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To: DelaWhere

Report: Small Business Plans Vs Optimism About

( As Harvard historian Niall Ferguson observed last week, “Only somebody who studies financial history could say, as I was trying to say, ‘Look, something as big as the liquidity crisis of 1914 or as big as the banking crisis of 1931 is imminent.’ We don’t really have a great many options here. If we stay the present course, you’re going to see the tailspin continue. To be effective, a large-scale restructuring of household indebtedness would need to be mandatory. The Great Depression was initially a U.S. financial crisis. But what made it a depression was its global contagion, and then the breakdown of trade and the retreat into protectionism. All of that can happen. All of that is in fact happening with terrifying speed.” )

Full Article here:

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/04/small-business-plans-vs-optimism-about.html

Good Morning Everyone !


6,732 posted on 04/20/2009 5:03:36 AM PDT by Eagle50AE (Pray for our Armed Forces.)
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To: Eagle50AE

>>>If we stay the present course, you’re going to see the tailspin continue. To be effective, a large-scale restructuring of household indebtedness would need to be mandatory. The Great Depression was initially a U.S. financial crisis. But what made it a depression was its global contagion, and then the breakdown of trade and the retreat into protectionism. All of that can happen. All of that is in fact happening with terrifying speed.<<<

Always seemed strange to me that when a retailer finds products aren’t selling, he marks them down, even to the point of taking a bit of a loss to move it... Big banks, when faced with creditors who aren’t able to repay, they raise the rate, add penalties and make it next to impossible for them to be repaid... Strange logic indeed.

The spiral will surely accelerate... Until there is confidence in the system and confidence in the future, that slippery slope will accelerate downward.


6,734 posted on 04/20/2009 8:35:04 AM PDT by DelaWhere ("Without power over our own food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances Moore Lappe)
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To: Eagle50AE

Obama and Congress Poised to End Tax-Free Internet Shopping

Posted on 20 April 2009


Obama’s promised not to raise taxes of any kind on families earning under $250,000 or individuals under $200,000. Earlier this month that pledge went up in smoke by  tripling the taxes on cigarettes. Smokers were outraged.

But the government still needs more money to pay for all the spending and budget deficits.

Feds to Tax the Web to Bolster State Revenues

Now Congress and Obama have their eyes on the Internet to help fund more government spending — because most U.S. States are pushing for the new tax rules that require federal oversight — and Washington is ready and willing to help.  Congress is expected to introduce a bill this week that would require Amazon.com, L.L. Bean, eBay, Cabela’s and other online merchants to collect sales tax on all online purchases and return that money to the state in which the purchaser resides — which may force business that make sales online to abide by the tax laws maintained by each and every state.

The new bill rewrites the ground rules for mail order and Internet sales by eliminating what its supporters view as a “loophole” that, in many cases, allows Americans to shop over the Internet without paying sales taxes.

Currently, Americans who shop over the Internet from out-of-state vendors aren’t always required to pay sales taxes at the time of purchase. Californians buying books from Amazon.com or cameras from Manhattan’s B&H Photo, for example, won’t pay sales taxes at checkout time that they would if shopping at a local mall because their headquarters are located out-of-state.

“We will have the bill ready for introduction by next Monday,” said Neal Osten of the National Conference of State Legislatures. “We finalized the language and now we’re working out the remaining issues and adding some new provisions at the request of various stakeholders.”

The final legislation is expected to be introduced by Rep. Bill Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, who has championed similar proposals in the past. Delahunt’s office on Wednesday confirmed he was interested.

President Obama is a strong ally of the new tax laws and is expected to sign them into law. Internet companies like Amazon.com, eBay and Google are outraged. Until now, they have remained recession proof by offering products at lower prices than comparable brick and mortar stores.

This is because congress has been unsuccessful in enacting Internet tax laws for at least seven years. They have argued that reduced sales tax revenue threatens budgets for schools and police, and say that, as a matter of fairness, online retailers should be forced to collect the same taxes that brick-and-mortar retailers do.

While these arguments have been unsuccessful so far, the National Conference of State Legislatures and its allies believe the recession has sliced into sales tax revenue so much that Congress will have to act. In addition, Obama is said to support this legislation, along with a broad coalition of Democrats in congress. A report this week from the Rockefeller Institute says that sales taxes have declined by 6.1 percent, the largest decline in half a century. 

For those used to buying $.99 iTunes or other more tangible items, this will be an immediate price hike. Californians, for example, will pay an extra 7.25%. We’ll see when the bill is introduced it if also included local sales taxes, which can bump this up to 10% or more for most of us.

