Free Republic

Senator Gregg stated, “The CBO estimate released last night finally sheds light on the smoke and mirrors game the majority has been playing with the cost of their health care reform proposal. Over the first 10 years, this legislation builds in gross new spending of $1.7 trillion – and most of the new spending doesn’t even start until 2014. Once that spending is fully phased in, the House Democratic bill rings up at more than $3 trillion over ten years. “Additionally, this bill cuts critical Medicare and Medicaid funding by $628 billion, accounts for nearly $1.2 trillion in tax and...

Like many Americans, I’m very concerned about the efforts underway to rush through the 2,000 page Pelosi health care bill this weekend. Why the rush? That’s a lot of pages to read. Why not give everyone the chance to read it and debate it? How much will this bill cost us? It’s unclear because the figures coming out of Washington keep changing – and always in the direction of costing more, not less. The latest numbers show it will cost more than a trillion dollars over the decade, but when has a government program ever come in on or under...

Some moderate Democrats still are “really anguished” over voting for the energy bill, Rep. Jason Altmire told Fox News, and they “would be reluctant now to vote for health care and take a second vote that might be unpopular in their district.”With Republicans raising the volume of their protests and House Democratic leaders uncertain if they have enough rank-and-file support, some moderate Democrats sense that passing a health care reform bill will be as difficult as the House’s energy bill, which was approved by a slim margin June. That has caused quite a bit of hand-wringing among the Democrats. Some...

2:15 PM UPDATE: I've learned that 100 people are being laid off across "several divisions" of the A&E Television Networks yesterday and today "as a direct result of the merger". It will make those employees feel so much better that management tells me it's "no one in a decision making role." A&E Television Networks in August acquired Lifetime Entertainment, and everything is now owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group, Hearst and NBC Universal. Big Media = Big Mergers = Big Mistakes.

John Reed, who originally helped merge Traveller's Group with Citibank with Sandy Weill, is performing a mea culpa for creating megazombie Citigroup (C): Bloomberg: “I’m sorry,” Reed, 70, said in an interview yesterday. “These are people I love and care about. You could imagine emotionally it’s not easy to see what’s happened." “I would compartmentalize the industry for the same reason you compartmentalize ships,” Reed said in the interview in his office on Park Avenue in New York. “If you have a leak, the leak doesn’t spread and sink the whole vessel. So generally speaking you’d have consumer banking separate...

Russian economist and academic Igor Panarin says that there is a strong possibility that the United States will break into six pieces by June 2010, which he says will be the result of a second economic crisis in late November. After Texas Governor Rick Perry mentioned the possibility of his state seceding from the union, Americans started to take Panarin's predictions much more seriously and now the video game 'Shattered Union' is being developed into a major Hollywood motion picture.

An open letter to the local daily paper — almost every local daily paper in America: I remember reading All the President's Men and thinking: That's journalism. You do what it takes to get the truth and you lay it before the public, because the public has a right to know. This housing crisis didn't come out of nowhere. It was not a vague emanation of the evil Bush administration. It was a direct result of the political decision, back in the late 1990s, to loosen the rules of lending so that home loans would be more accessible to poor...

A look at the numbers inside the unemployment report including a report that claims 190,000 job losses while also reporting an increase of more than 550,000 unemployed americans. The numbers are staggering. 27 million Americans without full-time work, real unemployment tops 17.5%

Given the source, I was skeptical. I expected 55 straight minutes of Republican-bashing. I was wrong. Much to my surprise this video placed the blame exactly where it belongs...on the merry band running the Clinton financial team. And for good measure, they hit Obama with a few whacks as well (since he has some of the culprits in his cabinet NOW!)

The Motor City wants change. At least that was the message sent from the polls on Tuesday night’s general municipal election. While some of the election results had been easily predicted, there were some minor surprises. City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. was expected to come out second if not on top of the city council race. Instead, voters demoted him, placing the former interim mayor fourth behind three fresh faces to the council. But as the polls predicted, Charles Pugh got the most votes, making him the new city council president. Gary Brown, who had been expected to be...

