Another one making the rounds:

I’ll tell you how bad the economy is…

CEO’s are now playing miniature golf.

Hotwheels and Matchbox stocks are trading higher than GM.

Dick Cheney took his stockbroker hunting.

People in Africa are donating money to Americans.

Motel Six won’t leave the light on.

The Mafia is laying off judges.

PETA serves chicken wings at their meetings.

McDonalds is selling the 1/4 ouncer.

People in Beverly Hills fired their nannies and learned their children’s names

A truck of Americans got caught sneaking into Mexico

The most highly-paid job is now jury duty

Mothers in Ethiopia are telling their kids, “finish your plate, do you know
how many kids are starving in the US ?”

Even people who have nothing to do with the Obama administration aren’t
paying their taxes.

And finally…

Congress says they are looking into this Bernard Madoff scandal. Hey, neat…
the guy who made $50 billion disappear is being investigated by the people
who made $750 billion disappear.

Got this from Tertium Quids.  This is REALLY GREAT!  What is shocking is that CNBC let this guy keep going.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1039849853

A glimmer of hope.  Watch it before NBC takes it down.

Following the US House of Representatives unanimous motion to only allow for votes after the text of the legislation has been available for at least 48 hours, the House followed by the Senate approved a $787B and 1073 page bill that was made available 11pm the previous evening.

Check out this disturbing video where the majority leader of the House declares that the 48 hours previously committed to by the entire House of Representatives is not binding and this bill is to be considered “read” at the time of the vote.

Keep in mind that the average reading rate is 2 minutes per page.  This would mean that the bill may be read from start to finish if you sit and read for 35.8 hours straight (no bathroom breaks…eewww!).

President Obama now has perfect opportunity to score a few points with those on the dark other side of the aisle.  Will he abide by his own statements and campaign promises that wooed so many to vote for him and allow time for Americans and elected officials to read this important bill?

“Americans have the right to know how their tax dollars are spent, but that information has been hidden from public view for too long.”

For goodness sake, if the bill is so great then it will stand on its own and he could sign the darn thing on Tuesday.  We shall see.

WARNING:  THIS IS A DEPRESSING POST!!!  And yes, I will be rambling.

I couldn’t believe that General Motors admits to use US bailout money to invest $1B in a plant in Brazil.

This is the second time GM took taxpayer funding; apparently, it did not encourage smart business practices or at least smart business practices in the US (what can they do, the Union is the monkey on their back here!).   Apparently, GM feels is is more productive to invest in non-union areas…hmm…so what do we do?  The government votes to strengthen the union stranglehold on American companies.

Tell me why should we prolong the failure of a crappy business?  Regarding failing companies I like SC Governor Sanford’s advice regarding the economy: “let’s get this thing over with, let’s not drag it on.”

Speaking of crappy businesses, here’s a rather sad opinion article in the Washington Post from a small business owner who laments not having customers because they can’t afford his product.  He wishes for the government to supply his would-be customers so that his business can survive.  OK, so we are going to create false demand for products that wouldn’t exist on their own merits? Um…not with my money!   My grandfather, God rest his soul, told me stories of how the government would call him at home and ask him to take farm subsidies.  He would always decline and reiterate his belief that if you can’t make a living doing what you are doing, then you should find another way to make a living…because you suck at what you are doing now!

In what can only be called a continuation of Bush policy, sprinkled of course with a little hope and much naivete (sorry, Bush, you cannot use this as an excuse), President Obama contemplates quick passage of an economic stimulus package.  While the details between the two administrations’ packages differ, a decidedly un-conservative, arrogant message remains:

Left alone, the free market economy would succumb to the powers of entropy and crumble upon itself.  Only through government intervention, manipulation and overextention of constitutional power and pumping in of yet-to-be-printed money can the ecconoly live on.

