US Budget Deficit Grows in October As Geithner Speaks of Strong Dollar

Talk is cheap (free) so of course that's what a budget-conscious Treasury Secretary would do: Talk.

Tim Geithner, U.S. Treasury Secretary, says the strong dollar is very important for the U.S., as he spoke in Tokyo before heading for Singapore for the APEC summit. (Unlike Chinese, Japanese apparently were too polite to laugh at him.)

Strong dollar 'very important' for US: Geithner (11/11/09 AFP via Google)

It seems Geithner opens his mouth to say this same thing every 3 months or so. However, as the U.S. dollar index chart since March shows, it's been just a talk, as actual intervention would cost money. He also talked about the administration's intention to reduce deficit in a separate interview with CNBC (near the bottom of this article).

In the meantime, his Treasury Department released the October report on receipts and cash outlays, which shows the monthly budget deficit increased again from September level. It is actually a record October high at $176.4 billion. His Department also auctioned off $81 billion worth of Treasury notes and bonds this week alone.

Talk is really cheap.

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Inflation Is Already Here With Us

in government statistics

Many of us are now quite familiar with a highly inflated number of jobs "created or saved" by the administration's stimulus package. Boston Globe did a review of the cases in Massachusetts where "Organizations that received stimulus money miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures, or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started."

If you would like to refresh your memory where the stimulus money (your tax money) is going (down the drain), here's my post from July 2009 "Will Stimulus Money Create Jobs As Biden Says?"(We know the answer, don't we?) It has a list of "projects" to be funded by the stimulus.

Not to be outdone, now CDC says more than 4,000 people have died from H1N1 "swine" flu. That's almost quadruple the number that they have been saying (1,200). What's going on?

Well, not really, but you see, CDC has decided to count all the deaths that may have been related to H1N1 flu, such as pneumonia and bacterial infections, organ failure, cancer, heart attacks, etc. (basically anything that they can remotely connect to flu). Compared to "regular" flu of last year and year before, not enough people have died of this "pandemic" to justify force-vaccinating a middle-schooler with the help from two armed guards. (See my previous post, and please protect your children, don't run away.)

CDC also says "many millions" of Americans have been infected with H1N1. How do they know? They don't. The test to find out whether one has H1N1 flu apparently gives so many false positives and false negatives that it is practically worthless, and besides CDC stopped counting the flu cases back in July. They are just throwing big enough numbers, "many millions". This is from CBS news, which by the way has a very good investigative report on H1N1:

"In late July, the CDC abruptly advised states to stop testing for H1N1
flu, and stopped counting individual cases. The rationale given for the CDC guidance to forego testing and tracking individual cases was: why waste resources testing for H1N1 flu when the government has already confirmed there's an epidemic?"

I found one deflationary number coming from the government: number of Americans without health insurance. When they started hyping this health care "reform" (deform) way back when, the number of Americans without health insurance was over 50 million. As time went by, the number went from 50 million to 46 million, then 40 million, then 35 million, and that's about where it stands "officially" now.

However, eliminating people on temporary insurance between jobs (Cobra), people who don't want insurance and pay out of their own pockets, people who already have access to government program (Medicaid) or free programs and don't need insurance, and eliminating illegal immigrants, the estimates have been done to show there may be less than 10 million people (3% of the U.S. population) who cannot afford health insurance. (Here's an article on this topic that appeared in Lewrockwell.com in July. There are others.)

So, it may well be that the U.S. taxpayers are being asked by their government to fork out $1.05 trillion (minimum, I am afraid) to cover less than 10 million people. $105,000 per person. That's about the level of "bang for the buck" a la the federal government.

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Will Grigg: Toxic Injection at Gunpoint

This isn't right.

Toxic Injection at Gunpoint (Will Grigg, 11/11/09 LRC Blog)

"An inmate of the Wheeling, West Virginia Middle School had second thoughts about enduring a government-issue toxic injection. After he fled the gymnasium, the child was tracked down by a “resource officer” — that is, a prison guard — and coaxed back to the shot station. But it took two tax-fed heroes to pin down the resistant child in order for the injection to take place.

