argues Alan Michael Collinge in his new book, The Student Loan Scam. This is, of course, quite false: The most oppressive debts in U.S. history probably occurred when this country had debtors’ prisons. Unfortunately, Collinge is filled with such unjustified indignation. He makes a big deal about high interest rates on private (non-federally guaranteed) loans, as if students aren’t given that information when they sign up....

President Obama said Thursday that struggling U.S. auto companies could expect some government aid if they commit to restructuring as part of an official rescue plan due to be unveiled soon. In a town hall-style meeting featuring questions from a live audience and sent over the Internet, Obama also warned that the United States was likely to lose more jobs in the recession and that the economy was in for a "difficult time" for much of this year. Obama's White House task force has a March 31 deadline to determine whether General Motors [GM 3.41 0.42 (+14.05%) ] and Chrysler,...

Sen Gregg’s statements about bankrupting the country and the path ahead being unsustainable for our children were very sobering. I trust his judgment and take him at his word. However, these statements sorely need to be expanded upon and put into practical terms. I know it would all be speculation, but what would it mean to me now, 10 years from now, 20 year or more down the road if the US went bankrupt? I am 39 years old and in my working life have really known nothing less than prosperity and growth. I know that I’ve heard complaints about...

Moody's Investors Service downgraded California's general-obligation bonds to A2 from A1, the New York-based agency announced Friday. Moody's became the third ratings house to downgrade California's general-obligation bonds this year, following similar moves by Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings. State Treasurer Bill Lockyer is planning to sell $4 billion in general-obligation bonds to replenish the state's Pooled Money Investment Account and help pay for construction projects around the state. California now has the distinction of being the lowest rated state by all three major ratings services. Only Louisiana, with which California was formerly tied, comes closest. The downgrades likely...

I'D LIKE to start by congratulating all of you. You are all now in the auto business, the Sport of Kings—or in our case, presidents and members of Congress. Without your support—and I assume that most of you are fortunate enough to pay taxes—General Motors and Chrysler would very likely be getting measured by the undertakers of the bankruptcy courts. But make no mistake. What has happened to GM is essentially bankruptcy by other means, and that is an extraordinary event in the political and economic history of our country. What will be the fate of a quasi-nationalized enterprise whose...

More Companies at Risk of Going Under U.S.News & World Report More Companies At Risk of Failing Tuesday March 10, 12:46 pm ET By Rick Newman Everybody hopes the economy bottoms out and starts to improve tomorrow. Or sooner. But there are few signs of an imminent recovery. One obvious indicator is the health of big companies - you know, the ones that have been announcing all those four- and five-digits layoffs recently. And the outlook for them seems to be getting worse, not better. Moody's, the ratings agency, recently published a list of "bottom rung" companies most likely to...

Dear IRS, I'm sorry to inform you that I'm not going to be able to pay the taxes owed on April 15th, but all is not lost. I paid these taxes, accounts receivable tax, building permit tax, CDL tax, corporate income tax, dog license tax, federal income tax, unemployment tax, gas tax, hunting license tax, fishing license tax, waterfowl stamp tax, inheritance tax, inventory tax, liquor tax, luxury tax, Medicare tax, city tax, school and county property tax up to 33% the last four years. Real estate tax, Social Security tax, road use tax, toll road tax, state and city...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Newspaper Guild members at The Sacramento Bee agreed Friday to take pay cuts of up to 6 percent to save jobs at the 152-year-old paper. Members voted 65 percent to 35 percent to accept the deal, said Ed Fletcher, a reporter who heads the Guild's local at the Bee. Even with the pay cuts, Bee managers plan to cut 34 of the 268 Guild-covered positions in the editorial and advertising departments. Another 19 jobs would have been in jeopardy if the union had rejected the pay cuts. ''I think it was a very difficult decision for...

