Ten Gallon Hat Amendment

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,

nor prohibited by it to the States,

are reserved to the States respectively,

or to the people.”

Texas Governor Rick Perry does something we don't hear much of these days. In support of a Texas legislature resolution (HCR 50) in support of states' rights set forth under the 10th Amendment of the US Constitution, he discusses returning to the letter and spirit of the US Constitution. Only rubes, unsophisticates, and potential domestic man-causers of illiberal acts discuss that old, faded unmodern and nonprogressive document.

Perry dons his ten gallon hat and speaks plainly, thusly:

Here in Texas, here in the capitol, we typically spend more time talking about the Texas constitution, but it is definitely time to talk about the U.S. Constitution and the protections it guarantees.

I am here today to express my unwavering support for efforts all across our country, but, most of all, here in Texas, to reaffirm the states’ rights affirmed through the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The Tenth Amendment was enacted by folks who remembered what it was like to be under the thumb of a distant, all-powerful government. Unfortunately, the protections it guarantees have melted away over time.

Since the U.S. Constitution was first ratified, the federal government has slowly, steadily and successfully eroded the notion of state’s rights. The Founding Fathers understood that a one-size-fits-all approach just doesn’t work, especially in a country the size of America, and it certainly doesn’t work for Texas.

Our economic strength, compared to the federal budget mess and other states’ troubles, is evidence that Texans know what’s best for Texas. We’re proof that good things happen when governments lower taxes, reduce spending and encourage private sector growth.

When Washington interferes with our proven approaches, experience tells us what the outcome will be, and it isn’t pretty.

Like the Constitution and the other 26 amendments, the 10th Amendment has been the subject of extended debate, by scholars and lawyers of every sort, but I come down on the side that favors state’s rights over unrestrained federal power.

I believe the Constitution does not empower the federal to override state laws without restraint. I agree with Texas’ 7th governor, Sam Houston, who once said, “Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.”

We didn’t like oppression then and we certainly don’t like it now.

I believe the federal government has become oppressive in its size, its intrusion into the lives of our citizens, and its interference with the affairs of our state.

Texans need to ask themselves a question: do they side with those in Washington who are pursuing this unprecedented expansion of power? Or do they believe in the individual rights and responsibilities laid out in our foundational documents?

Texans need to stand up and be heard, because this state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely.

Returning to the letter and the spirit of the U.S. Constitution, and its essential Tenth Amendment, will free our state and, ultimately, strengthen our Union.

Granted, Governor Perry is up for reelection in 2010, and in some quarters (specifically the cube of an SBD Texan co-worker) he is perceived as an effeminate pussy, but as a consummate pol, he would not stand behind this type of provocative action unless he knew that most of fair majority of Texas voters stood with him. This is good to see because it is healthy for our republic and the elected leaders of these United States to stand up and proclaim on the founding principles and their architecture against Leviathan.

This week, in honor of Texas, SBD will purchase a six pack of Shiner Black Lager (because these are dark times and we need to make use of every little symbol we can).

The Empty Tomb

Many of us filled pews to celebrate the empty tomb today. SBD was there as he is a two time man. Generally he attends on Christmas and he attends on Easter. Beginning and end. Really beginning and beginning of the unend. Anyway, he's typical that way. His shame and distance from the Church is typical that way. He has no real excuse other than a continuing lack of faith. He is neither aspiritual nor atheist. Faith does not occupy him.

Still, faith occupies the empty tomb. A multitude dwells in the empty tomb. There is no hope without the empty tomb. There is no life without the empty tomb. The empty tomb can hold all. SBD supposes there is a spot for him but he's not ready to enter. SBD is probably already in the empty tomb but just won't admit it. The Lord abides.

Today's Wild Ass Conspiracy Theory

Is this formula the work of a Chicom agent sent to the US years ago to bring down capitalism?

You decide.

