Free Republic

Then there’s the Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill, which started out in life at a thousand pages, and then had a 300-page amendment tacked on to it in the dead of night. It was as if Dr. Frankenstein, after carefully inspecting his nightmarish creation, decided that what the monster really needed was a second head and a hunchback. Again, nobody had time to read the bill, but that didn’t prevent 219 congressmen, including eight Republicans who scurried out from under a rock just long enough to make certain that Christmas, or perhaps I mean Ramadan, would come early for the...

In a move set to infuriate and send many Zero Hedge readers over the top, the NYSE has taken action to make sure that nobody will henceforth be able to keep track of the complete dominance that Goldman Sachs exerts over the New York Stock Exchange. This basically ends our weekly Program Trading updates disclosed every Thursday indicating that Goldman has singlehandedly captured all of NYSE's program trading.

Back-up: This week's NYSE Program Trading report was very odd: not only because program trading hit 48.6% of all NYSE trading, a record high at least since the NYSE keep tabs of this data, and a data point which in itself was startling enough to cause some serious red flags as I jaunt from village to village in what little is left of Europe's bison country, but what was shocking was the disappearance of the #1 mainstay of complete trading domination (i.e., Goldman Sachs) from not just the aforementioned #1 spot, but the entire complete list. In other words: Goldman...

Joe Biden told "This Week" that the Obama administration "misread how bad the economy was." He also the administration made this mistake because they just looked at the consensus forecasts at the time...and they proved to be wrong. If the latter is true, the administration deserves the crap it has been getting. In the months leading up to Obama's inauguration, the economy fell off a cliff. The credit markets seized up. Several major investment banks went bust. The Fed and Treasury talked of an apocalypse. Everywhere you looked, you heard one analyst after another saying the country was plunging toward...

At least 38 states overestimated tax revenues And states weren't just barely missing their revenue projections; they whiffed by large margins.

JULY 6, 2009 Minimum-Wage Increase Comes at a Bad Time for Weakened Job Market By KRIS MAHER The federal minimum wage goes up this month just as job losses are sending new alarms about the economy, giving traction to perennial fears that higher wages will hurt job creation. In the past, minimum-wage increases have done little to dent job creation. And pouring more money into people's pockets -- especially low-wage workers who are likely to spend the increase to meet living costs -- would normally boost the economy. But these aren't normal times. "It's tough timing," said John Silva, chief...

... Tens of thousands of laid-off workers [...] have turned to retraining as a lifeline. Yet for all the popularity of these government-financed programs, there are questions about whether they actually work, even as President Obama’s stimulus plan directs $1.4 billion more to retraining and other services for people who have lost their jobs. In Michigan, where the unemployment rate in May was 14.1 percent, the nation’s highest, 78,000 people are enrolled in the state’s No Worker Left Behind program and 7,800 are on the waiting list. At the Michigan Works job center here, where Mr. Hutchins applied for retraining...

The KEY sentence, of this Story is... "The new equipment requires fewer people to operate, making it more cost-effective in the long run, TSA officials say."

When it was deciding where to build its new compact car, General Motors Corp. made a point of saying it would push politics aside and use strictly commercial criteria. So Tennessee's three top officials were astonished last month, in a meeting with GM, when they were told the first two criteria were "community impact" and "carbon footprint" -- or how the choice would affect unemployment rates and carbon-dioxide emissions. "Those didn't strike us as business criteria at all," said Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander, who was joined in the meeting by fellow Republican Sen. Bob Corker and the state's Democratic governor,...

Workers at C.F Martin & Co. are putting finishing touches on the solid-wood 1 Series model, so named for its simplicity. It lacks inlay, as did the company's stripped-down 1930s model, and is expected to sell for less than $1,000, breaking a key price point and far less than its $100,000 limited-edition guitars made of Brazilian rosewood. More popular Martins generally sell for $2,000 to $3,000. Initial reaction is promising. The company, which had sales of $93 million last year, introduced the 1 Series in April and promptly sold out its first year's output of 8,000 guitars. "We needed something...

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683 Arizona Legislature Sends Three Self-Defense Bills to Governor Brewer Wednesday, July 01, 2009 Fairfax, Va. – The Arizona Senate passed three important self-defense bills in a session that lasted into the early morning hours Wednesday. First, Senate Bill 1113 enables law-abiding right-to-carry permit holders to carry firearms for self-defense in restaurants. This NRA-backed bill passed by an overwhelming, bi-partisan majority of 19-8 and will now be sent to Governor Jan Brewer’s (R) desk for her consideration. “By adopting this important, common-sense legislation, Arizonans now have the ability to defend themselves and their...