"“He tried to run,” recalled Howard Gamble, Administrator of the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Board. “I looked over and saw two Sheriff’s deputies holding him down.” The sight of a terrified child being restrained by two armed full-grown “men” didn’t disturb Gamble’s servile serenity.

"“For the most part they go easy,” he commented during a November 10 Health Board meeting. “As far as the shots, every once in a while you have to hold down one or two — but that’s why mom is there or dad is there.”

"Of course, he didn’t mean to suggest that parents are there to defend their children from such assaults; rather, he meant that it’s useful to have a parent handy to coax his child into submitting to a government-mandated violation of his bodily integrity.

"The mother of the brutalized child described above actually fled the scene rather than witnessing the abuse — or doing anything to stop it."

Parents, DEFEND YOUR CHILDREN. Don't run away like this mother did.

For more about H1N1, please read Bill Sardi's articles at Lewrockwell.com.

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All That Glitters at Harrods London

As gold hits all-time (nominal) high of $1,119.60, Harrods of London is seeing a brisk sale of all things gold - gold bars, nuggets, bullions.

The department store started selling pure swiss gold bars on October 15. You can now buy gold ingot (5 to 1,000 gram), you can buy bullions (Sovereign, Maple Leaf, Krugerrand, Panda, Philharmonic, Eagle), and Harrods stores them for you for a fee if you like. If you buy from Harrods, you can sell back to Harrods.

How can a department store sell gold? you may wonder. Harrods Gold Bullion page says the department store has had a private banking arm, Harrods Bank, for more than a century catering to well-heeled clientele.

In Germany they have gold dispensing machines at train stations. In Japan, you can set up an account to buy gold every month with as little as $15 per month (you buy whatever amount of gold you can buy with that money). Reserve Bank of India just bought 200 tonnes of gold from IMF.

Analysts have been saying that the gold move is an inflation hedge and a move against the U.S. dollars and all other fiat currencies (just about every single currency in the world). I personally think it is more like a crisis hedge in times of financial, social, and/or political dislocation as evidenced by the gold spike in the wake of Iran hostage crisis and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

But with Harrods selling gold bars and bullions along their very high-end merchandise, it makes me wonder if gold is entering a bubbly phase of being a status symbol. Not just a few gold coins here and there, but 1-kilogram (35 oz) pure gold bar (that would cost close to $40,000) or two.

Kitco.com's Gold Index (which is also linked in the left column of this blog under "Market Data and Tools") shows gold is bought despite the slight recovery in the U.S. dollar.

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OT: Free Nobel Peace Prize If You Order Shrimp Tacos

I have seen this photo in several places on the net, and I don't know the original source. I grabbed from here.

Shrimp tacos don't quite fit the "most powerful writer since Julius Caesar", but I like shrimp tacos. I like fish tacos, too. Oh I like Caesar's salad, too, now I think about it.

(I think I'd better go to bed now to recuperate from the flu. My brain's not working.)

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OT: Watch Out, Twitter, Facebook Users

FBI may be after you.

From David Kramer at LRC Blog (Lewrockwell.com). The link has a video clip of a guy who was arrested for for twittering the fellow demonstrators where to go to avoid the police during the September G20 protest in Pittsburgh. (Remember that one where the police/military (indistinguishable in fatigues) used a sonic weapon against protesters that could permanently damage hearing? )

Start Kissing First Amendment Goodbye (11/10/09)

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Communist-Era Goods Back in Vogue

... sign of times, perhaps.

Communist consumer goods make comeback
(11/8/09, AFP via Breitbart)

"Once the butt of jokes the world over, communist-era East European goods from sweets, to rustic washing machines and clunky cars are all the rage again."

"Two decades on, many who then welcomed change now want to turn the clock back by eating Szerencsi chocolate, driving Trabant two-stroke cars or using Frania washing machines to wash carrots."

You can read the entire article by clicking on the link above. The article attributes this renewed interest in Communist-era goods as nostalgia for bad old times for older generation, and curiosity for younger generation.

Well, it looks like they are survival goods to me.

• A washing machine that you can operate without electricity (Poland's Rotor Frania)


• A car so rudimentary you can fix yourself (Traband, Skoda, etc.)


