And then EXXON Mobil just asked for another hand out of $121Billion??!!?? WTF!


Only in the US...

Geithner signals US debt ceiling has been reached
May 17th, 2011 7:04 am ET - Dana Connors

The debate over whether to increase the borrowing limit of the United States hit a milestone Monday as Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner officially informed Congress that the government had arrived at the $14.3 trillion mark. Democrats and Republicans have debated for months whether an increase in the borrowing limit will allow the government the necessary wiggle room to develop measures of austerity, or if such an increase is simply another step down a long road to increasing American financial instability.

In general, neither party is equipped to actually follow through with a decision, and President Obama is along for the ride of his tenure. Debate generally spirals down to the question of whether Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security require overhaul or complete annihilation. These are fruitless yet fun debates that politicians will ride into an election year, but they are distractions from the central one: whether the U.S. can afford a short-term credit stretch to alleviate the debt pressure cooker.

On this historic day Congressional leaders do not have to deflect the debate to more emotional and interesting topics as entitlements, however. Congress is in recess this week. While protesters, both of increasing debt and loathed austerity, march outside the Capitol, American leaders are taking a break from such difficult decisions: scattered throughout the states campaigning for reelection, no doubt.

Americans can rest assured that the debate over the debt ceiling will rage on. If for no other reason than that the American elite has yet to show up to work.


http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-in-washington-dc/...reached

Treasury to tap pensions to help fund government

The Obama administration will begin to tap federal retiree programs to help fund operations after the government lost its ability Monday to borrow more money from the public, adding urgency to efforts in Washington to fashion a compromise over the debt.

snip

Geithner, who has already suspended a program that helps state and local government manage their finances, will begin to borrow from retirement funds for federal workers. The measure won’t have an impact on retirees because the Treasury is legally required to reimburse the program.

Article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ ... ml?hpid=z1

I wasn't sure where to put this, but I couldn't resist posting it!

Bank of America Gets Pad Locked After Homeowner Forecloses On It

Collier County, Florida -- Have you heard the one about a homeowner foreclosing on a bank?

Well, it has happened in Florida and involves a North Carolina based bank.

Instead of Bank of America foreclosing on some Florida homeowner, the homeowners had sheriff's deputies foreclose on the bank.

It started five months ago when Bank of America filed foreclosure papers on the home of a couple, who didn't owe a dime on their home.

The couple said they paid cash for the house.

con. here, worth reading if only for a laugh at the institution: http://www.digtriad.com/news/watercoole ... Of-America

US Housing Crisis Is Now Worse Than Great Depression
Published: Tuesday, 14 Jun 2011 | 12:04 PM ET

It's official: The housing crisis that began in 2006 and has recently entered a double dip is now worse than the Great Depression.

Prices have fallen some 33 percent since the market began its collapse, greater than the 31 percent fall that began in the late 1920s and culminated in the early 1930s, according to Case-Shiller data.

The news comes as the Federal Reserve considers whether the economy has regained enough strength to stand on its own and as unemployment remains at a still-elevated 9.1 percent, throwing into question whether the recovery is real.

Full article here: http://www.cnbc.com/id/43395857

Moody’s Places U.S. on Review for Downgrade As Debt Talks Stall

Moody’s Investors Service put the U.S. under review for a credit rating downgrade as talks to raise the government’s $14.3 trillion debt limit stall, adding to concern that political gridlock will lead to a default.

The Aaa ratings of financial institutions directly linked to the U.S. government, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Banks, and the Federal Farm Credit Banks, were also put on review for cuts, Moody’s said in a statement today.

Con. here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-1 ... stall.html

Well, well, well isn't this interesting? A card carrying conservative taking his own party to task.

GOP wants Obama's unconditional surrender
By David Frum, CNN
July 18, 2011 10:32 a.m. EDT
Editor's note: David Frum writes a weekly column for CNN.com. A special assistant to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2002, he is the author of six books, including "Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again," and is the editor of FrumForum.

Washington (CNN) -- In this debt-ceiling fight, I'm having horrible flashbacks to the Republican debacle over health care.

Then as now, what could have been a negotiated deal turned into all-out political war.

Then as now, Republicans rejected all concessions by the president as pathetically inadequate.

Then as now, Republicans refused any concessions of their own, instead demanding that the president yield totally to their way of thinking.

Then as now, Republicans convinced themselves that they had the clout to force the president to yield.

