Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

By

First Boehner, now the NFL UPDATED

After the President’s request to address the nation from Congress next Wednesday was turned down, the White House announced the speech will take place on Thursday.

Now, you may be wondering why is the President so adamant about doing a speech on jobs, jobs, jobs from the floor of Congress, when a. the unemployment rate has been over 9% for most of his tenure, b. he could have given the speech anytime, anywhere – particularly during last month’s bus tour. Simple: The speech is intended to launch his re-election campaign.

If so, it’s doing it with a pratfall. As it turns out, Thursday is the NFL season opener.

Now, I don’t follow football (or any sports, for that matter), but even I am mindful of such things when scheduling events – whether it’s a fundraiser for an organization I belong to, or meeting with friends, or having people over.

And I’m not running for office.

Fear not, football fans; the Obama speech apparently won’t conflict with Saints-Packers kickoff, as long as you don’t mind missing the pre-game coverage,

Though an official announcement has not yet been made by the White House, Obama’s speech apparently will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET on September 8, one hour before kickoff of the kickoff to the season.

And so, assuming the absence of any filibustering (a big assumption, given the precise location of the address), the speech should be over before it’s time to play the game.

What will the speech be about?

For starters, expect a lot of blame-game: Minutes after his Sept. 8 address to Congress is set, Obama bashes both houses. Certainly the President will get in a dig or two during his speech.

Other proposals, such as more stimulus, the creation of a Fannie Mae for infrastructure a. k. a. a federal infrastructure bank (since Fannie Mae worked so well?), and the creation of more “green jobs“, involve yet more government spending and direct federal involvement in local economies.

Who’s going to want to miss the NFL pre-game show for that?

UPDATE, Friday 2 September,
Betsy:

Anonymous White House aides admit that they were aware all the time of the GOP debate that they were trying to preempt with Obama’s move to schedule his speech to Congress. They simply figured that it wouldn’t matter because it was going to be on a cable station which isn’t “sacrosanct.” So they just sent Jay Carney out to lie when he said it was all a coincidence.

27264
Share

By

The rich, the debt, the Ikea hell, and the roundup

Spain’s Duchess of Alba, one of the world’s richest women, is remarrying at age 85. The Will of the Duchess of Alba: All for Love and Money. All, except good judgement, at least when it comes to plastic surgery:

Maybe she’ll buy herself some eyebrows for the wedding.

UPDATE,
From my Facebook thread,

Todd wrote: “If I were going to marry a babboon, I’d pick a much younger one.”

Now, now, Todd…

—————————-

National debt has increased $4 trillion under Obama: Currently the National Debt stands at roughly 97% of Gross Domestic Product. Does anyone want to pretend that the ratio will be the same when we’re talking about $25 trillion in debt?

How about an outline?

—————————-

The last time I went to Ikea Bill Clinton was President; Charles Martin reminded me why: Dante’s IKEA.

—————————-

What’s next for Moammar Gadhafi?
Nobody seems to know where the embattled Libyan leader is hiding, or where he’s headed. Here, 5 predictions.

I very much doubt that Muammar will be welcome in Caracas until Hugo’s moved the gold and is not worried about sanctions.

—————————-

Which brings me to the next item,

How to get $12 billion of gold to Venezuela

It’s not much of a precedent, but it’s the only precedent we’ve got; my gut feeling is that Venezuela would be do well to get away with paying 3.3% of the total value of the gold in total expenses. Given that the gold is worth some $12.3 billion, the cost of Chávez’s gesture politics might reasonably be put at $400 million or so.

It seems to me that Chávez has four main choices here. He can go the FT’s route, and just fly the gold to Caracas while insuring each shipment for its market value. He can go the Spanish route, and try to transport the gold himself, perhaps making use of the Venezuelan navy. He could attempt the mother of all repo transactions. Or he could get clever.

