Moody's: Neither debt plan protects the nation's AAA rating

Moody's: Neither debt plan protects the nation's AAA rating - The Hill's On The Money

The Failure of Central Planning Lite

RealClearMarkets - The Failure of Central Planning Lite: "Ben Bernanke printed massive sums of money and pumped it into the economy, and when that didn't work, he printed more money and pumped it into the economy, heedless of the inflationary risk. He's beginning to look like an incompetent car mechanic: he jams his foot on the accelerator and nothing happens, so instead of taking his foot off the gas, he just keeps it jammed there, guaranteeing that when the engine does spring back to life the car will lurch forward uncontrollably."

Senator Shelby Calls Soros Hypocrite for Dodging Reforms He Supported

Senator Shelby says Soros hypocrite for reforms dodge - Yahoo! News: "'It appears that Mr. Soros talked up financial reform only to sell it short,' Shelby told Reuters in a statement. 'Don't be surprised to see his fellow Wall Street financiers follow suit. They'll use their political clout and legal muscle to sidestep Dodd-Frank, while their smaller competitors and businesses take the hit.'

By giving back investors' money -- which is a small slice of the roughly $25 billion Soros oversees -- Soros is taking advantage of an exemption in a recently approved SEC rule required by the Dodd-Frank Act."

World War II Stimulus and the Postwar Boom

Richard P. Rumelt: World War II Stimulus and the Postwar Boom - WSJ.com: "Myopic policies allowed credit to be pushed over its natural limit. Credit expansion shifts consumption from the future to the present, but the future has now arrived. Policies aimed at reigniting the credit-driven consumption boom of the last 25 years won't work.

Instead of looking for a pre-election year pop, it would be wiser to focus on transitioning from credit-driven economic growth to growth that is, once again, driven by new productive investments. The key policy aims should be removing the tangle of tax, policy, regulatory and human-capital impediments to domestic private investment."

Home Depot Co-Founder Says Obama is Disrespecting Office, Unpresidential, Divisive, Petulant

President Barack Obama's conduct during the debate over the debt ceiling has divided the country and will inflict damage that will last well after the battle is over, former New York Stock Exchange director and Wall Street stalwart Ken Langone said.

While he believes a debt deal will get done and in fact favors a plan closer to what the Democrats are proposing, Langone told CNBC that Obama's behavior has been "unpresidential."

"He is dividing us as a nation," Langone said. "He's not bringing us together. He's willfully dividing us. He's petulant."

The co-founder of Home Depot sharply criticized the president for promoting class warfare through his repeated attacks against "fat cat" business executives and his targeting of tax loopholes.

In sum, the behavior is symptomatic of Obama's disrespect for the office he holds, Langone said.

Read the rest at CNBC.com

Columbia University President Pushes State Government Controlled Media in U.S.

The New Journalism - Investors.com: "Free Press: The president of Columbia University, home of the nation's most prestigious journalism school, has an idea to counter the decline of the mainstream press: more state-controlled media. We aren't making this up.

In a 3,811-word screed published in this month's Columbia Journalism Review, Lee Bollinger proposes that the U.S. fund an 'American World Service.' This would ostensibly be modeled on news agencies such as the BBC World Service and, we kid you not, Xinhua News Service and Al-Jazeera.

Why? Because they're all state-controlled media with a global reach, which he sees as the wave of the future. 'Global media outlets are proliferating,' he says. So America has to get one, too."

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Over the past 50 years, the US debt ceiling has been raised over 70 times. In other words, there is no ceiling at all - it is as fictitious as the idea that central planning works, or that the US has anything resembling a "free market."  --  Peter Schiff

Rand Paul Says Both Plans Add at least $7 Trillion to Debt

"Both of these plans will add somewhere between $7 to $8 trillion over 10 years. The real disservice to the American people is they need to be honest about their accounting up here. None of these cut spending, none of these cuts the deficit. Both plans will add $7 to $8 trillion. I don't think our country can withstand that addition of new debt,"  Senator Rand Paul told Neil Cavuto on FOX News.

