Free Republic

Tim Geithner Warns: The US Is At Risk Of A 1930s Repeat Joe Weisenthal Sep. 12, 2010, 9:11 PM If the government become paralyzed -- as is arguably the case already, and is clearly a serious risk should the GOP take over -- the US risks a 1930s-like scenario. At least according to Tim Geithner. That's the standout quote from an interview in the WSJ: [The] typical error most countries make coming out of a financial crisis is they shift too quickly to premature restraint. You saw that in the United States in the 30s, you saw that in Japan...

THE devastation wrought by the great recession is still all too real for millions of Americans who lost their jobs, businesses and homes. The scars of the crisis are fresh, and every new economic report brings another wave of anxiety. That uncertainty is understandable, but a review of recent data on the American economy shows that we are on a path back to growth. The recession that began in late 2007 was extraordinarily severe, but the actions we took at its height to stimulate the economy helped arrest the freefall, preventing an even deeper collapse and putting the economy on...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner acknowledged that it is still a "tough economy" for most Americans, and warned it's possible the unemployment rate will go up for a couple of months before it comes down as more people enter the labor force. When they see a little hope that there may be jobs out there, they start to come back in again. And that can cause the measured unemployment rate to go up — temporarily," Geithner told "Good Morning America's" George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview. "But what we expect to see, and I think most forecasters expect this…is an economy...

I’m now convinced that the Obama administration is placing its political agenda above policies that would contribute to the economic recovery that millions of Americans so desperately need. That agenda includes bringing more economic activity under government control, making more people dependent on government, and, generally, redistributing wealth.I have come to this conclusion after listening to Team Obama’s spokesman, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, assert that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire on December 31, as currently scheduled, is good policy. In truth, raising tax rates when the economy is faltering is counterproductive. It will weaken the economy further. Given...

Peter Orszag, Barack Obama’s budget director, resigned this week partly in frustration over his lack of success in persuading the Obama administration to tackle the fiscal deficit more aggressively, according to sources inside and outside the White House. Mr Orszag, whose publicly stated reasons for leaving were that he was exhausted after years in high pressure jobs and also that he wanted to plan for his wedding in September, is seen as the guardian of fiscal conservatism within the White House. Other members of Mr Obama’s economic team, notably Lawrence Summers, the head of the National Economic Council, have placed...

Because of recent inquiries to GATA about the possibility of an attempt by the U.S. Government to confiscate privately held gold and silver bullion and coins and shares in companies mining the precious metals, we're republishing here the correspondence between GATA and the U.S. Treasury Department on the subject in 2005. The Treasury Department was surprisingly candid in that correspondence, asserting the U.S. Government's authority, in declared emergencies, to confiscate precious metals and to restrict ownership of mining shares -- and to confiscate and restrict every other financial asset as well. So perhaps precious metals investors shouldn't feel too paranoid.

President Obama and his allies, concerned about deep skepticism over his landmark health care overhaul, are orchestrating an elaborate campaign to sell the public on the law, including a new tax-exempt group that will spend millions of dollars on advertising to beat back attacks on the measure and Democrats who voted for it. Americans will see the first evidence of the public relations offensive on Tuesday, when Mr. Obama travels to Wheaton, Md., to conduct a nationally televised question-and-answer session with older citizens to trumpet one of the law's most popular features: $250 rebate checks to help Medicare beneficiaries pay...

Stocks fell sharply Thursday after an unexpected spike in jobless claims and as global jitters pushed the dollar higher. -snip- The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down nearly 300 points, or almost 3 percent, and the CBOE volatility index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, spiked more than 20 percent to above 43, its highest level in over a year.

...One of the most Orwellian of these nineteen new tax hikes is something called the "codification of the economic substance doctrine." This new law gives blanket authority to the IRS to deny to taxpayers perfectly-legal tax deductions and tactics. The only standard the IRS must assert is that the action was done merely to lower the tax burden (as if that's a bad thing), and not for any economically-substantial reason...Now, the IRS has developed a new tax form ("Form UTP") which compels companies to disclose tax positions which are or might be red flags in an audit. Yes, you read...

