July 31, 2009

The Recession Is Over. Right?

Well, not so much.

GDP came out this morning and there's only one word for it: Ugly.
Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and property located in the United States -- decreased at an annual rate of 1.0 percent in the second quarter of 2009, (that is, from the first quarter to the second), according to the "advance" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.  In the first quarter, real GDP decreased 6.4 percent.


And while 1% drop doesn't sound all that bad, the problem is that virtually all of this change came from government spending.  Further, while the feds can continue to just print money and issue debt (as long as the Chinese let us, that is), the states have pretty much crapped-out - meaning there's one less spigot (or 50, actually) to be tapped going forward.

Read Denninger's column for the details - consumer spending in Q2 was down (up in Q1) as were both durable and non-durable goods (both were up in Q1).

Gold and sliver are spiking, the dollar is getting hammered, and yet equities appear to be taking the continued deterioration in the economy in stride.

So, are you willing to bet that the equities markets are right?  Or do you trust your own lying eyes?

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July 09, 2009

Stay classy, welfare pimps.

Yes Californians, no matter how broke you are, no matter how you can't afford it, according to the welfare pimps Kids Will DieTM unless you agree to fork-over more of your hard-earned cashola to feed the state welfare beast.

Liberals == Pure, freaking evil.

H/T to Sean at doubleplusundead.

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June 17, 2009

One of the highest of Hack Holidays

Bet you didn't know today is Bunker Hill Day!  Well, you would - if you worked (harrumph!) for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and/or the City of Boston, that is.

Oddly enough, Boston's soon-to-be-defunct other paper couldn't find anything funny to say today.

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June 11, 2009

I have it on good authority that Kathleen Parker is a slut.

C'mon morons, it's just a joke.

Oh, you don't like it?  Tough fucking shit - she had it coming.

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June 04, 2009

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Someone needs to alert Cindy Sheehan to the fact that George Bush ain't POTUS anymore.

Cindy Sheehan, who drew national attention for camping outside former President George W. Bush's ranch in protest of the Iraq War, is following him to Dallas. Sheehan will lead a demonstration Monday protesting "crimes against humanity."

"We can't allow George Bush's crimes to be forgotten just because he is not in office anymore," she said in an e-mail.

Here's a thought, genius - why don't you go after the current occupant of the White House, who seems to have a habit of, basically, grokking just about everything Chimpy McBushitler did over the last 8-years.

I've said it before - this woman needs therapy, not more public exposure.
more...

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May 12, 2009

Words fail.

Yeah, I'm sure Chris Buckley's dad would have voted for a far-left radical over John McCain, too.

And by that I of course mean I'm pretty sure he would never, in a million years, have done any such thing.  But hey, must keep to The NarrativeTM, and all that.

The apple did indeed fall rather far from this particular tree.

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May 05, 2009

Yeah, I'm sure this will end well.

Pakistan (with at least 100 nuclear weapons - need I remind) is in the process of melting down.

The Pakistani Army has finally begun to act against the Taliban and its allies in Swat and Buner, but the effort may be too little, too late.  The government in Islamabad told Swat residents to flee, and more than 500,000 refugees may descend on the capital as the Army prepares to dislodge the extremists after an ill-advised truce allowed them to seize control and initiative.

I'm sure they're only going after the bad Taliban, though.  Not the good Taliban that The Unicorn Prince said he was going to engage diplomatically.

What could possibly go wrong?

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File under: "Still more evidence of just how screwed are we."

Top revenue source for state governments?  Why, it's Uncle Sam, of course!

In a historic first, Uncle Sam has supplanted sales, property and income taxes as the biggest source of revenue for state and local governments.

The shift shows how deeply the recession is cutting. Federal stimulus money aimed at reviving the economy and a sharp drop in tax collections have altered, at least temporarily, the traditional balance of how states, cities, counties and schools pay for their operations.

What could possibly go wrong with that arrangement?

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April 28, 2009

Sometimes, I just don't get it.

Unless it turns out that I actually am surrounded by morons.

Hopeful signs that the worst may be over for the economy boosted Americans' moods in April, sending a closely watched barometer of sentiment to the highest level since November.

These so-called "signs" remain a mystery to me.  Must be that my unicorn is still on back-order.
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April 21, 2009

Shocker: TARP may not be working as advertised.

Show of hands - who didn't see this coming?

According to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Treasury Department data, the biggest recipients of taxpayer aid made or refinanced 23% less in new loans in February, the latest available data, than in October, the month the Treasury kicked off the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Well, duh?  Of course they made less loans.  That's because they're - wait for it - BROKE!  And they're using TARP money to try to hide their looming (if not already de facto present) bankruptcy.

A cynic would claim that was a feature - rather than a bug - of the Obambi, Dubya, Geithner, Paulson bank balance sheet rescue program.

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April 10, 2009

So much for that Dissent is the Highest Form of Patriotism thing, I guess

Dissent is Hate Speech, Part Infinity-minus-one.

