Bush seeks emergency boost for US economy (Roundup)
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Jan 18, 2008, 22:16 GMT
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that he will even admit the economy needs a boost!!!
My local news station reported this morning that the money Bush is going to hand out, has been tentatively reserved for individuals who make $85,000.00 a year, and couples who make $110,000.00 and above. Please tell me he's not going to hand out freebies to the wealthy! If he wants people to take this money, and go spend it, give it to the middle class and the poor!! I would love to go on a shopping spree at the mall with that money. I need new jeans and boots but can't afford it after the mortgage payment. Why should the people who are already spending money on themselves get even more? I hope this isn't the truth.
is doing something now, then it is already too late. This guy will be late for his own funeral.
he just wants to go out thinking he was great. well Duh!
with his middle finger......
Where is SP4 when we need him? He should be here repeating his usual rants about the american economy being wonderful and that there is no problem. That's the way to solve this crisis !
Perhaps he can no longer afford his meds?
Perhaps those headlines from Iraq, which no longer make the front page that is taken up with primaries and other irrelevancies this far ahead of Super Tuesday and the conventions, should get some more ink (or bytes), so the American people understand that they're out of touch. American troops are still dying, as well - just in lesser numbers; but 'dead is dead':
edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/01/19/iraq.violence/?iref=mpstoryview< br />
'BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Fifty-six people were killed and 70 were wounded Friday when fighting broke out in Basra and Nasiriya between security forces and members of a violent Shiite messianic cult, authorities said.'
(Note that has NOTHING to do with al Qaeda, but rather fanatical Shiites).
By the way, President Panacea is targeting the tax rebate at LOWER-earning individuals, with the cuts for people making LESS than the cutoffs, whatever those end up being. Some of this 'money pot' is being claimed by business as well. Bear in mind that this 'gift' increases the National Debt, and will come out of the pockets of your kids when they have to pay taxes. The 'free lunch' crowd is back in business in an election year.
If interest rates can be kept low, that will help to lower interest payments on that debt in terms of keeping yields down on government-issued paper; but the oil price hike is still inflationary, as nearly everything you touch in today's world is made from oil, including the pen you write with, and the plastic keyboard you type on.
From the picture it looks like he's 'bewitched, bothered and bewildered'!
Easy kids! I actually have a life.
You've enjoyed record employment
record tax receipts
low inflation
historic high household wealth
for the lats 7 years and now, the party is over.
here's the best part:
The tax cuts expire in 2009. Now, every company in the US will get a higher tax bill, all other things being the same.
They will reduce their investments, people will put their taxable investmetns under cover, capital costs will increase, and a general recession.
All of this can be avoided by making the cuts permenent.
Bush must go into his office and just cackle!
Don't blame us, we voted for Bush! hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
hahahahahahahahaha!
The democrats are so afraid of a recession once they get in office, they are touting this too!
Tell me, what is it about Bush that he, consistently, can bend over the dems, time after time, and they just spread their cheeks in anticipation? Heck..they 'control' the congress, just look at the spectacular job rating they have!
Or, look at the failed voted-for-it-before-they-voted against-it charade they still have going on!
is back, without his meds. Enough said.
His nap wasn't long enough. Bush has declared all along that the country was in great shape - so what's his reasoning now?
What caused Bush to wake and smell the coffee???
...I suspect the republicans in congress and the democrats in congress are crapping their pants at the thought of a recession right at election time.
Now, that's not fact, that's just my opinion, but think about it, it's a lot easier to blather about the dollar differential than real economic bad news, isn't it. This gives Bush some game because they want something from him, and Bush ALWAYS presents a bill for his services i.e. '...I'll hep ya Hirry, but ya gotta dee liver!'.
Now, Bush has a chance of making his tax cuts permanent, but I doubt they'll let that happen. After 2008, they'll shoot that down, and a real recession will happen. All the players will be back in their offices so they won't give a crap, and Bush will be in Crawford, having coffee with Mutha Sheehan.
Yep, just like the dems war votes and Saddam, they get Bush to fix their problem then blame him for it. Bush actually understands this very well, takes one in the chest from either side of Congress, then sends them a statement for services rendered. Usually, it's sodomizing the dems and they copnsistanly, bend over for it, in one case after another. All that libnazi hate and angst just melts away when incumbancy is threatened.
It's a nice job if you can get it. Just watch what happens.
Get real - you give the Bush waaaay too much credit for thinking things through. Someone might be doing the thinking, but not Bushie!
..THAT couldn't possibly be it!...and we only have 7 years of perfect examples to choose from! Just look at the last 12 months...he has the dems running for cover now on the war and NOW he's going to leave it in their hands AFTER they tried to crap on him!
God, how many examples do you need? This guy has run circles around these pseudo-intellectuals for 7 years and NOW, after 7 years of deriding the tax cuts, they are schlepping up to him for a stimulus package!