"In his landmark 1942 book, 'Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy,' economist Joseph Schumpeter emphasized the key role that creative destruction plays in generating long-run economic growth. It is the driving force of capitalism."

Behind the bipartisan motives for employer-provided health insurance. On Tuesday the CEO of Wal-Mart, long the bête noire of the American left, issued a joint statement with SEIU head Andy Stern and Center for American Progress President John Podesta, two close allies of Barack Obama, supporting the administration's health reform efforts. The letter called for bipartisan reforms that include an employer mandate to purchase health insurance for their employees. An odd alliance? Maybe. But when two camps eye the same goal for separate reasons, they can become unlikely bedfellows.

THERE IS NO EVIDENCE Let's break down the case for human cause global warming logically: 1) There's plenty of evidence that global warming has been occurring recently. 2)There is ample evidence that carbon emissions cause warming and that the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide is increasing. 3) There is no evidence that carbon dioxide emissions are the main cause of the recent global warming. The alarmists focus you entirely on the first two points, to distract you from the third. The public is increasingly aware of the misdirection.

A massive economic liberalisation programme which could create vast new markets for British firms. Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Secretary, has said the country needs to invite foreign supermarket chains, insurance, defence and engineering companies to help modernise agriculture, financial services and transport infrastructure. His proposed reforms would shake up the country's strictly regulated labour market, allowing companies to increase working hours and make staff redundant without government approval. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee The annual Economic Survey he presented to parliament has recommended private companies be allowed to provide passenger train services on the country's nationalised railways, privatisation of the coal industry,...

The NASA astronaut Buzz Adrin has called for the world to press on with establishing a human settlement on Mars to offer the younger generation much-needed objectives. The second person to walk on the moon said that setting up habitation on the surface of the red planet was a "wonderful objective" for humanity. Buzz Aldrin on the moon, 1969 Given the backdrop of the ailing world economy, space exploration could offer younger generations much-needed goals, the 79-year-old said. "I think we need to look quite a way down into the future to inspire our young people with that greatness. "America...

WASHINGTON - Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration "misread how bad the economy was" but stands by its stimulus package and believes the plan will create more jobs as the pace of its spending picks up. Biden, in an interview airing Sunday on ABC's "This Week," said the nation's 9.5 percent unemployment rate is "much too high." "The figures we worked off of in January were the consensus figures and most of the blue chip indexes out there," Biden said. "We misread how bad the economy was, but we are now only about 120 days into the recovery...

-Megabanks may be slimmed down, told to prepare plans for own demise They are the biggest of the big — the Citigroups, the Goldman Sachses, the AIGs and other financial behemoths. The Obama administration doesn't want so many around anymore. Financial regulations proposed by the president would result in leaner and simpler institutions that don't carry the weight of the system on their marble columns. Around Washington and Wall Street they have come to be known as TBTF — too big to fail. It's not just size, though. These companies are so far-flung, so intertwined and so precariously leveraged that...

SPECIAL-INTEREST SOPS 1. Free money for well-connected business interests. 2. A little something for Goldman Sachs. Again. 3. Alcoa and Dupont get their share. The utilities, too. 4. A tree grows in Botswana. 5. Selling indulgences. 6. Protecting refineries. 7. All carrot, no stick for the farm lobby. 8. Replacing the EPA with the USDA. 9. Ignoring ethanol’s impact. 10. Buying off electric cooperatives. 11. Monsanto rounds up favors. 12. Interfering with free trade. 13. Billions for “international clean technology.” 14. Inflating union wages...

For Oregonians, many employers owe more benefits than their retirement plans can pay You think your 401(k) is in bad shape? Your pension could be worse off. Provided you even have one. Thirty-four of 36 large publicly traded employers operating in Oregon owe more retirement benefits than their traditional pensions can pay, an analysis by The Oregonian found. http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/07/pensions_in_peril.html

ormer Secretary of State Colin Powell says President Obama's agenda may be too ambitious, and costly. "One of the challenges that President Obama has now is that he's got so many things on the table, and these are issues that the American people find important, health care and so many other issues," said Powell in an interview slated to air Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union with John King." "But I think one of the cautions that has to be given to the president -- and I've talked to some of his people about this -- is that you...