With health care, Republicans calculated spectacularly wrong. They pursued an all or nothing strategy and got -- nothing. They neither shaped the bill, nor did they stop it.

Will they make the same mistake again on the debt ceiling?

We don't know the exact shape of the offers President Obama has made inside the negotiating rooms. Republicans tell friendly journalists that the president has been highhanded and long-winded.

Perhaps.

But the president has gone on television to declare himself willing to consider some startling moves: alterations to Social Security cost-of-living formulas, raising the age at which retirees qualify for Medicare, and large dollar figures for deficit reduction over the next decade.

Dealing with the debt talks The party that asked for everything is on its way to becoming the party that got nothing.

On background, administration briefers have talked about a package consisting of 85% spending cuts and 15% revenue increases. And, they said, they wanted only the kinds of revenue increases least obnoxious to Republicans: changes in deductions and tax credits -- not increases in overall tax rates.

Republican briefers say that the Democrats are exaggerating their offer. They say the Democrats were less conciliatory inside the room than outside.

Again: perhaps.

But it would be remarkable, wouldn't it, for a president to say on TV that he was willing to do something as unpopular as raise the Medicare age -- and then say in secret: Nah, I'll do the popular thing instead. Wouldn't you expect the behavior to be the other way around?

I think we have enough information to draw a very different picture of what happened.

Obama offered Republicans a lot of spending cuts if only they would move even slightly to meet him. But Republicans took the view that any change in current tax rules must be offset by an equal or greater cut in some other tax. Republicans would not agree to alter even the silliest parts of the tax code in ways that raised more revenue. The only deal they would contemplate is one that was 100% spending cuts, 0% tax increases -- that is, all their own way, total surrender by the president.

Unconditional surrender was the Republican demand in the health care debate. That demand led to an unmitigated defeat.

Unconditional surrender has become the Republican demand in the debt demand.

The original Republican plan was to threaten to tip the country into default unless the GOP got everything it wanted. That threat is proving empty, as Republicans' business constituencies mutiny against their party's dangerous tactics.

If blackmail won't work -- and negotiation is not allowed by the party's own taboos -- then the party that asked for everything is on its way to becoming the party that got nothing. Only it's not just the GOP that is the loser. It's the whole country.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Frum.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/07/18/frum.debt.showdown.gop/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Durbin to GOP: 'You break it, you own it’
By Alicia M. Cohn - 07/24/11 12:18 PM ET

The second most powerful Democrat in the Senate warned Republicans Sunday that they are toying with a fragile economy and would take the blame for any fallout from a debt default.

On Sunday, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said he had six words of warning for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio): “If you break it, you own it.”

Republicans and the White House have argued the case that the president “owns” the economy, along with its recovery.

Durbin slammed Boehner for calling off debt-ceiling negotiations with the White House on Friday.

“The president negotiated with you in good faith,” Durbin said he would tell Boehner. “You walked away from it. Twice.”


Read more here: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/173149-durbin-warns-boehner-you-break-it-you-own-it

Interesting little chart here:

Who holds America's debt?

Percentage of total U.S. debt, according to Business Insider:

Hong Kong: $121.9 billion (0.9 percent)
Caribbean banking centers: $148.3 (1 percent)
Taiwan: $153.4 billion (1.1 percent)
Brazil: $211.4 billion (1.5 percent)
Oil exporting countries: $229.8 billion (1.6 percent)
Mutual funds: $300.5 billion (2 percent)
Commercial banks: $301.8 billion (2.1 percent)
State, local and federal retirement funds: $320.9 billion (2.2 percent)
Money market mutual funds: $337.7 billion (2.4 percent)
United Kingdom: $346.5 billion (2.4 percent)
Private pension funds: $504.7 billion (3.5 percent)
State and local governments: $506.1 billion (3.5 percent)
Japan: $912.4 billion (6.4 percent)
U.S. households: $959.4 billion (6.6 percent)
China: $1.16 trillion (8 percent)
The U.S. Treasury: $1.63 trillion (11.3 percent)
Social Security trust fund: $2.67 trillion (19 percent)

So America owes foreigners about $4.5 trillion in debt. But America owes America $9.8 trillion.

http://prorevnews.blogspot.com/2011/07/ ... -debt.html


Look at the very bottom at who holds the most debt. Thats why all the news about the gov buying back all their bonds. Its to buy its own debt and to cover its own debt on SS. Why do you think they both have been in the news so much lately??? Its a Ponzi scheme. They have been buying back bonds, showing the bonds as a net. They apply it long term to SS to show the money is there. Only problem, it isn't!

