econarchy

The hypocrisy and downright stupidity coming out of Washington is deafening. After the story broke about AIG paying $165 Million in bonuses to various Managers, all hell broke lose among the general public. And when the general public gets upset, frothing Washington bureaucrats cannot be far behind. Now the Obama Administration is seething with rage over the audacity of a business paying bonuses which a) they are legally obligated to pay, and which b) may incent top talent to actually stay at the dying company.

Here is a funny thought - maybe if the politicians that were so anxious to give our taxpayer dollars to these suffering companies would have actually, oh I don’t know, put some stipulations on the money before giving it out, they would have room to talk. But when you just give out free money with no strings attached to a company obligated to pay bonuses, you have no room for complaint.

Here is a brief overview of what is going on.

• AIG received $173 Billion in Federal bailout money.
• AIG is struggling to keep their good people from leaving the company.
• AIG has a legal commitment to pay $160 Million in bonuses promised to certain Managers long before ever receiving any bailout money.
• Washington wants them to ignore this commitment to their people, and not pay the bonuses. Apparently the politicians think that people work for free. Gee, I wonder why….

Here is my analysis on this issue. If Washington doesn’t want these private companies acting like private companies, they should stop giving them money and let them fail. But now that all taxpayers are invested (heavily) in the bailed out companies like AIG, we should want them to succeed. Washington should want them to succeed. If they don’t succeed, we lose the $173 Billion that we gave. Now here is what liberals never, ever, ever understand - no company will succeed without good people, and good people are expensive.

So when the liberals froth at the mouth and go into convulsions over these companies paying bonuses, then insist that bonuses be cut back or cut out altogether, they are essentially signing the company’s death certificate. If AIG cannot pay to keep their top talent, the top talent will leave. The top people can ALWAYS find jobs, even in this economy. This goes not just for AIG, but for Bank of America, Citi, and all the others. Every week there is a news story about Washington’s anger over a bailed-out company giving bonuses, or going on a business trip, or advertising, or all of the other basic needs of any company hoping to succeed in a competitive and challenging market. No advertising? No bonuses? No corporate meetings? This is beginning to sound like a government office rather than a private business! Oh, wait….. maybe thats the point? To turn the US into Venezuela?

Kill the bonuses, lose the good people. Lose the good people, kill the company. Perhaps if Obama had any actual work experience in the business world he would understand this. Or maybe he understands and doesn’t care. When you appeal to the bottom rung of society, you are going to do what appeals to the bottom rung of society - and class warfare/hating the rich is the hot ticket right now.

I keep reading story after story in the Mainstream media that is critical of Obama. I am not referring to right-wing web sites, or even FoxNews, but left-leaning Liberal news outlets like the Washington Post and Newsweek. Salon.com, a very liberal website, has an article criticizing Obama’s “clumsy” and “smirky” staff for “sinking him.” No arguments there. Here is an excerpt:

Yes, free the president from his flacks, fixers and goons — his posse of smirky smart alecks and provincial rubes, who were shrewd enough to beat the slow, pompous Clintons in the mano-a-mano primaries but who seem like dazed lost lambs in the brave new world of federal legislation and global statesmanship.

Heads should be rolling at the White House for the embarrassing series of flubs that have overshadowed President Obama’s first seven weeks in office and given the scattered, demoralized Republicans a huge boost toward regrouping and resurrection. (Michelle, please use those fabulous toned arms to butt some heads!)

First it was that chaotic pig rut of a stimulus package, which let House Democrats throw a thousand crazy kitchen sinks into what should have been a focused blueprint for economic recovery. Then it was the stunt of unnerving Wall Street by sending out a shrill duo of slick geeks (Timothy Geithner and Peter Orszag) as the administration’s weirdly adolescent spokesmen on economics. Who could ever have confidence in that sorry pair?

Read more from Salon

Newsweek is also especially critical. The headline of the article is very telling:

Obama still has the approval of the people, but the establishment is beginning to mumble that the president may not have what it takes.

I don’t think there is any doubt that wise Democrats are starting to question their Manchurian Candidate. Obama’s long series of mistakes, blunders, and outright lies and hypocrisy have cast a shadow on who was built up to be the New Messiah. Rather than save the world, he has cost us countless trillions in the stock market and trillions more in wasteful, pork-laden government spending under the guise of “stimulus.” When Newsweek criticizes Obama, something has changed. Here is an excerpt:

Luckily for Obama, the public still likes and trusts him, at least judging by the latest polls, including NEWSWEEK’s. But, in ways both large and small, what’s left of the American establishment is taking his measure and, with surprising swiftness, they are finding him lacking.

They have some reasons to be concerned. I trace them to a central trait of the president’s character: he’s not really an in-your-face guy. By recent standards—and that includes Bill Clinton as well as George Bush—Obama for the most part is seeking to govern from the left, looking to solidify and rely on his own party more than woo Republicans. And yet he is by temperament judicious, even judicial. He’d have made a fine judge. But we don’t need a judge. We need a blunt-spoken coach.

