paulseglund

The government says it'll be a few weeks before it has the data to decide whether to extend the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit. The IRS' internal watchdog is about to warn the agency for the fourth time about fraud related to the credit - up to $489M possibly granted to unqualified applicants. And Rex Nutting says to kill this ineffective, wasteful subsidy.

Not to mention being unfair to legitimate home buyers that never got a dime of support from these idiotic government schemes.

Stanford professor John Taylor thinks government intervention - the unpredictable and unprincipled brand practiced by Geithner & Co. - did more to fuel the fires of crisis than it did to extinguish them.

Its like Kashkari admitting that the Fed & Treasury knew the problems in 2007 yet still kept telling everyone that things were fine. Anyone in private industry might be peering out from a cell by misleading people like that. I agree-the government is the problem right now & they need to do something to enhance our competitive position as a nation or this will be a very long recession.

As part of an overhaul of the Enforcement Division announced last month, the SEC has reportedly hired Adam Storch, 29-year-old ex-Goldman Sachs (GS) fraud analyst, as the unit's first chief operating officer.

Ha ha ha that is a good one. 29 yr old heading up enforcement & from GS to boot-incredible. In another related move Ahmadjihad has been named new religion czar.

Senate Democrats introduce legislation that would extend unemployment insurance benefits for up to two million Americans, some of whom could collect for up to 99 weeks.

Did I hear you correctly "welfare is not socialism"? It is income redistribution so what else do you call it? The eastern europeans do have it right when after 90 days if you cannot find work, then you don't get any more benefits. I am very concerned about the future of our country as it seems to get more ridiculous every day.


On Oct 08 06:37 PM nova wrote:

> tunaman4u2 wrote:
> " We really aren't too far off of socialism eh?"
>
> Socialism has very little to do with welfare. Socialism is redistribution
> of wealth instead of welfare.
>
> Soviet's socialism was simple: people who don't work do NOT eat.
> This is the real socialism.
>
> L. Johnson's "Great Society" welfare system is what the present President
> and Congress are trying to emulate.
>
> The bottom line: the US politicians do believe that printing money
> will solve all problems without any adverse consequences.

With the breakdown in talks with Penske Automotive Group (PAG) over acquiring Saturn, GM says it will wind down the brand and its 350-dealership network. The Penske deal would have saved more than 13,000 Saturn jobs.

That is bad news. I thought Penske could have at least designed quality cars to keep that part of the US auto industry going. Probably does not help when you have to negotiate with the government & more jobs are gone as a result.

August Existing Home Sales: Down 2.7% to 5.1M/year vs. consensus of 5.4M and 5.24M in July. Sales remain 3.4% higher than a year ago. NAR's Lawrence Yun was upbeat despite the decline after four months of growth, but said the drop "demonstrates we can’t take a housing rebound for granted."

Why not just let the market sort it out without subsidies & tax breaks? Yes you should be able to claim a corresponding capital loss if you did lose money on a transaction but that is subject to fraud based upon claimed capital improvements.

The TurboTax defense fails in U.S. Tax Court for two Ohio residents, who were not under consideration for government posts.

Who knows all the sordid details but it helps being well connected-now more than ever.

"Cash-for-clunkers": Now that it's slowing, was it just another bubble, and is it back to overcapacity for us? The unintended consequences of the program are piling up. Derek Thompson: The program is still a clunker.

Is it really good for the environment when you remove good cars and crush them that someone could use (charities or low income) so we can subsidize the people that can afford a new car? Of course it is not good for our wheezing capitalist system & this will be on life support if idiots think it works so well and will try to expand it to other industries.

The U.S. and Germany are already out of recession, Barclays says, signaling the end of the global contraction. "In short, we have grown in confidence that the rebound that started in Asia early in the year has now become a truly global rebound."

I wonder when business will get better for anyone that I know. Haven't seen it yet-are the economic numbers only based on political connections now?

Given the steepness of the fall, conventional wisdom dictates the recovery from this recession will be long and painful. But, if historical evidence is to be trusted, the same economists that were too optimistic on the way down, are being too pessimistic about the rebound. "Very few recessions last longer than two years. And most recoveries, once they start, are strong."

The comparisons are no longer valid because the recoveries occurred when we were a capitalist society and not burdened by excessive government regulation and taxes.

CIT: A Win-Win Trade Idea

With favored bankers GS & JPM talking to them, maybe a deal happens that is coerced by the government to save some face a la Bear Stearns.

Sen. Chuck Schumer endorses the own-to-rent proposal, which would let homeowners who can't afford mortgage payments remain in their homes as renters. Felix Salmon thinks it's a great idea; others demur.

Just another way for the government to control you. Lets see we would have financial, energy, healthcare, living arrangements, food restrictions-what else is there to control? Maybe everyone should read Orwell's 1984 again. Where are the voices saying enough already?

Krugman continues to push for a second Obama stimulus: "What Mr. Obama needs to do is level with the American people. He needs to admit that he may not have done enough on the first try."

Some government spending is necessary of course but we need to get back to the basics-defense, judicial, infrastructure upgrades and maintenance and education. Don't spend a dime overseas and implement a flat tax to replace the income tax. Lets see what happens in 5 years and then decide if capitalism works-we could be more like Switzerland. Unfortunately it will never happen as there are too many people that have already paid into programs like social security & medicare that rightly expect to see their benefits paid back. And all those people whose jobs & livelihood depend on the dole. I see Schumer stole Paul O'Niell's idea about funding every child at birth to replace social security. With the power of compounding, that idea will work but the initial deposit is more like $5000+.

Some tense debate in the U.S. House as a final vote on cap-and-trade nears. Rep. Devin Nunes of Calif.: The bill is designed to "satisfy the twisted desires of radical environmentalists." Texas' Joe Barton: "An economic disaster bill." President Obama stated the charge to consumers would be "a postage stamp per day" over 10 years. (previously)

Another nail in the coffin for the US and the economy. How do we compete with China now hamstrung with this monstrosiity? As always the cost estimates are far too low and when it does not work, taxes will again go up.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs admits unemployment will likely climb to 10% within the next few months.

Why is the media not asking questions about where the 5m jobs or was it 3.5m or 600k jobs that all of our money was supposed to generate then to save then to vanish? It was a sham and a waste all along, just like all the other programs espoused by this administration.