• A condiment sure to enhance any bad-tasting food with MSG (Croatia's Vegeta)

I still remember what one of my collegues told me in a company I used to work for. He was an engineer, and unlike other company engineers and scientists who went to western Europe or the U.S. to study, he went to Soviet Union. He said he came away pretty impressed. He said it was really true that the Soviet TV set could explode, but also said that the vehicles there (I think he was mainly talking about heavy trucks) could be fixed from within the vehicle. Much of the vital parts can be reached from within, he said, and you wouldn't need a mechanic.

I also recall Communist-era public housing in east Berlin was really getting popular in 2002-2003. It was partly due to Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley hyping the real estate in Berlin at that time, but I wonder if that continued...

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OT: Virus Scam (Computer, That Is)

If you receive a call from someone with Indian or Arabic accent telling you that they are from Microsoft, that your computer is infected with serious virus and they can help you clean and protect your system, it is a SCAM. They want to talk to you while your computer is on, so that they can either infect with virus to sell you their product or steal information on your computer or both.

If the telephone number they're calling from / they want you to call is any of these, tell them to go to hell:

800-698-9034
347-289-3770
646-884-9561

This is their website: www.supportonclick.com. Don't even go there, but if you ever see email coming from this address, don't open it.

Not-so-tech savvy seniors are particularly vulnerable. Please warn your parents and grand parents.

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Something Deadly Is Afoot in Ukraine

They are not even sure if it is H1N1 influenza.

And very peculiar, too. Up until October 29, Ukraine had only few cases of H1N1 "swine" flu. Then, almost out of nowhere, the cases with severe flu-like symptoms exploded into nearly 1 million (Ukraine's population is about 46 million), doubling in numbers in 2 days along the way.

Here are two articles from Bird Flu Pandemic:

H1N1 Swine Flu Or Something Far Worse? The Debate Over What The Heck Is Going On In Ukraine Rages On

Has The H1N1 Swine Flu Virus Mutated To Become More Like The 1918 Spanish Flu? Dying Patients In Ukraine Are Experiencing The Total Destruction Of Their Lungs

What's strange also is the number of deaths attributable to H1N1 flu. Of 155 deaths in Ukraine so far, only 14 were confirmed as resulting from H1N1. What of the rest? What are people dying from?

Speculation ranges from suddenly mutated H1N1, Ebola, hemorrhagic fever, to pneumonic plague.

And this from Bill Sardi at Lewrockwell.com today suggests synthetic virus does the job like the real one:

"The synthesis of flu viruses became more than a possibility in 1999 when researchers demonstrated it was possible to overcome the previously insurmountable problem of arranging eight segments of RNA. This was accomplished by generation of RNA using an enzyme, RNA polymerase, essentially creating a cloned flu virus."

And finally, there is this strange case of Joseph Moshe.

(Just by linking these articles, I feel a bit sick again. Time to take Vitamin D3 again and try to recoup..)

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US Dollar Under the Bus

While I was trying to recuperate from a flu over the weekend, Nancy Pelosi did a sneak attack and passed her monstrosity known as "Affordable Health Care for America Act of 2009", or H.R. 3962 (in my mind, the health care deform) on Saturday night. (I'm sure it's a bargain for $30,000 per uninsured person.) Then, as if to prevent the stock market from tanking on Monday (Pelosi's deform will cost fortune for the rest of us; she doesn't care, she's one of multi-millionaires in Congress), G20 pledged to keep stimulus in place to prop up the global economy.

As the result, U.S. dollar was thrown under the bus. Oh for the good of the world, no doubt. Dollar carry trades in various forms (such as issuing U.S. dollar-denominated sovereign debt, for example) just got started.


The next support comes around 72 on the U.S. dollar index (DXY), which tracks a basket of currencies (Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Swedish Krona, Swiss Franc) against the dollar. The last time the dollar index was in the 72 range was March - July 2008. Below that level, the currency will boldly go where no one has gone before. The area around 72 is the multi-decade low. (Remember this chart?)

