From the article Senate Democrats adding to stimulus:

Senate Democrats will move to add to a $150 billion economic stimulus package rebates for senior citizens living off Social Security and an extension of unemployment benefits, setting up a clash with the White House and House leaders who are pushing a narrower package.
...
The president and House leaders agreed last week on a proposal to provide rebates to 117 million families and to give businesses $50 billion in incentives to invest in new plants and equipment. The goal is to help head off a recession and boost consumer confidence.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., quickly said the Senate would consider adding to that plan, including extending unemployment benefits, boosting home heating subsidies, raising food stamp benefits and approving money for public works projects.

Ah, Congress works in mysterious ways...every opportunity is seized (hey, an exception to the i before e except after c rule--a teachable moment) to put back what the 1990's took away. And though I am just a poor boy from a poor family--means I might actually qualify for those food stamps in this economy, but I won't partake--I won't get much more than the $300 for my teenage son (That will be about three weeks of groceries with his metabolism.), since I am not in the income bracket that would buy a "consumer good" such as a flat screen TV or invest in propping up the one legged stock market. Actually, I suppose some people might use the checks to pay off some of that credit card interest and never buy goods with it.

Plus, I really can't wait until June--or August or September after the tinkering--as the kid wants to eat right now.

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Just a few excerpts on Cybercast News Service you might not see in mainstream media.

According to recent reports, the cost of Massachusetts' health insurance mandate will rise 85 percent, or $400 million, in 2009. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), meanwhile, has been on the presidential campaign trail praising the program he put into place.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) if he thought former President Clinton was telling the truth about some of Sen. Barack Obama's statements, Kerry said: "I think that there have been some unfortunate distortions of Barack Obama's positions that are not appropriate on any campaign in any campaign circumstances by anybody." When Bill Clinton lies, Dems obfuscate; Kerry certainly wasn't so polite over swiftboat ads.

A photograph of a smiling Bill and Hillary Clinton standing beside Tony Rezko surfaced on the Internet as well as on network and cable television Friday... In a Democratic debate last week, Sen. Clinton blasted Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for doing legal work for Rezko - "your contributor ... in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago."

A group that lobbies for needle exchanges, for allowing more immigrants with HIV/AIDS to legally enter the country, and for condom distribution in prisons received a $303,000 federal earmark pushed by Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.). That was one of the 261 earmarks Clinton personally helped usher through Congress. I guess Hillary didn't get the memo against earmarks that Pelosi was distributing in Congress when she vowed that the new Democratic Congress would end the practices enjoyed by Republicans. Then again, the other Dems didn't read it either.

The New York Times - admitting its has "strong disagreements with all the Republicans running for president," has nevertheless endorsed Sen. John McCain for the Republican presidential nominee, bypassing former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, whom the newspaper endorsed for re-election in 1997.
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the [Times] editorial called him "a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power. Racial polarization was as much a legacy of his tenure as the rebirth of Times Square ... [his] arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking." But they liked him when New York became safe enough to walk to work.

Posted by Zounds Off at 9:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jerome Kerviel, the rogue trader blamed by Société Générale for massive fraud, was taken into custody in France.

If he had really been a supercriminal, I would have thought he would have a couple new identities and left for some fun in St. Kitts.

Posted by Zounds Off at 9:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Biggest Drop in Existing Home Sales in 25 Years in the New York Times:
Sales of existing homes fell in December, closing out a horrible year for housing in which sales of single-family homes plunged by the largest amount in 25 years. The median home price dropped for the entire year, the first time that has occurred in four decades.

The National Association of Realtors reported that sales of single-family homes and condominiums dropped by 2.2 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.89 million units.

For the year, sales of single-family homes were down by 13 percent, the biggest drop since a 17.7 percent plunge in 1982. The median price for a single-family home dropped 1.8 percent to $217,000.

That was the first annual price decline on records going back to 1968. Lawrence Yun, the Realtors' chief economist, said it was likely that the country has not experienced a decline in housing prices for an entire year since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

That 40 acres and a mule in Missouri is looking better every day...grow some tomatoes, sweet corn, milk the cow, gather eggs, just like my grandfather did 75 years ago.

