Obama's put more people on food stamps than any other president, so a new curency has been created with his image on the face. It is most appropriate because unlike the Nobel Peace Prize, for which he did nothing, this is an honor he truly deserves.
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An economist believes we should prepare for a second dip. Guess we better put on our bathings suits before we get 'snuffed' out. (See 1 below.)
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Two comments from dear friends (the latter from a wonderful history teacher) and fellow memo readers:
"Great letter and commentaries. Keep up the excellent work."
"Hi Guy: Could hardly believe it on the national news last night when Brian Wilson pretty much said that all that has been going on with the stock market was because of what was happening in Europe. He even said something about the "poor" President.....trying to celebrate being 50 and indicated that Europe was ruining his BD. So.......(NEVER start a sentence with "so")...... this morning in our SD paper, it is the same story line. What has happened to the economy is what is happening in those beastly European countries. First of all that is hogwash, Europe certainly is a contributor to the mess and deserves its share of the blame, but.....wait a minute......isn't European socialism the big Obama dream? I'm confused. Perhaps you can adjust my perspective on this. By the way.....when will the Jewish community stop supporting this man? Hugs."
I thanked the first and responded to the second that: ' far too many Jews are comitted to self destructive behaviour and a psychiatrist would be better able to answer the question posed.'
But then, after my reponse and seeing this, I decided maybe 'shrinks' don't have all the answers! (See 2 below.)
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Someone said Obama's donors exceed the number of unemployed. (See 3 below.)
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S&P presents Obama a delayed birthday present as it downgrades U.S. debt.
S&P message to Obama - eat your own peas!
The straw that obviously broke the rating agency's back was the debt ceiling agreement which totally disregarded the clear warning of an imminent rating cut. The agreement signalled Congress and the president were not serious about cutting spending.
Our elected leaders crafted a political instrument that took pressure off Obama until after the election, demonstrated we were still increasing our debt by over 7 trillion dollars and the structured commitment to cut future spending was both unserious and the prospect of it truly happening was viewed as being ephemeral.
In other words, Congress and Obama felt comfortable they could get away with throwing acid in S&P's face - behaviour Congress and past presidents have been engaged in for decades.
S&P decided it was now time to stop the nation's 'devalued buck!' (See 4 below.)
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A repeat of a list of specific cuts that would make a good beginning but will probably never happen because it means goring bloated pet oxen by future Congresspersons. History proves they never measure up to their responsibility and trust.
Remember Obama's 'unserious' budget was rejected by members of his own party. The Senate, controlled by Democrats, has not presented their own budget.
Yet, it is the Tea Partyers who are branded terrorists because they demand a balanced budget be presented for a vote. (See 5 below.)
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Dick
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1) Wiedemer: Get Ready for Second Recession, Inflation
In an exclusive Newsmax interview, financial guru Robert Wiedemer says that the American economy is facing a double-barreled threat — a recession is “absolutely” coming and inflation will be the “biggest problem” of all. The "Aftershock" author attributes Thursday’s stock market plunge to quantitative easing, which produced a "quick high" and an inevitable crash once the government stopped printing money.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2) EVER SINCE I WAS A CHILD, I'VE ALWAYS HAD A FEAR OF SOMEONE UNDER MY
BED AT NIGHT. SO I WENT TO A SHRINK AND TOLD HIM:
'I've got problems. Every time I go to bed I think there's somebody >
under it. I'm scared. I think I'm going crazy.'
'Just put yourself in my hands for one year,' said the shrink. 'Come talk to me three times a week and we should be able to get rid of those fears..'
'How much do you charge?' 'Eighty dollars per visit,' replied the doctor.
'I'll sleep on it,' I said.
Six months later the doctor met me on the street. 'Why didn't you come to see me about those fears you were having?' he asked.
'Well, Eighty bucks a visit three times a week for a year is an awful lot of money! A bartender cured me for $10. I was so happy to have saved all that money that I went and bought me a new pickup!'
'Is that so!' With a bit of an attitude he said, 'and how, may I ask,did a bartender cure you?'
'He told me to cut the legs off the bed! - Ain't nobody under there now!!!'
FORGET THE SHRINKS.. HAVE A DRINK & TALK TO A BARTENDER
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3)Obama Wants $71,600 for Power Dinner
By Martin Gould
The parties just keep coming for birthday-boy Barack Obama. After a Chicago fund-raiser the night before he turned 50 and a White House party on the big ay, a third event is now planned for New York.This time it is high-powered movie mogul Harvey Weinstein who will host the
president at his Big Apple home, reports the New York Post.