The U.S. stock market cheers. Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 151 to 10,175, S&P500 up 16 to 1,086, Nasdaq up 30 to 2,143 as of 12:09 EST. What will Little Timmy and Big Ben do next?

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The Army Gunman Was a Psychiatrist

at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Another Government Agent Killing Spree
(Karen De Coster, 11/5/09 LRC Blog)

"The Army Major who went on a killing spree at Fort Hood killed at least twelve people and injured more than thirty at present count. And his business was tending to (and “repairing”) the mindsets of the guys who were sent overseas to kill for the state. He was a psychiatrist.

The alleged shooter, Maj. Hasan, was a psychiatrist who had been recently promoted to major and transferred to Fort Hood from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. Maj. Hasan’s professional specialties included post-traumatic stress disorder, combat stress and other emotional issues common to the troops implicated in earlier incidents of military fratricide. He was slated to deploy to Iraq in coming weeks, according to military officials.

"If this had been a non-military incident, with some regular Joe plotting and pulling off a slaughter of dozens of people, the media coverage would be loaded with anti-gun hysterics calling for immediate gun control laws. Yet all Obama could muster was, “It’s difficult enough when we lose these brave Americans in battles overseas.” Why does no one seem interested in the mindset of an Army psychiatrist who was about to be sent to Afghanistan to fight an unwinnable war?"

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H.R. 3962 House Health Care "Reform" Bill for Vote Saturday

Democrats are so eager to own it.

------------------------
(Update) Democratic leadership suggesting that they may postpone the vote to Sunday or early next week because of internal opposition. See this article.
------------------------

House Prepares Health Vote, Undaunted by Elections (Update1)
(James Rowley, 11/5/09 Bloomberg)

"Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- House Democratic leaders, undeterred by delays in the Senate or this week’s Republican electoral triumphs, plan to call a vote Saturday on the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. health-care policy in four decades.

"The House will move on the $1.05 trillion legislation that would cover 36 million uninsured people and create a government plan to compete with private insurers even after the election of Republican governors in New Jersey and Virginia. President Barack Obama will go to Capitol Hill tomorrow to meet with House Democrats, as they seek the 218 votes they need to pass the bill, a Democratic leadership aide said.

"Party leaders signaled they’re ready for a debate on the legislation and a vote on its final passage by filing a 42-page amendment that made last-minute changes to the bill. The Nov. 3 filing triggered a 72-hour waiting period that Democrats pledged to give Republicans before a vote."

You can read the entire article by clicking on the link above. But the last paragraph cited above needs clarification. Yes, Pelosi posted the amendment, but that is not what she had solemnly promised, which was to post the final draft of the legislation itself 72 hours in advance of the vote.

So, the former H.R. 3200 has morphed and bloated into H.R. 3962, retaining almost all the controversial sections and more, to the tune of $1.05 trillion dollars over 10 years. $29,167 per uninsured person.

Pretty much in line with this government's idea of "bang for the buck". The cash for clunkers program generated extra 125,000 sales at the cost of $3 billion, or $24,000 per car. But both cash for clunkers and health care "reform" vastly outperform the stimulus package, which so far generated or preserved 640,329 jobs for $207.3 billion spent so far. $323,739.83 per job created or saved (of course there's no breakdown of "created" and "saved").

There are 256 Democrats out of 435 House members, and they only need a simple majority of 218 votes. Democrats don't need a single Republican to pass this bill that promises so much for the supporters of bigger bureaucracy. After all, this is basically the same Congress that passed the bankers bailout bill (TARP) last fall against the overwhelming opposition from the taxpayers.

I only peeked into H.R. 3962 (1990 pages by the way) as I just couldn't stand it long enough. I will try to peek more later, but according to many people who have been going through the bill, the legislation would create 13 new taxes.

HR 3962: 1990 Pages, Thirteen New Taxes (10/29/09 Left Coast Rebel)

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Jon Corzine for Bank of America CEO?

rumor that makes some of you want to puke.

After a sound rejection by the New Jersey voters in the gubernatorial election, Jon Corzine may be staging a comeback already. This time, as the new CEO of Bank of America.