Rising productivity is usually one of the best things you can hope for in an economy. It means people are producing more for each hour they work. That's the path to higher living standards. But the huge burst in productivity that the U.S. economy experienced in the third quarter is not entirely good. In fact, it's a sign that the U.S. economy is still in a sickly condition—a conclusion that is likely to be driven home by the latest job-loss figures release on Nov. 6. Economists who cheered the productivity number are ignoring the dark side of its sudden growth....

Of all the numbers swirling around this week Capitol Hill this week – health care whip counts, CBO estimates, winning and losing margins in Virginia, New York and New Jersey– one stands out from the rest: 10.2 percent. That’s the national unemployment rate. And lawmakers from both parties know that, if it doesn’t go down dramatically before next November, they could be adding to it themselves. “I think anytime unemployment is high and people are concerned about their jobs, the economy, incumbents on both sides of the aisle need to be concerned,” Republican Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker said Friday. “What...

Today, Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Committee Dave Camp (R-MI) released a letter from the non-partisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) confirming that the failure to comply with the individual mandate to buy health insurance contained in the Pelosi health care bill (H.R. 3962, as amended) could land people in jail. The JCT letter makes clear that Americans who do not maintain “acceptable health insurance coverage” and who choose not to pay the bill’s new individual mandate tax (generally 2.5% of income), are subject to numerous civil and criminal penalties, including criminal fines of up to $250,000...

WASHINGTON — Just when it was beginning to look a little better, the economy relapsed Friday with a return to double-digit unemployment for only the second time since World War II and warnings that next year will be even worse than previously thought. The jobless rate rocketed to 10.2 percent in October, the highest since early 1983, dealing a psychological blow to Americans as they prepare holiday shopping lists. It was another worse-than-expected report casting a shadow over the struggling recovery. President Barack Obama called it "a sobering number that underscores the economic challenges that lie ahead." He signed a...

A T-shirt a day has kept unemployment at bay for an American man who is making about $85,000 a year by selling advertising space on his torso. Jason Sadler, 26, a former marketing professional from Florida, founded his own company, www.iwearyourshirt.com, in 2008 with the idea to wear a T-shirt supplied by any company and then use social media tools to promote the firm. For his human billboard service, Sadler charges the "face value" of the day so January 1 costs $1, while December 31 costs $365. Sadler said this may not sound like a lot but it adds up...

Rosenberg On Jobs: Horrible Is An Understatement, Fed Tightening Is On Hold Indefinitely Joe WeisenthalNov. 6, 2009, 1:29 PM David Rosenberg riffs on this morning's jobs report: THE HOUSEHOLD SURVEY To say that the Household survey was horrible would be an understatement. This survey showed a net job destruction of 589,000, bringing the decline to 1.8 million over the past three months — more than what was lost in the entire 2001 tech-wreck-recession. All of the decline was in full-time employment, and while the bulls out there will undoubtedly point to the fact that temp agency hirings are on the...

Consumer Credit: AwfulFriday, November 6, 2009 Posted by Karl Denninger Where are my green shoots? Consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 6 percent in the third quarter of 2009. Revolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 10 percent, and nonrevolving credit decreased at an annual rate of 3-3/4 percent. In September, consumer credit decreased at an annual rate of 7-1/4 percent. Yuck. Here's the graphical representation. Nothing good in here. The non-revolving flattened out some in September (gee, you think "cash for clunkers" might have influenced August and September?) but revolving credit - that is, credit cards...

There were, once upon a time, usury laws that generally held any interest rate greater than 10% was illegal. The Federal Reserve under Paul Volcker believed that interest rates needed to be raised to insane levels to stop the runaway inflation, which was the first stone that hit the water sending the shock waves that we are having to pay for today. Once the usury laws were altered so the Fed could fight inflation, it set in motion the doubling of household debt, not to mention the national debt. At 8%, the principle is doubled through interest in less than...