And if we are buying our own debt to cover an even bigger debt we owe by manipulating our own debt-holding numbers, how are we going to cover a new debt by national healthcare, which will end up the most mismanaged and costly one of all?? God help us.

JESUS! That doesn't make sense?!?! and

SIGNS OF THE TIMES:

Alabama's largest county is laying the groundwork for filing what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, over a more than $3 billion debt for its sewer system.

The Jefferson County Commission approved resolutions Tuesday to hire prominent bankruptcy lawyers and to sell bonds later in case money is needed to emerge from bankruptcy.

Jefferson is Alabama's most populous county and seat of Birmingham. It's been trying for three years to avoid filing bankruptcy over debt payments it can no longer afford.

con. http://www.cnbc.com/id/43896778?utm_sou ... um=twitter


California Seeks $5B ’Bridge’ Loan to Pay Bills
By Michael B. Marois - Jul 26, 2011 12:00 AM ET

California will borrow $5 billion today through a temporary loan as U.S. states make plans to cope with any credit-market disruption should lawmakers fail to raise the federal debt ceiling by the Aug. 2 deadline.

con. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-2 ... fault.html

Oh Boy that's scary Rutsie, how many more are gonna follow suit, possibly even the US itself

FWIW, and that may not be much, Wolf Blitzer just said that he was very concerned with what was going on (with the debt) and he feared it was "the end of the world as we know it". Knowing as we do that he is a major mouthpiece for TPTB, could this be a warning, or perhaps intended to ratchet up the fear factor? Another thought passed through my mind earlier today; perhaps this whole show being put on is more than a show. Perhaps they are really going to let the gov't go into default, stop paying out SS and other benefits, in order to put their foot more firmly on the necks of "useless eaters" (of which number I am one..).

I was part of a discussion some years ago where the theory was put forth that the housing crisis and other financial woes affecting mostly the poor and middle class were done deliberately to disenfranchise much of the population, and when they were without hope, along will come Big Brother, offering housing (in some sort of camp), food, education for the children, in exchange for those who could work doing what their "benefactor" told them to. Katrina fell into that category (perhaps a test case), the housing crisis most definitely fits the bill, now what's next? a wholesale attack on "seniors"? Hmmmm.... bears consideration, yes?

Two stories tell a story in itself:

GE's Immelt to Head Obama Economic Advisory Board

By JIM KUHNHENN Associated Press
WASHINGTON January 21, 2011 (AP)

President Barack Obama is restructuring his economic advisory board to place an emphasis on job creation, and he is naming General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt as its new head.

snip

The change signals Obama's intention to shift from policies that were designed to stabilize the economy after the 2008 financial meltdown to a renewed focus on increasing employment,

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=12727300

Now watch what GE is doing:

GE Moves 115-Year-Old X-Ray Unit’s Base to China to Tap Growth
Q
By Rachel Layne - Jul 25, 2011 11:57 AM ET

General Electric Co. (GE)’s health-care unit, the world’s biggest maker of medical-imaging machines, is moving the headquarters of its 115-year-old X-ray business to Beijing to tap growth in China.

“A handful” of top managers will move to the Chinese capital and there won’t be any job cuts (No, they're just moving the money to China), ... The headquarters will move from Waukesha, Wisconsin, amid a broader parent-company plan to invest about $2 billion across China, including opening six “customer innovation” and development centers.

snip

The X-ray business, whose financial results aren’t reported separately by GE, will hire 65 new engineers and support staff at a new Chengdu facility,

con. here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-2 ... anned.html


(great news for China but no new jobs for the US) - what do you say about that Obama? I guess the head of your economic advisory board will advise you to have businesses in the US move to other countries - what was that you said about focusing on more jobs for the US?

Microsoft's Use Of Lox-Tax Havens Drives Tax Bill To 7 Percent Of Profit

FAIRFIELD, Connecticut (Lynnley Browning) - If you want to know why tax from surging corporate profits isn't making much of a dent in the United States' crippling budget deficit, a glance at Microsoft Corp's recent results provides some clues.

Things were rosy in the giant software company's just-ended fiscal fourth quarter, which produced record sales of nearly $17.4 billion, a 30 percent increase in after-tax profit, and a 35 percent gain in earnings per share.