Note:  Considering the national debt is an enormous amount, $14 trillion, increasing it by 50% over the next decade, while bragging that they're making draconian-like cuts, is disingenuous (a lie, actually). 

New High: 46% Think Most in Congress Are Corrupt

New High: 46% Think Most in Congress Are Corrupt - Rasmussen Reports™: "Voters are more convinced than ever that most congressmen are crooks.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 46% of Likely U.S. Voters now view most members of Congress as corrupt. That’s up seven points from June and the highest finding yet recorded. Just 29% think most members are not corrupt, and another 25% are not sure."

San Francisco Considers Special Legal Protection for Criminals

From the "You just can't make this stuff up department":  San Francisco Considers Legal Protection for Criminals - FoxNews.com: "A legislative proposal in San Francisco seeks to make ex-cons and felons a protected class, along with existing categories of residents like African-Americans, people with disabilities and pregnant women. If passed by city supervisors, landlords and employers would be prohibited from asking applicants about their criminal past."

Another Day, Another Democrat Pervert Steps Down

Rep. David Wu announces he will resign after accusations of sexual misconduct | OregonLive.com: "Rep. David Wu announced his resignation from Congress today, moments after U.S. senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden called for his resignation.  The Democrat said in a statement that he would leave office after Congress resolves the debt ceiling crisis."

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing after they’ve tried everything else.”  --  Winston Churchill

Washington's Spending Addiction is Bankrupting America

Washington's spending addiction is bankrupting America | Senator Jim DeMint | Op Eds | Washington Examiner: "I prefer to persuade people quietly to do the right thing, but that approach hadn't worked in Congress. I knew if I had any chance of being effective, I'd have to leave my comfort zone and get more aggressive.

The Washington establishment is driving our nation toward bankruptcy. Each day and with every vote, members of Congress decide whether to be a part of the establishment or a part of changing it.

Attempting to change the system is a brutal and painful process, as I reveal in this book. I tried for years to be a part of the establishment while trying to change it. That didn't work. It wasn't until I declared war on the establishment that I began to make progress ... and enemies.

I knew I faced a lonely battle. Few senators were willing to take an aggressive public stand against intransigent senior Republicans or to join me in a direct assault on the source of Republican downfall: earmarks and the culture of spending."

The Ron Paul Op-ed The Ruling Class Hopes You Won't Read

Federal Reserve Chairman "Helicopter" Ben Bernanke

The Ron Paul op-ed everyone will be talking about this weekend: "The Austrian School's theory of the business cycle describes how loose central bank monetary policy causes booms and busts: It drives down interest rates below the market rate, lowering the cost of borrowing; encourages malinvestment; and causes economic miscalculation as resources are diverted from the highest value use as reflected in true consumer preferences. Loose monetary policy caused the dot-com bubble and the housing bubble, and now is causing the government debt bubble.

For far too long, the Federal Reserve's monetary policy and quantitative easing have kept interest rates artificially low, enabling the government to drastically increase its spending by funding its profligacy through new debt whose service costs were lower than they otherwise would have been.

Neither Republicans nor Democrats sought to end this gravy train, with one party prioritizing war spending and the other prioritizing welfare spending, and with both supporting both types of spending. But now, with the end of the second round of quantitative easing, the federal funds rate at the zero bound, and the debt limit maxed out, Congress finds itself in a real quandary."

Charles Krauthammer: Obama At His Most Sanctimonious

Video: Charles Krauthammer: Obama At His Most Sanctimonious | RealClearPolitics: "This is Obama at his most sanctimonious, demagogic, self-righteous and arrogant. And given the baseline it wasn't a pretty sight. Look, he started out by summoning the leaders of Congress -- summoning them -- at 11:00. Who does he think he is? In the American system, the executive and Congress are coequal. In a banana republic, the caudillo will summon the members of the Congress. The way he demanded their appearance in the Oval Office I thought was disgraceful."