Mickey Kaus writes: It’s seemed to me that the Obama administration has made a mistake in the framing of the health care issue: “We’ll raise your taxes and in exchange we’re going to cut your treatments.� I mean, how could that not have widespread appeal? It’s pain/pain! Yes, but that is the nature of what the Obama administration and those pushing for a government-controlled healthcare system are advocating. It isn’t easy to disguise what you are up to when the stakes are so high. (Well, they did for a while with the mumbo-jumbo about healthcare reform paying for itself, but...

The present deflation is worth putting in context. Below (click to enlarge) is the annual rate of CPI change since 1913: We are in the first deflation since the Great Depression, albeit a mild one. In fact, raw materials prices have fallen just as far, but our consumption basket has shifted to items whose prices are slower to deflate. Note that the great deflation of 1929-1933 is followed by a brief increase in inflation (to a 5% year on year CPI gain) before falling back into negative numbers. This was the result of FDR’s devaluation of the dollar against gold,...

Dan Probst, a retired restaurateur who raises chickens in Hunt County, says his urban sales have risen fivefold since last year. Hens typically cost between $15 and $40. At their peak, they can lay an egg a day. "Explosive growth," he said. A pastime once limited to the occasional overachieving gardener, backyard chicken farming has caught fire among suburbanites craving a slice of the countryside and the promise of fresh eggs. Not all are enamored of the trend, which some view as but an eco-friendly fad. Concerns about noise, odors and sanitation abound. (Supporters say those worries are unfounded.) And...

When Wall Street imploded last year, the Fed and Treasury took "some of the right moves" in order to revive the financial system, says William Cohan, author of House of Cards. But the government blew at least one crucial act of the saga, Cohan says: The backdoor bailout of AIG’s counterparties, notably Goldman Sachs, which received $13 billion of TARP funds via the AIG conduit last fall. Adding insult to taxpayer injury, Goldman Sachs is primed to benefit should AIG ultimately file for bankruptcy and default on its debt, Cohan reports, having invested about $200 million in related credit default...

Latvian Banker Taking Souls as Collateral Reuters | 03 Jul 2009 | 08:45 AM ET Ready to give your soul for a loan in these difficult economic times? In Latvia, where the crisis has raged more than in the rest of the European Union, you can. Such a deal is being offered by the Kontora loan company, whose public face is Viktor Mirosiichenko, 34. Clients have to sign a contract, with the words "Agreement" in bold letters at the top. The client agrees to the collateral, "that is, my immortal soul". Mirosiichenko said his company would not employ debt collectors...

Airlines are reducing the size of spoons and dropping in-flight magazines to make planes lighter and save fuel during the recession, according to the International Air Transport Association. In the United States, Northwest Airlines has excluded spoons from its cutlery pack if the in-flight meal does not require one.

There is, perhaps, no subject that currently stands greater in importance—not to mention confusion, hype and hysteria—than the topic of climate change (formerly referred to as global warming). Regardless of man’s influence on the climate, policies under active debate and consideration could entirely change the way that we produce, and consume, energy to fuel our economy and lifestyle. This issue spans the globe, impacting both developed and developing countries. Whether the planet is in peril, or whether the risk is an artifice, potential climate change legislation will come with inescapable consequences, both intended and unintended; yet, the climate benefits may...

Post publisher apologizes for paid dinner plan Washington Post publisher apologizes for plan to hold paid dinners with officials, journalists On Sunday July 5, 2009, 6:59 am EDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Washington Post's publisher apologized to readers Sunday for a plan to charge business leaders and lobbyists for intimate dinner discussions with government officials and the newspaper's journalists. A flier surfaced last week promoting a plan to charge $25,000 to sponsor one of a series of dinner parties that would include off-the-record conversations with Post journalists and access to Washington insiders. The series was canceled Thursday.

Your humble correspondent always checks out NeverPayRetailAgain very carefully every morning. That site often provides information about sales bargains that sometimes defy belief. In fact, yesterday at Publix I was able to purchase 2 packages of Ball Park Franks plus a large seedless watermelon for a total cost of just $4.98. $3.99 BOGO (Buy One Get One free) on the hot dogs minus a $1.00 Ball Park coupon so my cost was just $2.99. The watermelon was $4.99 but there was a $3.00 discount coupon if you bought two packages of Ball Park Franks so the watermelon only cost me...

A second half recovery is suddenly not a sure thing An end to the green-shoot rally? By Greg Robb, MarketWatch WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- For months, policymakers from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on down told investors that a second-half recovery was a safe bet. Investors, optimists by nature, eventually bought in. But now, even though the second half has actually arrived, the curtain on the recovery has so far remained down and questions are being raised on whether it will go up at all. Suddenly notable economists say the whole thing might not happen. Others, including Harvard economist Martin Feldstein,...

