All Posts Tagged With: "Bush’s Fubar Economy"
Honey, I Shrunk The Economy
Someone had to follow Donviti’s great post up with a clunker. So, let it be me. It’s not much of a post anyway, more like several paragraphs ripped from today’s Times of London. What boggles my mind the most is that there are millions of people in the United States that voted for this Texas [...]
23Dec2008 | nemski | 4 comments | Continued
Bailout, Schmailout, Top Guys Getting Top Dollar
I’m sure you all read about how the executives of various bailed-out banks were still being well compensated. (Note, in this author’s mind, the fact that these guys are not in jail yet is still mind boggling). I didn’t write anything about it because I had difficulty expressing my outrage toward American capitalism and especially [...]
23Dec2008 | nemski | 3 comments | Continued
A Template for Bank Bonus Plans!
From the minds of the folks over at Credit Suisse — Pay your execs in the illiquid assets they built up!
Really, this is an interesting idea. Pay those bonuses, but use the derivatives and other facilities that these guys were so hot for (and that crashed and burned so spectacularly):
Credit Suisse Group AG’s investment [...]
Regulating the Cards
From Sunday’s WaPo:
The Federal Reserve on Thursday will vote on sweeping reform of the credit card industry that would ban practices such as retroactively increasing interest rates at will and charging late fees when consumers are not given a reasonable amount of time to make payments.
….Among the [...]
Deliberate Incompetence
I have reached the conclusion that the last eight years weren’t the stumblings of an incompetent frat boy, but rather, a deliberate effort to bring our country to its knees. I believe what we are witnessing is the Republican version of Tough Love – which might be more accurately described as spousal abuse, as in… [...]
15Dec2008 | pandora | 20 comments | Continued
President-Elect Obama on the Home Mortgage Crisis
Transcript below.
14Dec2008 | nemski | 3 comments | Continued
Subject: Bush Library – updated information!
From one of those joke emails that get sent around.
Dear Fellow Constituent:
The George W. Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages and accepting donations.
The Library will include:
The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.
The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you won’t be able to remember anything.
The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you [...]
Bush Recession of 2001: Just The Facts
Now before you get start reading this post, I did not include all the different things that were being done to fix the economy or the many positive numbers that were coming out of 2000. I just focused on signs that the economy was slowing down and Bush’s plan to fix it. I looked at [...]
9Dec2008 | nemski | 28 comments | Continued
Requiem for Old School Capitalism
Winthrop Smith — son of one of the original partners of Merrill Lynch Pearce Fenner and Smith — gave an occasionally angry eulogy for Merrill Lynch at the shareholders meeting that was to approve ML being sold to Bank of America:
Today did not have to come. In the past it was Merrill Lynch that came [...]
Letter to Senator Shelby
Last week, Senator Shelby from Alabama spoke out about government subsidies for manufacturing in the US. He is definitely against and thinks that subsidizing manufacturing is French.
The CEO from Compuware writes to the Senator to remind him of the subsidies his state provided for Mercedes Benz:
I am sure you were adamantly against the State [...]
Unemployment Numbers: Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43
Hmm, the Bush’s Fubar Economy tag works for both Pa and Boy.
Update: Here’s a chart to that shows in detail Clinton’s unemployment numbers.
Update 2: Bush 43 Unemployment Detail.
7Dec2008 | nemski | 37 comments | Continued
Serious QOD
Over the past two days, the executives of the Big 3 automakers spent alot of face time in front of House and Senate Committees making their case for government financial help. They faced alot of questions about how they would use the funds and how they will get organized to emerge healthier and able [...]
5Dec2008 | cassandra_m | 8 comments | Continued
Chicken Little or Chicken OMFG?
In Paul Krugman’s blog post today, he admits he’s a bit worried about next year.
1. The economy is falling fast. We’ll see what tomorrow’s employment report says, but we could well be losing jobs at a rate of 450,000 or 500,000 a month.
2. Infrastructure spending will take time to get going — a new Goldman [...]
Form EZ CASH
Now you know the secret to getting Your Own Personal Bailout — a Government Form!
3Dec2008 | cassandra_m | 3 comments | Continued
Bush Ignored the Warnings
From the AP yesterday, reporting in detail on how BushCo would not implement a crackdown on the worst of the mortgage practices and just plain ignored people who were warning of the long-term consequences. This is going to make you mad:
The Bush administration backed off proposed crackdowns on no-money-down, interest-only mortgages years before the [...]
The Official Bush Recession
The NBER has confirmed what many financial types have been presuming is true for awhile — the current recession started in December 2007. From the Determination of the December 2007 Peak in Economic Activity:
The Business Cycle Dating Committee of the National Bureau of Economic Research met by conference call on Friday, November 28. The [...]
Funding the Holidays with Your Stock Shares
Funny AND depressing –
Thanksgiving Dinner:
Holiday Gifts:
(h/t The Big Picture)
29Nov2008 | cassandra_m | 2 comments | Continued
It’s Like A Hijacking
Exactly right. And apparently the We Don’t Negotiate With Terrorists rule doesn’t apply to Paulson’s Pals. It also seems to me that there are still banks out there who haven’t gotten in to this kind of trouble and those execs are likely quite competent to bring Citi in for a (likely hard) [...]
25Nov2008 | cassandra_m | Comments Off | Continued
Citi Credit
(Via The Big Picture) Since it looks as though Citigroup will be the latest casualty of the Bush Economy in the upcoming week, we might as well get the Making Fun Of part out of the way:
23Nov2008 | cassandra_m | 4 comments | Continued
The Myth of $70 Auto Workers
While everyone is debating the Big 3 Bailout, you’ve undoubtedly heard something along the lines that current Big 3 autoworkers are making about $70.00/ hour fully burdened and the automakers in the south are making considerably less. It turns out that $70 figure is wrong:
The average GM assembly-line worker makes about $28 per hour [...]
A Fine Mess
The most frustrating aspect of living through the economic woes of the early 2000’s (aside from how badly it messed up my career path in Computer Science) was watching the limp, tepid response of the Bush Administration to it. The “voodoo economics” that had become passe by the time Bush Sr. was elected were back. [...]
17Nov2008 | xstryker | 16 comments | Continued
Bailout Nation — The Crime Scene
While some have been comforted by the bailout that hasn’t particularly stabilized much other than the ability for banks to take over other banks and to maintain their pay and bonus structures. In today’s Washington Post, we learn that the Treasury actively enabled even more looting:
The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress [...]
Stories From The Grocery Store Line
Mrs. Geek was at a grocery store this morning and came back with this story:
A mother and her adult daughter (with children) were in line in front of Mrs. Geek. when the total of $158 came up. the daughter swiped her ATM, but it wouldn’t process the transaction. Daughter went over to the nearby ATM [...]
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