Explaining Obama’s tax-hike obsession

Explaining Obama's tax-hike obsession, James Pethokoukis | Reuters.com: "But Obama’s tax obsession becomes understandable when you realize the long game he’s playing: Big Taxes to fund Big Government. Decade after decade. See, it’s an almost universal belief among left-of-center journalists, economists, policymakers and politicians that Americans must pay higher taxes in coming years to cover the medical expenses of its aging population – not to mention all sorts of brand new social spending and green “investment.” Dramatically higher taxes. On everybody. And if we have a debt crisis, maybe those tax increases come sooner rather than later."

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Larry Summers 

"Never forget, never forget, and I think it’s very important for Democrats especially to remember this, that if Hitler had not come along, Franklin Roosevelt would have left office in 1941 with an unemployment rate in excess of 15 percent and an economic recovery strategy that had basically failed." 

-- From the imbecilic former Obummer economic adviser, Larry Summers (the one always nodding off at meetings).

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Richard Russell of Dow Theory Letters

When (Ben) Bernanke was asked if gold was money, he answered "No." When Bernanke was asked why the U.S. held the largest hoard of gold of any nation on earth, he answered, "Convention." 

My take -- Bernanke is either dishonest, a liar, or ignorant. Take your choice. My pick -- he's up against the wall and dishonest. The Federal Reserve is all about fiat money. Is it any wonder that the Fed Chairman had to deny that gold is money? 

-- From legendary, octogenarian investment guru and author of Dow Theory Letters, Richard Russell

STEVE WYNN RIPS OBAMA AGAIN AT QUARTERLY CONFERENCE CALL TO ANALYSTS

Steve Wynn of Wynn Resorts is not a fan of Obama's Socialist Policies and Rhetoric

Steve Wynn, the outspoken, charismatic (and admittedly Democrat) CEO of successful casino operator Wynn Resorts, gave the company's quarterly conference call to investment analysts today, going ballistic (again) on President Barack Obama.  As you'll recall, Obama has specifically been an enemy of the leisure industry, demonizing it in general, and specifically to Las Vegas.  Via Business Insider (Full transcript: Seeking Alpha): 

"I believe in Las Vegas. I think its best days are ahead of it. But I'm afraid to do anything in the current political environment in the United States. You watch television and see what's going on on this debt ceiling issue. And what I consider to be a total lack of leadership from the President and nothing's going to get fixed until the President himself steps up and wrangles both parties in Congress. But everybody is so political, so focused on holding their job for the next year that the discussion in Washington is nauseating.

And I'm saying it bluntly, that this administration is the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime. And I can prove it and I could spend the next 3 hours giving you examples of all of us in this market place that are frightened to death about all the new regulations, our healthcare costs escalate, regulations coming from left and right. A President that seems, that keeps using that word redistribution. Well, my customers and the companies that provide the vitality for the hospitality and restaurant industry, in the United States of America, they are frightened of this administration. And it makes you slow down and not invest your money. Everybody complains about how much money is on the side in America.

You bet and until we change the tempo and the conversation from Washington, it's not going to change. And those of us who have business opportunities and the capital to do it are going to sit in fear of the President. And a lot of people don't want to say that. They'll say, God, don't be attacking Obama. Well, this is Obama's deal and it's Obama that's responsible for this fear in America.

The guy keeps making speeches about redistribution and maybe we ought to do something to businesses that don't invest, their holding too much money. We haven't heard that kind of talk except from pure socialists. Everybody's afraid of the government and there's no need soft peddling it, it's the truth. It is the truth. And that's true of Democratic businessman and Republican businessman, and I am a Democratic businessman and I support Harry Reid. I support Democrats and Republicans. And I'm telling you that the business community in this company is frightened to death of the weird political philosophy of the President of the United States. And until he's gone, everybody's going to be sitting on their thumbs."

See video of Steve Wynn's other Obama rants.