Overheard: Corzine's Comeback? (11/5/09 Wall Street Journal)

"From Trenton to Charlotte? Bank of America's chief executive search has highlighted the paucity of available executives with a history of running complex financial organizations. But one has just come available. Fresh from his rejection as governor by New Jersey voters, former Goldman Sachs CEO Jon Corzine already is being whispered about as a dark horse candidate. With BofA still under the government's thumb, his political experience could come in handy."

It would make sense politically for Bank of America. As one of the non-Wall Street banks (another major one is Wells Fargo) with an outsider CEO like Ken Lewis who seems to have been targeted by the regulators (Paulson, Bernanke, Geithner) to be stepped upon repeatedly, having a former CEO of Goldman Sachs and a darling of the administration might improve their lot.

All I can say is that the founder of Bank of Italy in San Francisco which evolved into Bank of America, would be so disgusted to see his bank now. The founder Amadeo Giannini was an entrepreneur who believed in people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps (the very spirit that was ridiculed by the way at the Democratic convention that nominated the then-candidate Obama):

"The Bank of Italy[17] was founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini in 1904, based on catering to immigrants. Amadeo was raised by the Fava/Stanghellini family when his father was shot while trying to collect on a $10.00 debt.[citation needed] When the 1906 San Francisco earthquake struck, Giannini was able to get all of the deposits out of the bank building and away from the fires. Because San Francisco's banks were in smoldering ruins and unable to open their vaults, Giannini was able to use the rescued funds to start lending within a few days of the disaster. From a makeshift desk of a few planks over two barrels, he lent money to anyone who was willing to rebuild. He took great pride in later years that all of these loans were repaid." (from Wikipedia.org)

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Al Gore, Criminal Billionaire

In his testimony in Congress on April 24, 2009, former Vice President Al Gore sneered at a Congresswoman who simply asked him about his interests in green business (that include carbon trading venture with ex-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson), and went into a taunting tirade: "Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business in this country?" (Here's the link to the video. You can watch Al Gore's staff sitting behind him laugh and sneer as their boss does.)

Well, first, the Congresswoman was not asking whether or not there's something wrong with being a businessman in this country. Second, in your particular case Mr. Vice President, yes it is a crime, even if you won't be the first one to profit immensely from government connection. John D. Rockefeller did, J. P. Morgan did. It's a fine American tradition of crony capitalism, but don't tell us it's a rugged entrepreneurism. (Investing in Apple Inc.'s stocks doesn't make one an entrepreneur.)

Lew Rockwell seems to share my disgust.

Al Gore, Criminal Billionaire (Lew Rockwell, 11/4/09 LRC Blog)
[emphasis is mine]

"Al may become the first man to rip-off a cool billion through government carbon tyranny. When a man becomes rich in the market, it is because he has been highly successful in serving consumers. When a hereditary member of the power elite like Gore becomes even richer through the state, it means he has been very successful in pushing the faces of consumers into the mud. He promotes climate lies and then poverty-producing state intervention because of the lies, and then makes big bucks from special deals with companies he helped enrich through the state. What a monster."

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Time Change Is Hazardous to Your Health

Now I know why I have been extremely tired, groggy, unfocused ever since Sunday. I just learned that daylight-saving time does not conserve energy, and what's worse, it has negative, potentially deadly consequences:

Time change could prove hazardous to your health
(William F. Shugart II, 10/29/09 Chron.com) [emphasis is mine]

"Although daylight-saving time was sold politically as an energy-conservation measure, it does no such thing. Studies conducted in Indiana prior to 2006, when that state operated under three different time regimes, show either no difference in energy consumption or a small increase in power usage during the months after clocks were moved one hour ahead.

"The annual ritual of springing forward and falling back thus possibly produces no energy savings and may be counterproductive. It also requires those who live in places where daylight-saving time is observed to waste time twice a year adjusting their clocks and watches.

"Yet the costs of switching between daylight-saving and standard time go far beyond the hassles of “losing” an hour in the springtime and “gaining” it back in the fall.

"I am not a doctor and I do not play one on TV, but the medical profession — as Dr. Osvaldo Bustos of George Washington University's School of Medicine pointed out to me recently — has known for years that shifting time forward or backward has negative, and possibly deadly, health consequences.