WASHINGTON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Friday the jump in the unemployment rate to 10.2 percent in October was a "sobering" figure that underscored the economic challenges ahead. Obama, speaking after the U.S. jobless rate unexpectedly rose to a 26 1/2-year high, also said he had signed a bill that extended jobless benefits and homebuyer tax credits. "I just signed into law a bill that will help grow our economy, save and create new jobs and provide relief to struggling families and businesses," Obama said in a statement delivered in the White House Rose Garden. "The...

When Barack Obama became president on Jan 20, the nation's unemployment rate was 7.2%. Using "crisis" and fear to pass their ridiculous "stimulus" plan (which was designed to stimulate Obama's parties' favorite constituents) the Obama administration promised that if the stimulus bill was passed, then unemployment rate would not go above 8%. By February, the unemployment rate had exceeded the Obama administration's unemployment projection for the entire year.

Unemployment rate in the U.S. soared to a 26-year high of 10.2 percent in October and employers cut more jobs than forecast.

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand says the purpose of cap and trade is to enrich investment banks..."Attack with what comes up, with what God sends," underscores the need to exploit opportunities to destroy an enemy, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) has provided such an opportunity to demolish Barack Obama's cap and trade agenda. It allows our side to totally reverse the focus of cap and trade from protection of the environment, polar ice caps, polar bears, and so on to enrichment of investment banks and similar entities at the expense of the working American. Gillibrand's letter to the Wall Street Journal says...

There's a national element to the election. Voters across America are in a bad mood...

The White House’s stimulus program is a joke. Indeed, the Obama administration would be better served if it handed out money on the side of the street, than it is by its current job creation program. Consider the current numbers: Reports to be released Friday on the government Web site Recovery.gov are expected to show that the $150 billion in grants and loans made so far under the economic stimulus package have created or saved about 650,000 jobs, White House officials said Friday morning. Now, some simple math: Cost: $150,000,000,000 “Created or saved” jobs: 650,000 Cost per “created or saved”...

In what some see as tongue-in-cheek rhetoric and others see as downright deception, the Obama administration has declared that the $787 billion stimulus bill saved or created some 650,000 jobs by the end of last month. In what has almost become a running joke and sure fodder for a potential Saturday Night Live TV skit, the ruling czar-laced regime continues to tout imagined “air jobs” recreated in the face of the fact that the economy has lost 1.3 million jobs since the president was elected. Yet, Obama’s starry-eyed disciplines go on to say that government and private forecasters estimate that...

The unemployment rate rose from 9.8 to 10.2 percent in October, and nonfarm payroll employment continued to decline (-190,000), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today (11/6/2009). The largest job losses over the month were in construction, manufacturing, and retail trade. Household Survey Data In October, the number of unemployed persons increased by 558,000 to 15.7 million. The unemployment rate rose by 0.4 percentage point to 10.2 percent, the highest rate since April 1983. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the number of unemployed persons has risen by 8.2 million, and the unemployment rate has grown...

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US unemployment rate jumped to 10.2 percent in October as 190,000 jobs were shed, the government said Friday in data highlighting ongoing struggles of an economy emerging from recession. The Labor Department report, seen as one of the best indicators of economic momentum, showed a rise in the jobless rate, up from 9.8 percent in September, to the highest since 1983. But the number of jobs lost narrowed to the lowest level in over a year. The jobless rate shot above the key 10 percent barrier for the first time since June 1983, even though the...

The U.S. Jobless Rate Hits 10.2% on the way to who knows where. With Manufacturing Jobs all but gone, America is being relegated to a low-end 3rd world service oriented country. At what point do Americans become so weak (financially) that they have no other option but to submit to the Community Organizing Administrations agenda?