Hacked DOT Road Sign Reads "Impeach Obama"

See Story: Hacked DOT Road Sign Reads "Impeach Obama" - WGHP

Should We Worry About a AAA-Rated Debt Bubble?

Should We Worry About a AAA-Rated Debt Bubble? - Daniel Indiviglio - Business - The Atlantic: "If demand for an asset ballooned by 300% in a decade, then you might smell a bubble. This describes the rise of AAA-rated debt. In 1999, about $1.5 trillion AAA-rated securities were issued globally. In 2009, AAA-rated issuance peaked at over $6 trillion. Are we in bubble territory? 

Sen. DeMint: "The Day Of Reckoning Is Going To Come"

Sen. DeMint: "The Day Of Reckoning Is Going To Come"

Testing Bachmann

Testing Bachmann

America Loved Less Around the World Than Ever Under Obama

Even lower than the "evil", Bush:  Less Loved Than Ever - Investors.com: "In the Middle East, where U.S. military involvement and diplomacy are most closely watched, President Obama is held in lower regard in the Arab world than President Bush was in the last year of his presidency.

Obama is not only less liked than the supposedly hated Bush, he can't even hold a candle to Iran's grubby, menacing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Zogby reports that in Egypt, 31% of Egyptians agree with Iran's policies compared with 3% for Obama's, with similar figures in Jordan. Among Egyptians, just 5% hold a favorable attitude toward the U.S. compared with 9% in 2008."

Marco Rubio: Debt Limit is the Easiest Part of the Problem

Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), in an interview with CBS this morning: 

"The way the deal is currently structured right now, it gives the President the ability to raise the debt limit. But as I've said already on the problem: The debt limit is not really the problem here, the problem here is the debt. The debt limit is actually the easiest part of the problem. It's one vote away from being solved. But, if all we do is raise the debt limit and it's not accompanied by a credible solution to America's debt problem, we're in big trouble. And I don't believe this plan, as it's been outlined to me is a credible solution to our debt problem." 

We're All Greeks Now

We're All Greeks Now | CNSnews.com

GRAPH OF THE WEEK

Ethanol Now Consumes More Corn Than For Animal Feed for First Time, Corn Prices Reach Record High

Why Hasn’t The Earth Warmed In Nearly 15 Years?

Why Hasn’t The Earth Warmed In Nearly 15 Years? - Patrick Michaels - Climate of Fear - Forbes: "There is no statistically significant warming trend since November of 1996 in monthly surface temperature records compiled at the University of East Anglia. Do we now understand why there’s been no change in fourteen and a half years?"

Obama Economy: Big Gov't, Big Debt, No Growth

Obama Legacy: Too Much Debt, Too Little Growth? | The Weekly Standard

Another Day of Tyranny as Police Shut Down Another Lemonade Stand

What are we teaching our children?:  Police Shut Down Another Lemonade Stand

Ron Paul to Frazzled Ben Bernanke: "Is Gold Money?"

Fast And Furious Scandal: A Watergate For Obama?

Fast And Furious Scandal: A Watergate For Obama? - Investors.com: "After funneling some 2,500 guns to criminals and drug lords, the DOJ announced it is requiring gun stores in Arizona, California, Texas and New Mexico to report individual purchases of multiple rifles of greater than .22 caliber by law-abiding American citizens to the ATF because — get this — such guns are 'frequently recovered at violent crime scenes near the Southwest border.'

Really? Does that include the administration-supplied weapons that killed Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata? Where's the public apology for their deaths? 'Brian Terry's loss was preventable,' said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chair of the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee investigating this operation. 'It was regrettable and preventable.'

And now the trail leads directly into the Oval Office."

GE's Immelt Tells Businesses to Hire as His Business Cuts Thousands

Can you say, "hypocrite"?