"A Swedish study published in The New England Journal of Medicine on Oct. 30, 2008, reports increases in the incidence of myocardial infarction (heart attack) after the beginning of daylight-saving time and the subsequent return to standard time. Depending on whether the shift occurred in the fall or spring, men and women were found to vary in the extent to which their heart attack risks were increased, but the study's authors concluded from the clinical evidence that time change triggered more myocardial infarctions in the two groups overall than they would have suffered otherwise.

"The underlying causal mechanism has to do with how the hypothalamus regulates humankind's circadian rhythms. When the “clock” that governs those rhythms is abruptly shifted one hour forward or backward, it struggles to adjust the body's internal physical, chemical, electrical, hormonal and immunological environment to the new conditions.

"Most people, fortunately, are made aware of the hypothalamus' attempts to cope by having to put up with feeling groggy and being less productive at work or at home for a few days only. Others, however, apparently experience more serious effects, including having a heart attack, from which, it is to be hoped, most recover."

So if I've been lazy in posting in the past few days, it's not me, it's adjustment back to standard time. Now I feel slightly better.

(If it doesn't actually save energy and if it is potentially bad for your health, why does the government do it?)

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October Auto Sales: The Winner Is...?

So far, the following auto companies announced their October auto sales figures.

Porsche (POAHF): up 15%. Third consecutive Y/Y increases

Ford (F): up 2.6%.

Daimler (DAI): up 9.4%. Heavy decline on Smart (-70%).

Nissan (NSANY): up 5.6%.

Chrysler (FIATY): down -30%. Across the board decline.

(Ouch.)

Government Motors (aka General Motors): up 4.1%

Toyota (TM): down -3.5%

(Toyota was a surprise to me. Wonder what kind of counting was done at GM.)

KIA: up 45.3%

Honda: down -4%

(I suspected KIA to be a big winner. Toyota and Honda taking a breather from cash for clunkers sales, I suppose.)

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Gold Jumps to All-Time High (Nominal) on IMF Gold Sale News

Gold surges to new record high (11/3/09 AFP via Breitbart)

"Gold surged to a new record high price of 1,085.07 dollars an ounce Tuesday, a day after an announcement of a massive sale of gold by the International Monetary Fund to India.

"Prices in London hit 1,085.07 dollars per troy ounce and New York prices reached 1,084.70 dollars, breaking records set last month.

"The latest surge came a day after the International Monetary Fund announced it sold 200 tonnes of gold to India's central bank over a two-week period last month for a total of 6.7 billion dollars to bolster its finances.

"The IMF said the transaction, which was in the process of being settled, involved daily sales that were phased over a two-week period during October 19-30. "

It was off-the-market transaction. India's gold reserve is now 557.7 tonnes, or 6% of the country's foreign reserve.

It was widely speculated that it would be China who would grab IMF gold. China (1054 tonnes, 0.9% of foreign reserve) may still go for the remaining half. Other contenders include Russia (524 tonnes, 4% of foreign reserve), any of the Gulf states, and South East Asian countries.

During this sales operation, gold price had a minor correction. It went from $1065 on October 19 to $1026 on October 28, and ended October 30 at $1045. So, the much-dreaded correction was mere $39, or 3.7% at most.

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October Bank Closures Jump to 20

Highest since July.

And as Chairman Bair of FDIC expresses her anger against banks "resisting the reform" (the article is linked below the chart), her own organization remains technically insolvent. In fact, it has been insolvent since June 2008 when the reserve ratio dipped below the mandated 1.15% (see my post), and all the while she has kept repeating the mantra "No one lost money with us, your money is safe with us." (Of course it is safe, who does she think it is ultimately back-stopped by? Us! We pay money so that we may have our money back.)

Anyway, bank closures in October ballooned toward the end of the month to 20, the second highest this year after July (24). By their own admission, DIF was already negative at the end of September.

And here's Chairman Bair's anger, as summarized by an article by Reuters:

"Sheila Bair, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp, said on Monday that some in the financial services sector are trying to argue that regulatory reform would stifle innovation and impede economic growth.