Perhaps electing an unproven, inexperienced Socialist during the biggest economic crisis in 8 decades was not a wise decision.

Read More from Newsweek

Folks, get ready to send even more of your money overseas. I think most people would be shocked to learn just how much taxpayer money is sent overseas, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to what is coming. Obama is going to make darn sure that wealthy Americans are “held accountable” for all of the needs of the entire world. He is going to take money from wealthy Americans to not only line the pockets of lazy Americans, but also send money to Africa, East Asian, and Muslim nations.

Here is what the World Bank (which is the most misleading name ever. It is a bank funded by America that sends money to the world).

DAR ES SALAAM, March 8 (Reuters) - Developing countries could face a financing gap of $270 billion to $700 billion this year as trade income dwindles and rich nations vie for capital to deal with a global slump, the World Bank said on Sunday.

The World Bank said even at the lower end of that estimate, resources of international institutions would not be sufficient to meet the financing needs as more and more emerging and developing countries are hit.

“There is a therefore a strong need to expand assistance to (lower income countries) to protect critical expenditures and prevent an erosion of progress in reducing poverty,” the World Bank said.

In other words, get out your checkbooks. If Obama thinks that wealthy Americans need to “do their part” to line the pockets of the “poor” in this country, you can bet he will force us to pay for developing nations. After all, the “poor” people in the US would live like kings in these countries. Just more class warfare and hatred of the “wealthy”.

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Green programs don’t save economies. Light rails in dying cities don’t save economies. Researching frogs don’t save economies. Promoting the “arts” does not save economies.

Obama’s spending program, the largest non-war spending bill ever, is simply a gift to the liberals and little more. It is a gift to the eco-hippies, the artsy crowd, and the social welfare supporters. I don’t even think that is up for debate; just look at where the money is going.

What really frustrates me is Obama’s outright disdain and disrespect for the stock markets. They have clearly shown their disgust of this administration (the market is down 31% since election day - a truly shocking figure in just 4 months.) What liberals fail to realize is that the stock market is the home of the retirement investments of millions of Americans. So when policy destroys businesses in this country, it subsequently destroys the retirements of American citizens. But what am I thinking…. Obama only cares about the irresponsible, poor, and unemployed Americans. He surely doesn’t care about people who, you know, actually saved money for retirement.

If you want to really learn about how Obama is ushering in a new Depression, just read the WSJ Op-Ed pages. Here is an excerpt from a recent article:

 The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell another 281 points yesterday, or 4%, while President Obama began his political push for nationalizing health care and Barney Frank called upon state, local and federal officials to prosecute “those people whose irresponsible and, in some cases, criminal actions helped bring about this crisis.” (In what must have been an oversight, Mr. Frank left himself off the target list.) Citigroup — subject of three federal “rescues” so far — closed at $1.02 a share.

The larger point is that economies don’t spiral down forever without a reason and without policy encouragement. What’s worrying about the plunge in equities since January 2, and especially in the last week since Mr. Obama released his radical budget, is that it has come amid the unveiling of the President’s policy agenda. Equity prices have reacted to those proposals by signaling that they expect a much deeper and longer recession.

The optimistic message in Mr. Cogan’s comparisons is that recessions eventually end. How long they last, and how severe they get, depends in part on the choices our leaders make. The choices that Mr. Obama and Congress are making so far are not contributing to confidence, much less to recovery.

 Read More from the WSJ

C’mon, Obama. Just own up to it. You are a big government President. Why the spin? You believe that the government exists to solve every problem in the world, and you are doing everything you can to live out your dream. For some reason you believe that where others fail (USSR, China, Cuba, Venezuela, France, Germany, etc, etc….) you will succeed. Of course you will. After all, you are the Messiah. The Chosen One. The rock star. Your name be praised.

We already know you are a hypocrite (where to even begin). You support a Spending Bill with such an absolutely embarassing amount of earmarks that I cannot for the life of me understand how anyone could live with themselves for writing, supporting or (gasp) signing this insult to America. But hey, “equal protection under the law” only applies during good times, right?

But it’s not just the earmarks. You are bound and determined to make sure that the top 2% of wage earners (who don’t have enough votes for you to care), fund the every fantasy of your lower-class, lazy, overweight, whiny, populist voter base. You obviously have no shame. You are willing to force a minority of taxpayers that you don’t care about to pay for such insane things that you cannot possibly posess an ounce of shame. Or integrity for that matter. I see you want the goverment to pay for home improvements now.  But unlike your voter base, I am smart enough to know that the government doesn’t actually pay for anything. The taxpayers do. And under your Master Plan, only 2% of the taxpayers do. What a great way to buy votes! Again, that darn “equal protection under the law” stuff doesn’t apply to taxes. We all know that.