• Unemployment at 10.2% • President's top economic advisor admits this is by government design. • White House intends for unemployment to go down in an election year. Unemployment this morning topped 10.2%, even though the number seeking employment has declined. Many have just given up. Likewise, and more troublesome, the average hours worked in a week is at its lowest in decades - 33 hours. That suggests employers are going to just expand hours worked in the future, instead of hiring new people. So the unemployment number will stay high for a while. On January 18, 2009, Obama's top...

Bailouts For Bonuses Kevin Depew Nov 06, 2009 7:55 am As the year comes to a close, Wall Street is setting up for another record year of bonuses which will be financed by bailout money. Kevin Depew debates the hot button issue on the latest Two Ways to Play.[snip]

Right on schedule, prices of PM's go up with the great news of The Great One's intervention in our economy!

Yow. The BLS employment report is out and it's not good. [snip] Our government, by choosing to protect the oligarchs and banksters instead of allowing the market to force the bad debt out into the open where it defaults has chosen to saddle our nation's citizens with unconscionable and unsustainable debt loads, both at a government and personal level. This was a critical error and, as I expected and predicted, it is now being reflected directly into the employment situation.

The Feds Have No Faith In Economic Recovery Economics / Economic Stimulus Nov 05, 2009 - 05:18 AM By: Michael_Pento The stock market has enjoyed a significant rally since the end of the first quarter. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported last week that the economy grew at a 3.5% annual rate in the third quarter--a figure they achieved by that claiming inflation was running at only a 0.8% annual rate, despite a sharp drop in the dollar, a spike in commodity prices and record highs for gold. The cyclical bull market in stocks and positive print on GDP has...

Having purchased, rented, or placed a down payment on all the political influence up for sale in America, leftist troublemaker George Soros now plans to ramp up his war on markets worldwide by creating an “Institute for New Economic Thinking” (INET). “The system we have now has actually broken down, only we haven’t quite recognized it and so you need to create a new one and this is the time to do it,” Soros told the Financial Times last month. Soros said he wants Communist China to run this new financial system. “You really need to bring China into the...

Leadership: As Palin jousts with Biden on energy independence, the government reports that we lead the world in energy reserves. From oil to gas to coal, we are sitting on prosperity. So why are we importing anything? One of the interesting sidelights of the NY-23 race was an exchange on energy independence between Vice President Joe Biden and the former governor of energy-rich Alaska, Sarah Palin. Biden, who came in to campaign for Democrat Bill Owens, was reminded of the issue of energy. "The fact of the matter is that Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy was 'Drill, baby,...

STAND UP AMERICA, GET OUT OF THE FETAL POSITION AND MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD. Welcome to the GLENN BECK television thread...Shake the cobwebs out of your brain...We are another day closer to the REVOLUTION that will change the 2010 elections. All comrades, infidels, sick twisted freaks and lurkers are welcome and are encouraged to participate in the thread!

The perception of American voters and other nations around the world toward the United States Government is the United States is currently operating under a weak and indecisive leader. With every day that passes the Congress,...Read full article http://wwwstateofamerica.blogspot.com/2009/11/leader-position-open-united-states.html

With the history of twentieth-century science and technology largely a saga of Jewish accomplishment, in retrospect it might seem foreordained that after World War II the rising Jewish nation in the Middle East would emerge not only as a financial power but also as a scienti�c and technological leader. Yet surprisingly, for all the talk of deserts in bloom, the predictable miracle did not occur. Forty-some years on, Israel by 1990 was still mostly barren of technology and finance. Apart from military breakthroughs, the scores of thousands of brilliant Jews assembled in Israel generated few significant companies or technologies, no...

More than $4.7 million in federal stimulus aid so far has been funneled to schools in North Chicago, and state and federal officials say that money has saved the jobs of 473 teachers. Problem is, the district employs only 290 teachers. "That other number, I don't know where that came from," said Lauri Hakanen, superintendent of North Chicago Community Unit Schools District 187.

