Scheduled Automatic Congressional Pay Raise

Any member of Congress that accepts the January pay raise of $4700 that Congress has built into our national law lacks a moral compass and is shameless. They failed to stop the financial crisis that has occurred and so far have failed to stop it. Their approval rating is in the toilet. Citizens wonder who is representing them while watching Corporations reap the rewards of our labor. Lives of whole families are being destroyed. Retirements are shattered. And these so called "Leaders" get a pay raise instead of the cuts they want to see from the inept auto executives. Shameless gall.


Joe

The Last Christmas

2008 was the year of the great meltdown of the world’s financial systems. In the United States, the media named the housing situation as the main culprit. In reality, the real problem is the 400 trillion dollars in debt the world has produced while establishing the global market.
2009 will be the year of the complete collapse of the financial system. Starting in February, people will realize more stores closing as well as many malls having from one quarter to a half of the stores boarded up. By the time summer rolls around unemployment will be 25%. There will be food riots, a worthless dollar and higher taxes.
The media says a lower dollar will help the United States sell more products overseas. How can this possibly happen when the United States does not produce anything?
Higher taxes may compel people to revolt against the present system and demand change. The best Christmas gift to give this year would be liquor to help drown some of these problems and guns to protect what assets you have left.
As for the stock market, I predict it to drop to 5,000. The best investment will be put options (Put options are short term investments predicting the price will drop) in the commercial real estate market and retail industry.
The way out of this financial crisis is to develop new energy sources or other new technologies to create job growth and reduce/eliminate national debt.

Nick

Goldman Sachs Paying Bonuses from Bailout Money

Goldman Sachs has been reported as paying bonuses out of the bailout money they got from the government (taxpayers. They supposedly didn't have the exact figures but stated that they had to pay the money to retain high producing individuals.

Oh Really! I wonder just where they would go since all brokerages and investment and insurance companies are cutting back on personnel. Do we really believe they will say change fields since they can't go to another company? Or will they just suffer along like the rest of us until times get better. These blatant corporate lies that insult our intelligence really make me steam and want to just say let them go under in bankruptcy because those of us who are suffering think they should too.

Joe

Congressional Approval Rating

It is interesting that some members of Congress are demanding that Auto workers and executives should take large paycuts due to their need for bailout after failing to build cars that can be sold profitably in the United States.

Apparently, the same rule should apply to members of Congress who currently have approval ratings below 20% because of failure to regulate the financial world, solve the high cost of healthcare, end the war in Iraq, and fix social security and medicare funding among many other things.

Funny how you can always judge the other guy and ignore your own failings.

Joe

Solution to the Financial Crisis

Government spending will not get us out of the current financial crisis, only growth in our economy will do that effectively. Deficit spending raises the risk of inflation long term, growth in Gross domestic products can increase revenues but that takes jobs and spending. Our economy is 67% driven by consumers, but our income distribution is too slanted to the upper income families or tax units.

According to the Tax Foundation in 2006, the top 10% of Tax filers controlled 46% of the 8 Trillion dollars of income reported, that is some 3.8 Trillion dollars. The top 10% of filers consisted of some 13.6 million taxpayers.

Considering the studies that show the average American's compensation has been stagnant since the middle 1970's, trickle down does not work. The movement of the wealthy out of the stock market and into commodities, and hedge funds during the last decade also lead to the curtailment of venture capital into small businesses.

The well off and conservatives fear that our leaders will move to Socialism but I think of it more like fishing. The more lines in the water: the more chance of catching something. You have to get consumers spending if you want growth when the economy is driven by consumers.

Joe

The 700 Billion dollar Bailout and Executive Compensation

One of the hooks in the Government bailout program was to control executive compensation, but at the last minute the Bush administration changed the terms by inserting one sentence in the Congressional agreement. The change stipulated that the penalty clause in the agreement would be invoked only to those firms who received bailout funds by selling troubled assets to the government in an auction, which is the way that the Treasury department has said that it planned to use to disburse the money. This created a massive loophole because to date none of the money disbursed has gone through the auction markets at all.

Once again the taxpaying population has been sold down the river because over half the money has been disbursed so far and the government has no real means of monitering executive compensation at the firms who have benefited.


Joe

With the massive Government spending is Skyrocketing Inflation Next?

I read that the government has increased the money supply by 76% in the last year. Traditionally, when you increase the money supply it creates inflation because their is more money chasing the same products.

This time I am not sure that will happen because over 1.2 million jobs have been lost this year and the government is seeking huge pay and benefit cuts from the auto industry to save them from going out of business. This can only lead to slower consumer spending which usually causes prices to drop. In addition, our exports and impoorts are both down. Tourism is down. Travel is down.

I am sure that the corporations who have facilities overseas will find ways to keep money out of the the United States to avoid taxes but all in all, I haven't been able to see any way the prices can go up in the short term.

Of course, we all remember how prices shot up when investors switched to the commodity markets and oil instead of stocks. Businesses couldn't add surcharges and fees nor increase prices fast enough to cover their increased raw material costs. And we all know how fast they recinded those when the price of oil fell from $147 a barrel to the present $40+ range, don't we? What you didn't? Maybe, because the famed "The markets will take care of things" principle is another thing that no longer seems valid because of government interventions.

Joe