Posted by Zounds Off at 7:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The French bank Société Générale said Thursday that it had uncovered "an exceptional fraud" by a trader that would cost it 4.9 billion euros, or $7.1 billion, and that it was raising about 5.5 billion euros in fresh capital to shore up its finances.

The company, one of the biggest banks in France, said in a statement that the fraud had been committed by a trader in charge of "plain vanilla" hedging on European index futures.
During a conference call, Société Générale's chairman and chief executive, Daniel Bouton, said the bank had started legal proceedings against the rogue trader, whom he did not identify; he also said the trader's whereabouts was unknown. The trader is "on the run," officials said.
A banker close to the situation identified the trader as Jé&ociec;me Kerviel, a Frenchman in his 30s who joined the bank in 2000.
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Speaking at an afternoon press conference, Christian Noyer, governor of the French central bank, the Bank of France, described the trader as a computer "genius."
"I am totally serene," Mr. Noyer said. "I wouldn't be if the bank wasn't in a very solid situation. There's no problem of confidence for consumers for depositors, for clients." Fraud Costs French Bank $7.1 Billion

First, I wouldn't call a $7 billion dollar fraud simply "exceptional" and secondly, I certainly wouldn't be "serene" about its effects. Serene is how our politicians, bankers, and former Fed Chairman, Alan Greenspan (who left just before the crisis began), seemed to handle the housing bubble two years ago. Now they are scrambling to convince the country we can avoid a recession, while we head into a depression.

Posted by Zounds Off at 6:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From Cox.net: The "Heavy Hitter" is facing the wrath of a judge for missing the first day of his client's murder trial. The "Review-Journal" says Glen Lerner left a message for Clark County prosecutor Roy Nelson over the weekend, saying he was in Pennsylvania "on sabbatical," and told him, quote, "if the judge wants to sanction me, she can sanction me." Nelson provided District Judge Michelle Leavitt with a copy of Lerner's recording. Lerner was to have defended Mario Lino on charges he killed a man whom he thought was having an affair with his wife. Leavitt re assigned Lino's case to a public defender and warned she would report Lerner to the State Bar. Lerner told the newspaper he expects to be back in Las Vegas by March or possibly May. He says he's reexamining his priorities, saying he has been, quote, "living the life of a rock star for so long."

I guess he should have been living the life of an attorney. Does this mean no more commercials and will he be subjected to any kind of state bar investigation and further sanctions?

Posted by Zounds Off at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When we crash, everybody follows. Proof that we still wield the most impact on the whole world.

From the L.A. Times (also suffering from its own little meltdown as the Tribune monkeys with it).

Stock markets worldwide on Monday suffered one of their worst routs since the 2001 terrorist attacks on growing fears that U.S. economic woes could turn global boom times to bust.

Foreign markets, most of which had been sliding in recent weeks along with U.S. shares, faced a barrage of selling that left many of them down more than 5% for the day, and some down as much as 8%.

The German market dived 7.2% -- the equivalent of the U.S. Dow Jones industrial average plummeting 871 points. Stocks sank 5.5% in Hong Kong, 7.4% in India and 6.6% in Brazil.
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"The U.S.' problems are stretching out globally," said Alan Ruskin, chief international strategist at investment firm RBS Greenwich Capital in Greenwich, Conn. "Clearly these markets are very vulnerable, plainly nervous -- and uncertainty rules."

Posted by Zounds Off at 1:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

*Conservative, Dull, Reaganesque, Lazy, Slow to Go, etc.

Republican Fred Thompson, the actor-politician who attracted more attention as a potential presidential candidate than as a real one, quit the race for the White House on Tuesday after a string of poor finishes in early primary and caucus states. For more go to Fred Thompson Quits Presidential Race.

Thompson becomes the biggest loser on the Republican side and joins the likes of Democrats Biden, Dodd, and Richardson as big name politicians who weren't generating much excitement. Thompson, with uncanny savvy, timed his entrance into the race with the Hollywood writers strike and was never able to recover from his early lack of memorable lines.

Posted by Zounds Off at 12:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Steve Miller reports in CFP that although the Nevada caucus is over, "several issues emerged that help define the woman selected to be the state Democratic Party's nominee.