This putz never reads the news, and just recites the GOP pablum endlessly; as though he's talking to a bunch of people as dumb and blind as he is. Perhaps the most annoying part (out of many) is the glee with which he mis-states the situation - similar to the a-holes who thought hat Iraq was going to be a quick and cheap wrap-up costing less than $200 billion.
Luckily for the GOP,there's no IQ test for voting.
As for Bush, perhaps the most galling part is that he's so DAMNED LATE in recognizing problems. Remember the tsunamis, when he pledged $10 million, and then raised it? Remember Katrina? Now the economy, which he and his advisors blissfully ignored and wished would go away. I cannot recall a President less reactive, and certainly less PRO-active, than our resident numbskull's role model.
New unemployment claims have been on an uptrend since August. The housing crisis, and the writeoffs now coming from Citibank and Merrill, were likewise known months ago. The interesting news of today is the reduction in credit grade of Ambac, who insures many of the muni bonds - over half a TRILLION worth. If Ambac, which insures the debt, is downgraded, all of those Municipal issues should LIKEWISE be downgraded, because their insurance coverage is weaker. That means that investors will want a higher coupon (yield) to compensate, which is inflationary, and some funds and institutions which MUST own top-rated issues would have to sell holdings.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/18/AR200801180359 2.html
NEW YORK, Jan. 18 -- Ambac Financial Group, the nation's second largest insurer of bonds, lost its precious AAA rating from Fitch Ratings on Friday over concerns that the company no longer had enough capital to guarantee billions of dollars in debt now imperiled by the subprime mortgage crisis.
The move to downgrade Ambac to a rating of AA could further roil financial markets, increasing pressure on Wall Street banks that hold this bad debt and making it even more costly for local governments to raise money for public projects.
Ambac and other bond insurers play an obscure but crucial role in capital markets by essentially transferring their ratings to the securities they guarantee. The downgrade of Ambac means many of those securities also will be downgraded, Fitch said.
This could spark a substantial sell-off by institutional investors such as pension funds that can only invest in top-rate securities, causing their value to drop. That in turn would prompt even more selling. As the securities become less valuable, Wall Street firms could be forced to write down billions of dollars on their balance sheets, restating how much their holdings of these securities are worth. The banks, which have already suffered staggering losses, have relied heavily on bond insurance to reduce their exposure to subprime mortgage debt and other complicated securities linked to these loans.
RE: This guy has run circles around these pseudo-intellectuals for 7 years and NOW, after 7 years of deriding the tax cuts, they are schlepping up to him for a stimulus package!'
======================
To SP4, and intellectual is someone who puts his socks on BEFORE his shoes.
The stimulus package was at least 6 months late in coming, and Bush has already yielded on tying 'tax cuts' to proposed legislation. This will be a 'rebate', one time, of about $150 billion (or as the Pentagon calls it, 'about 8 months in Iraq'). Anyone running for office, either party, would be voting for this, the 'ultimate' in pork, where the taxpayers get some bucks in return for increased borrowing from overseas to pay for it, and an decrease in deficit reduction. No one running can afford to NOT vote for some money direct to the voters, already immune to thinking about the National Debt growing to over $9.2 Trillion. Hey, what's a couple of billions, here or there?
The problem is that no ones' mind will be changed, and business is not going to suddenly expand. The 'growth' in business now is EXPORTS - sales to OTHER countries. In 2001 there was room to sharply cut interest rates and grow out of an existing problem - but we were not putting out these military and terrorism-related payouts back then, and there was a higher percentage of discretionary spending available. This amounts to one more photo-op rather than a solution, which would require some major policy changes in terms of proper debt ratings, and making sure that prospective homeowners were capable of doing the math, and not descending into eventual foreclosure. Even payday lenders are now more fully disclosing their APR's.
www.businessweek.com/investor/content/jan2008/pi20080118_195568.htm?chan=se arch
Schlumberger Slips on Growth Outlook
Investors punished the oil services giant for giving a weaker-than-expected projection of international revenue growth
Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) shares took a beating on Jan. 18 as the market reacted to a lower-than-expected forecast for international revenue growth and mounting worries about an imminent U.S. recession.
The oilfield service provider posted stellar results for the fourth quarter and for all of 2007, with full-year earnings up 37.5% from 2006 on a 21% increase in total revenue. But the Street didn’t like the company's 10% to 20% projection for revenue growth outside North America when most analysts had pegged growth at something above 20%.
Combine Wall Street's disappointment over the growth forecast with a general fear that energy demand will soften as the economy slows down this year and you have a recipe for a fairly large pullback in the stock over the last week, said Pierre Connor, an analyst at Capital One Southcoast in New Orleans.
yes, but, maybe, but that doesn't make me wrong
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