President Obama promised CHANGE in his campaign for President, and after 100 days in office, it is easy to give him a grade of A++ on keeping that promise. I must leave it to historians to gauge whether or not his first 100 days will take the top prize in terms of changes instituted in this country, but for sure he will get honorable mention.
I never thought I would find myself in the same camp as the self-acclaimed “democrat socialist” Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. But last evening on the Kudlow Report he made a very legitimate case for Government capping interest rates on credit card balances.
On the surface, JPMorgan Chase’s first quarter 2009 earnings look auspicious, reversing the red ink of the last few quarters and exceeding what was expected by investors. But a simple read-through of the press release paints a different picture.
The housing industry is finally just starting to get a bit of life, thanks to mortgage rates that are at the lowest levels in nearly 50 years. Combined with falling house prices, home affordability is the best level in years. Wise homebuyers will take out a fixed rate mortgage, NOT a variable one, however long the term might be, and budget to pay that fixed amount every month.
Thank you, Mr. President, for doing what should have been done long ago, by moving forward to open up diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba.Not only is it the right thing to do from a human rights point of view, it will enhance the economies of both the United States and Cuba at a time when any stimulus to economic activity is an answer to prayer.
The sooner those banks which don’t need Federal Government loans – Goldman Sachs? Morgan Stanley? Wells Fargo? – can repay them, the better. Because then those healthy financial institutions will be able to compete head to head with their major competitors, now in essence under the control and management of the Federal Government. When that day arrives – and it can’t come too soon – there will be a real test of private enterprise versus the Government, of capitalism versus socialism. I know where I will put my bet for who will be the winner, and it ain’t with the Federal Government.
For probably close to thirty years, I have been a registered Republican and have voted Republican in most – but not all – elections. Rush Limbaugh does not represent me as a Republican, and I don’t know too many Republicans who would say he speaks for them either. And for sure he is not the leader of the Republican Party. As one of my most intelligent Republican friends said to me the other day, “Rush Limbaugh is no leader. He is just a provocateur.”
Credit card horror stories have been pouring in to me since my Monday blog.One man said his experience with Capital One was so bad that he got the last laugh by shorting the stock at $45.It is now $10, so he is certainly the winner.As he put it, “jokes on them now – and as we say in the south, ‘it aint so funny when the rabbit has the gun.’ ”Good for him.
Lately, I have been receiving numerous emails relaying credit card horror stories, in response to my frequent blogs on the subject. But the one I got on Friday takes the cake and I am retelling it because I know the person well who sent it to me, I can vouch for the facts and she has given her permission to share her story. In fact, when she wrote to me, she suggested that I do so.
Lowering taxes in the midst of a recession is considered, in the science of economics, to be an expansionary move, i.e. one that will help to stimulate economic growth and end the recession.
The obvious corollary is that raising taxes during the midst of a recession is an economically contractionary move, one that will act to remove a stimulus to economic recovery and which will impede growth. So purely from an economic and mathematical point of view, it seems that the tax increases proposed in the current budget plan will only serve to lengthen this already seriously deep recession.
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