GRAPH OF THE MONTH

h/t: The Daily Reckoning

Obama Says "Can Not" Guarantee Social Security Payments Without A Debt Ceiling Hike. The Fearmongering at the Top Begins

The Fearmongering At The Top Begins: Obama Says "Can Not" Guarantee Social Security Payments Without A Debt Ceiling Hike | zero hedge: "It worked for Hank Paulson who showed up in Congress with a three page termsheet, delusions of grandeur, a scary story, and an easily frightened audience. Why should it not work for the president. As Reuters reports, 'Barack Obama said in an interview on Tuesday that checks to recipients of the Social Security retirement program may not go out in early August if he and congressional leaders do not agree a debt deal. 'I cannot guarantee that those checks go out on August 3rd if we haven't resolved this issue,' Obama said in an interview with CBS."

Next Step, Persecuting Churches

Terry Jeffrey: Next Step, Persecuting Churches? | CNSnews.com: "When the New York legislature passed a law last Friday legalizing same-sex marriage, all of New York's Roman Catholic bishops signed a statement warning that they now expect efforts to enact laws attacking churches that defend the truth.

'We strongly uphold the Catholic Church's clear teaching that we always treat our homosexual brothers and sisters with respect, dignity and love,' said the bishops.

'But we just as strongly affirm that marriage is the joining of one man and one woman in a lifelong, loving union that is open to children, ordered for the good of those children and the spouses themselves,' they said. 'This definition cannot change, though we realize that our beliefs about the nature of marriage will continue to be ridiculed, and that some will even now attempt to enact government sanctions against churches and religious organizations that preach these timeless truths.'"

The American Battle Cry Today

TED NUGENT: The American battle cry today - Washington Times: "Everyone with a working brain and a soul knows that this sacred, unprecedented American experiment in self-government demands constant, warriorlike vigilance against the evil that lives to destroy it. Being surrounded by such evil in our own government is both a heartbreaking threat and a vile curse but to be expected with the embarrassment of apathy running amok.

The courageous army of defiant freedom fighters at Concord Bridge who gave all to crush the evil king and all his soulless sheep shed blood for freedom, and now more than ever, such warrior spirit is necessary to hold back this never-ending tide of evil from enslaving free men again."

Repeal of Light-Bulb Mandate Fails to Pass House

Repeal of Light-Bulb Mandate Fails to Pass House - WSJ.com: "A measure to repeal a 2007 federal law that would push many traditional incandescent light bulbs off the market failed to win two-thirds support needed to pass in a House vote Tuesday.

A 233-193 majority of the House backed the measure proposed by Rep. Joe Barton (R. Texas), would have repealed a federal mandate that light bulbs meet certain efficiency standards by next year. But the bill was brought up under a procedure requiring that it receive two-thirds vote for passage.

The debate over the light bulb standards has inflamed conservative commentators and a swath of Americans who hold it up as a symbol of government overreach. The standard was part of an energy law signed in 2007 by President George W. Bush that received support from many Republicans at the time. Now a majority of House Republicans want to walk it back."

Obama's Flip-Flop on Raising Taxes

Obama in December, 2010: Raising taxes "could cost our economy well over a million jobs."Obama in August, 2009: "[T]he last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of a recession..."

Hey Village Idiot, we're still in a recession, and it will still cost jobs.  That is unless you were lying to us a few months ago, fyi.   


hat tip:  Rush

McConnell: Give Obama New Powers on Debt Limit

If true, one more, out of trillions of reasons, why RINO Mitch McConnell must be primaried: 

McConnell: Give Obama New Powers on Debt Limit: "The top Republican in the Senate proposed on Tuesday giving President Barack Obama sweeping new power to, in effect, unilaterally increase the nation's debt limit to avoid a first-ever default on U.S. obligations.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered a new plan to allow the president to demand up to $2.4 trillion in new borrowing authority by the summer of next year in three separate submissions. Those increases in the so-called debt limit would automatically take effect unless both the Republican House and the Democratic Senate enact legislation specifically disapproving it."

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“The collection of any taxes which are not absolutely required, which do not beyond reasonable doubt contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized larceny."  -  The HIGHLY underrated, Calvin Coolidge