Aug 24 2010
Drive By … Of Stupid 08_23_10
This election is very important, but you wouldn’t know it by some of the lame comments and ads out. While the Political Class may swoon over this Democrat ad in Colorado’s Governor race, I find it insulting to the voters’ intelligence:
A guy who takes showers with his clothes on is not being serious, or treating his constituents with respect. We don’t need more comedians in government, we need serious leaders. I expect this will backfire big time. And it should.
Then you have Vice President Biden’s BS about the November make up of Congress:
“I’m here to tell you that on November the 3rd…this coming election, there will be in Washington, D.C. a Democratic majority in the House and a Democratic majority in the Senate.â€
Well duh! The new Congress will not be seated until January 2011. That claim may fool a majority of Democrats, but it insults the intelligence of the independent, educated voter. Is anyone feeling like the VP sees them as a dunce extraordinaire? Just goes to show you people will do or say anything to stay in power. And we have been duped for too many years into believing these people are sincere.
Wow – We The People are so naive we believe some yahoo taking showers in his clothes is the economic answer, and VP Biden’s lame claim that there is no Congressional change in power in November is Mana from heaven! Hallelujah! I Believe!
In more happy news for Democrats, the Hindenburg Omen has tripped again…
“The Hindenburg Omen reared its ugly head late last week, signaling more doom and gloom as stocks plod along amid the dog days of summer.”
“The Omen, a technical indicator which uses a plethora of data to foreshadow a stock-market crash, was tripped again on Friday, marking the second time since Aug. 12 it has occurred. (It also came close on Thursday, but one of its criteria fell short.)”
Ordinarily Hickenlooper would be in as much trouble as any Dem this year. But Tom Tancredo was worried that we’d all forgotten what an idiot he was, so he’s come out of the woodwork and out of retirement to launch a 3rd party bid in that race which, of course, does nothing but guarantee that Hickenlooper will win easily.
Thanks a lot, Tom T. – whenever we’re presented with a bad situation, we can always count on you to make it worse.
arch, regarding the DJIA – what worries me right now is that commodities have all started to tumble over the last 4 weeks, reflecting a weakening economy. In the fall of 2008, the drop in commodities happened about 6-8 weeks in advance of the big drop in stocks.
In other words, a general drop in the markets has already started, it just hasn’t showed up in the DJIA yet. (pick your reason, QE by the Fed, speculation, whatever) And this is just what happened in 2008.
WWS – The DJIA is already down for the year and is not very far from it’s low in early July. Unemployment will probably rise in the near term as growth is being revised downward for Q2 and is not looking good for Q3.
If stocks fall 5-10% before November (Hindenburg or not), I think the reelection chances for all Democrats will be bleaker than they are today…
Home starts “unexpectedly” dropped 27% in July – one of the biggest drops ever!
Well, I expected that, as did anyone else who watches housing closely. But this guarantees that unemployment now gets worse for the rest of the year. Real unemployment, I mean – no point in what they’re going to make the faked government numbers mean. Doesn’t really matter, the fraud in the official rate is so out in the open that no one serious pays any attention at all to that number anymore.
archtop, the stock market gained ~4k since ’08. Thought July is still higher than it was two years ago?
I read that another short term Census employment is set to expire this month so expect to see more unemployment claims. Also, pulling the troops out of Iraq isn’t going to help the domestic employment numbers. Funny when I tried to point this out to a one ornery person, his question is, “Thought that isn’t the government’s job?”
Wow, with the deficits that we have and the Feds doing heavy monetizing of our debts, there’s virtually not much room that Obama has to maneuver his way out of this…unlike Bush.
Do you think that when Congress resumes its sessions, the Republicans will be ready to help Obama get out of this?
wws, saw your post about Perry v. White. I love your bet and hope the outcome closely matches your bet. This makes me feel better. A positive ten point is better than one point difference.