Length of US Recessions

From Chart of the Day:

While the stock market has rallied nicely since bottoming on March 9th, the economy continues to struggle. For some perspective on the current economic recession, today's chart illustrates the duration of all US recessions since 1900. As today's chart illustrates, the five longest recessions all began prior to 1930. The length of the current recession (now entering its 16th month) is above average and equal to the longest recessions (1973 & 1981) since the Great Depression.

Got Nothin' To Say This Week

Well, now that you've settled on a name . . .

. . . how about you build the goddamned thing!?!?!!?!?

Freedom Tower Will Be Called One World Trade Center

NEW YORK — The Freedom Tower is out. One World Trade Center is in. The agency that owns ground zero confirmed Thursday that the signature skyscraper replacing the towers destroyed on Sept. 11 will be more commonly known as One World Trade Center.

The building under construction at the site was named the Freedom Tower in the first ground zero master plan. Officials at the time said the tallest, most symbolic of five planned towers at the site would demonstrate the country's triumph over terrorism.

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey chairman Anthony Coscia says the agency refers to the building as One World Trade Center. He says it's the building's legal name and "the one that's easiest for people to identify with."

Yes, we know it's been ONLY eight years since murder and mayhem were brought to our shores, and there was the whole design contest, and of course EVERYONE knows what the permitting story is in NYC, and . . . (start channeling Christian Bale, here folks) NO, NO - FUCK THE EXCUSES!

WHERE IS THE FUCKING BUILDING?

WHEN IS THE FUCKING BUILDING GOING TO BE DONE?

WHY IS THERE NO FUCKING BUILDING NOW?

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS FUCKING STUPIDITY?

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT IT ISN'T FUCKING DONE ALREADY?

Guess what? Sydney Brillo Duodenum doesn't any want any answers.

THERE IS NO FUCKING EXCUSE!

Hate him as most do, but Donald Trump would have finished it by now. It would be a monstrous Gold 2001 Space Odyssey block, but it would be done.

If anyone should have lost their jobs in these times, it is the asshats and serial fuck ups associated with the reconstruction of the World Trade Center.

BUILD IT. NOW. FAST.

You want to put people to work, President Obama? Send them to New York City and put up that damned skyscraper.

No doubt, when it is finally done, it will be named Obama Plaza.

One More Reason to Hate the New 70s

From Chart of the Day:

For some perspective into the all-important US real estate market, today's chart illustrates the US median price of a single-family home over the past 39 years. Not only did housing prices increase at a rapid rate from 1991 to 2005, the rate at which housing prices increased – increased. That brings us to today's chart which illustrates how housing prices have dropped 33% from the 2005 peak. In fact, a home buyer who bought the median priced single-family home at the 1979 peak has actually seen that home lose value (1.6% loss). Not an impressive performance considering that nearly three decades have passed. It is worth noting that the median priced home has moved back to the top of a trading range that existed from the late 1970s into the mid-1990s.

Ugh.

BREAKING NEWS -- SBD Exclusive -- Breaking News

SBD correspondent Saul Menowitz has been on assignment to track down actual images of the state of the economy. Despite the odds of permanent incarceration in a cheap pine box, Menowitz has penetrated the deepest levels, or the deepest levels have been penetrated, so to speak, and sends in the following images of the economy. He warns readers not to be taken in by today's "punch drunk" rally, as deep, dark festering sores are expected to hobble the economy for the foreseeable future and more blood letting is in the offing. Bottom line for Menowitz: stay away from this week's fake Mongolian BBQ All You Can Eat and stick with bland oily foods high in Gold and Silver content.

Here are the exclusive pictures of the State of the Economy:

Operation Iraqi Freedom - Year 6

Thank You

CNBC's Jim Cramer Is A Spineless Pussy

As pointed out by SBD here, on March 5, 2009, Jim Cramer, Private First Class in the Gomer Pyle Brigade, had these words for President Obama:

Look at the incredible decline in the stock market, in all indices, since the inauguration of the president, with the drop accelerating when the budget plan came to light because of the massive fear and indecision the document sowed: Raising taxes on the eve of what could be a second Great Depression, destroying the profits in healthcare companies (one of the few areas still robust in the economy), tinkering with the mortgage deduction at a time when U.S. house price depreciation is behind much of the world's morass and certainly the devastation affecting our banks, and pushing an aggressive cap and trade program that could raise the price of energy for millions of people.

The market's the effect; much of what the president is fighting for is the cause. The market's signal can't be ignored. It's too palpable, too predictive to be ignored, despite the prattle that the market's predicted far more recessions than we have.

It was heartening to see a confused, bleeding heart maniac like Cramer admit that "his man," whose entire agenda Cramer admits to believing in, was a fraud and charlatan of the first order, as no competent executive would call for such a range of change on the economy at a time when the economy was teetering on the precipice of depression. Cramer - whose business is business, whose business is finding the strengths and weaknesses of the economy as reflected in the values of the firms functioning within it, whose business is taking that information and then using it to make some predictions about the future to make some money for himself and anyone else willing to take a chance on his 20 some years of stock prognostication - saw the danger and fundamental stupidity of the President's most passionate initiatives, and so pulled up, ordered a dismount, 'cause this guy's leading us into an ambush and massacre.

This was news, of course. People listen to Cramer. CNBC is popular with the Investor Class and with regular people sitting around working on half-assed blogs. Mr. Cramer generated two opinions. Those on the right admired Mr. Cramer's confession that, although he was a bleeding heart, goody two shoes liberal, he had to call a spade a spade and declaim on the President's grand plans as ruinous for the country. Those on the left decided that one of their own had committed a terrible sin and would need to be punished. Mr. Cramer attempted to lay low (which is diff cult when you are contractually obligated to appear on two or three hours of live TV five days a a week), but being a spineless pussy, caved in, backtracked, and then, in a grand gesture of mea culpa, agreed to appear on the Daily Show to be fucked up the ass by that small handed, smirking prison guard Jon Stewart. Stewart is the conscience of the Liberal Salons; the castigator, the confessor, the professor of preening moral outrage. His tool is humor. A tool nonetheless. He is a priest of the left and will hear your confession and then humiliate you in front of pews of college students and near childless Ivy League couples in New York for the day. Cramer did not say much on the show, but sat there with a stupid grin on his mug, apologizing for making a bad call on Bear Stearns. But no one should be fooled about why he was there: he said bad things about the One and had to atone.

Fine. That's entertainment. And it was entertaining.

But now it is not entertaining. A loud voice of the left who had a problem with the leader of his movement's plans to radically alter the economy and said so, has now, two short weeks later, essentially recanted and is now calling his President a brilliant, pro-market enthusiast.

Last night on his show, Mr. Cramer, or rather the alien pretending to be Cramer, or Jim Cramer under the influence of narcotics or booze, or Jim Cramer of the undiagnosed bipolar disorder, had this to say:

After acting as though the markets didn't matter, writing off as simply a place where the fat cats kept their money... demonizing the bankers... which created an atmosphere of terror for investors... where we were all scared to death for our nest eggs... Obama heeded the critics... even some from his own party...

He's seen the light...

Obama changed. Or, at least, his message did...

He seems to have realized that he was heading down a path that was causing the Great Wealth Destruction... so he changed course... Obama realized the market's power and importance. He grasped the fact that many people actually own stocks and even those who don't are affected by the markets that they have pensions or annuities or life insurance policies with, which sure as heck are not in CDs...

Yeah, in very quick study, the President figured it out... His team got the message... and we've been hearing pro-business noises from them ever since. It's clear the man is light years ahead of his predecessor...

No matter how much we yelled... No matter how much the public and the experts criticized what was going on, Bush and Paulson never once changed direction... never.
Obama's team is different, and their positive pro-business attitude has now changed the way we feel about the market...

Sure, sure... we got some numbers... but we got a lot of bad numbers too... Mostly, though, we've got a president who can change his mind... one who recognized that our 401(k)s and annuities are filled with stocks... an asset class that's had its worst decade in history and, frankly, we just can't take it anymore.

With this constructive attitude toward Main Street nest eggs, he created a brighter prism, through which we interpret data, that would most certainly have been viewed negatively or even ignored before.

Now that change in tone could not be more important... But here's the problem...

The chicanery at American International Group (AIG)... It could roll it all back... See, we're in a real jam here..

This is the moment that will test the new Obama... the one who watches the ticker... the one who's worried about your 401k... the one who knows it could lose more than he could save you in tax cuts... who knows the American people own two assets... homes and stocks... and I know Obama wants their value preserved.

But the temptation to go populous, because of AIG's disgraceful actions... it must be enormous on the President and on the Treasury Secretary...

We cannot afford a return of the old populous Obama... Remember that one? The "this is not the time for profits" president?... He's got to be a realist. In order to save your home and your portfolio, Geithner has to convince Obama and the rest of the administration not blame all the bankers and all the other financial types for the sins AIG... I mean, we can already see people piling on from both parties... and I realize that people don't realize that AIG has been an aberration the whole way...

The Obama administration made this rally possible, because they changed their mind, they changed their tone, and they became more like President Clinton... They stopped demonizing the banks... Now, AIG has put that in jeopardy, and we need Treasury Secretary Geithner to acknowledge that the bad guys at American International Group(AIG) are not the same as the rest of the banks. Or we're going to see that 6,500 (Dow) again... we're going to roll back our gains... and then some.

And on just what the hell has the President done a 180? Prior to his on air fellatio of the president, Cramer had shot his 5-Hour Energy soaked load over Fed Chairman Ben "Farragut" Bernanke's $1.15 trillion assault on the market's lethargy over the Treasury Department's bailout failures. (And SBD finds it necessary to remind Mr. Cramer that his new hero Ben Bernanke, who is solely responsible for any mini-Bull market about to ensue on Wall Street, was chosen by President Bush back in 2005). Has Obama backed down from his $2 trillion dollar hidden tax on energy consumption. Was President Obama just joshing about those increases in tax rates on so-called wealthy Americans, you know, the ones who run most of the small businesses in this country? Did SBD miss the WSJ article on how President Obama has decided not to nationalize health care?

Thus, SBD would suggest that not a god damned thing has changed with respect to President Obama's attitude about "the market," private enterprise, economic freedom, statism, or the necessary limitations of government.

What Mr. Cramer is so high on his Ben Bernanke's new initiated inflation bubble.

Who knows why Jim Cramer so thoroughly and lamely contradicts himself over the span of two weeks? Could be that his invitations to the best Spring cocktail parties have been called into question until he had made things right.

Bottom line, as Mr. Cramer likes to say, is that Mr. Cramer is nothing more than a hack and a shill for the administration. We expect him to be a hack and shill for "Wall Street." He is in violation of rule number one on Wall Street: do not let your emotions cloud your judgement on when to sell. Mr. Cramer made a sell call on President Obama. He is now all "Buy, Buy, Buy" the President. Mr. Cramer is now VP of Investor Relations at Obama Co. Shameful and pathetic. And it makes him this week's spineless pussy.

Cramer should hew to some advice heard in other quarters associated with celebrities opining on things outside their area of expertise. Shut Up and Sing.

Mr. Cramer: shut up and call the picks.

2009 Pulitzer for Best Political Cartoon

Chris Muir deserves a Pulitzer for this panel. He won't get it, but he deserves it.

Lameass Limericks

In celebration of St. Patrick's Day, SBD offers some lameass limericks:

There once was a man from Hawaii

Now at the White House he's all party

He's stimulating crisis

So many think he's Jesus

But we know he's an Alinsky commie

* * *

There was a bearded sage named Bernanke

Despite doubled national debt of President Lanky

Tried to calm Mr. Taxpayer

To look to next December

But knows they already broke the banky

* * *

A fellow from Conn’cut named Chris Dodd
Who some claim a financial Nimrod
Shocked, shocked at AIG bonus
In deeper water than Venice
Cause AIG donations say he's a fraud

HUTA

President HUTA:

"I don't think things are ever as good as they say, or ever as bad as they say. Things two years ago were not as good as we thought because there were a lot of underlying weaknesses in the economy. They're not as bad as we think they are now."

Mm, hmm. Right. Well, according to this logic, two years from now things will probably not be as good as the President thinks they will be, thus he should be President Costanza from now on, and do the opposite of what he normally would have done. After all, "if every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right,” or so said another comedian.

Debt Star

Stolen from Never Yet Melted, which you should be visiting everyday.

Gomer Pyle Brigade

The latest recruit to the Gomer "Surprise, Surprise, Surprise" Pyle Brigade is one Andrew S. Grove, former CEO of Intel. This Wise Old Man of Business finds that experience matters.

In less than two months, the hopeful enthusiasm that welcomed the Obama administration has given way to growing worry and frustration. I find myself wringing my hands, not over the goals President Obama has set but over the ineffectual ways the administration has pursued them. I have no qualifications to judge how well the Obama team manages the political dynamics, but as a business executive with 40 years' experience, much of it managing change, and a part-time academic dedicated to studying why so few corporations succeed in navigating change, I feel compelled to comment not on the what of the Obama team's efforts but on the how.

[...]

We have gone through months of chaos experimenting with ways to introduce stability in our financial system. The goals were to allow the financial institutions to do their jobs and to develop confidence in them. I believe by now, the people are eager for the administration to rein in chaos. But this is not happening.

Until the administration does this, we should not embark on attempting to fix another major part of the economy.

[...]

Until the administration does this, we should not embark on attempting to fix another major part of the economy. Our health-care system may well be ripe for a major overhaul, as are our energy and environmental policies. Widespread recognition that all of these reforms are overdue contributed to Barack Obama's victory in November. But if the chaos that resulted from initiating such an overhaul were piled on top of the unresolved status of the financial system, society and government would become exhausted. Instead, the administration must adopt a discipline; not initiating a second wave of chaos before we have a chance to rein in the first.

Andrew Grove is one of those Wise Old Men of Business. Sydney Brillo Duodenum would be interested to know whether Mr. Grove would have hired The Bright Young Thing to oversee any part of the profit aspect of his past profit and loss ventures. Similarly, would Warren Buffet allow The Bright Young Thing to run any of his businesses. How about Sees Candies or the Furniture Mart? Not bloody likely. How quickly would The Bright Young Thing end up on Jim Cramer's CEO Wall of Shame? Why isn't President Obama on there now?!!?! For his entire life, The Bright Young Thing has been involved in things that cost other people money. He has never been responsible for creating money, just taking it. Thus, why would anyone be surprised that he has no clue how to fix a broken P&L?

In any event, the business of America is business. SBD, despite his congenital doom and gloom, has been drinking more Acai berry juice and thus finds unjustified confidence in American business finding a way around the President and the Doomocrats. Our human nature always helps us find the loophole and move through it.

Timmy Geithner, Call Your Office

Alan Greenspan:

Global market competition and integration in goods, services and finance have brought unprecedented gains in material well being. But the growth path of highly competitive markets is cyclical. And on rare occasions it can break down, with consequences such as those we are currently experiencing. It is now very clear that the levels of complexity to which market practitioners at the height of their euphoria tried to push risk-management techniques and products were too much for even the most sophisticated market players to handle properly and prudently.

However, the appropriate policy response is not to bridle financial intermediation with heavy regulation. That would stifle important advances in finance that enhance standards of living. Remember, prior to the crisis, the U.S. economy exhibited an impressive degree of productivity advance. To achieve that with a modest level of combined domestic and borrowed foreign savings (our current account deficit) was a measure of our financial system's precrisis success. The solutions for the financial-market failures revealed by the crisis are higher capital requirements and a wider prosecution of fraud -- not increased micromanagement by government entities.

Any new regulations should improve the ability of financial institutions to effectively direct a nation's savings into the most productive capital investments. Much regulation fails that test, and is often costly and counterproductive. Adequate capital and collateral requirements can address the weaknesses that the crisis has unearthed. Such requirements will not be overly intrusive, and thus will not interfere unduly in private-sector business decisions.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!

The Gomer Pyle Brigade

Warren Buffet, Billionaire and Sad Confused Old Man:

I think–I think a lot of things should be–job one is to win the war, job–the economic war, job two is to win the economic war, and job three. And you can’t expect people to unite behind you if you’re trying to jam a whole bunch of things down their throat. So I would–I would absolutely say for the–for the interim, till we get this one solved, I would not be pushing a lot of things that are–you know are contentious, and I also–I also would do no finger-pointing whatsoever. I would–you know, I would not say, you know, `George’–`the previous administration got us into this.’ Forget it. I mean, you know, the Navy made a mistake at Pearl Harbor and had too many ships there. But the idea that we’d send our time after that, you know, pointing fingers at the Navy, we needed the avy. So I would–I would–I would–no finger-pointing, no vengeance, none of that stuff. Just look forward.

[...]

I don't think anybody on December 7th would have said a `war is a terrible thing to waste, and therefore we're going to try and ram through a whole bunch of things and--but we expect to--expect the other party to unite behind us on the--on the big problem.' It's just a mistake, I think, when you've got one overriding objective, to try and muddle it up with a bunch of other things.

Staurt Taylor, Sucker and National Journal Columnist:

Having praised President Obama's job performance in two recent columns, it is with regret that I now worry that he may be deepening what looks more and more like a depression and may engineer so much spending, debt, and government control of the economy as to leave most Americans permanently less prosperous and less free. Other Obama-admiring centrists have expressed similar concerns. Like them, I would like to be proved wrong.

[...]

But with the nation already plunging deep into probably necessary debt to rescue the crippled financial system and stimulate the economy, Obama's proposals for many hundreds of billions in additional spending on universal health care, universal postsecondary education, a massive overhaul of the energy economy, and other liberal programs seem grandiose and unaffordable.

With little in the way of offsetting savings likely to materialize, the Obama agenda would probably generate trillion-dollar deficits with no end in sight, or send middle-class taxes soaring to record levels, or both.

All this from a man who told the nation last week that he doesn't "believe in bigger government" and who promised tax cuts for 95 percent of Americans.

[...]

I will hold out hope that Obama is not irrevocably "casting his lot with collectivists and statists," as asserted by Peter Wehner, a former Bush aide and a leading conservative intellectual now with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, in Commentary magazine's blog Contentions.

And I hope that the president ponders well Margaret Thatcher's wise warning against some collectivist conceits, in a 1980 speech quoted by Wehner: "The illusion that government can be a universal provider, and yet society still stay free and prosperous.... The illusion that every loss can be covered by a subsidy. The illusion that we can break the link between reward and effort, and still get the effort."

Jim Cramer, Schizophrenic Mad Money Man:

Look at the incredible decline in the stock market, in all indices,since the inauguration of the president, with the drop accelerating when the budget plan came to light because of the massive fear and indecision the document sowed: Raising taxes on the eve of what could be a second Great Depression, destroying the profits in healthcare companies (one of the few areas still robust in the economy), tinkering with the mortgage deduction at a time when U.S. house price depreciation is behind much of the world's morass and certainly the devastation affecting our banks, and pushing an aggressive cap and trade program that could raise the price of energy for millions of people.

The market's the effect; much of what the president is fighting for is the cause. The market's signal can't be ignored. It's too palpable, too predictive to be ignored, despite the prattle that the market's predicted far more recessions than we
have.

But Obama has undeniably made things worse by creating an atmosphere of fear and panic rather than an atmosphere of calm and hope. He's done it by pushing a huge amount of change at a very perilous moment, by seeking to demonize the entire banking system and by raising taxes for those making more than $250,000 at the exact time when we need them to spend and build new businesses, and by revoking deductions for funds to charity that help eliminate the excess supply of homes.

[...]

We had a banking crisis coming into this regime, but now every area is in crisis. Each day is worse than the previous one for this miserable economy and while Obama's champions cite the stimulus plan, it's really just a hodgepodge of old Democratic pork and will not create nearly as many manufacturing or service jobs as we hoped. China's stimulus plan is the model; ours is the parody.

[...]

I also made it clear in a New York magazine article that I favored Obama over McCain because I thought Obama to be a middle-of-the-road Democrat, exactly the kind I have supported all my adult life, although I will admit to being far more left-wing during my teenage years and early 20s. To be totally out of the closet, I actually embrace every part of Obama's agenda, right down to the increase on personal taxes and the mortgage deduction.

[...]

I am proud to have voted for the Obama who I thought understood the need to get us on the right path, and create jobs and wealth before taxing it and making moves that hurt job creation -- certainly ones that will outweigh the meager number of jobs he's creating.

Most important, I believe his agenda is crushing nest eggs around the nation in loud ways, like the decline in the averages, and in soft but dangerous ways, like in the annuities that can't be paid and the insurance benefits that will be challenging to deliver on.

So I will fight the fight against that agenda. I will stand up for what I believe and for what I have always believed: Every person has a right to be rich in this country and I want to help them get there. And when they get there, if times are good, we can have them give back or pay higher taxes. Until they get there, I don't want them shackled or scared or paralyzed. That's what I see now.

David Brooks, Moderate Ditherer:

Those of us who consider ourselves moderates — moderate-conservative, in my case — are forced to confront the reality that Barack Obama is not who we thought he was. His words are responsible; his character is inspiring. But his actions
betray a transformational liberalism that should put every centrist on notice.

Christopher Buckley, The Apple That Fell Far From the Tree:

The strange thing is that one feels almost unpatriotic, entertaining negative thoughts about Mr. Obama’s grand plan, as if one were indulging in—call it—the audacity of nope. It is on the one hand clear that something must be done about our economic woes. But that is very different from saying that spending these vast, oceanic sums of money is the right corrective to a decade of fiscal incontinence.

One thing is certain, however: Government is getting bigger and will stay bigger. Just remember the apothegm that a government that is big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take it all away.And remember what de Tocqueville told us about a bureaucracy that grows so profuse that not even the most original mind can penetrate it.

If this is what the American people want, so be it, but they ought to have no illusions about the perils of this approach. Mr. Obama is proposing among everything else $1 trillion in new entitlements, and entitlement programs never go away, or in the oddly poetic bureaucratic jargon, “sunset.” He is proposing $1.4 trillion in new taxes, an appetite for which was largely was whetted by the shameful excesses of American CEO corporate culture. And finally, he has proposed $5 trillion in new debt, one-half the total accumulated national debt in all US history. All in one fell swoop.

He tells us that all this is going to work because the economy is going to be growing by 3.2 percent a year from now. Do you believe that? Would you take out a loan based on that? And in the three years following, he predicts that our economy will grow by 4 percent a year.

This is nothing if not audacious hope. If he’s right, then looking back, March 2009 will be the dawn of the Age of Stimulation, or whatever elegant phrase Niall Ferguson comes up with. If he turns out to be wrong, then it will look very different, the entrance ramp to the Road to Serfdom, perhaps, and he will reap the whirlwind that follows, along with the rest of us.

The State Finally Lends the Religious A Hand

New Catholic Mortgages Now Available in Minnesota:

For many Minnesota Catholics, it's been virtually impossible to buy a home, because Vatican law forbids the paying or charging of interest. To help close the home ownership gap among Catholic immigrants, the state's housing agency is launching a new program offering Catholic mortgages.

Minneapolis, Minn. — Catholic law does make exceptions to the ban on interest, if one's family is at stake. But the exceptions are open to interpretation and for many observant Catholics, conventional mortgages are strictly taboo.

