Republicans devour book criticizing New Deal

From Politico...

There aren’t any sex scenes or vampires, and it won’t help you lose weight.

But House Republicans are tearing through the pages of Amity Shlaes’ “The Forgotten Man” like soccer moms before book club night.

Shlaes’ 2007 take on the Great Depression questions the success of the New Deal and takes issue with the value of government intervention in a major economic crisis — red meat for a party hungry for empirical evidence that the Democrats’ spending plans won’t end the current recession.

That's the thing...there's no way of telling if the New Deal really worked because WWII came along and ended the Depression. And of course the Democrats' economic policy is GD dirty socialism - but in these times it's worth a shot. Or even better...let's start World War Three!

Bay State faces more budget cuts

More tough times are ahead for the Bay State.

Governor Deval Patrick says the state is facing a budget deficit of $156 million - costing the state more than 750 jobs. It may even grow by another $400 million before June.

During a news conference Tuesday, the governor said he would close the current gap with federal recovery funds, budget cuts, and spending controls. Included are mandatory unpaid furloughs, and Patrick will take a five day leave himself.

This marks the third round of budget cuts in Massachusetts.

Tax day - with hours to go

It's tax day, and procrastinators have one day to file federal income tax returns or seek an extension.

But if you haven't done it yet, you can do it online for free. Internal Revenue Service spokesman Eric Smith says many people are eligible to file their taxes electronically, for free, through the IRS website.

"You can do your return for free, fill it out for free, send it to the government for free," Smith says. "If your income is $54,000 or less, you qualify."

The IRS also says if it's been tough financially, failing to file will just make things worse.

Here in Boston, only the Fort Point Post Office branch near South Station will remain open until midnight for last-minute paper filers.

Families move away to find work

Unable to find work in Keosauqua, Iowa, Dustin and Michelle Wellman took their last $200, packed their belongings into a 1999 Dodge Neon and drove 1,000 miles with their four-year-old son back to Robertsdale, Ala., the town where Mr. Wellman grew up.

Sucks that jobs are harder to find.

China staying calm after Korean launch

China on Tuesday repeated its call for calm after North Korea's latest test of a multistage rocket, attempting to defuse anger in the U.S. and elsewhere at a time when its own economic interest in the neighboring state is soaring.

Buyout?

G20 leaders work to reach agreement

From BBC NEWS...

World leaders will strive to reach an agreement on how to confront the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s at the G20 summit in London.

So far they only agree that they should listen to what fiscally conservative authorities or pundits say should be done about the economy, and then do the opposite.

Second day of G20 protests expected

From BBC NEWS...

A second day of protests are expected as world leaders gather for the G20 summit at the ExCel Centre in London.

Because governments should stay out of private enterprise's business! Wait...that's why they're protesting, right?

From 0700 BST there are plans to disrupt traders at the London Stock Exchange, and from 1100 BST anti-war protests are planned near the summit.

Or not.

President Obama Faces Busy Schedule in London

President Barack Obama will have a busy day in London. He has already made a joint appearance with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

In that conference, the morning before the G-20 economic crisis summit, Obama urged world leaders to take action for the economy, saying, "We can only meet this challenge together."

"I came here to put forward ideas," Obama said, "but I also came here to listen, not to lecture. Having said that, we must not miss an opportunity to lead."

The president disputed criticism that the US was feuding with other nations about the need to pump more money into economic stimulus policies, saying any differences are vastly overstated.

"I am absolutely confident that this meeting will reflect enormous consensus about the need to work in concert to deal with these problems," Obama said.

Obama urged nations to spur growth and work together on regulation reform, and not to fall into the protectionism that helped fuel the Great Depression.

"That is a mistake we cannot afford to repeat," Obama said.

He assured reporters that he still believes in the country's economic system.

"I think that there is a vibrancy to our economic model, a durability to our political model, and a set of ideals that has sustained even through the most difficult times."

Brown emphasized unity as well, saying never before has the world come together in this way to deal with an economic crisis.

