Jubak Calls Out the Truth — Must read !!!

What do you want to do America?  Let the greedy pricks who caused this continue covering their tracks setting up their continued gang bang of the entire planet?   

Democrats, yes, are just as guilty as Republicans.

Or stop them?  Yes stop them.   It’s time for middle America to read. Read every day.  We have much to learn. 

Read the Jubak article here.

Remember the oil bubble?

In the zone and engrossed by a lengthy to-do list, oblivious to gloom,  I walked through the front door  at work today and nearly walked past a client who’s been with our company for 5 years.   After an embarrassing double take that betrayed my inattention, I greeted Jim and learned that he lost his job several months ago.  Three managers were let go on the same day.  He was one of three.  This client is my first intimate contact with the recession.  

Ours is an academic economy, we’ve been telling ourselves.  We’ve enjoyed this mantra.  It’s been with us through many good “closes,” some unforgotten “losses” and most importantly, my own personal discovery of the martini and cabernet sauvignon.  

I lost my mantra today.  I still have my religion, such as it is, but I lost my mantra. 

Let’s talk about the grand summer of 2008 when the price of gas broke the buck.    That’s right a 222% change.  Percent change is change divided by base, right?  True, the price of gas only doubled in 2008.  Well, let’s get this right.  Prices hit three dollars then dropped for the 2006 mid-terms.   They hit four dollars then dropped for the 2008 election.  OK, but gas was $1.35 before we invaded Iraq.  It went above $4.35 in the summer of 2008.  That’s  $3 / 1.35 = 222% increase in five years.   222%

 Why has the media let off the hook those responsible for the price-fixing that defined 2008?  Demand more for your money,  America.  Demand the truth.   Who was responsible for the price fixing?  Yes, Wall Street is guilty of mortgage crimes.  Bankers are guilty.  Consumer borrowers are guilty.   There’s plenty of guilt.   You and I share in the guilt, reader and writer.

How did the 222% increase in gas prices affect the economy?   If this increase was the result of anti-trust violations, we have to hold accountable those who were responsible. 

When  you get filthy rich by breaking the law, there is a price to pay.  No exceptions. 

 

 

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2006-04-27-energy-econ-usat_x.htm

By Barbara Hagenbaugh, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy has digested surging energy costs in the past few years with little more than a hiccup.

In a USA TODAY survey of economists taken April 20 to 25, 40% said higher energy prices are the No. 1 risk for the economy. While other risks were cited, such as a decline in the housing market and terrorism, energy was the top concern.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/business/09gas.html

Here in the Mississippi Delta, some farm workers are borrowing money from their bosses so they can fill their tanks and get to work. Some are switching jobs for shorter commutes.

People are giving up meat so they can buy fuel. Gasoline theft is rising. And drivers are running out of gas more often, leaving their cars by the side of the road until they can scrape together gas money.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/04/america/Economy.php

Economists believe the $168 billion stimulus program will continue to lift the economy in the current quarter, but many are worried that the economy could slow significantly in the final three months of this year and early next year as the impact from the one-time checks wears off.

Brian Bethune, senior U.S. economist at Global Insight, a private forecasting firm, said the GDP could post back-to-back declines in those two quarters, meeting the traditional definition of a recession.

“The rebates are not translating into anywhere near the spending impulse that Congress and the administration had hoped for,” he said. “Under these circumstances, the economy remains in very fragile condition.”

In the zone and engrossed by a lengthy to-do list, oblivious to gloom,  I walked through the front door  at work today and nearly walked past a client who’s been with our company for 5 years.   After an embarrassing double take that betrayed my inattention, I greeted Jim and learned that he lost his job several months ago.  Three managers were let go on the same day.  He was one of three.  This client is my first intimate contact with the recession.  

Ours is an academic economy, we’ve been telling ourselves.  We’ve enjoyed this mantra.  It’s been with us through many good “closes,” some unforgotten “losses” and most importantly, my own personal discovery of the martini and cabernet sauvignon.  

