Free Republic

As the title suggests, please name the latest bubble: (see picture - answer below)

Sometimes it helps to offer an analogy to show how utterly out of their minds they are in Washington when it comes to financial matters. We offer for your consideration, this short video. The names have been changed to protect the politicians.

This is your government. This is your government on deficit spending. Any questions?

Almost any knowledgeable person with a lick of common sense knows government can’t create jobs. If it could, then a private-sector economy wouldn’t be needed, you know, like in those dynamos of economic propensity, communism and socialism. Thus, Obamanomic “stimulus” has amounted to nothing more than “creating” jobs that are the modern-day equivalent of hole-digging/hole-filling operations. That’s because, by definition, jobs “created” by government “stimulus” are jobs the private industry didn’t/wouldn’t/couldn’t create because such jobs would not have been productive, wealth-creating jobs. And when the government stimulus stops as it invariably must, the government “created” jobs will cease to exist...

PolitiFact, FactCheck, and WaPo All Confirm: The $105 Billion Obamacare Slush Fund Exists SLY to put it nicely for the 3 jokers to hide teh funding in the bill. Why on earth would the House vote to repeal ZERO-care but vote to fund the monstrosity? If the dems had done the budget back in the fall there wouldn't be the possibility of government shutdown in the first place. They didn't want the budget to affect the Nov election and they don't want to commit to it now. It was supposedly to their advantage so that they can say the "Republicans...

The Congressional Budget Office says the current year's budget deficit will be a record $1.5 trillion. It also says that over the next decade we're on track for annual deficits of "only" $768 billion. I suspect the CBO has hired Rosy Scenario to do the bookkeeping, but let's take that number at face value. I'm now going to balance the budget, with the help of some recent guests on my TV show. I'll begin with things I'm most eager to cut. Let's privatize air traffic control. Canada did it, and it works better. Then privatize Amtrak. Get rid of all...

..."That's the nature of a short-term stimulus," says Thomas Mann, a scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and former executive director of the American Political Science Association. "Many jobs initially created or temporarily sustained with federal support will disappear if the private economy does not revive and state government (tax) receipts do not increase." Situation 'dire' The end of $787 billion in national emergency spending is pushing Houston-area recipients to hasten the search for new ways to pay for the jobs - or face politically embarrassing layoffs. The "few jobs (the stimulus) did create have been temporary and...

U.S. President Barack Obama will announce on Monday a six-year infrastructure revamp plan with an initial investment of $50 billion to jump-start job creation, a white house official said. Obama is committed to working with the U.S. Congress to fully fund the program, which also includes a proposed infrastructure bank to leverage private capital, the official said. Obama is to make the announcement in Milwaukee, where he will make a speech to a labor rally on Monday, the Labor Day holiday that marks the informal start of the election campaign season. With a jobless rate near 10 percent, Democrats are...

The Democrats and their profligate spending indicate clearly that they are motivated by the question: How much money can we spend? Not how many jobs can we create. And their spending, rather than slowing, is gaining momentum like a snowball rolling down a hill. Faster, more furious, unstoppable. Trillion after trillion after billions zoom by to the point of eyes glazing, minds numbing. A giant blur of dollar signs. Expansive, exploding, multiplying like a deadly virus, unreal in its magnitude and potential for calamity. Yet despite the spending, the unemployed remain so, in fact their numbers have ballooned. The job...

In a July 6th entry to his blog entitled, The Conscience of a Liberal, Paul Krugman cites Lincoln's statement to General McClellan that if McClellan wasn't going to use the army to engage in battle against the South, Lincoln would like to "borrow it for a while," as a springboard for his argument that the government must continue to stimulate the economy even if it means borrowing the money. (For those who have lost their way in the blizzard of Obama spending, we are referring here to more of the same $787B Stimulus Bill--recalculated by the CBO to actually cost...

Role Reversal: GOP Council Members Vote for Deficit Spending To vote or not to vote for deficit spending over a balanced budget, that was the question facing the Desert Hot Springs city council and in a reversal of traditional roles, it was the council’s two Republican members that opted to put the city in the red rather than taking more time to come up with a balanced budget, which is the option that the council’s three Democrats voted to support. A $13.9 million budget was presented at the council’s recent meeting, but since it contained a $500,000 shortfall, Democrats rejected...