"We are within a few hours, I think," Brown optimistically added, "of agreeing a global plan for economic recovery and reform."

Obama will also squeeze in talks with Brown's main rival, David Cameron, the leader of Britain's conservative party. The president will also have face-to-face talks with the leaders of China and Russia. Officials in both of those countries have called for a global currency to end the dollar's dominance.

Finally, an Answer on Bank Lending

How are banks using the aid they have received from the federal government? A chief investigator, Neil Barofsky, told Congress in a hearing yesterday that banks are providing new loans to customers, retiring debt, or buying mortgage-backed securities. This answer is the first of its kind since the government launched the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Barofsky dismissed the doubts that banks could disclose such information.

"One thing is clear," he said. "Complaints that it was impractical, impossible, or a waste of time to require banks to detail how they use TARP funds were unfounded."

Barofsky told the Senate Finance Committee that some responses were general, but others provided granular detail on spending, including identification of specific loans made possible with TARP money.

The government has given some $300 billion to the banks so far, and has committed to spending billions more. Barofsky's testimony came as the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, released its own assessment of the bailout and called on the Treasury Department to increase transparency and oversight.

Treasury's Neel Kashkari, manager of the bailout, called these recommendations a thoughtful step forward in a letter to GAO.

But some lawmakers are frustrated with the freedom that TARP has given banks. Barofsky estimated that $2.9 trillion in taxpayer money is at risk.

This is a huge, unprecedented financial commitment, said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., the committee's chair.

"It strains the comprehension of taxpayers and policymakers alike," Baucus said.

Lawmakers showed willingness to increase G.A.O.'s power to follow the money wherever it goes. Baucus and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Finance Committee, have introduced legislation that would give GAO access to financial records and other data of banks participating in the aid program.

"I start with the premise that the public's business ought to be public," Grassley said, "and the expenditure of this money Ive put in the category of public."

New GM chief says bankruptcy "probable"

DETROIT — The new chief executive of General Motors, Frederick A. Henderson, said Tuesday that bankruptcy was “more probable” than ever for the automaker but that he still hoped to successfully restructure the company out of court.

I'm surprised and glad that they aren't getting bailed out. If the American automakers aren't willing to make better cars, their industry deserves to die. Hopefully the big three will get their act together so the employees can keep their jobs.

Obama takes new budget to Capitol Hill

by Seth Graham and Ben Tan

Up yours, not spending!
President Barack Obama makes his way to Capitol Hill as House and Senate committees begin work on a budget for the coming fiscal year.

Amid a growing deficit, the budget tops $3.6 trillion. House Minority Leader John Boehner believes the president's plan takes the country down the wrong path. "The president's budget spends too much, taxes too much, and it borrows too much," Boehner said. "It raises taxes on every American family and small business," he added.

Both the House and Senate plan to slash his proposed 11 percent increase in discretionary spending.

President Obama's Online Meeting

Smoking is very bad for you okay.
President Barack Obama has announced an online, town hall style meeting on the White House's web site this Thursday.

In a new video, Obama says he wants Americans to ask him questions directly.

"One of my priorities as president is opening up the White House to the American people," the President said, "so that folks can understand what we're up to and have a chance to participate themselves."

Obama will take questions on the economy and other topics at WhiteHouse.gov.

Barney Frank: "We own this company"

CNN) -- As the tide of outrage over AIG bonuses continued unabated Wednesday, a congressional committee became the epicenter of the issue as Edward Liddy, CEO and chairman of the troubled insurer, prepared to answer questions about executive bonuses.

On Wednesday's "American Morning," Rep. Barney Frank, who chairs the House Finance Committee, shared what was legally and legislatively within the government's power on recovering the AIG bonuses and reforming the whole financial incentive system.

Kiran Chetry, CNN anchor: When he appears before your committee today, what type of assurances are you guys seeking from Mr. Liddy with regard to these bonuses?

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts: Well, I don't have a lot of confidence in Mr. Liddy's view at this point. When he said that first he couldn't get the money back because they had contractual rights but also that he was worried about not retaining them, it left me unconvinced he's really going to be trying.