""That makes me angry," Bair said in a text of remarks prepared for a lecture at Kansas State University.

"Bair said the extreme market interventions that have occurred during the recent financial crisis have been difficult for her as a life-long Republican and market advocate.

"But she said they were necessary and that government needs even more tools to discourage financial firms from getting so large that taxpayers are forced to provide assistance if the firms become unstable.

""The government has been going into places where we don't want to be," Bair said, but she added: "We simply cannot afford to maintain the status quo.""

Her institution bends over backward to maintain the status quo by helping big banks in every way she can so that they not only survive but prosper. Remember the backdoor deal that almost went through last year regarding Wachovia? Citigroup was going to get that bank at a bargain price, with all the bad assets backstopped by FDIC.

And talk about financial innovation. Again, her institution is on top of that too. FDIC has been backstopping assets of the failed banks as purchased by new owners and backstopping bond issues by financial institutions while failing to maintain even a ridiculously low reserve. Compared to FDIC, Bear Stearns and AIG are the paragons of conservative operation.

One of the unintended consequences of FDIC's backstopping the mortgage losses of the failed banks is that the new owners would rather foreclose on the property because it is so much more profitable for them. It's free money. (For more, please read the first link (Is FDIC Killing Short Sales?) in my post in early October.)

To me, for her to say she is angry at the financial institutions is totally laughable. I even get angry myself when I hear her squawk about protecting consumers while FDIC backstops mortgage losses for billionaire investors who foreclose on the homeowners. I share the sentiment that Karl Denninger has about her.

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California to Withhold Bigger (10% Bigger) Chunk of Paychecks

Not to be outdone by Hillary, the State of California has just started to withhold the state tax 10% more than it already does.

California to withhold a bigger chunk of paychecks
(10/31/09 LA Times)

"Reporting from Los Angeles and Sacramento - Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will dig deeper into the pocketbooks of wage earners -- holding back 10% more than it already does in state income taxes just as the biggest shopping season of the year kicks into gear.

"Technically, it's not a tax increase, even though it may feel like one when your next paycheck arrives. As part of a bundle of budget patches adopted in the summer, the state is taking more money now in withholding, even though workers' annual tax bills won't change.

"Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan: You'll be repaid any extra withholding in April. Those who would receive a refund anyway will receive a larger one, and those who owe taxes will owe less."

It feels like an outright theft. This 10% extra withholding was one of the little-noticed provisions that were approved during California's budget crisis this summer. By raiding the paychecks of Californians, the state will be able to raise $1.7 billion.

California has also raised the sales tax. With local governments heaping their own additional sales tax, the total sales tax for my area is now 9.25%. Less than a year ago, it was 8.25%.

"Change we can believe in." I truly honestly wholeheartedly believe that change has happened. It's just not the change for the better, that's all. (Or my definition of "better" is vastly different from that of the White House honchos.)

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Hillary Scolds Pakistan for Not Taxing Enough

... dead or alive, we tax, and that's the American way that Pakistan should follow.

State Secretary Hillary Clinton scolded the Pakistanis for not doing their part in hunting down the leadership of Al Qaeda. In her rather blunt message to Pakistan, she inadvertently revealed the reality of the U.S. tax system.

Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan: Hillary Clinton
(10/30/09 Daily Times)

After expressing her firm belief that Al Qaeda is in Pakistan and strongly insinuating that the Pakistani government is complicit in the affair, Secretary Clinton said the following:

"“Maybe that’s the case; maybe they’re not gettable. I don’t know... As far as we know, they are in Pakistan,” Clinton told senior Pakistani newspaper editors in Lahore, AFP reported. “The percentage of taxes on GDP (in Pakistan) is among the lowest in the world... We (the United States) tax everything that moves and doesn’t move, and that’s not what we see in Pakistan,” she said."

So, the reason why the Pakistani government is having a tough time hunting down Al Qaeda may be the lack of fund, as Pakistan's tax collection is low? And she sounds disappointed that Pakistan is not doing what the U.S. does - tax everything that moves and doesn't move.

Oh boy. (Maybe her meds are off again.)

Well, at least in the U.S., even people who don't move any more can vote, along with Mickey Mouse.

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