I lost my mantra today.  I still have my religion, such as it is, but I lost my mantra. 

Let’s talk about the grand summer of 2008 when the price of gas broke the buck.    That’s right a 222% change.  Percent change is change divided by base, right?  True, the price of gas only doubled in 2008.  Well, let’s get this right.  Prices hit three dollars then dropped for the 2006 mid-terms.   They hit four dollars then dropped for the 2008 election.  OK, but gas was $1.35 before we invaded Iraq.  It went above $4.35 in the summer of 2008.  That’s  $3 / 1.35 = 222% increase in five years.   222%

 Why has the media let off the hook those responsible for the price-fixing that defined 2008?  Demand more for your money,  America.  Demand the truth.   Who was responsible for the price fixing?  Yes, Wall Street is guilty of mortgage crimes.  Bankers are guilty.  Consumer borrowers are guilty.   There’s plenty of guilt.   You and I share in the guilt, reader and writer.

How did the 222% increase in gas prices affect the economy?   If this increase was the result of anti-trust violations, we have to hold accountable those who were responsible. 

When  you get filthy rich by breaking the law, there is a price to pay.  No exceptions. 

 

 

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2006-04-27-energy-econ-usat_x.htm

By Barbara Hagenbaugh, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy has digested surging energy costs in the past few years with little more than a hiccup.

In a USA TODAY survey of economists taken April 20 to 25, 40% said higher energy prices are the No. 1 risk for the economy. While other risks were cited, such as a decline in the housing market and terrorism, energy was the top concern.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/business/09gas.html

Here in the Mississippi Delta, some farm workers are borrowing money from their bosses so they can fill their tanks and get to work. Some are switching jobs for shorter commutes.

People are giving up meat so they can buy fuel. Gasoline theft is rising. And drivers are running out of gas more often, leaving their cars by the side of the road until they can scrape together gas money.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/04/america/Economy.php

Economists believe the $168 billion stimulus program will continue to lift the economy in the current quarter, but many are worried that the economy could slow significantly in the final three months of this year and early next year as the impact from the one-time checks wears off.

Brian Bethune, senior U.S. economist at Global Insight, a private forecasting firm, said the GDP could post back-to-back declines in those two quarters, meeting the traditional definition of a recession.

“The rebates are not translating into anywhere near the spending impulse that Congress and the administration had hoped for,” he said. “Under these circumstances, the economy remains in very fragile condition.”

 

Seven Pictures of Buddha, Prophet’s on my tongue

Put down your cross America and listen to some Springsteen.

Mary’s Place

The Lies We Trust Cost The Most

The week, no boubt the day before Lehman failed, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network was confidently telling its listeners to ignore the man behind the curtains, this is America, the land of peace, prosperity, wealth. 

If you were listening to the man behind the Golden EIB mike, you believed your investments were secure, your mortgage was in equity, your kids were going to college.

Will those who listen to the EIB network hold accountable those who lied the hardest and the longest.  It’s the lies of those you trust that cost the most.

I lost my mantra today.

I lost my mantra today.   

 

 

In the zone and engrossed by a lengthy to-do list, oblivious to gloom,  I walked through the front door  at work today and nearly walked past a client who’s been with our company for 5 years.   After an embarrassing double take that betrayed my inattention, I greeted Jim and learned that he lost his job several months ago.  Three managers were let go on the same day.  He was one of three.  This client is my first intimate contact with the recession.   

Ours is an academic economy, we’ve been telling ourselves.  We’ve enjoyed this mantra.  It’s been with us through many good “closes,” some unforgotten “losses” and most importantly, my own personal discovery of the martini and cabernet sauvignon.   

I lost my mantra today.  I still have my religion, such as it is, but I lost my mantra. 

