America's Best and Brightest. That Sucking Sound You Hear is Your Money Going Into Their Pockets.....

Stuffing YOUR Money Right Into THEIR Own Pockets-America's Best and Brightest Taking You To the Cleaners....They are still living in multi-million dollar homes in Chappaqua and Greenwich, sailing on their yachts and flying in their private jets....WHAT WILL YOU DO? 

Origins of The Economic Crisis - Jeff Frankel's Weblog

"Every two years, Harvard Kennedy School hosts the newly elected Members of Congress for a three-day “briefing” on a wide variety of topics.   We had an excellent turnout this week: 40 of the 50 new congresspeople, from both parties.    I participated in a panel titled “Understanding the Economic Crisis,”  along with Greg Mankiw, Elizabeth Warren and Robert Lawrence  (on video).    

Trying to explain the origins of the financial crisis and recession in ten minutes, even to the extent any of us understands it, was a tall order.    But I tried to cram it all into a single slide."

Really Folks, How Much Of This Are We Going To Take?

The fruit of hypocrisy

"Houses of cards, chickens coming home to roost - pick your cliche. The new low in the financial crisis, which has prompted comparisons with the 1929 Wall Street crash, is the fruit of a pattern of dishonesty on the part of financial institutions, and incompetence on the part of policymakers.

We had become accustomed to the hypocrisy. The banks reject any suggestion they should face regulation, rebuff any move towards anti-trust measures - yet when trouble strikes, all of a sudden they demand state intervention: they must be bailed out; they are too big, too important to be allowed to fail."

And billions of OUR dollars continue to pour into THEIR pockets....

Where Are The People?

Who Wants to Kick a Millionaire?
"What will it take for the American people to say "enough"?

"Last week ABC News asked 16 of the banks that have received handouts from the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program the same two direct questions: How have you used that money, and how much have you spent on bonuses this year? Most refused to answer."

"Banks that were rescued with billions of dollars in public funds have, in most cases, refused to provide specifics about how they have used or intend to use the money."

When will the American people wake up and have a tea party? 

Where Will Dick Retire To? No Extradition, No Way, No How.....

Hey, he's already got friends there.....http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Politics/story?id=2943017

R.I.P.

On December 9 Rush Limbaugh, referencing an article posted on ABCnews.com titled “The Most Stolen Cars in the US” made the following absurd claim;

“RUSH: Quick, folks, what are the two most stolen cars in America, according to Forbes.com?  Two most stolen cars in America.  If you said the Escalade, you're right, if you said Hummer, you're right.  SUVs.  Why?  Not because they can strip 'em and ship parts overseas.  It's because those are the cars people want.  They're General Motors products.  Escalade and a Hummer.  That's what people want, but what are we going to make for them?  A bunch of crap!  Well, yeah, crime will go down.  Who's going to want to steal crap?”

To begin with, Hummers and Escalades are NOT the most stolen cars in the US, that honor goes to the 1995 Honda Civic according to State Farm Insurance.  Here’s the complete list:

1.  1995 Honda Civic
2.  1991 Honda Accord
3.  1989 Toyota Camry
4.  1997 Ford F150 Series
5.  1994 Chevrolet C/K 1500 Pickup
6.  1994 Acura Integra
7.  2004 Dodge Ram Pickup
8.  1994 Nissan Sentra
9.  1988 Toyota Pickup
10. 2007 Toyota Corolla

No Rush, “people” don’t want Hummer’s and Escalade’s, thieves do. Limbaugh’s stock-in-trade is spin. He reports only those things that benefit his own political agenda and spins the rest. Lies, half-truths, untruths, misrepresentation, straw-man arguments and innuendo are what’s in his toolbox. 

Hummer’s and Escalade’s are not the “most stolen” cars in the US, they have, according to State Farm, the highest  “theft claim rates”. Read the details; theft claim rates are based upon the cost of the vehicle and the number of them sold.

 According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Highway Loss
Data Institute, the 2003-05 model Cadillac Escalade EXT and Cadillac Escalade 4dr have theft claim rates seven to eight times the average for all cars.

Highest Theft Claim Frequencies, 2003-05 Model Passenger Vehicles:

1. Cadillac Escalade EXT 4dr 4WD
2. Cadillac Escalade 4dr
3. GMC Savana 1500 cargo
4. Dodge Ram 1500 quad

Which newer cars are stolen the least?

Lowest Theft Claim Frequencies, 2003-05 Model Passenger Vehicles:

1. Ford Taurus
2. Pontiac Vibe 4WD
3. Buick LeSabre
4. Buick Park Avenue 4dr

Back in October one of the nation’s largest Hummer dealers “Towbin Hummer” located in Las Vegas closed its doors due to a huge DECREASE in sales,  and trust me, Vegas is a Hummer kind of town. A Towbin sales person told me yesterday that they still have 13 unsold on their lot. Who wants to buy a dinosaur really cheap?

Towbin Motorcars is one of the most prominent auto dealers in the western US. Towbin sells Bentley’s, Rolls Royce’s, and now, the Mercedes Smart Car. Yes, Towbin has replaced Hummer with Smart. Undoubtedly a smart move.

 

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the rest would have us believe that “The Big Three” US automakers are in trouble because of onerous regulations imposed by the US government. As usual, the “conservative right” manipulates the information to prove their point. No boys, the problem is that GM, Chrysler and to a lesser extent make products that no one wants to buy.  

Something That You Need To Read Today.....