In the first instance, the main cost would be paid by Venezuela to a big insurance company. I have no idea how many insurers there are in the world who would be willing to take on this job, but it can’t be very many, and it might well be zero. If Venezuela wanted just one five-ton shipment flown to Caracas in conditions of great secrecy, that would be one thing. But Chávez’s intentions have been well telegraphed at this point, making secrecy all but impossible. And even if the insurer got the first shipment through intact, there would be another, and another, and another — each one surely the target of criminally-inclined elements both inside and outside the Venezuelan government. Gold is the perfect heist: anonymous, untraceable, hugely valuable. Successfully intercepting just one of the shipments would yield a haul of more than $300 million, making it one of the greatest robberies of all time. And you’d have 39 chances to repeat the feat.

Would any insurer voluntarily hang a “come get me” sign around its neck like that? They’d have to be very well paid to do so. So maybe Chávez intends to take matters into his own hands, and just sail the booty back to Venezuela on one of his own naval ships. Again, the theft risk is obvious — seamen can be greedy too — and this time there would be no insurance. Chávez is pretty crazy, but I don’t think he’d risk $12 billion that way.

Chavez Credits Castro, Jesus for Recovery

—————————-

Former Tiananmen Square Student Leader Urges Joe Biden to Call for an End to China’s One-Child Policy, after Biden says he “fully understands” the one-child policy.

27217
Share

By

Soros, what a guy!

A roundup of trivial news in the periphery of serious issues,

George Soros sued by ex-girlfriend for reneging on real estate promise to buy her a $2 million NYC apartment. George told her he’d given the apartment to another woman. Probably a younger woman, that is. No word on whether he had anything to do with the downgrade.
UPDATE:
Don Surber:

Dr. Evil had the same problem with Frau Farbissina.

Amy Winehouse’s home robbed, not by looters, but by someone looking for her unreleased songs, lyric books and letters.

One Place That Didn’t Get Looted In The UK. Situational Awareness: How Everyday Citizens Can Help Make a Nation Safe. Defend yourself and be a vigilante (h.t Instapundit).

Hugo Chavez’s hair fell off. Argentina Preps for World Tango Championships

Pivot to jobs, jobs, jobs getting to you? Vacay, vacay, vacay! But first, let us pray.

Felonious Monk is not happy at all (*LANGUAGE WARNING: DEFINITELY NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK*)

Here’s Thelonious Monk, not Felonious,

27091
Share

By

“There’s not much further we can cut”?

Yes we can,

“Not much further we can cut” seems like a hanging curve ball, an open invitation for ongoing ridicule–the sort of naive assertion that might come easily to someone who had never worked in the federal government, who only realized after promoting his half-trillion-dollar public works-based stimulus plan that there was “no such thing as shovel-ready projects.” Or someone who doesn’t want to know. Or who wants to act as if he doesn’t know.

Here is the official list of federal job openings. They are still hiring. Sure, big enterprises keep hiring essential employees even in tough times. But these aren’t essential jobs. Many of them seem like the sort of job a private firm, in a financial crisis like the feds are in, would consolidate with another job or leave unfilled. (The first one that jumps out is the “Associate Administrator for Administration” at the Department of Transportation, which pays $119,554 to $179,700. It seems that this person will do administrative work to maintain the layer of bureaucracy that “coordinates” the DOTs research programs. The new hire will also give “advice and assistance in directing, coordinating, controlling” etc. this little fiefdom. You don’t have to be Peter Drucker to realize that this position does not have to exist.)

Part of the problem, of course, is that since it is virtually impossible to fire an actual underperforming federal employee, conscientious administrators have to hire new people (or consultants) to actually do the work the unfireable employees aren’t doing.

But there’s no sense, reading through this list, that the federal bureaucracy knows it is in crisis

Ace pipes in,

Let me note the dog that didn’t bark.

Have you heard any stories of older, more expensive federal employees losing their jobs during this budget crisis — as corporations typically do when they are hemorrhaging money?

Have you read any stories about departments drastically cutting back and looking for money-saving solutions — doing more with less, as they say, or “working smarter, not harder”?

Has the media been full of stories by weary bureaucrats complaining, like teachers are apparently instructed by their unions to claim, that they have to buy their own supplies to properly do their jobs?

Has there been any grousing that federal employees are missing expected pay raises and promotions, being forced to work at their old salaries through this crisis?

The answer is no.