Let’s talk about the grand summer of 2008 when the price of gas broke the buck.    That’s right a 222% change.  Percent change is change divided by base, right?  True, the price of gas only doubled in 2008.  Well, let’s get this right.  Prices hit three dollars then dropped for the 2006 mid-terms.   They hit four dollars then dropped for the 2008 election.  OK, but gas was $1.35 before we invaded Iraq.  It went above $4.35 in the summer of 2008.  That’s  $3 / 1.35 = 222% increase in five years.   222%

 Why has the media let off the hook those responsible for the price-fixing that defined 2008?  Demand more for your money,  America.  Demand the truth.   Who was responsible for the price fixing?  Yes, Wall Street is guilty of mortgage crimes.  Bankers are guilty.  Consumer borrowers are guilty.   There’s plenty of guilt.   You and I share in the guilt, reader and writer.

How did the 222% increase in gas prices affect the economy?   If this increase was the result of anti-trust violations, we have to hold accountable those who were responsible. 

When  you get filthy rich by breaking the law, there is a price to pay.  No exceptions. 

 

 

Old headlines, just in case you forgot about gas prices.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2006-04-27-energy-econ-usat_x.htm

By Barbara Hagenbaugh, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy has digested surging energy costs in the past few years with little more than a hiccup.

In a USA TODAY survey of economists taken April 20 to 25, 40% said higher energy prices are the No. 1 risk for the economy. While other risks were cited, such as a decline in the housing market and terrorism, energy was the top concern.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/09/business/09gas.html

Here in the Mississippi Delta, some farm workers are borrowing money from their bosses so they can fill their tanks and get to work. Some are switching jobs for shorter commutes.

People are giving up meat so they can buy fuel. Gasoline theft is rising. And drivers are running out of gas more often, leaving their cars by the side of the road until they can scrape together gas money.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/08/04/america/Economy.php

Economists believe the $168 billion stimulus program will continue to lift the economy in the current quarter, but many are worried that the economy could slow significantly in the final three months of this year and early next year as the impact from the one-time checks wears off.

Brian Bethune, senior U.S. economist at Global Insight, a private forecasting firm, said the GDP could post back-to-back declines in those two quarters, meeting the traditional definition of a recession.

“The rebates are not translating into anywhere near the spending impulse that Congress and the administration had hoped for,” he said. “Under these circumstances, the economy remains in very fragile condition.”

Republicans may not abstain from participation!

Thousands of bloggers will hold you accountable

Republicans will not be allowed to sit out

You’ve admitted this is your strategy

It is not acceptable

No congressional abstinence, period

Where was Ayn Rand?

This post has been edited, improved and reposted.  

Click here for the coffee enhanced version.

Toe-curling stupor

The President has demonstrated enormous patience and wisdom in transitioning our behemoth bureaucracy away from the knee-jerk mismanagement of federal policy that has for nearly a decade spoiled wall street into a toe-curling stupor.

Rush Limbaugh & the Mortgage Crisis

https://lehmanbrothers.wordpress.com/

Lincoln’s Prayer Proclomation – second posting

After months of isolation, I nearly lost my desire for occasional solitude.  After years of corruption, I nearly lost my conservative balance.  While the election cycle recovers from the full-tilt we experienced over the past two weeks, I find I’m left with prayer and deciding between the Prayer of St. Francis and the Prayer of Lincoln.

Lincoln’s Prayer Proclamation

In 1863 Abraham Lincoln called the nation to repentance, confession of our national sins and turning back to God. We believe America, more than ever, needs to do this again. Seven months prior to his Proclamation for a National Day of Thanksgiving, Abraham Lincoln issued the following:

A Proclamation for a National Day of Prayer

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of the Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations has by a resolution requested the president to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation.

And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God: to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon: and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord:

And insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choices bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown; but we have forgotten God.

We have forgotten the gracious land which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us:

It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings, that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

Abraham Lincoln

 

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury,pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen

 

Alas, my favorite:

Let this be a holy place for the human spirit consecrated to the forces which magnify the soul.