Spain is in the throes of the worst economic crisis in its recent history. Reeling from the collapse of a debt-driven construction boom, Spain entered recession in the second quarter of 2008 and posted six consecutive quarters of negative growth. Although the economy grew by 0.1 percent during the first quarter of 2010, Spain’s growth prospects are poor and any pick-up could be short lived. Spanish GDP fell 3.6 percent in 2009, and a package of harsh austerity measures announced since then will undermine any economic recovery during the foreseeable future. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says there will be...

"Money is...that which sustains its (government) life and motion" Federalist 30, Alexander Hamilton My undergraduate degree is in Psychology. One of the first principles we study is: projection--the attribution of one's own ideas, feelings and beliefs onto others. Projection is dangerous in many human interactions to be sure, but it is especially dangerous in elections. As voters, we make certain assumptions about our leaders and their conduct. We expect them to tell the truth, not to steal (especially from us) and to work hard. Very hard. At least as hard as we do each day rushing to work, caring for...

"Money is...that which sustains its (government) life and motion" Federalist 30, Alexander Hamilton My undergraduate degree is in Psychology. One of the first principles we study is: projection--the attribution of one's own ideas, feelings and beliefs onto others. Projection is dangerous in many human interactions to be sure, but it is especially dangerous in elections. As voters, we make certain assumptions about our leaders and their conduct. We expect them to tell the truth, not to steal (especially from us) and to work hard. Very hard. At least as hard as we do each day rushing to work, caring for...

In the Popeye Cartoon, Wellington Wimpy's oft repeated phrase: "I'll gladly pay you on Tuesday for a hamburger today" was ludicrous even to the five and six year olds watching the show. Children understand the morality lacking in Wimpy's request. They know that eating a hamburger you can't pay for until tomorrow is wrong. They know it intuitively. The request is laughable. And laugh they did. Popeye is a cartoon after all. All the more tragic as we watch Wimpy Economics (aka Obamics) being played out before our very eyes. With our very own money. Would that Obama had studied...

n Federalist 51, James Madison writes about the checks and balances provided by the Constitution. It is in this paper he penned these famous words: "...But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature. If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external or internal controls on government would be necessary." And, of course, we know that men (read: our elected officials and bureaucrats) are not angels. Yet somehow our respect for the government our Founders gave us has blinded us to the reality that government is...

Unistar Nuclear Energy, which in 2007 became the first company in nearly 30 years to apply to build a new reactor in the US, bills itself as "the business model for a new generation of nuclear energy facilities." If that's so, taxpayers should be mighty concerned. In addition to its proposed flagship plant in the tiny Chesapeake Bay town of Lusby, Maryland, UniStar plans to build three more reactors in Missouri, New York, and Pennsylvania. But while UniStar estimates that these projects will cost up to $38 billion, the company, a joint venture between a French nuclear firm and US-based...

Dr. Rand Paul, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, explained his position on taxes, government spending, the drug abuse epidemic, welfare and other government benefits during an exclusive interview with the Times-Tribune, just hours before his appearance at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg. Initially, Dr. Paul addressed drug abuse in rural Kentucky. As a doctor, he immediately zeroed in on more vigilant policing of doctors who recklessly write prescriptions. He asked, “Are they being disciplined? I’m a doctor and occasionally I’ll get notification from the medical licensure board of people who are having their licenses suspended.” Referencing a recent...

Whenever government throws billions of dollars at the economy, one would certainly expect to find some jobs at the end of those dollars. President Obama has worked hard to convince the nation that the mega fiscal stimulus he signed into law produced some 650,000 jobs. This PR blitz is amazing in the face of an economy that has shed 3.4 million jobs since Obama was sworn in, the unemployment rate is pressing toward 10 percent, and the Obama jobs gap – the gap between where he promised we would be and actual employment — rises monthly. Political chutzpah aside, the...

There has been a lot of talk in Washington recently about senior citizens, mostly about how various healthcare reform models would help or hurt them. But there is another critical issue that has quietly devastated seniors financially over the last few decades. It concerns how the cost of living is calculated. How does the administration justify not giving a cost of living increase to Social Security recipients this year? According to the official Consumer Price Index calculation, life has gotten cheaper for the first time in decades. If the government can show statistically that the cost of living has gone...