The pivot to jobs, jobs, jobs, appears to be laser-focused on federal bureaucracy jobs. One of Kaus’s commenters points out,

Non-postal federal employment — about 10 percent of all
government employment — increased over the same period by 139,000
workers, or 6.7 percent.

(more…)

27083
Share

By

Compare and contrast:

Obama:

“We’ve always been, and always will be, a AAA country”

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Compare and contrast that speech with what a guy on the floor of the exchange has to say:

Santelli:

“We would have been rated BBB!”

Who do you believe?

As of the writing of this post, the Dow is down 106 points, after Friday’s and Monday’s precipitous fall.

Indeed, this is A crisis of confidence in economy — and Obama

The stock market, already falling before Obama spoke, saw selling accelerate as Obama made it clear he had no new ideas to offer. And he certainly gave no hint that he’s ready to adopt Republican ideas such as cutting business taxes or slashing regulation. Instead of a pivot, Obama stayed firmly planted in the anti-growth policies of the past two-and-a-half years. He’s even keeping Tim Geithner as Treasury secretary, practically begging the poor guy to stay. (Indeed, it was almost exactly a year ago that Geithner penned his “Welcome to the Recovery” op-ed.)

Americans have seen this movie before.

And the movie is on a continuous-repeat loop.

27073
Share

By

Brazil holding $200billion in US treasuries

Brazil is the fourth largest sovereign creditor of the US, holding more than $200 billion in Treasuries, which is good news for Brazil, since its economy has been growing enough that the country can do so:

Brazil, the region’s economic powerhouse, which just a decade ago had to come to Washington to ask the International Monetary Fund for a bailout, is now the United States’ fourth-biggest sovereign creditor — holding about $211 billion in U.S. Treasury securities, according to U.S. data from May.

As you may recall, a little over two years ago, Lula, then-president of Brazil, was lecturing President Obama about the dangers of protectionism and the benefits of free trade. Unfortunately Obama didn’t listen, and

These days, Latin America’s economy as a whole is expected to expand about 4.7 percent in 2011 — almost twice the expected rate in the United States — thanks to strong demand for the region’s commodities and a decade of mostly prudent fiscal management, itself the product of many hard-learned lessons of the past.

Hence, we have a chorus of clowns mocking the US economy,

“When did the American dream become a nightmare?” gloated Argentina’s President Cristina Fernandez, whose own country defaulted on about $100 billion in debt a decade ago.

In a speech at the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange on Monday, she contended that Argentina had prospered since then by focusing on exports and controlling financial speculation — a lesson that Washington has yet to learn, she said.

Cristinita forgot to mention that she raided private pensions a few years ago (2008) to avoid default.

Cristina’s soul mates Evo and Hugo are using the US debt for propaganda purposes,

Washington’s biggest critics in the region, such as Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, have also portrayed the crisis as an inevitable outcome for a country that failed to follow its own financial advice and overextended itself militarily — in Latin America, and elsewhere.

whether – in spite of large oil reserves – the well runs dry in Venezuela,

yesterday, the Washington Post reported that Bolivian president Evo Morales had announced that a local program called “Bolivia changes, Evo delivers,” which “is under his control and has little legislative or administrative oversight,” would no longer depend on Venezuelan largess, but would be funded by the Bolivian government.

Here in the USA, Congressman Connie Mack, Chairman of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee Connie Mack, has proposed legislation which would

cease aid to those countries which harm America’s freedom and security.

Mack’s five amendments would:

  • Eliminate foreign aid funds for Argentina, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Boliviia
  • Cease U.S. contributions to the Organization of American States.
  • Eliminate U.S. funding for Global Climate Change Initiative Activities.
  • Establish a Congressional recorded vote which states “The delay in the authorization of the Presidential Permit is threatening the economic and national security benefits of the Keystone XL Pipeline.”
  • Name Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism due to its continued material and financial support of the Revolutionary ArmedForces of Colombia (FARC), Hezbollah, the National Liberation Army (ELN), and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Meanwhile, out-of-control government spending, onerous regulations on businesses, and uncertainty regarding the currently hostile environment on private enterprise does not bode well for the US economy – and that has the Hemisphere’s economies worried.

Cross-posted at Real Clear World

26899
Share