But for the Internal Revenue Service and foreign tax authorities, things weren't so rosy. Microsoft reported only $445 million in taxes in the U.S. and other foreign countries, just 7 percent of its $6.32 billion in pre-tax profit.

Given the rancor in Congress and in the country about how to tackle the nation's budget deficit and debt, including how companies stash profits overseas and enjoy lucrative tax breaks, it is instructive to see how the top brass at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, headquarters achieved this eye-popping tax result.

Partly it was because the company had a one-time refund of $461 million from the IRS for previous overpayments and because of its over-estimation of tax rates in previous quarters. There may be increased sales of products to consumers overseas, though it is not clear from company disclosures how much of a factor this might be.

But Microsoft is straightforward about the core reason for its lower tax bill: It is increasingly channeling earnings from sales to customers throughout the world through the low-tax havens of Ireland, Puerto Rico and Singapore.

Read more here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/28/microsoft-tax-havens-profit-bill_n_911779.html

Tonight's headlines:

Dollar hits new 4-mth low vs yen as US debt limit vote delayed

TOKYO, July 29 | Thu Jul 28, 2011 10:45pm EDT

(Reuters) - The dollar sunk to a fresh four-month low against the yen at 77.48 yen after Republican U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy said on Thursday that the House of Representatives will not vote tonight on a plan to raise the debt limit as Republican leaders have struggled to line up support for the measure.


Futures Plunge As Boehner Unable To Get Enough Votes, Essentially Cancelling Deficit Plan Vote, Dollar Plummets

After hours of delays, Boehner just experienced a supreme dose of humiliation after he announcing he would cancel tonight's much delayed vote on his deficit plan after apparently being unable to get the requisite 218 votes to pass his plan though the Congress.


Apple Now Has More Cash Than The U.S. Government

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-ha ... z1TV4EEGfk

East Texas (my dear husband) has never been a conspiracy theorist.

That said, let me share with you what he said last night while we were waiting on the non-vote from the House:

Oh dear, if good sensible people like your dear East Texas are beginning to see what is going on, then we are doomed; it is too late to turn the tide. (Well, we knew it was too late a couple of years ago, didn't we?) I'm not saying there is nothing we can do - just that the scenario that has been created will play itself out. We can still be major players to some extent, but within the parameters they have set up. With some ingenuity and lots of courage, we can still work within the camps of the oppressors to prepare others, especially the young, for the move to a new level of reality, a new dimension. We can seek out those who can be leaders for good in the next phase of existence and help them see what is right, and the path they can take for the good of all.

Standard & Poor’s Downgrades U.S. Credit Rating for First Time in History

Posted on August 5, 2011 at 8:44pm by Tiffany Gabbay

Sadly, the fears have been confirmed. Standard & Poor‘s has downgraded the United States’ credit rating for the first time in the history of the ratings.

According to AP, the credit rating agency says that it is cutting the country’s top AAA rating by one notch to AA+. On Friday evening S&P said that the debt bill recently passed by Congress was not enough to stabilize the nation’s debt crisis.

AP also reports that a source familiar with the situation said that the Obama administration believes S&P’s analysis contained “deep and fundamental flaws.”

But the worst might be yet to come. The Wall Street Journal published the following press release from S&P that claims the rating agency could be downgrading the U.S. yet again to AA.

con. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/standar ... n-history/

longer, more detailed article from Zerohedge:

S&P Downgrades US To AA+, Outlook Negative - Full Text

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/sp-downgr ... -full-text

US Postal Service warns it could default

The US Postal Service warned on Friday that it could default on payments it owes the federal government, just days after the US government itself narrowly averted a default.

The government's mail service said it lost $3.1 billion in the period from April to June, blaming "the anemic state of the economy" and the growing popularity of electronic communications over old-fashioned letters.

As a result of its mounting losses, the US Postal Service said it would not be able to make a legally required $5.5 billion payment in September to a health-benefits trust fund.

con. http://news.yahoo.com/us-postal-warns-c ... 59604.html

I was briefly reading at Market Ticker Forum yesterday and someone posted that the Banks are out of the stock market and have been for some time and that is the problem with the market.

The SOB's are hungrily waiting on the sidelines to swoop in when the market tanks to pick up cheap stocks and start the whole process again.

That made my mind go ding, ding, ding - I'll tell ya!

The S&P downgrade was a huge rumor all over the 'net yesterday with denials floating everywhere.

Market Ticker also had the rumor but they stated it would happen after the markets closed which it did.