Newly elected members of Congress hear dismal economic forecast at Harvard conference

By JEREMY P. JACOBS, PolitickerMA.com Reporter

Politicker Photo

Newly elected members of Congress listen to panelists discuss the current economic crisis

CAMBRIDGE - Forty newly elected members of Congress gathered Thursday morning to hear some of Massachusetts' finest economists discuss the current crisis and possible remedies.

And one thing became clear very quickly: No one knows a surefire way out of the mess.

The forum took place at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government as part of its four-day conference this week for recently elected members of Congress. It featured panelists with economic expertise from the Kennedy School, Harvard's economics department and Harvard's law school.

Jeffrey Frankel, an economics professor at the Kennedy School and former member of President Bill Clinton's council of economic advisors, summed up the tone of the meeting in his opening remarks.

"No one thoroughly understands the economic crisis," Frankel said.

As the representative-elects listened intently, Frankel discussed what he viewed as the causes for the current crisis, tracing it back to the subprime mortgage crisis that hit in the summer of 2007. On Monday, the NBER Business Cycle Dating Committee, of which Frankel is a member, announced that the recession began in December of 2007 and has not ended. That makes it longer than the country's previous two recessions.

"Everyone expects the recession to continue at least into the middle of 2009," Frankel said.

Gregory Mankiw, an economics professor at Harvard University, said that the current downturn is "one of those areas where economists do not see through a single lens" and that "it is very hard for anyone in your shoes to figure out what is the right thing to do."

Mankiw said the root of the problem was many financial institutions betting that housing prices nationwide would not drop by 20 percent, which they haven't since the 1930s. When those prices did drop 20 percent, it shook the foundation of those institutions investments.

Mankiw said that economists are looking at three areas for ways to fix the current problem: monetary policy, fiscal policy and fixing the financial system. On fiscal policy, which Congress controls, Mankiw said the tension is between cutting taxes and increasing government spending to create jobs and, therefore, increase consumer spending. Most textbooks, Mankiw said, agree that an influx of government spending most effectively accomplishes that goal. But, he added, not all economists agree on that point.

"I don't think the economics community has a very clear answer on that question," he said.

Elizabeth Warren, a professor at Harvard Law School and a member of the newly appointed committee charged with overseeing the Wall Street bailout package, pointed to demographical factors for the economic problems. Fully employed males, she said, make less money now than they did in the 1970s when adjusted for inflation. However, spending on housing, healthcare, child care, transportation and taxes has increased, Warren said, which has lead to more debt and less saving. Warren also prescribed establishing a Consumer Product Safety Commission to monitor financial consumer products.

"Every can of soda, every candy, everything we touch," she said, "is regulated for safety at some level...and yet financial products are not governed by that; they are governed by contracts."

The newly-elected members of Congress listened silently throughout the panelist opened remarks and then posed a few questions before session adjourned.

The new members that are attending the conference include the following, listed alphabetically by state:

Parker Griffith (AL-5, D)

Ann Kirpatrick (AZ-01, D)

Jackie Speier (CA-12, D)

Laura Richardson (CA-37, D)

Jared Polis (CO-02, D)

Mike Coffman (CO-06, R)

Jim Himes (CT-04, D)

Alan Grayson (FL-8, D)

Bill Posey (FL-15, R)

Tom Rooney (FL-16, R)

Suzanne Kosmas (FL-24, D)

Debbie Halvorson (IL-11, D)

Bill Foster (IL-14, D)

Aaron Schock (IL-18, R)

Steve Scalise (LA-01, R)

Niki Tsongas (MA-05, D)

Frank Kratovil (MD-01, D)

Chellie Pingree (ME-01, D)

Mark Schauer (MI-07, D)

Gary Peters (MI-09, D)

Erik Paulsen (MN-03, R)

Larry Kissell (NC-08, D)

John Adler (NJ-03, D)

Leonard Lance (NJ-07, R)

Martin Heinrich (NM-01, D)

Harry Teague (NM-02, D)

Ben Lujan (NM-03, D)

Paul Tonko (NY-21, D)

Dan Maffei (NY-25, D)

Chris Lee (NY-26, R)

Steve Driehaus (OH-1, D)

Marcia Fudge (OH-11, D)

John Boccieri (OH-16, D)

Kathy Dahlkemper (PA-03, D)

Pedro Pierluisi (PR-AL, D)

Jason Chaffetz (UT-03, R)

Glenn Nye (VA-2, D)

Tom Perriello (VA-05, D)

Gerry Connolly (VA-11, D)

Cynthia Lummis (WY-AL, R)

Jeremy P. Jacobs is a PolitickerMA.com Reporter and can be reached via email at jeremy.jacobs@politickerma.com.

America Doesn't Need a Transportation Bill, We Need a Transportation POLICY

There is a thread on National Journal Experts Blog Transportation:

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2008

How To Write The Next Transportation Bill?

Although we don't have a new Transportation secretary yet, we do know that the most important task that person will face will be guiding the reauthorization of the surface transportation law (SAFETEA-LU), which expires Sept. 30, 2009. The nation's transportation needs have changed and expanded dramatically since the Eisenhower administration launched the Interstate System in 1956. At the same time, the fuels tax that has funded the program since its inception can no longer serve as the sole source of revenue as people drive more fuel-efficient vehicles. What do you think the new secretary's top five priorities should be for updating the law to meet the nation's 21st-century transportation needs?

-- Lisa Caruso, NationalJournal.com 

Isn't the formation of a 21st century transportation "policy" really what is called for?

President Obama should elevate the position of Secretary of Transportation to the same level of importance that he says he is raising the Secretary of Commerce to. 

A strong Secretary of Transportation, working in concert with a strong Secretary of Energy to develope policy's needed by us is impaerative if we are to develope the new transportation and energy sources that we so badly need.