First and foremost, it took dozens of translators stationed in the caucus locations to help the majority of Clinton supporters understand speeches and fill out their ballots. These "voters" who could neither speak nor write in our nation's language were asked (in Spanish) to sign a document attesting to the fact that they were in the United States legally. After obediently doing so, the majority voted for Hillary Clinton at caucus locations within the hotels where they're employed."

Just a quick note...Spanish is the official language of Mexico, while politicians work hard to make sure that English never becomes the official language of the United States. That way they can keep directing the Spanish speaking immigrants both legal and illegal on how to vote. Perhaps in twenty years Spanish will become the official language of the U.S. Other countries in our hemisphere that have made Spanish the official language: Nicaragua, Panama, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatamala, virtually all Latin American countries except Brazil (Portuguese)...well, I suppose you see the picture. We are practically the only country in this hemisphere without an official language.

After looking at Hillary's support group, I wonder if Steve has any information on whether Cook County (Illinois) politician and presidential hopeful, Barack Obama, has or had any ties to our infamous University Medical Center scandal perpetrator, Lacy Thomas, who came to us from Chicago.

Posted by Zounds Off at 12:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

In Business excerpt:
The developer of Lake Las Vegas, Transcontinental Corp., in Henderson is in default on a $560 million loan and has until the end of the year to find buyers for its remaining undeveloped land or the development could face foreclosure, a Lake Las Vegas official said.

A group headed by investment banker Credit Suisse has, for now, waived any default obligations, after Lake Las Vegas, the lake resort community did not meet its debt obligation on a sales volume quota by Sept. 30,

Housing foreclosures, projects abandoned, Lake Las Vegas in default, Cosmopolitan in default, and the new Town Center looks to be a giant "white elephant;" will anyone doubt that the recession is already here?

Posted by Zounds Off at 1:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An excerpt from Merrill Loses $10 B;

Merrill Lynch (MER), the world's largest brokerage, lost nearly $10 billion in the last three months of 2007, its biggest quarterly loss since it was founded 94 years ago, after writing down $14.6 billion of investments slammed by the ongoing credit crisis.

Merrill became the third of the five biggest Wall Street investment banks to post a loss for the quarter after taking massive write-offs related to the shrinking value of securities backed by mortgages that have soured as borrowers have been unable to make payments on time.

Just seems to prove Zounds's Law; Most people are paid an amount of money directly proportional to the amount of damage they can do. Overpaid Wall Street "Wizards" have cost billions; minimum wage earners eat the damage in the form of costly bailouts which deflate the dollar and increase the cost of living.

State of our country;
Going down...down, down, down, down!

Posted by Zounds Off at 4:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here's an excerpt from Citigroup Loses $9.8 Billion; Will Cut Jobs:

Citigroup announced a steep cut in its stock dividend and another big investment by foreign investors on Tuesday after taking more write-downs related to subprime securities and posting a $9.83 billion loss for the fourth quarter.

Beginning what is expected to be a grim week for financial company earnings, Citigroup said it was writing down $22.2 billion because of soured mortgage-related investments and bad loans. The bank is also cutting its dividend by 41 percent and obtaining a $12.5 billion cash infusion to strengthen its balance sheet, including big investments by its former chairman, Sanford I. Weill, and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation.

Facing rising expenses and deepening losses, Citigroup is expected to embark on a major cost-cutting campaign that could result in at least 4,000 layoffs. And thousands more could be in the offing in the coming months.

Housing starts are the lowest since 1992.

And the country still seems to be run by drunken frat boys with M.B.A.'s who have been running a financial con game on the whole country knowing that the Federal Reserve was designed to facilitate the elimination of small businesses. And today we have basically the same crop of corrupt and inept politician's running for office--who in this country wants to be President with a depression coming except those simply hungry to have lunch with the lobbyists?

Posted by Zounds Off at 3:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Apparently, an amendment submitted by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, for the Department of Homeland Security 2008 budget passed by Senators with little fanfare and will gut the already-approved Secure Fence Act.

For more go to "Where's the fence?"

"The one absolutely certain way of bringing this nation to ruin, of preventing all possibility of its continuing to be a nation at all, would be to permit it to become a tangle of squabbling nationalities." Theodore Roosevelt

Posted by Zounds Off at 7:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)