Link only, per FR posting rules

Based on a theory known as Keynesian economics, (or, "Keynesianism" see: John Maynard Keynes) tax-and-spend politicians in Washington, D.C. have resuscitated the debunked, nonsensical notion that deficit spending during a recession can "stimulate" an economy. Considering the nation's out-of-control, unprecedented deficit spending, and the ridiculous idea floating around Washington of a "second stimulus, this short video is especially timely and educational.

Conservatives have correctly declared President Obama’s $787 billion “stimulus” a flop. In a January report, White House economists predicted the bill would create (not merely save) 3.3 million jobs. Since then, 2.8 million jobs have been lost, pushing unemployment toward 10 percent. Yet few have explained correctly why the stimulus failed. By blaming the slow pace of stimulus spending (even though it’s ahead of schedule), many conservatives have accepted the premise that government spending stimulates the economy. Their thinking implies that we should have spent much more by now. History proves otherwise. In 1939, after a doubling of federal spending...

Staying on Budget by: Brittany Fortier, August 24, 2009 Many Americans are expressing concerns about deficit spending in Washington, and the call for the government to reform its wasteful ways is being heard at town halls all over the nation. Newt Gingrich, Former Speaker of the House and author of the book Real Change, discussed his “new model” for America’s budgetary process at the American Enterprise Institute on August 13, 2009. Gingrich disagrees with politicians who think our budgetary problems are merely “transitory.” “I think 2009 is different,” Gingrich said. “I think we have entered into a different world. I...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain is refusing to consider raising taxes to reduce the ballooning deficit. McCain was asked on ABC's "This Week" whether he would make a similar pledge as Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to do whatever it takes to bring down the deficit over the long run, such as raising taxes. The Arizona Republican said "no."

In February, the President signed a "fiscal stimulus law" to supposedly "create or save" millions of jobs. If executed according to plan, the bill will cost $789 billion, or about $2,600 for every American, and this does not even count the extra economic harm when our government levies the taxes to pay for it. Fortunately, almost 90% of the government spending planned by the law has not yet occurred -- which means that it can, and should, be stopped. The economy has been in bad shape. Employment has fallen for a year and a half now. Real GDP has dropped...

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee compares his past weight problem to President Obama's economic policies in a pitch Wednesday for a financial newsletter. Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor who failed to win the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, charges that the president "is devouring the entire free-enterprise system" and lists Obama's decision to bail out the auto and banking industries as mistakes. The pitch for "Successful Investing" was sent out to readers of the conservative publication Human Events.

PHOENIX -- The Obama Administration is on a spending binge that must come to an end -- and without the president's health care reform proposal, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., declared Friday. McCain, who lost to President Barack Obama in last year's election, told Austin Hill, guest host on News/Talk 92-3 KTAR's "Ankarlo Mornings," that "We've amassed over a trillion dollars in additional debt on the American people since the president took office." He said Obama is slipping in the polls because, "The polls are showing the manifestation of the deep concern and worry Americans have about the debt and the...

Lawmakers pass an extension of the popular program aimed at boosting auto sales. By Jennifer Liberto and Ben Rooney, CNNMoney.com staff writers Last Updated: August 6, 2009: 8:21 PM ETWASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) -- The Senate voted 60-37 passing a $2 billion extension of the popular Cash for Clunkers program Thursday evening, as lawmakers rushed to finish business before their August recess. The House had already voted to extend the program, which blew through its $1 billion in initial funding, before it adjourned for the summer last Friday."Thank you so much for allowing this important stimulus to continue throughout the month of August,"...

Top Democrat predicts extension of 'cash for clunkers' planTue Aug 4, 4:22 PM WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Democratic leader of the US Senate Harry Reid on Tuesday predicted that Congress would this week extend a wildly popular plan to entice Americans to trade in gas guzzling cars. The "Cash for Clunkers" plan, which offers drivers up to 4,500 dollars to replace obsolete autos with more fuel efficient models, exhausted its one billion dollar budget in a weeklong spree which boosted depressed car sales. Senate Majority leader Reid said after a meeting with President Barack Obama that despite congressional wrangling over...