Further, the much overused phrase, “too big to fail,” and the policy (or policies) that government claims that the phrase justifies encourages the following:

• Risky business endeavors (and lack of smart ones) proliferate wtih abandon, because the government has demonstrated that it will save them from failure.
• True growers of the economy, those companies and entrepreneurs with business acumen and propensity for success, hold back from re-investing for fear that resultant successes will cause them to be taxed into oblivion.

As far as I’m concerned, we’ve just received another four years of Bush.  When can we add another Prescription Medicin or No Teacher’s Union Child Left Behind program?  Those in government salivate when there is a downturn int he economy and use it as an opportunity to increase their power in the name of recovery and rebuildin.  They reach their tentacles so deep into the economy that it impedes economic growth and then use that as justification to further its reach.  This is modern slavery in its truest form.

Apparently Wall Street wasn’t privy to President Obama’s message of hope and opportunity.  Either that or they were not impressed.  Three of the top losers (lost more than 20% today) were of the banking or financial persuasion.  I would say that there may be a few folks out there who have little confidence in Obama’s plans to “fix” the economy.  Then again, is it really his to fix?

Dow drops more than 4% during Obama inauguration

Bill Ackman is having a great conversation with Charlie Rose.

“Investment banks never had 30-40 times leveraged.”

This guy is making a ton of sense. The problem of easy money, free money without collateral for companies.

This is how the referendum will be worded:

QUESTION:  Shall Loudoun County, Virginia, be authorized to levy a tax, pursuant to Virginia Code Section 58.1-3833(A), on food and beverages sold for human consumption by restaurants and on prepared foods sold ready for human consumption by grocery stores and convenience stores, in an amount not to exceed 4% of the amount charged for such food and beverages, to be used exclusively for school construction projects and school construction debt service?
(     )  YES

(     )  NO

The way it should read is this:

Question: Shall Loudoun County while facing a downturn in our economy, make that downturn even worse by a) making Loudoun County residents and visitors to our county pay MORE for their meal out and b) making sure that restaurants have less money in their pockets to pay their employees. This money is to be used “for the children” though, so even though there really won’t be any extra money, and could potentially make our debt even worse with the added possibilities of closing restaurants, you should feel better that we “care” enough to raise taxes on the hospitality industry in Loudoun.
( ) YES
( ) NO

Anyone that thinks that our Real Estate taxes are going to somehow be miraculously lowered by creating a meals tax is in a dream world. It doesn’t work; it’s never worked. Look at Maryland.

Vote “NO” for the love of God, and for more information please the site for Loudoun Taxpayers for Accountable Government.

Nancy Pelosi wrote last week in the USA Today that “we” (meaning the Congress, of course–she certainly doesn’t mean “We the People”) need to do more.  Another stimulus package.  And it appears that Bernanke is going to support it, even though the Bush Administration has been “cool” to the idea (meaning they will eventually support it, but only after trying to sound like Fiscal Conservatives).

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP!!!

There is NO evidence that the economy will even be slightly “stimulated” by more action by the Fed or Congress.  Their meddling has INCREASED uncertainty, not decreased it, and everything looks obviously like it’s been thrown against the wall to see what’ll stick.

The dirty little secret here, and the thing that noone is willing to say out loud:

“Middle Class” stimulus does not “stimulate” the economy.  The “trickle up” theory has WAY less evidence behind it than the “trickle down” theory.  Tax cuts on the top 1% increase revenues to the government and create jobs.  Tax hikes on the top 1% do the opposite.  Tax cuts to the Middle Class decrease revenues to the Government and have little effect on jobs.

Maybe it’s not “fair” but it’s the facts.

Bernanke’s support of a fiscal stimulus package further proves that he has no confidence that a monetary stimulus package will have any effect at all.  And of course it won’t.  One commentar on MarketWatch called a Bernanke speech, “The ULTIMATE sell signal.”  He’s not far from the truth.

I received this from the Jordanian:

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers,’ he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.’ Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’ They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by
roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so:

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

‘I only got a dollar out of the $20′, declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’

‘Yeah, that’s right’, exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’

‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’

‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.