Merry Christmas!
December 24, 2008
Source:
EditorialCartoonists.com
Social Security: The Ultimate Ponzi Scheme
December 19, 2008
Source:
Editorial Cartoon
Mike Keefe
Denver Post
December 19, 2008
Chart of the Day: Baffled By The Long Bond
December 17, 2008
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The yield on 30-Year Treasuries has now fallen below 3%, the lowest pay-out since the security was created in 1977. Either the Fed is actively buying the bonds to push long-term yields lower or this is simply a massive short-covering rally.
There is one other explanation, however, and that is perhaps we are entering a Japanese-style deflationary cycle that could take the yield under 1%. While I think this is the least likely of the three, I can’t bring myself to rule it out completely.
Bernanke’s Gym
December 17, 2008
Source:
Editorial Cartoon
Robert Ariail
The State
December 17, 2008
Congress to Detroit: "Make It Up In Volume! We Do."
December 12, 2008
If there’s anything Bob Lutz knows it’s what doesn’t sell. He’s spent a lifetime in Detroit watching the big three build unprofitable cars people don’t want. And now, as Vice Chairman of GM, he’s watching it suffer the consequences as it faces bankruptcy.
Congress, on the other hand, has no clue. This is evidenced by the fact that the bailout plans would have forced Detroit to try to, “make it up in volume.” From The Wall Street Journal:
Leave it to Bob Lutz, GM’s voluble vice chairman, to puncture the unreality of the auto bailout he himself has been championing. In an email to Ward’s Auto World, he notes an obvious flaw in Congress’s rescue plan now taking shape: The fuel-efficient “green” cars GM, Ford and Chrysler profess to be thrilled to be developing at Congress’s behest will be unsellable unless gas prices are much higher than today’s.
“Very few people will want to change what has been their ‘nationality-given’ right to drive big and bigger if the price of gas is $1.50 or $2.00 or even $2.50,” Mr. Lutz explained. “Those prices will put the CAFE-mandated manufacturers at war with their customers — and no one will win in that battle.”
Translation: To become “viable,” as Congress chooses crazily to understand the term, the Big Three are setting out to squander billions on products that will have to be dumped on consumers at a loss.
So the bailout, essentially, would have heaped failure upon epic failure. Then again, that is the one thing the government is really good at: throwing good money after bad.
Unlike GM, however, congress suffers no consequences for its failures. And, in a way, I guess they really do, “make it up in volume;” the national debt has been the only, recession-proof, growth industry for the past century.
Source:
The Bailout That Won’t
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.
The Wall Street Journal
December 10, 2008
Detroit Failout
December 12, 2008
One Guaranteed Growth Industry: Government
December 11, 2008
Source:
Editorial Cartoon
Bob Gorrell
Creators Syndicate Inc.
December 11, 2008
The Quadrillion-Dollar Question
December 11, 2008
The national debt is currently a whopping $10 trillion. As if that weren’t already an unfathomable number, with all the bailout packages and economic stimulus plans coming out of Washington currently I was curious to find out how soon the national debt was likely to outgrow the trillions and achieve $1 quadrillion.
Since 1938 the national debt has grown at an average annual rate of 8.5%. If we assume that it continues to grow at this rate (and considering the government’s current plans/policies I think that’s a pretty safe bet) it will reach $1 quadrillion in 2064, sometime around my 90th birthday.
Sources:
U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
United States National Debt: An Analysis of the Presidents Who Are Responsible for the Borrowing
Steve McGourty
September, 21 2008
"Too Jolly To Fail"
December 9, 2008
Source:
Editorial Cartoon
Rob Rogers
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
December 9, 2008
"The Bailout. Coming this January."
December 8, 2008
Source:
Bailout Open Thread
Barry Ritholtz
December 8th, 2008