A stimulus job report that says more than 10,000 jobs were saved or created in Wisconsin is rife with errors, double counting and inflated numbers based more on satisfying federal formulas than creating real jobs, a Journal Sentinel review has found. In one case, five jobs were mistakenly listed as 50 - and then counted twice. In another, pay raises to workers were listed as saving more than 100 jobs. And in another, jobs were listed as saved even though the money had not been received and no work on the project had begun. The problems mirror those surfacing around...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance fell last week, the government said Thursday, with a total figure that was below analysts' expectations. There were 512,000 initial job claims filed in the week ended Oct. 31, down 20,000 from a revised 532,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report. A consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com expected 522,000 new claims. The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 523,750, down 3,000 from the previous week's revised average of 526,750. "This report suggests that the peak for the unemployment rate...

The Obama administration says the Recovery Act created or saved 640,000 jobs through September. Here's a state-by-state breakdown.

Voters for the first time are blaming President Obama nearly as much as President Bush for the country’s continuing economic problems. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 49% still blame the economic situation on the recession that began under Bush. But 45% now say the nation’s economic problems are caused more by Obama’s policies.

Please FReep this poll: Do you believe the economy will get better in 2010? Yes, the economy it turning around and things look positive. Yes, things can't possibly get any worse. No, the economy will not truly recover until unemployment begins to drop. No, things will get worse before they get better. The economy will stay the same. No Opinion

Jobless Claims Down, Productivity Soars! Joe WeisenthalNov. 5, 2009, 8:33 AM At first blush, we like this morning's economic numbers. New jobless claims of 512,000 was lower than the 530,000 last week, and the 525,000 analysts had anticipated.[snip]

INDIANAPOLIS -- Indiana University economists presenting their annual forecast today (Nov. 5) are confident that 2010 is going to be better than this year. Unfortunately, 2009 was "really, really awful." "Better is not necessarily good," said Bill Witte, associate professor emeritus of economics at IU and a member of the Kelley School of Business' annual Business Outlook Panel. "2010 is going to be acceptable, except for the fact that we're starting from extremely low levels. Things will be getting better, but they still won't be really good."

Europe Stocks Trim Losses After ECB, BoE Decisions Thu Nov 5, 2009 8:04am EST By Blaise Robinson PARIS, Nov 5 (Reuters) - European stocks were down 0.3 percent by early afternoon on Thursday, with banks and miners among the biggest losers. Yet shares trimmed their losses after both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank kept rates unchanged. The BoE kept rates on hold and said it would expand its quantitative easing programme by 25 billion pounds ($41 billion), while the ECB kept interest rates at 1 percent as expected. The two central banks' decisions came a day...

Gold prices yesterday surged to an all-time high after India's central bank bought 200 tonnes of the precious metal, swapping dollars for bullion as the country's finance minister warned that the economies of the US and Europe had "collapsed". India's decision to exchange $6.7bn for gold, equivalent to 8 per cent of world annual mine production, sent the strongest signal yet that Asian countries were moving away from the US currency. The purchase by New Delhi's Reserve Bank from the International Monetary Fund pushed gold prices to a record $1,087.45 per troy ounce, up 2.7 per cent on the day,...

A year ago it was revealed to the American people that our banking system was a legalized Ponzi scheme in which bank and insurance CEOs paid themselves billions of dollars in personal compensation to lend and insure assets with money they didn't have to customers who couldn't pay back the loans.

Even as a Senate global-warming bill remained in limbo with Democrats refusing to delay a committee vote until an economic analysis was completed, hopes rose for a potential bipartisan compromise. The Senate, meanwhile, appears to be moving away from the bill, authored by Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., which would require a 20 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 and would have the government sell the right to emit carbon dioxide. Even as Boxer conducted an unusual one-sided hearing on her bill in the Environment and Public Works Committee, Kerry, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. and...