Two U.S. Democratic lawmakers want Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to relax recently tightened standards for mortgages on new condominiums, saying they could threaten the viability of some developments and slow the housing-market recovery, the Wall Street Journal said.Lack of adequate government oversight and a loosening of mortgage lending rules and principles contributed heavily to the financial and economic crisis we are in. As a result the crisis spawned the
Tampa will lose part of its cigar heritage in August when Hav-A-Tampa shuts its factory near Seffner and lays off about 495 employees, closing a factory that has been operating since 1902.So why is Hav-a-Tampa closing its plant in Tampa?
...the company attributed much of its trouble to the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, a federal program that provides health insurance to low-income children. It is funded, in part, by a new federal tax on cigars and cigarettes. McKenzie couldn't say how much sales of Hav-A-Tampa cigars had fallen off, but the numbers have dropped significantly, he said.OK. Adding a possible 35 cents to the price of a cigar may not be enough to make people instantly stop smoking cigars. Cigar smoking is more of a leisure-time activity, rather than an addiction. Thusly, there's still a demand for the product. So, what happens next?
Previously, federal excise taxes on cigars were limited to no more than a nickel, said Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar Association of America trade group. The tax increase, which took effect April 1, raises the maximum tax on cigars to about 40 cents, Sharp said.
Work that had been done in Tampa will now be performed in an Altadis plant in Puerto Rico, where it has extra manufacturing capacity, McKenzie said.Yeah, that's it. the jobs will be moved off-shore.
"We can't afford to make these cigars in the U.S. anymore."Ahh. If the cigars are made in the US, Hav-a-Tampa will have to absorb an 800% increase in the excise tax, payable to Uncle Sam. But if the cigars are made off-shore, no such tax burden applies. So, off-shore they go. And almost 500 American jobs disappear with it.
"The Iranian people are trying to have a debate about their future."He calls is a debate. A fucking debate. Innocent people shot dead in the streets by the government. Very good, Mr. President. You sure don't want to upset the mullahs. After all, they might not show up for your hotdogs and fireworks this weekend.
The White House is now occupied by a little president who just isn't there when he is called upon to take a clear, moral stand. For such sheer gutless flabbiness and evasion, you have to look back to the dismal Jimmy Carter years. If Tehran seems quieter today, it's because the civilian demonstrators have been identified and are being beaten and tortured and maybe killed in Evin Prison. Don't believe for a moment that the sadistic regime has changed, just because you don't see people bleeding on the streets. They are bleeding all right. It's just out of public view.When a French president shows more balls than an American president, it's freaking pathetic.
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The Europeans are being Reaganesque. Angela Merkel is morally serious. She stated officially that "Germany stands on the side of the people in Iran who want to exercise their right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly."
Nicolas Sarkozy upheld our real values. He called the pictures of women and teenagers being beated by Basij thugs on motorcycles "brutal" and "totally disproportionate." "The ruling power claims to have won the elections ... if that were true, we must ask why they find it necessary to imprison their opponents and repress them with such violence."
In defending his friend, Maher thought Republicans had over reacted and this was just a case of ‘fake’ outrage. Much ado about nothing. He then went on talking about how Letterman had invited Sarah Palin and her young daughter, Willow, to appear as guests on his show but the Governor declined because she thought it would be wise to keep her daughter away from him. Said Maher, “…that’s right, he’s 62 years old, he’s gonna fuck her right there on stage…it would be very wise to keep her, very wise, yes. You know, I’d worry a little more about the 18-year old hockey players who knock up your daughters.” To which his audience of trained seals laughed and clapped and had a good old time.One has to assume Billy doesn't have any daughters of his own, because I can't imagine him being so amazingly crude otherwise. Not wanting to be outdone by his colleague's joke implying that one of the Palin daughters got raped, Billy gives us a wonderful visual of a 62-year old man actually doing it on stage. Real classy, Bill. Real classy.
To start with the obvious, even though Obama denies that he will manage the companies, we have all learned by now that he has no problem doing the very thing he is denying. (In ordinary life this political artfulness is called lying). He fired one CEO, forced Chrysler to accept Fiat (WSJ.com 6/5/09), told GM that it cannot move its headquarters out of Detroit (WSJ.com 6/3/09), and may have ordered that whoever buys GM's European auto maker Opel must agree not to export cars to the U.S.. (WSJ.com 6/1/09) These decisions were made in secret with no Congressional oversight, by a man with no training or experience of any kind in business, never mind the auto business.Yeah, a little scary.