To top it all off, we are all soon going to be under the “Obamacare” health plan.  Again, the government that still puts my neighbor’s mail in my box and operates the ever-so-efficient Bureau of Motor Vehicles and IRS is somehow qualified to manage my health care. Yea. Right. Anything to make the government bigger, right Mr. Obama? But hey, I understand that when you rely on the votes of the botton rung of society, you do what you can to buy their support. That is all this is - buying votes. No sane person really thinks government health care is the answer to anything other than bigger government.

But the real icing on the cake is that you elect to increase taxes on the group that keeps this economy affloat during  the biggest economic crisis in 80 years. What are you thinking? Oh, I remember. You are thinking that a bad economy makes more people dependent on the government, which in turn benefits the Liberals. So perhaps you like this whole “bad economy” thing. It sure is ussuring in the era of Socialism that you and your do-gooder elitist clan have been peddling since the 60s.

Just remember one thing, Mr. President. If it wasn’t for the top 5% of the population, the bottom 95% would starve to death.

Well, we all knew this was coming. In his attempt to be the undisputed King of Earth, Obama is discussing a “global New Deal” which would take money directly out of the hands of US taxpayers and spread the wealth across the world. Because, you see, it is not good enough to simply rob from the rich to support lazy Americans, now we must rob from the rich to support all the lazy peoples of the world.

 GORDON BROWN hopes to forge a partnership with President Barack Obama in Washington this week, to call for a “global new deal” to lift the world out of recession.

This story is just starting to leak, and I am certain the liberal media will try to stifle it because they know that most Americans will not support Obama’s plan to globalize the economy and send even more US taxpayer dollars overseas.

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“Tax the rich”

That is Obama’s plan to fix the deficit. Take money from the “RICH” with one hand and hand it out as welfare with the other.

Newsflash, when you give taxpayer dollars to people who don’t pay taxes, that is NOT a “tax cut”. That is welfare. And Obama is growing the US welfare state like no other. Because the more who are dependent on the government, the more power the Democrats have over us. The best thing for a Democrat is a population dependent on the government.

Drudge Report

Today’s cartoon by Sean Delonas in the NY Post:

Wow! Thank goodness that the messiah and his cadre of liberal politicians swooped and rescued us from certain financial disaster! The “stimulus” bill has been signed into law.

There is only one problem - you may fool the majority of Americans because, well, let’s face it - there are a lot of stupid Americans. But you cannot fool the Markets, and the Markets know that this stimulus is nothing but BS Government Spending and European-style Socialism wrapped up in a pretty wrapper called “Economic Stimulus.” It isn’t a stimulus for anything other than the liberal agenda to replace the free markets with more government.

It reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Lisa becomes President and wants to pass a tax increase, but her advisers  caution her that they need to call it something else so that the Americans support it. So they decide to call it a “temporary income adjustment” and everyone loves the idea. Even 10 years ago the writers of the Simpsons understood that if you take a piece of crap and call it something nice, Americans will support it. That is what we have with the “economic stimulus” bill. This bill was probably written 30 years ago when Carter  was President and this is the first chance the Liberals have had to actually pass the thing. It is garbage. It is Socialism. It won’t help the economy (by the liberals own admission) and we will be paying for it for years.

Face it - Liberals need a bad economy. It supports their agenda of forcing more people to be dependent on the government. And the higher the unemployment and the worse the economy, the more people become dependent on liberal programs. So bad economy = good news for Obama and the liberals. You probably wouldn’t like to work for a company that pays the CEO based on how poorly the company performs, but that is exactly what we have with the liberals that are running our country. The worse it gets, the better for them.

Sucks, doesn’t it?

The White House is officially “dampening” the stimulus expectations. Despite campaigning on the promise of change, and millions of new jobs, and free gas, and no more war, and an end to all foreclosures, etc etc….. , Obama is now taking it all back and saying he basically has no @#$%ing clue what is going on or how to fix it. Which is probably exactly what we should expect from someone with 2 years of actual work experience and a Cabinet of tree-hugging, Prius-driving, ivory-tower liberal goons.

But helping all the lazy peoples of this country feels good, and that is what matters, right? I mean, isn’t the government’s job to just, like, help people and stuff?

However, the realities of Economics never stopped Obama from making a bunch of crazy promises. As it turns out, all of his campaign promises were all a load of crap. Granted, those of us in this country with, you know, jobs and intelligence and logic and stuff, already had this figured out. But for all the white-guilt crowd, the lazy-unemployed crowd, the “green”-crowd, and the others - Whoops! Looks like your Messiah can’t fix all your problems after all! Whooda thunk it?!

WASHINGTON (Reuters)- President Barack Obama’s aides warned Americans on Sunday not to expect instant miracles from the $787 billion economic stimulus bill he will sign this week, but said it would help eventually.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs used similar language on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that we’ve seen this economy has gotten worse just in the last few months. The acceleration in job loss probably means that this economy is going to get worse before it gets better,” he said.

Obama himself said last week that if he failed to heal the economy, he would be out of a job by 2012, when he faces re-election.

At least you got that last part right, Obama!

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