Gimme $785 Billion Jones

Point of order: Good look to Wild Gypsy – I got the check, I am so flattered and appreciate it greatly. Again thank you for your kindness.

Now today will keep it brief. For some reason or another I think that that 785 billion they just gave the president will be thrown around to fat cats like the first lump sum of said billions asked for by the former President. On the real, I’m been thinking that Obama has that check in his desk drawer and pulls it out every 15 minutes, thinking and saying to himself “dang, $785 billion dollar” and wondering if he should just leave the country. Or that he has already taken Air force One around the country to every check cashing place in the country to cash that joint. Albeit I know he won’t.

But with that said, and the fact he, as the former President has spelled out no plan to use the loot, this is what I would do to stimulate the economy. Yep stimulate, because I have yet to read any form of stimulus, for all I see is spending and just because one spends doesn’t necessarily translate in a stimulus – for spending and stimulus are not the same.

Any who, here is what I would do, from the bottom up, to help stimulate the economy and be reminded, I have only had one class in economics and that was during one semester of my 10^th grade of high school. In no particular order:

1] If I did give it to banks, would mandate and stipulate (maybe even sign an executive order) telling banks to refinance all mortgages at the current value of the homes. Banks will get loot and expect folks to pay 300k mortgages on houses with market values of 150k, meaning they get bailout money and the extra loot from a 300K mortgage when the home is not worth such – foul.

2] Offer all small businesses having annual earnings of less than 250k, stimulus checks between 25 and 40,000 dollars. His would encourage spending for inventory and materials as well as research and development.

3] Freeze the requirements of social security and taxes on all business, even pay roll taxes. No explanation necessary.

4] Repeal the marijuana tax act of 1937. This is America’s largest cash crop.

5] Require banks that receive TARP funding or any federal monies to use the loot to pay 35% of the mortgage values of homes in or entering foreclosure. This figure would be 45% for those individuals suffering hardship due to recent unemployment.

6] Obviate and repeal the Commodities Futures Modernization Act of 2000.

7] Increase funding in research for NIH and institutions of higher learning.

8] Likewise, provide across the board $5,000 increases in the salaries of teachers working in public sector pre-k through 12^th grade.

9] Standardize the credit card industry so they cannot willy-nilly raise, create and change rates at the drop of a hat.

10] Purchase outstanding debt, or mandate that the debt in toxic assets and complex papers be translated or transferred into student loan debt and out right purchased for consumers who have such debt.

I mailed these off to the new administration last week. So what do you suggest?

Addendum: Wonder if Obama smokes Newport’s or Kool Filter Kings, and if he does, what would Aaron McGruder say about his blackness then – LMAO.

Pay check away from a pink slip

If you dint know, my store for dogs is about three minutes from the Martin Luther King Jr. birth home, and 3 blocks from his grave and the eternal flame that lights his heart and passion. The day after Obama won, I walked around there and just stared, just a few moments. It was like his crypt was talking to me. Nope I aint crazy, but it felt that way. I was reassured and went back to my shop.

I guess yawl know how much King means to me. He was one of many that informed me of the importance of intellect and thinking for yourself and not accepting what people tell you and/or following blindly. I went to the tomb to respect my elder. It made me feel good, and reinforced that I still was challenged to the task such elders engendered in me.

I have said that I did not Vote for Obama or any of them other same ole lame okie dokes. My logic which many of you said was foolish, and self righteous, was neither to me. As I pointed out I voted for not the man, nor the party, but the policy. And if I must accept blame for seeing no difference in word on paper between the two – then so be it. Likewise, If I decided to study in an applied manner what they say they will do in concert with the problem that needs to be addressed, with the economy for example, and it is my conclusion such is far fetched, I will say such.

I particular felt this way about several things. Both he and McCain said the basic: I will lower taxes, I will reduce the deficit, and I will grow the economy. I want jones to be a success, but I will not reduce my penchant to evaluate his suggestions just as rigorously as I did the recent candidates, or past presidents regardless of party affiliation, nor will I give him a past. Unlike many I don’t see jones as the first black president, I see him as a president, who happens to be black.

Now some may say I need to get a life, for over the past day I have mulled over his economic position papers as well as his speeches on the economy and his latest transcript from his first press conference as the President elect. But it is my life to make certain I am in a stable milieu in which my kids and I can prosper economically.