But the negative consequences will spread well beyond the auto industry. By so conspicuously stiffing the bondholders in favor of his political supporters, Obama has made raising capital vastly more difficult. Every investor now knows that past bankruptcy law means nothing; if the President is paid enough by some special interest group, he will rip off the secured debt holders to satisfy his supporters. This will surely lower the demand for corporate bonds, leading to less capital for business expansion, hence fewer jobs.So far, Ford seems to be the only American car manufacturer surviving. But for how long? How long before the UAW and the Obama administration makes a play for Ford? Or forces successful American-based foreign manufacturers like Honda and Toyota into the UAW fold.
Bomb threat on Air France flight.So, on May 27, an Air France flight had a bomb scare phoned in to the airport in Argentina. The Paris-bound flight was delayed as the aircraft was searched and the passengers re-screened. And three days later, a Paris-bound Air France flight from Brazil ends up at the bottom of the ocean, with no warning or distress call from the pilots.
Posted on 27 May 2009 at 16:27
The airport safety delayed an Air France flight this evening before departring for Paris immediately after the company received a bomb threat over the phone at the airport of Ezeiza.
The Federal Police, along the Firemen’s direction and the Airport’s Safety proceeded to inspect the plane, that arrived this morning from the French city and, after a brief stop, it was preparing to return.
The routine procedure lasted approximately one hour and a half and, as sources of the airport reported all the passengers are ok and they were not evacuated.
As the administration has pointed out in defense of its plan to commandeer the bankruptcy process, asset sales (known as 363 sales, based on the relevant provision) have become a common feature of Chapter 11 cases in the last 20 years. What makes the Chrysler plan unique, and makes it similar to the receiverships of the New Dealers’ era, is that it is not really a sale at all. It is a pretend sale and its main purpose is to eliminate the pesky creditors who might otherwise interfere with the government’s plans. It also seems to flout bankruptcy’s priority rules by giving Chrysler’s employees (who are general creditors) a big stake in New Chrysler while forcing senior lenders to take a major haircut. The usual rule is that senior creditors must be paid in full before lower priority creditors are entitled to anything.A similar deal will most likely be implemented with GM, but since GM is much larger than Chrysler, the final outcome will probably differ. From the Associated Press, as posted on Yahoo News.
The company appeared closer than ever to filing for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday after its bondholders turned their backs on a federally ordered offer to swap their debt for GM stock. If GM does file, the governments of the United States and Canada could end up with as much as 70 percent of a reconstituted GM when the court dust settles_ with the biggest share by far held by the U.S. Treasury.Did you catch that? 70%?? !! ?? Holy crap! Folks, it's no longer General Motors...it's Government Motors. With that much ownership of the new company, the US and Canadian governments will be able to make all corporate, board-level deciscions.
Obama knows the public doesn't want the government to run GM and Chrysler, which is why he has said hundreds of times that the government has "no interest" in running the automakers. But on Monday, at a White House event to hail the GM bankruptcy, he gave away the game when he said the feds will stay out of running GM "in all but the most fundamental corporate decisions."Combine the government's 70% ownership of New GM, and their 8% ownership of New Chrysler, and this should be recognized as nothing short of the nationalization of the American auto industry. Do we really want our government, using our yet-to-be-earned money, building our cars for us? Seizing publically-held corporations and nationalizing industries goes on in banana-republic, 3rd-world, communist/socialist states like Venezuela - not in America.
It didn't take any parsing to realize that in Obama's vision, the government will let GM management handle the small stuff, but when something really, really matters, the new owner -- the United States government -- will do the deciding.
School's out! Suddenly it is playtime for all the naughtier elements in the more "reclusive" parts of the world who enjoy kicking Uncle Sam's butt but didn't much relish tangling with Dick Cheney and (what was that other guy's name?). This time Comrade Kim is really throwing his toys out of the playpen. He has even unilaterally revoked the 1953 armistice between the Korean War belligerents, which means, in case anybody is interested, that North and South Korea are once more at war.The article even calls him President Pantywaste. This would be even more funnier if it weren't so sadly true. Do you think it's just a coincidence that North Korea has upped the ante with six long range missile tests and a nuclear detonation test, all within the past week or so? Do you think they would have dared try this while Bush/Cheney were running the show?
So, what is the response of the Messiah in the Oval Office? Really severe rhetoric, is the answer. The soundbite manufacturers have been burning the midnight oil and the auto-cue is going into meltdown. So is the confidence of Asian leaders. The word is out: the most powerful nation on earth has got itself a pussycat for a president and all the bad guys are queuing up to give him the finger.