Today’s Houston Chronicle has an article up indicating that more seniors seeking help in hard times. I am guessing that we will see more and more people moving into parents’ homes to live under one roof. Both the youngs and the seniors will move to parents’ homes. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more family members trying to start a business together.
One of my brothers is helping his two sons, niece, etc., start a Halloween Store Franchise in multiple cities for two months. They tried one store last year and did very well. They’re opening two in Las Vegas and several local college towns and expect to do well in spite of the down economy.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we jump in ourselves eventually.
Many of us are deferring repairs, new cars, new homes, trips, and so on. Learning to live with fewer things, stay at home for meals and entertainment, and so on. It’s getting too expensive just to go to a movie theater…a matinee costs 30 bucks per person down here. It is cheaper to wait until it is released and you can watch it at home. It’s cheaper to buy raw veggies and fruits than to buy processed foods unless you need to stock up for the hurricane season.
Yes, Lurk, that is exactly what the global socialistst have been aiming for: America to have/be Less…
Deprivation, thy name is democrat, imho.
Disgusting.
We are all ready for American EXCEPTIONALISM to once again rule the day…it is coming to a town near you….very soon.
“archtop, the stock market gained ~4k since 08. Thought July is still higher than it was two years ago?”
Actually, July 2008 the DOW was over 11,000. We’re close to 10,000 right now.
I would have expected some amount of modest growth in the economy this year due to the “stimulus,” right? What the DJIA is telling me is that companies are not, as a whole, willing to invest given the current economic and political environment.
Regarding the housing market….
I have a colleague in Detroit who can’t sell his home because he is “under water.” Which is to say, if he sold his home today at market prices, he would still owe about $50,000 – $70,000! So he can’t move until prices come back up…
Those “Underwater” houses dominate the markets not just in Detroit, but also in California, Arizona, Nevada, and Florida. And the disease is spreading in places that are slumping badly, like New York.
These people will never be in the market to buy new houses because they can’t sell their old ones, ever – oh, and here’s a news flash: prices aren’t coming back up, not now, not for a long, long, long time. This is what Deflation looks like, caused by too much debt on all counts. No recovery is possible until the excess debt, both public and private, is liquidated. My guess is that this process is going to take at least 10 years, and housing prices nationwide will be flat to down at least that long. (and since construction is a big part of employment, our unemployment rate is going to be high for at least that long as well)
Regarding your colleague in Detroit – people like him and many others now face a harsh choice – if they want a new job and need to move to get it, they really have no choice but to mail the keys to the underwater house in to the bank and walk away. This is already happening thousands of times each month across the country.
And this is why foreclosures are growing so rapidly again – banks are being forced to take over thousands of empty houses each month, whether they want to or not, because the residents are walking away from them. I know of people who have been able to stay in houses for up to 18 months without making a single payment, simply because the banks already have too many empty houses and they’d just as soon have someone there to mow the lawn even if they never make any payments.
Meaning that not only is the economy bad right now, it’s probably a whole lot worse than you realize.
one more thing – why banks are incentivised to pretend that bad loans are good – as long as they claim a loan is good, then they can carry it on their books at full value and they look good to the regulators. As soon as they admit the loan is bad and start foreclosure, they’ve got to mark it as a loss which could play hell with their loan reserve requirements. So banks are, perversely, in better financial shape by pretending that loans are good even when no payments are made for a long, long, time than they are when they try to address the problem.
This works right up until everyone figures out that mortgage payments are optional, not required, and the entire system collapses.
I don’t know if anyone has checked RCP battle for the house page, but apparently they now have R@ 205 D@ 196 with 34 toss up’s.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2010/house/2010_elections_house_map.html
ama055131:
I’m estimating Republicans pick up at least a net 50 seats. However, I think our attitude should be to try for 100+ seats – do NOT concede a single one, not even Nancy Pelosi’s seat!!!
And you need not rely on the national GOP. It’s easy to give to the candidate of your choice over the internet – everyone has a website, and I believe most support online donations.