May 3 (Bloomberg Government) -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and 12 other business groups asked members of President Obama’s cabinet including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for more leeway in implementing the health-care overhaul. The groups said they’re being forced to make contract, employee-benefit and other decisions without guidance on how to comply with provisions that take effect in September. The letter dated April 30 was sent to Geithner, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

What's Hidden in the Dodd BillApril 30, 2010 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Some interesting things are being gleaned from the financial regulatory reform bill. The Washington Times has an editorial today, and I'm waiting for the liberals in this country, when they find out about this, to start screaming fascist like they did at Bush over the Patriot Act. Remember, they hated Bush because they were going to spy on them, they're gonna monitor their phone calls out there. Why, why, that's a civil rights violation, human rights violation, fascism, they were just in sheer panic. "The next time you make...

WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - The Internal Revenue Service could tap individual tax returns to collect fines against people who fail to buy health insurance as required under recently enacted healthcare legislation, the U.S. tax commissioner said on Monday. Most individuals are required to get health insurance under the new law, or face penalties that would be phased in over time. By 2016, people without coverage could see fines of 2 percent of their income. Subsidies would help poorer people buy coverage, and states would set up exchanges to allow individuals and small groups shop for insurance. People who do...

Pelosi: We are the most ethical Congress By Jordan Fabian - 02/26/10 11:46 AM ET House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday said that she is running the most ethical Congress in history. Asked at a press conference whether or not her Congress is the most ethical in light of new findings that Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) broke House rules, Pelosi responded "We are." But Pelosi dodged on whether or not she would officially discipline Rangel, who helms the powerful Ways and Means Committee. After Democrats reclaimed the majority in the House of Representatives in 2006, Pelosi, who at the...

Behind closed doors and with no cameras present, President Obama signed into law Friday afternoon the bill raising the public debt limit from $12.394 trillion to $14.294 trillion. The current national debt is $12.3 trillion. Check out the National Debt Clock, which tells you your share of that -- roughly $40,000 per citizen, $113,000 per taxpayer.

Here’s the latest in the question of the New York Fed, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and the AIG bailout, as we’ve covered here at Big Government before (here and here). Last year, Iraq war vet Kevin Murray brought a lawsuit against the Treasury Department and Ben Bernanke (Murray vs. Geithner, et al) for its acquisition of AIG– a scheme that made the US taxpayer the world’s largest provider of Shariah-compliant insurance products. Lawyers David Yerushalmi and The Thomas More Law Center’s Robert Muise found, in the course of discovery, that that was just the tip of the iceberg. Yerushalmi and...

Adding insult to injury, the U.S. government has paid private firms nearly $160 million, to distribute funds from its severely mismanaged and fraud-infested program to bail out the nation’s financial institutions. Rife with waste and abuse the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) has already proven to be a troubling experiment of U.S. tax dollars with virtually no oversight. In fact, dozens of criminal investigations have been launched into the controversial bailout and the risk is only going to grow, according to a Treasury Department Inspector General report issued last spring. So far investigations have centered on securities fraud,...

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (GYT'-nur) says the U.S. government "will never" lose its sterling credit rating despite big budget deficits and a newly increased debt limit that now tops $14 trillion. [Snip] Moody's Investors Service recently issued a warning that the government's credit rating could eventually be in jeopardy if nation's finances don't improve. The cost of borrowing would increase significantly if the ratings service lowered the credit rating, also known as a bond rating, for U.S. Treasuries. Geithner tells ABC's "This Week" that will never happen.

Rangel gift$ to lawyersBy S.A. MILLER Last Updated: 4:07 PM, February 3, 2010 WASHINGTON -- Embattled Rep. Charlie Rangel spent huge amounts of campaign cash in the last quarter of 2009 on lawyers to fend off congressional ethics investigations, campaign-finance reports show. The Harlem Democrat dropped $575,000 on five teams of lawyers since Oct. 1 -- the lion's share of the $687,000 he spent that quarter. It's far more than the $354,694 Rangel's campaign says he raised during that three-month span. For the past year, the House ethics panel has been probing Rangel's use of congressional letterhead to raise money...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) intends to purchase sixty Remington Model 870 Police RAMAC #24587 12 gauge pump-action shotguns for the Criminal Investigation Division. The Remington parkerized shotguns, with fourteen inch barrel, modified choke, Wilson Combat Ghost Ring rear sight and XS4 Contour Bead front sight, Knoxx Reduced Recoil Adjustable Stock, and Speedfeed ribbed black forend, are designated as the only shotguns authorized for IRS duty based on compatibility with IRS existing shotgun inventory, certified armorer and combat training and protocol, maintenance, and parts.

Thought this needed started. Live stream at the link once the man is ready.