Congressional Democrats Bankrupted the Nation *snip* The End In April 2001, before the events of 9/11 and just after entering the White House, President Bush began signaling warnings to members of congress that both Fannie and Freddie were headed into deep treacherous waters which could cause “strong repercussions in financial markets.” In early 2003, the Bush White House upgraded its warnings to “a systemic risk that could extend well beyond just the housing markets.” On September 10, 2003, Bush Treasury Secretary John Snow testified in congress that something had to be done to confront the growing storm at Fannie and...

"The FDIC would be able to borrow as much as $500 billion until the end of 2010 if the FDIC, Fed, Treasury secretary and White House agree such money is warranted."

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US government is warning banks that its deposit insurance fund could go broke this year as bank failures mount. The head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Sheila Bair, in a letter to bank chief executives dated March 2, defended the FDIC's plan to raise fees on banks and assess an emergency fee to shore up the fund and maintain investor confidence.

Automotive industry continues a slow death. J.D. Power and Associates Reports that U.S. Light-Vehicle Retail Sales in February are down by nearly 38% from one year ago. GM and Chrysler LLC are receiving TARP money from a government bailout. The suppliers for the US auto companies are not getting any assistance. Many are facing a tight cash flow that could force them into bankruptcy. They have high priced materials (like steel) in their supply chains. Many have significant inventories of goods. While car sales have declined 38%, demand for auto parts for some vehicles have declined even more. Almost every...

New York Times story about the budget deal that California legislators struck last week to close the state’s monstrous deficit noted that, “California is an example of what you will see across the country” as state budgets come under pressure from the declining economy. Hardly. While many states are grappling with budget problems, none are nearly as large as California’s relative to its size--$41 billion in a state of 37 million, or $1,108 per resident. Even New York, the next most fiscally pressed state, clocks in with a mere $13 billion for 19 million residents, or $685 per capita. There’s...

President Barack Obama's first budget includes $15 billion a year for renewable energy programs and an ambitious plan to raise $646 billion from a carbon reduction proposal. "Because our future depends on our ability to break free from oil that's controlled by foreign dictators, we need to make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy," Mr. Obama said Thursday morning. "That's why we'll be working with Congress on legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy." The plan uses money from a cap-and-trade program — which would allow companies to...

The Playboy empire may be on the auction block. If it can’t find a buyer, it has to figure out how to survive massive losses that show no sign of diminishing. Last week, the “sophisticated” gentlemen’s magazine had a dismal conference call announcing its fourth quarter and full-year financial results. Jerome Kern, the company’s interim CEO, gulped and reported a 2008 loss of $156 million.

Barack Hussein Obama will propose a massive business tax on greenhouse gases in his FY 2010 federal budget to be presented this week.The massive tax increase and power grab was buried at the end on article on Obama's forthcoming budget proposal in The New York Times:On energy policy, Mr. Obama’s budget will show new revenues by 2012 from his proposal to require companies to buy permits from the government for greenhouse gas emissions above a certain cap. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the permits would raise up to $300 billion a year by 2020. Since companies would pass their...

Friday, Saab filed for bankruptcy protection from it's creditors. Saab is a Swedish-based subsidiary of GM. This move came after the Swedish government refused GM's begging for a bailout. This is very strange situation. Socialist Sweden is refusing to bailout their automotive industry. Allegedly, capitalist America is throwing billions of taxpayer dollars down the automotive bailout sinkhole. I never thought I would say this, but I hope our government finds the wisdom of Sweden. That really left a bad taste in my mouth.

California remained locked in a budget impasse today despite a night-long negotiating session aimed at resolving the state's $42bn (£29.5bn) budget deficit. California senate Republicans, in defiance of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, continued to hold out against the compromise deal, which would see the deficit addressed with a combination of spending cuts, borrowing and tax increases. Early this morning the state's Republican senators ousted their leader, who had supported the compromise, replacing him with a more conservative senator who has pledged to resist any attempt to raise taxes. California's peculiar legislative system dictates that the package must win a two-thirds majority...