..hah, yeah, can we say buhbye to Princess Pelosi??..i think she's better off retiring.. As for which tax he'll raise, i think he'll raise the sales tax (just like he did when he was mayor of Oakland, where he raised taxes on everything from parking to phone bills; some say Oakland is the "armpit" of CA). And looks like based on the propositions results, Gov. Moon Beam (nickname of the new CA gov.) will likely raise the property tax/repeal prop. 13 (law which protects homeowner from rising property tax, remember he was opposed to it back then before it was passed). No, you didn't cause the problem and even if you had voted, your vote probably wouldn't matter as CA is a solid blue state.. Anyway, no matter who won the CA gov, it won't be easy and the state's debt & deficit will be hard to solve. Here's an interesting read abt the challenge the new CA governor has to face: http://www.newsweek.com/2010/10/26/california-s-next-governor-won-t-have-it-easy.html
BO = Keynesian?.. ..this is for master silentheart, just want to share a bit of laugh (taken at a recent rally).."What proof do you want? he was born in Hawaii!"...hope you have a good chuckle.. (Keynesian economics is an economic theory that says more govt. spending/intervention in the economy/marketplace, the better it is for the economy's growth and stability) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_23Nt5XumaU [video=youtube;_23Nt5XumaU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_23Nt5XumaU[/video]
..unfortunately, as far as i know, legally under the U.S. federal bankruptcy law, a state can not declare bankruptcy. Although a municipality can declare bankruptcy. So, most likely tax will be raised, until more and more people flee CA.
CHN and Russia quit dollar.. ..master silentheart, is this temporary or is this the beginning of the end??...more U.S. dollars circulating in U.S. = inflation?.. http://english.eastday.com/e/101124/u1a5567988.html China, Russia quit dollar 2010-11-24 08:26 St. Petersburg, Russia - China and Russia have decided to renounce the US dollar and resort to using their own currencies for bilateral trade, Premier Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin announced late on Tuesday. Chinese experts said the move reflected closer relations between Beijing and Moscow and is not aimed at challenging the dollar, but to protect their domestic economies. "About trade settlement, we have decided to use our own currencies," Putin said at a joint news conference with Wen in St. Petersburg. The two countries were accustomed to using other currencies, especially the dollar, for bilateral trade. Since the financial crisis, however, high-ranking officials on both sides began to explore other possibilities. The yuan has now started trading against the Russian rouble in the Chinese interbank market, while the renminbi will soon be allowed to trade against the rouble in Russia, Putin said. "That has forged an important step in bilateral trade and it is a result of the consolidated financial systems of world countries," he said. ...
Dear Master c, Regarding your question on the article of china is proposing the currency rate for china and Russia, here are my response. All talk and no play. Given that both currencies are traded on open currency market. If 2 countries set the exchange fixed rate themselves. It will lead to arbitrage and for most of the bank and currency trader has almost no barrier on the market, they can and will make hundred of millions (if not in $B) in very short time and drain any currency reserve the country in weaker position until the new rate has been set. Another problem is the standard currency used in commodity trade is USD. If they want to peg against gold, you will need to set up the reserve in gold and then you are back on the gold standard. Either way, not going to happen.
This type of arrangement is known as Currency Swap which bypasses the use of the US dollar for increased trade and reduction of volatility. Already almost 10 countries have signed currency swap agreements with China and the amounts involved are staggering, not peanuts. Russia, Argentina, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Brazil, Belarus and perhaps a few other countries have signed currency swap agreements with China. Currency swap agreements with China are a precursor of the Chinese Yuan eventually becoming another reserve currency as China slowly works to making the Yuan fully convertible. Longer term, as the Yuan becomes a more important reserve currency the US will be unable to simply print paper money for use in uneconomic applications like wars, which at present cost the US nothing because of its abuse of "quantity easing" measures-resorting to the printing press.
The west still does not see what is coming from China's recent decision to increase its yuan as a future reserve currency. China's currency swap strategy has been helpful in promoting increased trade between countries especially in periods of financial stress caused by the US dollar and its Quantity Easing. Here is something that explains in a general and brief way how it works www.shadowbankers.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/the-real-implications-of-chinas-currency-policy/. Hong Kong has been chosen as the experiment center for future "internationalization of the yuan", www.ibtimes.com/articles/88431/2010...rtibility-trade-asean-russia-cross-borde.htm#.
here's another accusation... on obama... its a big or some say.. small circle.. wonders of human being.. not technology. lol this is juicier than wikileaks man.. lol. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8LivZFv2GU&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaIzrZg5cV8&feature=related
wow.. this wikileaks guy is going to have a hard time. All accounts frozen. Interesting stuff. Any aussies here to comment? What about the embassy? Big news indeed.