Mobile machines, remote hookups help Lahey Clinic cope with shortage of specialists BEVERLY - The robot glides past the beeping heart monitor, past a row of patients supine on their electric beds, past the beehive of the nurses’ station. The sleek, metallic body, dusky blue, stops outside Room 9 and slowly rolls through the doorway. Discuss COMMENTS (33) “Mrs. Morash, Dr. Liesching’s here,’’ says nurse Dawn Deschenes, announcing the arrival of the robot to a gray-haired woman breathing behind an oxygen mask. The face of Timothy Liesching, a pulmonary critical care doctor, gazes at his patient from a computer screen...

... [“Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture”] is a jeremiad. Ms. Ruppel Shell, a contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly and a journalism professor at Boston University, is disgusted with retailers who she says have abandoned their principles in pursuit of rock-bottom prices. And she is angry with the rest of us for supporting them. Ms. Ruppel Shell argues that our national obsession with bargains has lowered our standard of living and hurt the environment and the quality of American products. “Cheap” has plenty of targets, and many are usual ones. Ms. Ruppel Shell lambastes Wal-Mart, saying it underpays...

Bank of Korea Likely to Buy Gold for 1st Time in 11 Years JULY 04, 2009 10:02 The Bank of Korea has not purchased gold for 11 years, but is expected to go on a gold buying spree, as the world’s central banks have bought the commodity since the global economic erupted in September last year. A Bank of Korea official said yesterday, “The bank has begun to set up a plan to manage foreign exchange reserves for next year. It has also closely watched central banks in other nations and trends in the global gold market. Given the changing...

I want to apologize for a planned new venture that went off track and for any cause we may have given you to doubt our independence and integrity. A flier distributed last week suggested that we were selling access to power brokers in Washington through dinners that were to take place at my home. The flier was not approved by me or newsroom editors, and it did not accurately reflect what we had in mind. But let me be clear: The flier was not the only problem. Our mistake was to suggest that we would hold and participate in an...

New appraisal rules under fire Critics charge that a new system is fostering the use of appraisers willing to work for low fees and who are willing to conduct home appraisals far outside their typical areas of activity, leading to low-ball appraisals that can hurt builders, real estate agents, consumers and lenders. By Kenneth R. Harney Syndicated columnist WASHINGTON — It's by far the hottest controversy in real estate this summer and it could directly affect the value of your house — probably negatively — by tens of thousands of dollars. The issue concerns lowballed valuations and the new rules...

How hedge fund wives are learning to cope New York’s super-rich are feeling the pinch — but don’t feel too sorry for them. The party had to end Tatiana Boncompagni On a recent sunny afternoon in New York City I was talking with a girlfriend who happens to be a hedge fund wife. She was complaining about her husband, once a highly compensated trader whose fund had closed down and who now, in her opinion, wasn’t doing enough to find a job. The couple had been bickering non-stop about their cashflow problems. From behind a pair of oversized black lenses,...

Anyway, when I was out there playing golf I was still working, still doing show prep. And about this health care, do you remember hearing the news that the unions are going to be exempt from the Democrat health care tax? You hadn't heard this one? Oh, good. See, it's a good reason for me to come back. "The best chance for compromise legislation on health care may be a plan under construction in the Senate Finance Committee that would pay for a public plan in part by taxing some worker health benefits." Your health package, your benefits package from...

Bernard Madoff hires help to survive hard time (Bob Daemmrich/Polaris/eyevine) The 'Supermax' jail in Colorado where Madoff could find himself James Bone in New York Bernard Madoff has hired a veteran prison consultant to help him to find the best possible jail in which to serve his 150-year sentence for Wall Street’s biggest fraud. After his sentencing this week Madoff, now Prisoner No 1727-054, met Herb Hoelter, of the National Centre for Institutions and Alternatives, whose previous clients include the jailed Sotheby’s chairman Alfred Taubman and the financiers Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky. The draconian maximum sentence imposed by the...

Washington -- President Barack Obama's landmark bill on energy and global warming squeaked through the House this week only after the White House made dozens of concessions to coal, manufacturing and other interests. As the battle moves to the Senate, Obama faces demands for more concessions, including to open the coastline to offshore oil and gas drilling. The Senate will take up issues that were glossed over or omitted from the House bill. Among them is giving the government sweeping new powers to overcome local objections and approve thousands of miles of new transmission lines to carry electricity to coastal...