I still feel that my note selecting either he nor McCain was based on logic. Re-reading I feel vindicated. What Obama has said and has [proposed on paper is just as bad as what Paulson and Bernake suggested with the bailout which he and McCain supported. All he proposes, either the break for 85% of Americans or raising taxes on the rich wont work and is just a tweak on a system that will not have any long term effect on a problem that has been building via debt collaterilization since the 1980s. The system needs to be gutted, not tweaked for our economy is riddled with structural problems – namely that we have a closed economy in a global world. This means he wont be able to raise taxes on the rich or cut taxes for poor folks like me.

Couple this with the fact that the bailout has had the opposite impact that Paulson has desired, the deficit is at about another trillion dollars and we still do not know how the money is being spent with respect to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Obama as we have – are sitting on a ticking time bomb. None of his solutions even include the aforementioned.

In two days since his historic victory, the Dow dropped as much as it did in September 1987 although 200 plus points were gained on Friday. For me it is a policy as opposed to an individual issue. He needs to address the volatility (which is a sign of investor confidence (so folk like me put loot back in the market), the housing crisis (which is getting worse) and stabilizing consumption (creating jobs, cause black folks are the only ones spending in a depression for we don’t know how to save anymore). As well as the structural concerns I have sited previously. For if he attempts to raise taxes on the rich – I just have two words - Sarbanes-Oxley, which means folks will move over seas to start new businesses than stay home in the states. Then he has not even addressed or considered revamping value-asset accounting principles nor obviating the Commodity Futures Modernization Act – which are two things that got us in this mess. Let alone accept the premise that folk like me don’t believe we should give banks money to buy other banks – especially when you talk about main street.

True he does mention job creation, but all I have read is the mantra of “new Green Jobs” without any relationship to reformulating the economic conundrum we are in and confronting currently. True, I am no economist, but I read and I try to use reason, but there is a lot more needed. It kills me when I read and hear folks say “freedom”, or “we aint got 40 acres and a mule but we got Obama”, or “Abolition” to describe his historic win, but go out and party and don’t feel as if they have a roll in this, and can see he is just one man, makes me feel that many think things have changed, without asking has America changed? I say no. It will be on us all for there is no such thing as magic. Something must be said with reason over feeling and emotion because although he won, most folks a pay check away from a pink slip.

ice ice baby

There was no football on tonight, and I did not look at the debates either for I felt I would one, be disappointed in Obama and two, McCain would confirm that he has a semblance of post traumatic stress disorder. Instead I did a few stochastic models of how much this pork, I mean bail out would cost us. I wanted to post it but couldn’t put the equations on my blog and better yet thought folks would not pay attention so im gonna write about something else.

Im tired of talking about the economy and the banking system on their own, but I got a few more things I would like to shit out of my brain. I have mentioned the Commodity Futures Modernization Act a few week ago in a post and attributed a lot of this current mess to it being slid in a omnibus appropriations act by the Senator Phil Gramm of Texas and signed into law in 2000 (Got damn Bill Clinton).

The Commodity futures modernization act seemed to have been designed to help two types of folk - banks and oil companies. Before it was signed into law, back in the old days, commodities were regulated. This regulation namely occurred under NYMEX, the New York Mercantile Exchange. NYMEX was the only and largest and principal spot for the commodity futures exchange in the World. But once the Commodity Futures Modernization Act was signed, it allowed for private entities such as oil companies and banks to trade futures without regulation. Again thanks to Phil Gramm who added a loop hole to the bill. Specifically a loop hole that allowed for the electronic trade of buying energy (like oil) in unregulated markets outside of the United States and the jurisdiction of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. They call this the "Enron loophole" which I stated prior "was codified” via the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000.

Im not just Blaming Senator Gramm and Bill Clinton, for then Fed Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan wanted this as well. Gramm did this for one of his large donors, specifically Enron (remember them) and the Act was designed to keep regulators from controlling space-age financial tools called credit "swaps." Just like sub-prime mortgages, swaps are bundled up and sold as securities. The Act also made it impossible for state and federal oversight boards like NYMEX or the Commodities Futures Trading Commission to examine investment banks or hedge funds to make certain they had the assets necessary to cover losses they were supposedly guaranteeing.