How much does the House Democrats’ health care overhaul cost? Is it $1 trillion or $1.6 trillion? Democrats argue the number should be $1 trillion, a number provided by the Congressional Budget Office for the net cost of the portion of the bill affecting health insurance, and they boasted in press releases that the bill actually creates a $6 billion surplus over the coming decade. But the gross cost of the bill is much higher, more than $1.6 trillion, according to a Roll Call analysis of the CBO data. And despite more than $800 billion in tax and fee hikes,...

"President Obama, your banker is on the phone. He says that your account is overdrawn...again. You've bounced another rubber check, and your credit card is over its credit limit."

<p>Arthur Laffer joins the chorus of economists predicting that the Fed's massive stimulus will lead to hyper-inflation.</p> <p>Laffer focuses on the huge expansion of the monetary base and predicts that faced with two bad choices--inflation or crippling the economy--Bernanke will choose inflation.</p>

Elections have consequences. Like a stand-up comedian trying to push a catchphrase, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., kept coming back to that statement during an hour-long town hall gathering Tuesday in Marana. Whether it was efforts being made to turn around the economy, President Obama's nomination of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court or U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi's CIA allegations, McCain told the crowd of more than 200 people at the Marana Municipal Complex that today's America is a direct result of last November's voting. But rather than place all the blame on the ruling Democratic Party, McCain said Republicans were...

On the insights & limitations of the influential economist.Among the unhappy consequences of the current financial meltdown is the apparent triumph of a set of moral imperatives that seem every bit as perverse as those recorded in Alice in Wonderland. Financial institutions that took extreme risks and collapsed have to be bailed out by taxpayers on the grounds that “they are too big to fail.� Improvident borrowers, who purchased homes they could not afford and then defaulted when they could not make the monthly mortgage payments, must be subsidized by taxpayers in order to halt the slide in all house...

WASHINGTON -- Just how much government debt does a president have to endorse before he's labeled "irresponsible"? Well, apparently much more than the massive amounts envisioned by President Obama. The final version of his 2010 budget, released last week, is a case study in political expediency and economic gambling. Let's see. From 2010 to 2019, Obama projects annual deficits totaling $7.1 trillion; that's atop the $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009. By 2019, the ratio of publicly held federal debt to gross domestic product (GDP, or the economy) would reach 70 percent, up from 41 percent in 2008. That would be...

Thank You Mr. President ! During the presidential campaign you stole the Republican's Issue. The stump speech given by your campaign (and the future TOTUS) kept talking about the over-spending of President Bush and the Republican congress. Your platform was about fiscal responsibility and cutting taxes (to 95% of the country). That argument was very popular in taxpayer land. It was also the argument that the GOP has used successfully for years. What gave Obama's argument legitimacy was that republican's talked that game but acted differently. In less than 70 days since he took office the POTUS/TOTUS has proven to...

"Obama Used 'Invest' or 'Investment' 18 Times in Press Conference to Describe Government Deficit Spending" SNIPPET: "“CBO has also analyzed the policy proposals outlined in the President’s preliminary budget request,” said CBO’s report. “Under those policies, the deficit would total $1.8 trillion (13.1 percent of GDP) in 2009 and $1.4 trillion (9.6 percent of GDP) in 2010. The cumulative deficit over the 2010–2019 projection period would equal $9.3 trillion and would average 5.3 percent of GDP. Debt held by the public would rise from 57 percent of GDP in 2009 to 82 percent of GDP in 2019.” The CBO analysis...

Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who is the darling of the Libertarian Right, has more earmarks in the pork-laden $410-billion spending bill than any other Republican. That's not according to the MSM, or the liberal blogosphere. That's what Fox News is reporting. In an interview Tuesday night with Fox News' Neil Cavuto, Paul not only defended his own earmarks, he argued that every penny in the federal budget should be earmarked, to improve transparency. Paul, a fiscal watchdog who said he voted against the bill because he believes federal spending is out of control, acknowledged that $73 million in the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lower tax revenue and massive government spending on the bank bailout pushed the federal deficit to $765 billion in the first five months of the budget year, well on its way to hitting the Obama administration's projection of a record annual imbalance of $1.75 trillion. The Treasury Department also said Wednesday that the February deficit reached $192.8 billion. That's a record for the month and up 10 percent from a year ago, but below analysts' expectations of $205.7 billion.