In my paper this morning the explanation was that S&P made a 2 BILLION dollar mathematical error and the WH found it and made them fix it.

Uh huh... ding ding ding

Why Congress and S&P Deserve Each Other

Having Standard & Poor's downgrade the creditworthiness of the U.S., and warn the country about further downgrades, is a little like having the Catholic Church lecture Scout leaders on the proper behavior toward boys. The moral authority seems to be wanting. S&P, you may recall, is one of the ratings agencies (the others being Moody's and Fitch) that greased the skids of the financial crisis by awarding AAA ratings to tranche after tranche of mortgage bonds called collaterized debt obligations, or CDOs. Recall that, unlike U.S. Treasuries, backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S., CDOs were underwritten by garbage mortgages — that is, backed by no-documentation “liar loans” and other Alt-A subprime pond scum handed to borrowers who otherwise couldn't get a nickel's worth of credit at their local dry cleaner.

S&P stamped CDOs with the same grade it previously awarded to a precious few companies, including Exxon and Microsoft. More than 30,000 CDOs got the AAA blessing from the agencies. S&P couldn't pull its snout out of the trough even when it became apparent in 2007 that the mortgage bond pig-out was over. This e-mail from an S&P employee, uncovered by a congressional investigation, says it all: “Let's hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards falters.”

snip

One of many ironies of the S&P downgrade is that the three ratings agencies have so much power because the federal government, in the form of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), handed it to them.

snip

That S&P would slap the hand that legitimizes it is wonderfully perverse given last week's debt deal. The Tea Party supposedly hates Wall Street so much that it ignored warnings that its Taliban economic policy — threatening to decapitate the economy unless it got its way on spending cuts — would spook the markets, since the Street abhors uncertainty. For a moment, it looked as if the Tea team won, in that the market didn't tank as the deal wrangling went on and on. Instead, the market cratered post-deal, as the compromised compromise left so much up in the air. Republicans had been chastising the Obama Administration for creating uncertainty, yet they allowed their own radical wing to impose it for the foreseeable future. (Clearly, uncertainty about the resolution of Europe's sovereign debt crisis contributed to the market troubles too.) So S&P in effect fired a shot across the Tea Party's bow: You mess with Wall Street, you will be punished. It had another for Obama: Lead, follow or get out of the way.

snip

(Here's the other laughable irony: Congress had a chance to rein in the ratings agencies but demurred.

snip

Republicans, heeding the deregulation call of their banking clients (whose demands for deregulation more than a decade ago, blessed by the Clinton Administration, led us down the path to the crisis), bent over backward to defang the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was central to the Dodd-Frank bill, whose hilarious formal name is the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Wall Street, having blown trillions during the crisis, demanded not to be hampered by either reform or consumer protection as it recovered from the crisis. Why should the ratings agencies be so encumbered?

So here's our reward, America: higher costs for our mortgages and higher costs for the federal, state and local governments to borrow. As Fareed Zakaria points out in TIME's Aug. 15 cover story, a jump of a single percentage point in the interest rate the federal government pays will more than wipe out the savings anticipated by the debt deal. Nice work, that. And we owe it all to an ethically and intellectually suspect ratings agency. (S&P even made a $2.1 trillion error in its calculations but dismissed it as “nonmaterial.”)

Yet it has occurred to me that maybe S&P has a point. After all, this is a Congress that let the banking industry run amok, bailed it out with access to trillions of dollars of credit and has since done precious little to ensure that the process won't be repeated. Nor would Congress reform the ratings industry, which played a vital role in the crisis. Nor did it agree to a deal worked out between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner that would have preserved the AAA rating. If our Congress is that dumb, perhaps we deserved the downgrade.



Bill Saporito is an assistant managing editor at TIME. You can continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.


Read more: http://curiouscapitalist.blogs.time.com/2011/08/08/why-congress-and-sp-deserve-each-other/#ixzz1USP3CNbC

Best rant I have seen on MSN regarding the TRUTH of the problem with the good ole USA

Well worth a watch

I wonder who runs Fitch; I'll have to check it out when I have time....

Fitch affirms US AAA rating, outlook stable
Tue, Aug 16 2011, 13:30 GMT | FXstreet.com Trader Talk

The rating agency Fitch affirmed US AAA rating on Tuesday and kept the outlook stable. It said "key pillars of US's exceptional creditworthiness remains intact".

http://www.fxstreet.com/news/forex-news ... 4696462774