And despite being described as "a small dinner and discussion" on the invitation, it will raise $2 million for the president's reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee. According to the NYP, the cost per couple to chow down is $71,600.
The event, at Weinstein's West Village apartment is being co-hosted by Vogue editor Anna Wintour. Confirmed guests include actress Gwyneth Paltrow and her husband Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, R and B singer Alicia Keys and moviemaker Quentin Tarantino. Madonna was also invited but can't make it, the Post reported.
The party, set for next Thursday, was postponed from its original July 18
date because of the ongoing debate about raising the debt ceiling
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4)..United States loses AAA credit rating from S&P
By Walter Brandimarte
The United States lost its top-notch AAA credit rating from Standard & Poor's on Friday in an unprecedented reversal of fortune for the world's largest economy.
S&P cut the long-term U.S. credit rating by one notch to AA-plus on concerns about the government's budget deficits and rising debt burden. The move is likely to raise borrowing costs eventually for the American government, companies and consumers.
"The downgrade reflects our opinion that the fiscal consolidation plan that Congress and the Administration recently agreed to falls short of what, in our view, would be necessary to stabilize the government's medium-term debt dynamics," S&P said in a statement.
The decision follows a fierce political battle in Congress over cutting spending and raising taxes to reduce the government's debt burden and allow its statutory borrowing limit to be raised.
On August 2, President Barack Obama signed legislation designed to reduce the fiscal deficit by $2.1 trillion over 10 years. But that was well short of the $4 trillion in savings S&P had called for as a good "down payment" on fixing America's finances.
The White House maintained silence in the immediate aftermath of S&P downgrade.
The political gridlock in Washington and the failure to seriously address U.S. long-term fiscal problems came against the backdrop of slowing U.S. economic growth and led to the worst week in the U.S. stock market in two years.
The S&P 500 stock index fell 10.8 percent in the past 10 trading days on concerns that the U.S. economy may head into another recession and because the European debt crisis has been growing worse as it spreads to Italy.
U.S. Treasury bonds, once undisputedly seen as the safest security in the world, are now rated lower than bonds issued by countries such as Britain, Germany, France or Canada.
'DAUNTING' IMPLICATIONS
As the focus for investors shifted from the debate in Washington to the outlook for the global economy, even with the prospect of a downgrade, 30-year long bonds had their best week since December 2008 during the depth of the financial crisis.
Yields on 10-year notes, a benchmark for borrowing rates throughout the economy fell as far as 2.34 percent on Friday -- their lowest since October 2010 -- also very low by historical standards.
"To some extent, I would expect when Tokyo opens on Sunday, that we will see an initial knee-jerk sell-off (in Treasuries) followed by a rally," said Ian Lyngen, senior government bond strategist at CRT Capital Group in Stamford, Connecticut.
The outlook on the new U.S. credit rating is "negative," S&P said in a statement, a sign that another downgrade is possible in the next 12 to 18 months.
"The long-term implications are daunting. Short-term, Treasuries remain a premier safe-haven refuge," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank in Chicago.
BORROWING COSTS COULD RISE
The impact of S&P's move was tempered by a decision from Moody's Investors Service earlier this week that confirmed, for now, the U.S. Aaa rating. Fitch Ratings said it is still reviewing the rating and will issue its opinion by the end of the month.
"It's not entirely unexpected. I believe it has already been partly priced into the dollar. We expect some further pressure on the U.S. dollar, but a sharp sell-off is in our view unlikely," said Vassili Serebriakov, currency strategist at Wells Fargo in New York.
"One of the reasons we don't really think foreign investors will start selling U.S. Treasuries aggressively is because there are still few alternatives to the U.S. Treasury market in terms of depth and liquidity," Serebriakov added.
S&P's move is also likely to concern foreign creditors especially China, which holds more than $1 trillion of U.S. debt. Beijing has repeatedly urged Washington to protect its U.S. dollar investments by addressing its budget problem.
Obama administration officials grew increasingly frustrated with the rating agency through the debt limit debate and have accused S&P of changing the goal posts in its downgrade warnings, sources familiar with talks between the administration and the ratings firm have said.
The downgrade could add up to 0.7 of a percentage point to U.S. Treasuries' yields over time, increasing funding costs for public debt by some $100 billion, according to SIFMA, a U.S. securities industry trade group.
