Economy

“If Congress needs just three weeks to pass a Wall Street bailout, then we should be able to count on our leaders to pass Main Street relief with as much urgency.”

— Andy Stern

From Bloomberg:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he wants to slow consideration of the economic stimulus package Democrats are drafting, warning that the measure sought by President-elect Barack Obama invites wasteful spending.

“A trillion-dollar spending bill would be the largest spending bill in the history of our country at a time when our national debt is already the largest in history,” McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement. “As a result, it will require tough scrutiny and oversight. Taxpayers, already stretched to the limit, deserve nothing less.”

Caution… restraint… those are very novel concepts in Congress. I wonder where Mitch McConnell has been for the last eight years. That’s right… he was Republican leader for the last two years and majority whip for the four years before that and has consistently and unreservedly supported the Republican president of the last eight years who set an incredible example of spending “caution” and “restraint” …

(CBSNews.com) — With no fanfare and little notice, the national debt has grown by more than $4 trillion during George W. Bush’s presidency.

It’s the biggest increase under any president in U.S history.

On the day President Bush took office, the national debt stood at $5.727 trillion. The latest number from the Treasury Department shows the national debt now stands at more than $9.849 trillion. That’s a 71.9 percent increase on Mr. Bush’s watch.

And that story doesn’t even account for the hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars that’s been spent since as party of this administration’s haphazardly executed economic bailout plan.

Again, I ask, where was Mitch McConnell and his “fiscally conservative” Republican colleagues when his president was nearly doubling the national debt in his administration alone. But, then again, Republican presidents haven’t had the best track record when it comes to “caution” and “restraint” in spending or fiscal responsibility…

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So, why is it that Mitch McConnell all of a sudden cares about “caution” and “restraint” in spending now that a new president — a Democratic president — is coming into office? Because it’s about partisan politics, not principle. While I would agree that we need “caution” and “restraint,” Mitch McConnell has no room to talk about fiscal responsibility. His actions have spoken volumes more than his rhetorically empty words.

“Jimmie Dale Martin, Esquire” rarely disappoints when it comes to non sequitur, straw man and pull-it-out-of-my-ass hilarity. In response to one of my posts yesterday, “Indignant about the indifference,” Jimmie Dale commented…

Thank you President Bush for the low gas prices and for keeping us terrorist killing spree free.

First of all, I don’t know how President Bush can be credited for the low gas prices other than his policies that have contributed to a global economic downturn, which in turn reduced demand for oil and gas because more and more people couldn’t afford it, which led to a sudden and drastic drop in oil prices. But for the sake of argument, let’s accept Mr. Martin’s premise that this is something to thank Bush for.

What are some other things we can “thank” President Bush for? Continued

On top of the economic crisis and the hundreds of billions (a likely trillions) the bailouts will cost taxpayers, add to those numbers the looming burden of the wars were still waging. U.S. News reports:

The U.S. government has already spent $904 billion since 2001 to wage wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and both of those conflicts are far from over.

And even if the number of combat troops declines as planned, the final price tag for the wars by 2018 will be between $1.3 trillion and $1.7 trillion, according to a study released by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonpartisan policy research group.

As President Bush returns from his final presidential tours of the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the CSBA study warns that the additional burden of accrued interest payments could easily push that tab to $2.5 trillion, depending on how the cost is financed.

That’s a steep price, even compared with past conflicts. “In real (inflation-adjusted) terms, the war in Iraq alone has already cost more than every past U.S. war but World War II,” the study finds. Cost estimates by the administration on the eve of the war, meanwhile, proved to be wildly optimistic and unrealistic. “Costs have already exceeded initial administration estimates by roughly an order of magnitude,” the report adds.

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George W. Bush is definitely leaving behind a legacy that will be remembered for generations — an overwhelming debt that will impact taxpayers for generations to come. Heckuva job, Bushie!

The Congressional Oversight Panel for Economic Stabilization, established by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (i.e. the $700 Bailout Package), issued their first report late last week. In this video, Chairperson Elizabeth Warren introduces the report.

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You can download the first report here. You can visit the COP website here.

From CNNMoney.com:

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said Monday that the $10 million bonus reportedly being considered for Merrill Lynch’s chief executive John Thain is “nothing less than shocking.”

In a strongly worded letter sent to members of Merrill’s board of directors, Cuomo points out that the brokerage reported losses for every quarter this year, and has lost more than $11 billion in 2008.

He added that Bank of America’s takeover of Merrill, which was formally approved by shareholders Friday, “seems to have been the only thing that saved Merrill from collapse.”

“Clearly, the performance of Merrill’s top executives throughout Merrill’s abysmal year in no way justifies significant bonuses for its top executives, including the CEO,” Cuomo said in the letter.

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It takes some really big balls to want a bonus after overseeing the collapse of a financial services giant during your brief tenure as its leader.

CNN reports:

Paul Nawrocki says he’s beyond the point where he cares about humiliation.

That’s why he weekly takes a 90-minute train ride to New York, where he walks the streets wearing a sandwich board that advertises his plight: The former toy-industry executive needs a job.

“Almost homeless,” reads the sign. “Looking for employment. Very experienced operations and administration manager.”

Wearing a suit and tie under the sign, Nawrocki — who was in the toy industry 36 years before being laid off in February — stands on Manhattan corners for hours, hoping to pass resumes to interested passers-by.

“When you’re out of work and you face having nothing — I mean, having no income — pride doesn’t mean anything,” Nawrocki said. “You need to find work. I have to take care of my family.”

The rest of the story…

With the bad economy, banks aren’t the only ones downsizing!