The notion that we want to retain these people, that we want to pay the people who messed it up in the first place so they don't leave, is just backward to me. I think we would probably be better off if they did leave.

We are going to ask him to fully be cooperative in our effort, but I think the federal government has to take the lead on the lawsuits. We own this company in effect, and we're not asking that these bonuses be rescinded because we have lent money to the company.

I'd love to see the government rip AIG a new one.

AIG Executive Faces Grilling on Capitol Hill

AIG chief Edward Liddy will testify on Capitol Hill later this morning about almost $200 million in bonuses at the financial giant.

He will defend the payments that have caused outrage among politicians and taxpayers.

The bonuses went out in an effort to keep employees from fleeing the troubled financial products department. Liddy though still admitted the bonuses are probably distasteful in talks with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Geithner said he will deduct the cost of the bonuses from the pending $30 billion cash infusion to the insurance giant, bringing the total amount of taxpayer money to AIG to around $200 billion.

Geithner's statement was an attempt to calm the general publics outrage over the bonuses. AIG has beefed up security outside its suburban Connecticut office, amid reports of death threats and irate phone calls to employees, some of whom have submitted resignations.

Meanwhile, NYU finance professor Roy Smith said AIG can't afford to lose the top talent that received those payments.

"To risk having many of those people walk out of you, and have to replace them with people who are postal workers, is probably a foolish thing to do."

Liddy himself did not get a bonus. They range from $1,000 to $6.5 million.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo reported that 73 AIG employees nabbed $1 million or more in bonuses, all of them in the derivatives unit that brought the company down.

Something is deeply wrong with this outcome, Cuomo wrote to U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Frank now urges the Obama administration to fight the bonuses, more of which may be owed to AIG executives under various contracts.

Some Congressmen are threatening to slap such bonuses with a 60-100% tax.

President Barack Obama said Monday that the bonuses were an outrage, and has ordered Geithner to take all legal measures to block them.

Other members of Congress have taken shots at the AIG executives. Representative Sam Johnson (R-TX) said they should be "turned over to the marines," and Charles Grassley (R-IA) is raising eyebrows too.

"They need to either do one of two things...resign or go commit suicide."

Grassley also said the corporation is acting irresponsibly by giving bonuses made of taxpayer money in a Fox News interview yesterday.

And he's not the only one. Other lawmakers are working on a bill to tax those bonuses at one hundred percent. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said if the executives don't give the bonuses back, then they'll take them by force.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-CT), chair of the Senate Banking Committee is also calling for the repeal of the bonuses.

Connecticut lawmakers said yesterday they hope to change a state law thats being partially blamed by AIG as a reason for the bonuses.

The Wage Act allows employees to sue for twice the full amount of contractually owed wages in this case $330 million as well as attorneys fees if the employer refuses to pay.

One administrative worker said Financial Products has a reputation for paying out huge bonuses.

In her first year after being transferred there from another branch, the woman's annual bonus jumped from $12,000 to $40,000.

Kremlin to Push Global Currency at G-20

The Kremlin will pitch a new currency at an upcoming meeting of the G-20. The Kremlin published its priorities Monday for the meeting, calling for a supranational reserve currency to be issued by international institutions. This is part of a reform of the global financial system.

The International Monetary Fund should investigate the possible creation of a new reserve currency, widening the list of reserve currencies, or using its already existing Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs, as a superreserve currency accepted by the whole of the international community, the Kremlin said in a statement on its web site.

The IMF created SDRs in 1969 to supplement the existing official reserves of member countries.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have repeatedly called for the ruble, rather than the dollar, to be used as the regional reserve currency, although the idea has received little support outside Russia. The Kremlin has repeatedly criticized the dollars status as the dominant global reserve currency, and has lowered its dollar holdings in the last few years.

Analysts said the Kremlins proposal will not elicit excitement at the meeting.

This is all in the realm of fantasy, said Sergei Perminov, chief strategist at Rye, Man and Gore. There was a situation that resembled what they are talking about. It was called the gold standard, and it ended very badly.

