Stimulus Bill Enters Final Stretch Weighs in at $789 Billion

It looks like they are stripping all the good stuff out of it in order to get the price tag down.

Working to accommodate the new, lower overall limit of the bill, negotiators effectively wiped out a Senate-passed provision for a new $15,000 tax credit to defray the cost of buying a home, these officials said. The agreement would allow taxpayers to deduct the sales tax paid on new car purchases, but not the interest on loans for the same vehicles.

The did keep in $6 billion for school repair and modernization which should be good for construction stocks. Hopefully the money is used for buildings and coats of paint and not wasted on stupid crap.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, told reporters that $6 billion would be set aside, and officials said it could be spent only on repair and modernization work, a limitation designed to appease the moderates.

But officials said House Democrats were holding out for as much as $9 billion.

Stimulus Support Slipping

I think Americans are finally waking up and starting to understand that this is just a big pile of pork and not enough tax cuts and infrastructure spending.

Notably, support for the proposal is now much lower than it was in January among those who have heard a lot about the economic stimulus. By 49% to 41%, those who have heard a lot about the proposal now see it as a good idea; in January, those who had heard a lot favored it by more than two-to-one.

It is just too much sod for the Capital Hill lawn and clawbacks for Wall Street and other assorted nonsense. If it was 40% tax cuts to 60% spending from the very get-go then I think a lot more Americans would have been behind it.

Obama should understand that Pelosi and Reid are not reliable when it comes to writing bills that Americans can stomach. I think Obama's original bill may have been an easy sell. But now the bill that is moving through Congress is a bloated mess and more and more Americans are catching on to it.

Clawbacks Added to Stimulus Bill

Yet another feel good populist BS thing.

The $838 billion measure includes an amendment penalizing companies that paid bonuses greater than $100,000 to executives after receiving government rescue funds last year. The amendment would require the companies to repay within four months any portion of the bonus above $100,000 or face an excise tax of 35 percent on the portion of the bonus above $100,000.

What keeps these companies from just paying the excise tax on the $100,000? There is no reason for them to give the money back early. They will just pay 35% on it and forget about the early payment clause. Also this smacks of double taxation because the people that got the bonuses will have to declare them as earned income and pay taxes on them.

I think the Obama Administration just wants to move Wall Street to Dubai or London where the government isn't so rapacious when it comes to bonuses. Also I wonder if it is the right time to penalize people that are trying their best to keep their businesses afloat? They could just jump ship and work for a private equity firm and leave their old company high and dry and let them fail. I'm pretty sure some of these guys probably won't work nearly as hard if they know the government suddenly becomes a member of our Board of Directors.

The New Culprits of the Financial Mess: TLC, Bravo, HGTV, and Fine Living Networks

I have been saying this for a while but I have finally saw that New York Magazine has pointed a finger at some of the people you can truly blame for this financial mess.

The real villains here, the truly bad seeds at the heart of this crisis, have gone unpunished thus far and are still in operation. They are Jeff Lewis and Ryan Brown of Bravo's Flipping Out, Armando and Veronica Montelongo of TLC's Flip This House, Kristen Kemp of TLC's The Property Ladder, Kendra Todd of HGTV's My House Is Worth WHAT?, and the TLC, Bravo, HGTV, and Fine Living networks in general. All of them encouraged people to take out massive loans in order to buy and renovate homes and sell them at a profit when, really, most people have terrible taste, and furthermore, are bad at laying tile. These shows are still on! WHY?

Yup, these asinine shows told people how to become "Real Estate Millionaires" by borrowing money to buy a home and then borrowing more to fix the home then selling it for a profit. It is all well and good if the bigger fool theory is in place. However, if there is no one around to buy the home then the mortgage defaults, the loan goes sour, and the bank gets a home that no one wants to buy with a bunch of granite countertops and stainless steel appliances in it.

I think Obama should shoot a clawback at Robert Kiyosaki and his "Rich Dad, Foreclosed on Dad" crap that made him his millions. I think they need to limit that guys salary to $500K as well as those "Wall Street Fat Cats" that pretty much gave people what they wanted. Which was an all consuming need for a life they couldn't sustain; with money they had no chance of paying back. I think Kiyosaki has his name right below Dick Fuld in who needs to be blamed for this recession.

You Can Now Invest in TARP 2. Is it a good deal?

It seems that the Son of TARP that is going to be rolled out tomorrow might be an interesting alternate investment depending on how it is structured.

The administration is expected to announce Tuesday that the government's latest bailout strategy will be enticing big investors to buy more than $1 trillion in troubled assets from the banks. The hope is that, free from the drag of subprime mortgage debt and other bad investments, banks will be more likely to start lending money again and the economy will rebound.

If the government eats even 50% of the losses then it might be a pretty good deal depending on how it is set up. It would be like buying a super risky stock and having the government eat half of your loss if the company goes belly up. However, if the number is too small like 20% reimbersement for losses then it is like throwing good money after bad.

Most of this debt is still performing for the most part or the homes that they are backed with would have been forclosed on already. There is quite a bit of risk that the homeowners could lose their jobs in the recession and then kill off the loan. If expert risk managers can get in there and vet the loans for failure then you might be able to get a chance of a lifetime on these assets. Also if the government provides some way to reduce loan rates to limit forclosures it will help these assets as well.

It is kind of like having the government buy an entire shipwreck site of a Spanish Galleon full of gold and then bringing it to the surface. You would have to go through plenty of muck and rotted timbers but there is gold waiting in there. The government may even pay half any losses you get from removing the muck and timbers as well.

What we need to know now is if the government is paying an inflated price for that shipwreck site or not. It would also be nice to know the timbers and muck to gold ratio as well. In any case going long the "Bad Bank" from TARP 2 might be quite a handsome investment if you hedge the downside and are prepared to do some digging.

Senator Patrick "McCarthy" Leahy Wants a Witch Hunt Committee?

I hope everyone ignores Sen. Patrick "McCarthy" Leahy and his "Truth" