Biden More Than He Can Chew

Here are a couple of gems from Biden.

On healthcare:

“We're doing things that we know are going to save you, your children and your grand children billions of dollars over the next years. But we're not able to prove it." emphasis added

On the economy:

“Folks look, AARP knows and the people with me here today know, the president knows, and I know, that the status quo is simply not acceptable. It’s totally unacceptable. And it’s completely unsustainable. Even if we wanted to keep it the way we have it now. It can’t do it financially.We’re going to go bankrupt as a nation. Now, people when I say that look at me and say, ‘What are you talking about, Joe? You’re telling me we have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?’ The answer is yes, that's what I’m telling you." Audio

This reminds me of a posting I made a few months ago about a quote from Timothy Geitner:

"...be wary of any organization that claims to guarantee success and demands upfront fees."

Not only should you be wary, based on the above quotes, you should be scared sh*tless.

Let us hope Biden won't be giving advice on sobriety to drunks -- I can only imagine: " 'What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me to get sober I need to drink more alcohol?' The answer is yes, that's what I'm telling you."


I encourage you to read Mish's coverage, which offers 2 more historic examples of similar tomfoolery.

Audio: Ron Paul on the Fed

Housing 'Happiness'

I came across the following video at Zero Hedge, from the creator Nick Gogerty. Great video, and the backgrownd tune is great too -- "Happiness" by De Phazz.

Protest Outside Standard & Poor's

Below is the details of the protest, in a form of a handout given to passerby's. Transcript below.

S&P is an agency which should hold zero credibility when it comes to ratings. Having said that, protesting against S&P for what the tenants consider bad business practices may, ultimately, be somewhat of a stretch, though the reasoning toward a refinement in credit rating considerations seem legitimate.

First, I must note that as long as the the owner (Vantage) abides by the leasing agreements and any other contractual obligations it has, then I see nothing wrong with them adjusting asking prices or changing terms of services from those of the prior owners. If those are unsatisfactory conditions and prices, then ultimately Vantage will suffer a monetary loss by losing money on their investment when its business practices drive away customers.

However, when it comes to credit ratings, if the above holds true, then such business practices would indeed provide conditions for increased risk for a highly leveraged company, and any impact toward risk for a company should be an indicator for S&P to factor that into their rating system -- if they don't already do so. Unfortunately, the problems with S&P rating system is far more flawed than this protest would have us believe.

_______Transcript:______

What Standard and Poor's Should Know About Problems
with Vantage Building Portfolio Loans

Standard and Poor's has provided credit ratings for a number of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) that include large portfolio loans for New York City apartment buildings owned by Vantage Properties. These CMBS have been sold to investors, and include CSMC 2007 C 1. CSMC 2007 C2, CSMC 2007 C4. and CSMC 2006 CS.

Tenants who live in some Vantage Properties buildings have concerns about physical and financial distress in the buildings. The tenants believe that Standard and Poor's should know the following information:

• Vantage Properties, and their equity partner AREA Real Estate Advisors, have been described in the press as a "predatory equity" developer who purchased buildings with outsized mortgages that could only be justified if low-rent-paying tenants were forced to move out and building services were cut back In fact, a judge recently ruled that actions alleged by tenants constitute illegal harassment, and that a lawsuit against Vantage may proceed in State Supreme Court (Jose Ricardo Aguatza, et al. v Vantage Properties LLC. et al. Index 9 105197108)
• Information from the loan serv►cer for the CMBS suggests that the buildings were badly
  overleveraged when the financing was underwritten, and may now be in financial distress. In June. 2006, loan servicer reports indicated that two of the above mention four portfolio loans were on the servrcer's "default watchlhst". By December. 2008. all four of the above loans were on the servicer's default watchlist According to notes from the loan servicer, one of the primary reasons that these loans were marked as being potentially distressed is that the debt-servrce-coverage-ratios (DSCR) were low. In June. 2008. the average DSCR for the four Vantage Property bars was .7111. By December, 2008. the average DSCR had fallen to SO/ 1. That is, that only 50 cents was being produced by the properties for every dollar of debt owed.
• Tenants have complained to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and
  Development that Vantage is denying necessary services to tenants These complaints include
  the fact the on-site superintendent has been removed from puny of the buildings, which tenants behave has reduced the maintenance and repair of the buildings.

Tenants are calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue rules for credit rating agencies such as Standard and Poor s to insure that all relevant information, such as the above, is taken into account when a rating Is issued (or a mortgage-backed security

For further information, contact
Teresa Pere, President - 718.926-9225; Shirh.id Meah. Vice President - 718.709.19&1 Lauren Spnnger, Secretary - 917 805-1905

It's Not Just That Global Warming Is Fake. What Matters Is Why This Fakery Is Being Promoted.

by Gary North
July 3, 2009

Global warming is based 100% on junk science. The most vocal promoters are not interested in the details of physical science. They are interested in two things: political control over the general public and the establishment of international socialism.

Junk Science vs. Real Science

For a detailed, footnoted, 12-page article, written by three scientists, two with Ph.D's from CalTech, click here.

This paper was sent to tens of thousands of natural scientists in the United States.
Over 31,000 scientists have put their reputations on the line and signed a politically incorrect petition opposing the 1997 Kyoto agreement or protocol. Here is a photocopy of a signed petition.


Here is a letter from a former president of the National Academy of Sciences. He asks recipients of the petition to sign it.

Back in the 1970's, the bugaboo was the coming ice age, as this Time Magazine article promoted. Not to be outdone, Newsweek got on board. The article warned: "Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects." Want more examples? Click here.

It, too, was based on junk science. It, too, had the same solution: government control over the economy. The goal never changes: government management over the economy. The justification has changed. If the voters won't accept control over their lives on the basis of one brand of junk science, maybe they will accept another. As they used to say in the Nixon Administration: "Let's run this up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes."

Socialism's Last Stand

The global warming movement is not about global warming. It is about the creation of an international political control arrangement by which bureaucrats who favor socialism can gain control over the international economy.

This strategy was stated boldly by economist Robert Heilbroner in 1990. Heilbroner, the multi-millionaire socialist and author of the best-selling history of economic thought, The Worldly Philosophers, wrote the manifesto for these bureaucrats. He did this in an article, "Reflections: After Communism," published by The New Yorker (Sept. 10, 1990).

In this article, he made an astounding admission. He said that Ludwig von Mises had been right in 1920 in his article, "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth." Mises argued that without private ownership, central planners could not know what any resource is worth to consumers. With no capital market, the planners would be flying blind.

Heilbroner said that for 70 years, academic economists had either ignored this article or dismissed it without answering it. Then Heilbroner wrote these words: "Mises was right."
Heilbroner was one of these people. There is no reference to Mises in The Worldly Philosophers.

This admission was the preliminary section of Heilbroner's manifesto. He was cutting off all hope by socialists that there is a theoretically plausible response to Mises. The free market economy will always outproduce a socialist economy. Get used to it, he said.

Then, in the second section, he called on his socialist peers to get behind the ecology movement. Here, he said, is the best political means for promoting central planning, despite its inefficiency. In the name of ecology, he said, socialists can get a hearing from politicians and voters.

The article is not online. An abstract is. Here is the concluding thought of the abstract.

The direction in which things are headed is some version of capitalism, whatever
its title. In Eastern Europe, the new system is referred to as Not Socialism. Socialism may not continue as an important force now that Communism is finished. But another way of looking at socialism is as the society that must emerge if humanity is to cope with the ecological burden that economic growth is placing on the environment. From this perspective, the long vista after Communism leads through capitalism into a still unexplored world that roust [must?] be safely attained and settled before it can be named.

Heilbroner did not care that a worldwide government-run economic planning system would not be called called socialism. He just wanted to see the system set up.

Heilbroner's peers got the message. That was what Kyoto was all about.

Conclusion

If you like poverty, inefficiency, and bureaucratic controls over the economy, and therefore control over your choices, the "climate change" movement is ideal.

If you want to subsidize China and India, neither of which will enforce the rules laid down by unelected international bureaucrats, this movement is for you.

If you want to pay more for less energy, there is no better way than to pass the cap and tax bill which the House has passed. It will be sent to the U.S. Senate next week.

The rest of us should oppose it.

I hereby authorize anyone to reprint this article or post it on any website, just so long as the text is not changed.