Lots of stuff going on out there in the world. Tea Parties are going on all over the U.S. Unlike the tea party in Boston Harbor by the revolutionaries a couple of hundred years ago, these tea parties are being mustered by some pretty unhappy taxpayers who believe they've just about had enough! Enough with the bureaucrats. Enough with the fear mongerers. Enough with the congressionals they are calling "generational thieves" because the spending bills coming out of congress is going to create huge debts for generations to come. Protesters at these tea parties are invited to bring tea bags...

One of the guilty pleasures of grading essay exams is to chortle over the amazing and amusing bloopers of struggling students. It's hard not to laugh when a student writes that Columbus discovered the “earth,” or tells you a story about Galileo dropping corpses off towers. The fact is, however, that most of my “student” bloopers are really professor bloopers: Students got things wrong because I hadn't explained things quite as clearly as I might have or because I assumed students knew things they had never been taught. Why did one of my students think Galileo had done experiments with...

Remember when Dick Cheney was pilloried for reportedly saying, earlier this decade, that "deficits don't matter"? We recall reading any number of press releases denouncing the Vice President for supporting tax cuts that contributed to short-term deficits but also helped the economy grow until the deficits shrank nearly away. Yet somehow none of those same voices are objecting now that the government is spending its way into deficits that are so large they dwarf any during peacetime in U.S. history. The Congressional Budget Office released its latest budget forecast yesterday, and we now really do have red ink as far...

How "Something For Nothing" Ideas Become Policy /snip 1) Those with money control policies in Congress. In return for sponsoring policies that make no economic sense, corporations pour massive amounts of money into campaign coffers of those who will support whatever legislation the corporations want. The first thing corporations want is government sponsorship at taxpayer expense. The last thing corporations want is a free market. 2) Inflation (expansion of money and credit) is a stealth tax (theft), demolishing the middle class over time. Inflation allows government to collect more every year in property taxes, sales taxes, income taxes, etc., typically...

The End of the Almighty Dollar Years and years of deficit spending have steadily eroded the value of the dollar. But this ain't news to nobody Has the dollar just about run out its string? Reducing the interest rate without reducing the deficit will just erode the value of the dollar more. And as the price of gas goes past $4.00/gal and wheat above $25/bu we are all going to be facing the reality of changing our life style Da Looney Left laughing all the while. Cuz dey love change just so's "somethin happening" I guess I'll vote for Robert...

Federal Liabilities Now Equal $175,000 for Every American By Terence P. Jeffrey CNSNews.com Editor in Chief November 08, 2007 (CNSNews.com) - Deficit spending and promised benefits for federal entitlement programs have put every man, woman, and child in the United States on the hook for $175,000, says a new report by David Walker, comptroller general of the United States. On Tuesday, Walker sent the results of his audit of the federal debt to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. The audit revealed that, as of Sept. 30, the last day of fiscal year 2007, the U.S. government owed $8.993 trillion. Of this...

SACRAMENTO -- California's 51-day budget impasse ended today as Republicans in the state Senate extracted enough concessions from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers to allow the $145-billion spending plan to pass. The agreement is almost identical to the plan passed by the state Assembly on July 20. To overcome the GOP objections in the Senate, Schwarzenegger had agreed weeks ago to use his veto pen to eliminate the $700-million deficit with which the state is expected to end the fiscal year June 30, 2008.

When Mike Genest's appointment as state finance director came before the Senate last year, I voted against his confirmation. Although I had supported both of his predecessors, Genest had already demonstrated a willingness to cook the state's books in a manner that we hadn't seen since the Davis years. In the time since his confirmation, he has produced the biggest single-year general fund deficit in California's history and employed accounting gimmickry that would make an Enron accountant blush. These qualities are on full display in his recent attack (Aug. 10, Page B-7) on Sen. Jeff Denham's courageous stand for a...

Unfortunately, Senate Republicans, except for Sen. Maldonado, decided they would continue holding up the budget in an effort to address concerns they have with environmental regulations. Let me be perfectly clear - it is unacceptable to hold up the budget, and negatively impact the entire state, over a non-budget issue. Once the Republican senators achieved their promise to balance the budget, they should have joined Sen. Maldonado and passed it. The budget is now six weeks late, leaving one of the world's largest economies without a spending plan. The ramifications are real and far-reaching.