If it hasn't gotten any worse.. ..i'm sure some of you have read this news.. http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelo...elookout/government-cant-print-money-properly =================================================== Mon Dec 6, 9:36 am ET Government can’t print money properly By Zachary Roth As a metaphor for our troubled economic and financial era -- and the government's stumbling response -- this one's hard to beat. You can't stimulate the economy via the money supply, after all, if you can't print the money correctly. Because of a problem with the presses, the federal government has shut down production of its flashy new $100 bills, and has quarantined more than 1 billion of them -- more than 10 percent of all existing U.S. cash -- in a vault in Fort Worth, Texas, reports CNBC. "There is something drastically wrong here," one source told CNBC. "The frustration level is off the charts." Officials with the Treasury and the Federal Reserve had touted the new bills' sophisticated security features that were 10 years in the making, including a 3-D security strip and a color-shifting image of a bell, designed to foil counterfeiters. But it turns out the bills are so high-tech that the presses can't handle the printing job. More than 1 billion unusable bills have been printed. Some of the bills creased during production, creating a blank space on the paper, one official told CNBC. Because correctly printed bills are mixed in with the flawed ones, even the ones printed to the correct design specs can't be used until they 're sorted. It would take an estimated 20 to 30 years to weed out the defective bills by hand, but a mechanized system is expected to get the job done in about a year. Combined, the quarantined bills add up to $110 billion -- more than 10 percent of the entire U.S. cash supply, which now stands at around $930 billion. The flawed bills, which cost around $120 million to print, will have to be burned. The new bills are the first to include Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's signature. In order to prevent a shortfall,the government has ordered production of the old design, which includes the signature of Bush administration Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. That, surely, is not the only respect in which the nation's lead economic officials would like to turn back the clock to sometime before the 2008 financial crisis.
One more proof.. ..of the U.S. economy and housing market still slip-slidin' away..and this yr, they still expect more foreclosures coming.. Btw, master silentheart, any comment on the new 66% (income) tax hike for IL?....i know CA is next with the tax hike.. http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theti...ite-house-loses-nearly-a-quarter-of-its-value White House loses nearly a quarter of its valueBy Holly Bailey By Holly Bailey holly Bailey – Wed Jan 5, 11:46 am ET On paper, it sounds like a property to die for: 132 rooms, including 16 bedrooms and 35 bathrooms, with 28 fireplaces, a tennis court, a bowling alley and an attached garage spread out over 55,000 square feet on 18 acres of centrally located land. But the White House, as enviable a property as it is, hasn't been immune from the nation's housing crisis. As syndicated columnist Lew Sichelman first noticed, the property value of the White House has lost nearly a quarter of its value over the last three years, according to the real estate site Zillow. In fact, in the last month alone, the White House's estimated property worth has dropped nearly $5.5 million. At the height of the 2007 housing boom, the White House was valued at roughly $332 million. In January 2009, when President Obama and his family moved in, the fair market value was listed as $292 million. Now Zillow says the property is worth just $252 million — even with all the redecorating the Obamas have done since moving in. That's still an impressive net worth, considering the property was reportedly built at a cost of just over $232,000 (roughly $3 million in 2011 numbers). One reason it was so cheap: The construction crews were up largely of slaves.
dear master silentheart, will there be a government shutdown on Aug. 2nd?.. what's your take on raising the debt ceiling and the "cut, cap and balance" bill? yay or nay or no choice but to raise it?..
Ceiling will be raised. Compromise will be reached next week. However, credit will have a warning. Interest rate will go up a little. then come back down. My question is, why do we have a debt ceiling at all? President just cry wolf and congress just raise it. When congress actually hold the ceiling, Obama just call them holding American hostage.
In light of what just happen. Again, Obama is all talk and no detail. We are really screwed this time!
Being screwed is not something new. It began the year Ronald Reagan came into power and announced the USD 6 trillion military budget. The USD of 1980.
..even if it was increased by 6 or whatever trillion, it was hardly significant, in historical context. The debt started with the entitlement programs (Medicare & Social Security), technically started by the New Deal...and the accounting got worse as they probably never thought about the ever increasing age of the population (people were able to live longer).. Here's a good read which relates to your graphs and the start of debt climb under Ronnie Reagan: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Lecture/HL584nbsp-How-Do-We-Manage-the-Economy-Intelligently
Whats the likelyhood the deal will colapsed?? The republicans as I understood has walked out of the meeting yesterday.