A song on iTunes: 0.99 cents.
New sales tax: 0.10 cents.
Total cost: $1.09.

Sharp 52? LCD-TV: $1,415.99 .
New sales tax:  $141.60.
Total cost: $1 557.59.

Online bargain hunters, be forewarned: Expect change.

http://www.butasforme.com/2009/04/20/obama-and-congress-poised-to-end-tax-free-internet-shopping/

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Well, since Zero can't seem to spend us out of a depression, maybe he thinks he can tax us out of one..... Oh, maybe he thinks if he does both.......

DW

6,737 posted on 04/20/2009 10:44:18 AM PDT by DelaWhere ("Without power over our own food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances Moore Lappe)
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To: Eagle50AE; nw_arizona_granny; TenthAmendmentChampion; All

STRESS TEST RESULTS LEAKED

If the report below is true, the government will never reveal the result. They will cover it up and pour more of your tax dollars into these reckless banks. I urge everyone to withdraw any funds you have in any bank that has accepted TARP. There are 8,400 other banks that didn't make reckless loans and accept TARP. Reward them with your deposits.

 
 

Sunday, April 19, 2009

LEAKED! Bank Stress Test Reults !

 
The Turner Radio Network has obtained "stress test" results for the top 19 Banks in the USA.

The stress tests were conducted to determine how well, if at all, the top 19 banks in the USA could withstand further or future economic hardship.

When the tests were completed, regulators within the Treasury and inside the Federal Reserve began bickering with each other as to whether or not the test results should be made public. That bickering continues to this very day as evidenced by this "main stream media" report.

The Turner Radio Network has obtained the stress test results. They are very bad. The most salient points from the stress tests appear below.

1) Of the top nineteen (19) banks in the nation, sixteen (16) are already technically insolvent.

2) Of the 16 banks that are already technically insolvent, not even one can withstand any disruption of cash flow at all or any further deterioration in non-paying loans.

3) If any two of the 16 insolvent banks go under, they will totally wipe out all remaining FDIC insurance funding.

4) Of the top 19 banks in the nation, the top five (5) largest banks are under capitalized so dangerously, there is serious doubt about their ability to continue as ongoing businesses.

5) Five large U.S. banks have credit exposure related to their derivatives trading that exceeds their capital, with four in particular - JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, HSBC Bank America and Citibank - taking especially large risks.

6) Bank of America`s total credit exposure to derivatives was 179 percent of its risk-based capital; Citibank`s was 278 percent; JPMorgan Chase`s, 382 percent; and HSBC America`s, 550 percent. It gets even worse: Goldman Sachs began reporting as a commercial bank, revealing an alarming total credit exposure of 1,056 percent, or more than ten times its capital!

7) Not only are there serious questions about whether or not JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs,Citibank, Wells Fargo, Sun Trust Bank, HSBC Bank USA, can continue in business, more than 1,800 regional and smaller institutions are at risk of failure despite government bailouts!

The debt crisis is much greater than the government has reported. The FDIC`s "Problem List" of troubled banks includes 252 institutions with assets of $159 billion. 1,816 banks and thrifts are at risk of failure, with total assets of $4.67 trillion, compared to 1,568 institutions, with $2.32 trillion in total assets in prior quarter.

Put bluntly, the entire US Banking System is in complete and total collapse.
Bonifides

For those who may be skeptical about the veracity of the stress test report above, be reminded that only last Sunday, April 12, this radio network obtained and published a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Memo outlining their concerns that returning US military vets posed a domestic security threat as "right wing extremists." That memo, available here, is marked "FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY" and contained strict warnings that it was not to be released to the public or to the media. We obtained it and published it days before other media outlets.

Details of certain aspects of the stress test reported above have now been CONFIRMED through REUTERS News service when they disclosed the risk-capital percentages publicly on April 6, 2009 at this link

Further, todays Wall Street Journal (April 20, 2009) is confirming at this link that lending by the largest banks has DECREASED 23% since the government began the T.A.R.P. program, causing many in Congress to ask where the money has actually been going. Apparently, it has been going into propping-up the failing banks instead of out in loans to the public.

Additional details and proofs are forthcoming. . . . . continue to check back on this developing story.

http://theburningplatform.com/groups/quinns-daily-dose-of-reality/discussions/stress-test-results-leaked

6,738 posted on 04/20/2009 11:33:53 AM PDT by DelaWhere ("Without power over our own food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances Moore Lappe)
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