Join Us Tuesday Night for O-BINGO!
From John Kartch on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 10:35 AM
On Tuesday at 9:00 PM Eastern, President Obama will address a joint session of Congress. To help get you through the 50-minute speech, use our handy Bingo card to check off terms and phrases likely to be used. As a bonus, print out the different versions of the card and watch the speech with your friends or family.
“Since the Great Depression” – The economic one, not the feeling you’ve had since he signed the “stimulus” bill.
“Save or create” jobs – Obama’s new metric whereby he can claim credit for the outcome no matter what happens (how exactly does one determine the number of "saved" jobs?)
“Crisis” - Excuse to hike taxes and grow the government per Rahm Emanuel’s theory: “Never let a crisis go to waste."
“Stimulus” – The 1,000 page Pelosi-Reid-Obama pork bill rushed through in the dead of night with no transparency and that not a single member of Congress who voted for it actually read.
“Hope” – The optimistic expectation, against all evidence that this government will be the first in the history of time to succeed in spending its way out of economic problems.
“Change” – Take-home pay of future generations due to massive spending increases and government expansion.
“Bipartisan” – "Pelosi and Reid get to decide what we'll do, but I'll have you over for tea first."
“Children and grandchildren” – The people picking up the tab.
“Shovel-ready” – Vital projects that somehow are not important enough to receive funding through the regular appropriations process at the local, state, or federal level.
“Toxic assets”- Now the responsibility of those who followed the rules and made wise decisions.
“Failed policies of the past” – An overspending problem by George W. Bush to be expanded by Obama
“Investment” – Government spending.
“Sacrifice” – Tax hikes.
“As I’ve said before” – Prepare for a poll tested line from stump speeches.
“Make work pay” – Writing welfare checks through the tax code (and then calling it a tax cut).
“Climate change” – (Formerly known as Global Warming) The natural cycles of the sun and the four seasons.
“FDR” – The last President to attempt and fail to spend the country’s way out of a hole.
“Let me be clear” – Warning to “have your shovel ready.”
“Executive pay” – A serious problem because large cash awards are only appropriate when politicians dole out taxpayer money to the pet projects of their sons, brothers, wives, or campaign contributors.
“Protecting responsible homeowners” – Forcing you to pay your neighbor’s mortgage.
“Trillion-dollar deficit that we've inherited” – Bush overspending – which Obama just doubled.
“Essential services” – Government programs that employ unionized bureaucrats.
“Vulnerable Americans” – People that Obama wants to make dependent on the government.
“Tax cuts to 95 percent of working families” – See “Make Work Pay”
“Alternative energy”– Energy that is either too expensive or hasn't succeeded in the free market on its own (if it worked, it would just be called “energy”)
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:20 PM PT
Banking: The federal government may be getting ready to nationalize one or more of America's major banks. The reason often cited for taking such drastic action is "systemic risk." Are our banks really in such dire shape?
You might be surprised to discover that the answer is no.
Yes, some banks are struggling right now with big losses on real estate and their securitized loan investment portfolios. But roughly 90% of America's banks are in decent shape.
But you don't have to take our word for it.
As the chart in the next column shows, overall lending at U.S. commercial banks was up 5.7% in January from last year to $9.85 trillion, a record. Since 1990, average annualized monthly lending growth has been 7.3%. In other words, we're just below normal.
Commercial and industrial loans, a key gauge of business access to credit, were up 8.4% in January — though down from the roaring 20%-plus growth rate of early last year. Consumer loans rose 10.1%.
In short, bank lending is at record levels. That's a data-based fact.
So why all the talk of nationalization? Especially after reading what the U.S. banking system's five regulatory agencies — the U.S. Treasury, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the Federal Reserve — had to say after they met on Monday.
It got little attention at the time, but it sure turned our heads. Down at the bottom of the regulators' release came this revealing statement: "Currently, the major banking institutions have capital in excess of the amounts required to be considered well-capitalized."
Get that? The major banks have enough capital to be considered "well-capitalized." And as the data above indicate, they're lending.
So why all the talk of crisis? Why the threats to nationalize? Why are we force-feeding banks like foie gras geese with $1 trillion in taxpayer-funded capital when many, if not most, don't need it?
This, by the way, is completely contrary to the image we've received from both the media and the administration that somehow we're on the edge of a banking Armageddon. We aren't.
One reason we're in better shape than we thought is that last year the Federal Reserve moved quickly to make sure banks had enough liquidity, injecting hundreds of billions of dollars into the system and cutting interest rates to stimulate loan demand.
(more)
Continue at:
http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=320370911901484