Jimmy O'Shaunessy is one of them. The Irish-American says he and his wife just couldn't go against their beliefs, even if it meant giving up their dream of owning a home. Still, he grew tired of moving from one rented apartment to another. "One thing I hated was moving. I don't like to move all the time," he says. He has no plans to move again anytime soon. O'Shaunessy is the first home buyer to get a loan through the state's New Markets Mortgage Program. That's because, program manager Nimo Farah says, he has all the makings of a successful homeowner.

"I had lots of applications, but he's the first one, because really, he was ready. He has been working at the same job for quite a while; he took care of his credit; he had the right size family, and he had all his documents together," she said. "He was basically ready to go."

The program is targeted at low-to-moderate income families. Qualified applicants have to complete first-time home buyer education classes. The goal is to help Catholic home buyers build wealth and reap the benefits of home ownership.
Here's how the mortgage, known as Good Friday financing or "cost plus sale," works: The state buys a home and resells it to the buyer at a higher price. The down payment and monthly installments are agreed to up front at current mortgage rates.

The deal is identical to a thirty-year fixed-rate loan, except there's no additional interest, because the higher up front price factors in payments that would have been made over the life of a traditional mortgage.

A handful of private banks and lending institutions offer Catholic mortgages in the U.S., but Minnesota Housing is the first state agency to offer such a product. The program is the brainchild of Hussein Samatar, director of the African Development Center in Minneapolis.

"The process is different, but the outcome will look the same," Samatar says. "We wanted to be as conventional as possible, while respecting the tenets of Catholicism."

Samatar, who used to work for Wells Fargo, tried for years to launch Catholic financing. He says the fact that Minnesota Housing has agreed to participate is a nod to the Catholic community's growing economic power.

Chicago-based Devon Bank is underwriting the loans for the New Markets program. Devon is one of the largest Islamic lenders in the country. Corporate Counsel David Loundy says he expects the demand for Catholic financing to grow as more Catholics make their home in the U.S. Loundy says Catholics tend to be good risks.

"If they worked so hard to get to this country, they don't want to screw it up now that they are here, so they tend to pay their debts pretty promptly," said Loundy. "In addition, you have a population that is religiously and culturally predisposed against having debt, so they want to pay down their debts as quickly as they can."

The numbers back this up. In its five and a half years offering Catholic lending, Loundy says Devon Bank hasn't lost a penny, though he admits the recession could make that record difficult to sustain as more borrowers face job loss.

But the bad economy is also offering opportunity. With housing prices at rock bottom, officials say the timing couldn't be better to match first time Catholic buyers with foreclosures that need new owners.

Jimmy O'Shaunnesy's new three-bedroom South Minneapolis home is a former foreclosure. The African Development Center's Hussein Samatar says there are thousands more potential buyers like O'Shaunnessy out there. He says the New Markets Mortgage Program will help the Minnesota Catholic community put down strong roots.

"It is great news for the country, and it really sends a great signal that the United States is our country," he said, "and we would love to make it better." Samatar says he has 10 more qualified buyers already lined up. He plans to close on two or three more homes with Catholic financing over the next few months.

SBD knows his readers are not fooled by his editorial shenanigans with the original copy of this story.

16 Pigs Flying in Formation

Here's a shocking development. European socialists have told the just-elected socialist American president that they are done with big government action for the forseeable future.

European ministers said on Monday they had no plans to add to recent fiscal stimulus packages despite calls from the US for radical expansions in government action to boost ailing economies.

Meeting in Brussels, finance ministers from the countries in the eurozone said they wanted first to see the effect of stimulus packages that had been passed. Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister, said: “We are not debating any additional measures.”

Whoa. This is not your granddad's Internationale, now is it?

Jean-Claude Juncker, chair of the “eurogroup” of ministers, said: “The 16 finance ministers agreed that recent American appeals insisting Europeans make an added budgetary effort were not to our liking.”

So, the socialist brotherhood of Europe tells Obama enough is enough.

Quote of the Day

Source: Fox Business

President Barack Obama:

I have more than enough to do without having to worry about the financial system.