Alternatives to the dollar are still hard to find, he said.

Recently, there have been other calls for a common currency. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev proposed a global currency at an economic conference in Astana, Kazakhstan.

New Yorkers celebrate St. Patty's Day

From NYTimes.com...

Tens of thousands of marchers proceeded up Fifth Avenue on Tuesday for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade, the festive mood of the procession — believed to be the 248th — tempered by the deteriorating economy in both the United States and Ireland.

New York City ranks behind Boston, Philadelphia, Tampa, Cleveland, Baltimore, Chicago and other cities in the proportion of residents who list Irish as their primary ancestral group, but the St. Patrick’s Day parade is nonetheless a political rite of passage for politicians and notables.

Even as the parade began at Fifth Avenue and 44th Street at 11 a.m., a group of lesbian and gay Irish organizations demonstrated 13 blocks away, at 57th Street, criticizing the organizers for their policy barring gay groups (though not individuals) from marching.

The City Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, who is the city’s most prominent openly gay official, has stayed away from the parade since being told she could not wear even a pin, button or sash indicating gay pride. She plans to take part in a large St. Patrick’s Day reception in Washington on Tuesday evening, at the invitation of President Obama.

For many spectators, the attention was on the sacrifice of service members who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My plan for today is, of course, to get drunk, go to South Boston carrying a boom box playing "I'm Shipping Up to Boston", walk into a bar and punch the first guy I see.

Cuomo reveals details on AIG bonuses

From NYTimes.com...

Seventy-three employees were paid more than $1 million in the newly minted bonuses at the insurance giant, American International Group, according to the New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo.

THAT's where your tax money is going.

Obama outraged over AIG bonuses

Work on the angry face, Barry.
Try calling Obama a corporate shill and socialist NOW!

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Monday that American International Group Inc's payment of $165 million in bonuses is an "outrage" and ordered the treasury secretary to take all legal measures to block them.

FINALLY! Finally the government stops taking...spit...from A.I.G.

Obama braces for controversy over budget

WASHINGTON, Feb 25 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama sends his first budget proposals to Congress on Thursday bracing for fights over how best to heal the economy, create a new healthcare system and still cut out-of-control deficits.

I'm still split on Obama's economic policy, but I *am* convinced of one thing: the President is not, as certain pundits would have you believe, a socialist. Just ask some actual socialists!

Greg Pason, National Secretary of the Socialist Party USA: “Barack Obama's programs are not socialist. The vast majority of his proposals are anti-worker (or he might say ‘pro-business’). His health care proposals are more to save the for-profit insurance industry and do not have the goal of ending for-profit insurance. He has refused to support a Senate version of HR676, which would create a single-payer program (not socialist but much better than we have, and [which has] the support of labor and community organizations across the US). Many of his other economic proposals are pro-corporate.

A socialist program (even a reformist one) would not be a program that props up capitalism when it fails, but one that transforms the economy. None of Senator Obama's proposals do that. Senator Obama’s tax plan is regressive and even less ‘progressive’ than programs put forward under such conservative administrations like the one of Richard Nixon.”

F.N. Brill, National Secretary of the World Socialist Party (US): “Obama is as much a socialist as the Pope is an atheist. Income redistribution isn't a socialist act. It might aid in ameliorating income disparities within a capitalist economy for a limited time. But the logic of capitalism demands the rich grow richer (more capitalization is needed) and the poor grow poorer (their work creates the needed capital used by the rich).”

Obama to outline mortgage rescue plan

From ABC News...

Perhaps no one word has defined this recession better than "foreclosure."

In the last year, banks started foreclosure proceedings on more than 2.3 million households, according to RealtyTrac, and entire neighborhoods in Florida, Arizona, Nevada and California became ghost towns.

Today, President Obama will unveil his administration's plan to stop that foreclosure flood.

I'm split on Obama's economic policy. I've heard great arguments for and against the bailout and stimulus and don't yet know if I'm behind either of them. But all these plans are made with good intentions.