Robert Stacy McCain has the run down on the apoplectic reaction of liberals to the "tea parties" sweeping the country. His post appropriately is titled "WTF" based on this hyperventilation (via Instapundit) by someone who apparently only watches MSNBC:

President Obama was elected democratically, according to the doctrines set forth by the Founding Fathers. The Tea Party movement represents a real danger to the tenets of democracy Americans have embraced for centuries.

The editors of the San Francisco Examiner (I thought it was out of business, no?) put this fearful title on an otherwise reasonable article explaining how the liberal bias of the mainstream media has blinded them to the tea party phenomenon: Tea parties are flash crowds Obama should fear. One commenter, who apparently read the headline but not the article, commented: "Many of those signing on to these tea parties are from the militia movement groups. They are scary and potentially violent."

Got that?  Dissent is now "scary and potentially violent."  When not practiced by people like Code Pinko and International ANSWER, that is.

more...

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March 28, 2009

Late, but the right decision.

Barely Catholic university decides that hosting an unrepentent, violent, 60's radical perhaps isn't a great idea after all.

Ayers... was due to speak at Boston College on education reform and civic engagement at the invitation of Americans for Informed Democracy and the College Democrats.

Heh - "Informed" Democracy?  How, erm, Orwellian coming from the very wingnuts who are pushing so hard to shut-down talk radio, eh?

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March 27, 2009

Sure, this is tuition money well spent.

Today's morons?  The geniuses who run the nominally Catholic university known as Boston College.

What generates more controversy at nominally Catholic university Boston College: A crucifix in the classroom, or an unrepentant domestic terrorist in a lecture hall?

Based on the media coverage and faculty reaction, it's the crucifix.  Because terrorist William Ayers is speaking at Boston College this Monday, and nobody seems to care.


more...

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March 20, 2009

My economics question for the day...

Joy - here's where I get to show-off what a moron I am.  Oh well, here goes.

I keep hearing/reading about The Dangers of DeflationTM - and that's why we need to prime, prime, prime the pump of the economy.  In theory, I get it - if you know something is going to be cheaper 6-months from now you're not going to buy that something for 6-months, only to put it off again when you realize it will be even cheaper if you wait longer.  For a consumer based economy such as ours, I understand that to be the so-called Death Spiral of prices, wages, jobs, etc.

Like I said, I get that much.
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March 18, 2009

As if by magic...

... Da Fed makes $1,000,000,000,000 appear out of thin air.

Saying that the recession continues to deepen, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced Wednesday that it would pump an extra $1 trillion into the economy by buying mortgage-backed securities and long-term Treasury issues.

Poof!

Wall Street seemed to love this idea.  Swell - I suppose.

Until a pack of gum costs $20, of course.

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March 12, 2009

The way stupid people think about economics

Today's idiot?  Union tool Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake...

...increased wages for working people would mean "increased spending power of lower income consumers," which would mean that even if Wal-Mart was successfully unionized -- a big if -- they could make up the cost of higher wages with an increase in sales.

So, Wal-Mart could maintain their bottom line in an environment of (artifically) inflated labor costs by... raising their prices.  Brilliant.

Yes, there are actually people walking around, evidently completely free of the supervision of others, who believe this stuff.

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March 09, 2009

Well, it's change you can believe in.

So I suppose we can officially say that Dissent is no longer the Highest form of PatriotismTM.

How's about this for some dissent Schaeffer - go fuck yourself.

Welcome to the corner of Pay and Back, libtard.

H/T: Glenn.

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March 05, 2009

You learn something new every day.

For example, I learned today that there are actually people in Gotham who evidently feel that taxes aren't high enough.

Organizers estimate that 50,000 people have lined Broadway with a message to Gov. David Paterson that cuts are not the answer to fixing New York's budget problems.

The protesters are made up of a widespread coalition of labor unions, community groups, and even families uniting to have their voices heard.

So I'm guessing, what 15, maybe 20 people actually missed work to attend this rent-a-mob?

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Well, we all wanted to go back to the Clinton years - right?

Welcome to 1996, folks.

U.S. and European stocks tumbled, driving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index to the lowest level since 1996...

Looks like the markets closed with the DOW below 6600 and the NASDAQ just a whisker above or below 1300.

Now if we take a trip in the way-back machine, all the way back to September 2006 - you know, right about the first time the Democrats and the media (but I repeat myself) convinced a majority of the electorate of the need for "Change" - those indexes stood at 10679 and 2219, respectively.

So, how you liking this double-shot of "Change"?

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The Age of Plenty, continued.

Awesome.

The Dow Jones industrial average dropped another 200 points today on fresh concerns about banks and about General Motors. In midday trading, the Dow is down 219.11, or 3.19 percent, to 6,656.73, a low not seen since April 1997


Oh, and GM is going to be trading in "penny stock" range soon.  Yep, that was $13,000,000,000 well spent, eh?

Cries of "It's All Bush's Fault!!!" will begin in 5... 4... 3...
more...

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