Economy // Current TV

A dream foreclosed: Paul Kiel on Sheila Ramos' story, dangers of mortgage fraud

"Viewpoint" host Eliot Spitzer and Paul Kiel, author of "The Great... more

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Obama calls Ronald Reagan a ‘wild-eyed, socialist, tax-hiking class warrior’

By David Ferguson Wednesday, April 11, 2012 16:06 EDT President Obama made the... more

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Bernanke to Congress: We're Much Closer to Total Destruction Than You Think

From February but found it to be significant:

Official Congressional budget estimates understate the peril of rising debt, Fed chair Ben Bernanke told the Budget Committee on Capitol Hill today.

Warning that our nation's fiscal health has deteriorated appreciably since the onset of the financial crisis and the recession, Bernanke called upon lawmakers to confront the long term fiscal challenges sooner rather than later. If lawmakers don't confront them, they'll find themselves confronted by them.

From Bernanke's prepared remarks:

"By definition, the unsustainable trajectories of deficits and debt that the CBO outlines cannot actually happen, because creditors would never be willing to lend to a government with debt, relative to national income, that is rising without limit. One way or the other, fiscal adjustments sufficient to stabilize the federal budget must occur at some point. The question is whether these adjustments will take place through a careful and deliberative process that weighs priorities and gives people adequate time to adjust to changes in government programs or tax policies, or whether the needed fiscal adjustments will come as a rapid and painful response to a looming or actual fiscal crisis."

Bernanke explained that the Congressional Budget Office's calculations miss an important reality. As the government's debt and deficits rise, the economy will slow down—an effect not taken into account by the CBO. So, for instance, when the CBO says that federal spending for health-care programs will roughly double as a percentage of GDP in the next 25 years, it is probably being too optimistic. If debt keeps, rising, GDP will be much lower than the CBO estimates—which will mean that health care spending will be a much larger percentage of the overall economy.

Here's Bernanke on the effect of rising debt:

"Sustained high rates of government borrowing would both drain funds away from private investment and increase our debt to foreigners, with adverse long-run effects on U.S. output, incomes, and standards of living. Moreover, diminishing investor confidence that deficits will be brought under control would ultimately lead to sharply rising interest rates on government debt and, potentially, to broader financial turmoil. In a vicious circle, high and rising interest rates would cause debt-service payments on the federal debt to grow even faster, resulting in further increases in the debt-to-GDP ratio and making fiscal adjustment all the more difficult."

In short, the official estimates members of Congress hear from their budget office are under-estimating our dire economic predicament. If fiscal policy is not brought under control, things will be much, much worse.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/41491193/Bernanke_to_Congress_We_re_Much_Closer_to_Total_Destruction_Than_You_ThinkFrom February but found it to be significant: Official Congressional budget... more

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Article: Pollyannas of Population Growth: Fooled by the Culture Gap

we can't keep growing for every...

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Article: Getting the Market to Tell the Truth

it's about a true cost economy and how to get there.

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Occupy's Plans to Take Down Bank of America

As part of a “Spring Preview” back in late February, about fifty... more

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Matt Taibbi: Why Obama's JOBS Act Couldn't Suck Worse

Boy, do I feel like an idiot. I've been out there on radio and TV in the last few... more

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Fox News host: Dems ‘invented’ war on women because ‘stimulus didn’t work’

By David Edwards Monday, April 9, 2012 12:15 EDT One Fox News host on Monday... more

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Mitt Romney versus Reality

"Oh Mitt, I almost feel Sorry for You, LOL!!!!" =)... more

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How Obama Can Cut Gas Prices And Lose The 2012 Elections

President Obama can cut gasoline prices by one third. On any Sunday night while the markets are closed he can announce the following:

"I have decided to tone down the confrontation with Iran as it does not accomplish anything for America but does indeed harm American consumers by gouging them 2.5 billion dollars a week in higher gasoline prices. And these rising prices come at a time when the world is consuming less and producing more oil. Someone is clearly violating the laws of supply and demand and probably many of our anti-trust legal codes as well.

There is no Iranian nuclear weapons program. Iran has 20% grade nuclear fuel which is not sufficient to sustain a nuclear reaction to make an atomic bomb. All Iran has is a nuclear power plant and a medical isotopes program. Bombing it would be a violation of international law and would kill tens of millions of America’s friends in Azerbaijan, Pakistan, India, China, Burma and elsewhere

The President of Iran never said he was going to wipe Israel off the map. That was a deliberate mistranslation which is to say a lie. We were lied to about the Iraqi Weapons of Mass Destruction to get us into the Iraq war and about the Gulf of Tonkin incident to trick us into the Vietnam war. We can no longer afford as a nation to spend trillions of dollars on lies. Therefore I am announcing tonight a reduction of forces in the Persian Gulf and nearby states,

To save consumers 2.5 billion dollars a week by lowering the price of oil $35 a barrel I will take the following steps to properly regulate excessive speculation:

I will ban Commodity Index Swaps and Synthetic Exchange Traded Funds. Additionally, I will order Gary Gensler, the Chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commissions, to double the margin requirement on oil futures. If that does not work, I will double the margin requirements again. I will also order Chairman Gensler to limit the share of the speculative oil futures market that can be owned by any one firm. Neither Goldman Sachs nor Morgan Stanley nor JP Morgan has any real need to own more than 5% of the market in any given commodity. Professionals call this position limits.

Of course the above speech will cost Obama his presidency. You would think that the independents and Republicans who are opposed to war without limit and do not trust Romney with his ties to Israel and to Hedge Funds will line up to vote for Obama. They will never have a chance to vote for anyone who is opposed to the excesses of Wall Street and Israel."

The Israel Lobby will go into 24 hour attack mode on the President. Out will come the Obama is a Muslim and Obama is gay campaigns. These attacks will give cover and justification to the birther issue which they would use at the state level to knock Obama off the ballot.President Obama can cut gasoline prices by one third. On any Sunday night while the... more