Portugal’s economy minister has resigned after making an insulting gesture during a parliamentary debate, damaging the image of the Socialist government three months before a general election. Manuel Pinho held his two index fingers to his forehead, suggesting horns, the sign of a cuckold, during an exchange with a Communist deputy over miners’ jobs during a state-of-the-nation debate on Thursday. Mr Pinho’s fleeting gesture, made in a separate exchange while José Sócrates, the prime minister was addressing parliament, was shown repeatedly on television and featured prominently on the front pages of Portuguese newspapers on Friday. Insulting someone as a cuckold,...

TEMECULA: Protesters line intersection Obama, government were the subjects of much of the criticism By CRAIG SHULTZ - Saturday, July 4, 2009 8:28 PM PDT TEMECULA ---- Some of the people lining the corners of the Rancho California and Ynez roads intersection during a tax protest Saturday afternoon said their beef isn't only with President Barack Obama. "I don't think anyone here will tell you it's a Republican versus Democrat thing. It's an American thing," said Mike Horan of Poway. "It isn't so much politically motivated. People want to make sure they're being heard." A crowd estimated by organizers to...

North Korea Promotes 'healthy' Beer Click the following link to see the commerical Yahoo! version http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=14302166&ch=4226714&src=news Youtube version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g48n48rY03E

JULY 3, 2009 New Evidence on the Foreclosure Crisis Zero money down, not subprime loans, led to the mortgage meltdown. Article STAN LIEBOWITZ. What is really behind the mushrooming rate of mortgage foreclosures since 2007? The evidence from a huge national database containing millions of individual loans strongly suggests that the single most important factor is whether the homeowner has negative equity in a house -- that is, the balance of the mortgage is greater than the value of the house. This means that most government policies being discussed to remedy woes in the housing market are misdirected. Many policy...

Global warming is so last century Obama, Democrats willing to wreck U.S. economy to battle a nonthreat. President Barack Obama was supposed to be "cool." But he isn't. He's square. Not just mildly so, but embarrassingly square. He's squaresville squared. It's like you're having a party with your friends, and he's the cringe-making middle-age parent who wants to show he digs where the young people are at by grooving around in the middle of the dance floor all night long. How do I know? I've been there, and I've been square. By "there," I mean I've been in places that...

Secret “doomsday” plans for 20% cuts in public spending are being prepared by senior civil servants, who fear politicians are failing to confront the scale of the budget black hole. Whitehall mandarins have begun creating detailed dossiers containing reductions in expenditure that are far deeper than the more modest savings being proposed by Labour and Conservative politicians. The disclosure comes as Gordon Brown faces a mutiny inside No 10 over his failure to admit that a future Labour government would have to reduce public spending. Downing Street advisers have warned the prime minister they are ready to quit unless he...

President Obama was supposed to be “cool.” But he isn’t. He’s square. Not just mildly so, but embarrassingly square. He’s squaresville squared. It’s like you’re having a party with your friends and he’s the cringe-making middle-aged parent who wants to show he digs where the young people are at by grooving around in the middle of the dance floor all night long. How do I know? I’ve been there and I’ve been square. By “there,” I mean I’ve been in places that have tried all the cool Obama dance moves and eventually wised up to what utter clunkers they are....

AN UNUSUALLY cold winter (it snowed in Saudi Arabia and Iraq; temperatures fell to minus 80 degrees in Siberia) has been followed by an unusually cool spring (it snowed in North Dakota in June for the first time in 60 years). This may be why only 42 percent of respondents in a June Rasmussen poll published think human activity is causing global warming, and many who do don't see it as a serious problem. In a Gallup poll in March, warming ranked last among eight environmental concerns. To combat a problem which probably doesn't exist, the House narrowly passed last...

House Democrats were surprised at the number of Republican votes they won on the razor close climate change vote, which allowed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to let a few more Democrats cast their own no votes. In what Democrats are readily admitting was their toughest vote since they took back power in 2007, the eight Republican votes proved critical to letting Pelosi hand out as many free passes as she could to members who thought that it would be too difficult to selling the bill in their districts.   The climate change bill passed 219-212, by just two votes...

... In view of the gloomy employment report last week, economists are debating whether to increase stimulus funds over all. But in a side argument, poverty experts are also asking whether elements of the package aimed at the most vulnerable Americans should be extended beyond their scheduled expiration in two years or even made permanent. The new safety-net study found that federal aid programs had helped tens of millions of Americans stay afloat in recent years, especially those with low-end jobs who benefited from rising tax credits. Going into the recession that began in late 2007, however, “the safety net...