With Enron, we saw how the company shifted the trade of electricity online and as well what happened. Likewise, Oil companies and investment banks followed suit. Crude Oil was not introduced into the futures trading market until 1983. This is when we started to see how such speculation impacted the price of oil and ironically, we did not see the prices go up as before until 2000, when theses companies started to manipulate world oil prices and again ironically the same year the CFMA was signed into law.

Unregulated exchanges got us into this mess. The prefect example was when the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which has its headquarters here in Atlanta, came into existence. A tight knit bevy of Banks and oil companies including the likes of BP, Shell, Total, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs started the ICE. As of today, the ICE is probably the leading online marketplace for “global commodity trading, primarily of electricity, natural gas, crude oil, refined petroleum products, precious metals, and weather and emission credits.”

The real problem occurred when these said banks wanted to get in on the game too and started purchasing oil fields, pipelines and refineries which meant these banks, were now also considered commercial traders and that they could make such trades unregulated. This means that they could produce, distribute control and trade without scrutiny, what they themselves owned, meaning they could control prices as well – talk about a monopoly.

This is one of the reason why I cant understand the logic of folks who say drilling is the answer to our domestic and national security, I mean how stupid are Palin and McCain, who talk about drilling, when we wont see no final product for another ten years ago and when these banks and big oil companies can sell or trade oil anywhere around the globe.

This is why I believe Banks on Wall street don’t need to be bailed out or “rescued” and why Big azz Oil companies shouldn’t be getting am tax breaks when they really need to be taxed up the azz. They supposed to pay us royalties when ever they drill on our (public US lad) and they don’t. In fact many operate lease free. I cant do that as a small business owner, I have to pay for what ever space I uses as my retail outlet. Every time I re-read the CFMA I get sick to my stomach and think of Vanilla ICE, who sang that song Ice Ice Baby. They say he from Texas, I wonder if he was trying to drop us a few hits back in the day of things to come. vote

bank of America

It seems as if some don’t really live recession or if it really exist as others say does not. I know for me it is hard and recession is felt daily in my pocket. Ironic to me is how fiscal conservatism (the word as uttered by Republicans and not the actual practice) leads it seem to this mess and even to our greatest financial disasters the way i see. Coolidge, Harding (depression), Keating (Bush/Regan) and now this. I really don’t think it is the responsibility and that there can exist NO reason for the government to bail out the result of presupposed free market activity, if such is self corrective? I mean they seem to be a bit willing to me and not arduously trying to discern of it as if it is wise to spend MY loot on such without my permission.

This is the real war on terror we need to go after. Economic terrorism. You can not just take trillions of dollars from an economy (the Iraq War – both really) and not REASONABLY expect not to have problems. And these fools wanted to privatize social security. If they are, they need to be committed on insanity if not held for criminal liability for corporate felonies –dang that’s right, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 prevents such from occurring. Not to mention whoever thought of giving tax breaks to the rich and suggesting such creates jobs is shootin’ up because the take the loot and invest overseas – not here.

I don’t profess to knowing what has to be done, but something has too, they even sneaky at the Whitehouse, spend all that loot on buying Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and not put it on the budget; like 200 billion dollars in any form is of non budgetary status. But I guess it should be expected since folk don’t Articl1 section 8 (To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures) no more. Thank you Woodrow Wilson for the Federal Reserve. Shouts out to Lyndon Johnson for privatizing Fannie Mae. Shouts out to China, that 374 billion you own in all this debt you purchased, meaning my federal tax dollar coming you way; free of charge. And for being the birth place of AIG in 1919 – gotta check for yawl too.

Fiscal conservatism – hum bug. These GOP hoodrats dont practice fiscal conservatism. What’s fiscal or conservative about allowing stuff to be sold when you cannot even calculate the value of the asset, or if it is an asset alone? Don’t know body know how much the paper they buying worth but they buying it anyway. Go figure, I’m through with economic, makes me mad. So I’m gone try and not think about the fact my dollar is .71 cents to the Euro and I aint have nothing to do with that. I would offer some advice, but I only advise self, based on personal thought processes designed specifically for me and mine. I can say learn your money, how to make it work for you, no matter how little you have. Learn investment, learn money, learn the markets.

And not investment the U.S. government way, they say it’s ok for fed debt to grow in short term to maintain a viable economy – maintain dang jones. I don’t know, I just want to know do the government run the banks, or the banks run the government? Bank of America, has a nice ring to it. vote

PS - meant to say me love some Kimmy Cantrell ( in pic).