S&P had placed the U.S. credit rating on review for a possible downgrade on July 14 on concerns that Congress was not adequately addressing the government fiscal deficit of about $1.4 trillion this year, or about 9.0 percent of gross domestic product, one of the highest since World War II.
The unprecedented downgrade of the nation's AAA credit rating by a major ratings agency comes only 15 months before the next presidential election where the downgrade and the debt will be top issues for debate.
Bitter political battles remain over the ideologically fraught issues of spending cuts and tax reform.
The compromise reached by Republicans and Democrats this week calls for the creation of a bipartisan congressional committee to find $1.5 trillion of deficit cuts by late November, beyond the $917 billion already identified.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5) These are all the programs that the new Republican House has proposed cutting. Read to the end.
•Corporation for Public Broadcasting Subsidy. $445 million annual savings.
•Save America 's Treasures Program. $25 million annual savings.
•International Fund for Ireland . $17 million annual savings.
•Legal Services Corporation. $420 million annual savings.
•National Endowment for the Arts. $167.5 million annual savings.
•National Endowment for the Humanities. $167.5 million annual savings.
•Hope VI Program. $250 million annual savings.
•Amtrak Subsidies. $1.565 billion annual savings.
•Eliminate duplicative education programs. H.R. 2274 (in last Congress), authored by Rep. McKeon, eliminates 68 at a savings of $1.3 billion annually.
•U.S. Trade Development Agency. $55 million annual savings.
•Woodrow Wilson Center Subsidy. $20 million annual savings.
•Cut in half funding for congressional printing and binding. $47 million annual savings.
•John C. Stennis Center Subsidy. $430,000 annual savings.
•Community Development Fund. $4.5 billion annual savings.
•Heritage Area Grants and Statutory Aid. $24 million annual savings.
•Cut Federal Travel Budget in Half. $7.5 billion annual savings
•Trim Federal Vehicle Budget by 20%. $600 million annual savings.
•Essential Air Service. $150 million annual savings.
•Technology Innovation Program. $70 million annual savings.
•Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Program. $125 million annual savings.
•Department of Energy Grants to States for Weatherization. $530 million annual savings.
•Beach Replenishment. $95 million annual savings.
•New Starts Transit. $2 billion annual savings.
•Exchange Programs for Alaska , Natives Native Hawaiians, and Their Historical Trading Partners in Massachusetts . $9 million annual savings
•Intercity and High Speed Rail Grants. $2.5 billion annual savings.
•Title X Family Planning. $318 million annual savings.
•Appalachian Regional Commission. $76 million annual savings.
•Economic Development Administration. $293 million annual savings.
•Programs under the National and Community Services Act. $1.15 billion annual savings.
•Applied Research at Department of Energy. $1.27 billion annual savings.
•FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership. $200 million annual savings.
•Energy Star Program. $52 million annual savings.
•Economic Assistance to Egypt . $250 million annually.
•U.S. Agency for International Development. $1.39 billion annual savings.
•General Assistance to District of Columbia . $210 million annual savings.
•Subsidy for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. $150 million annual savings.
•Presidential Campaign Fund. $775 million savings over ten years.
•No funding for federal office space acquisition. $864 million annual savings.
•End prohibitions on competitive sourcing of government services.
•Repeal the Davis-Bacon Act. More than $1 billion annually.
•IRS Direct Deposit: Require the IRS to deposit fees for some services it offers (such as processing payment plans for taxpayers) to the Treasury, instead of allowing it to remain as part of its budget. $1.8 billion savings over ten years.
•Require collection of unpaid taxes by federal employees. $1 billion total savings.WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
•Prohibit taxpayer funded union activities by federal employees. $1.2 billion savings over ten years.
•Sell excess federal properties the government does not make use of. $15 billion total savings.
•Eliminate death gratuity for Members of Congress.
•Eliminate Mohair Subsidies. $1 million annual savings.
•Eliminate taxpayer subsidies to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. $12.5 million annual savings
•Eliminate Market Access Program. $200 million annual savings.
•USDA Sugar Program. $14 million annual savings.
•Subsidy to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). $93 million annual savings.
•Eliminate the National Organic Certification Cost-Share Program. $56.2 million annual savings.
•Eliminate fund for Obamacare administrative costs. $900 million savings.
•Ready to Learn TV Program. $27 million savings..
•HUD Ph.D. Program.
•Deficit Reduction Check-Off Act.
•TOTAL SAVINGS: $2.5 Trillion over Ten Years
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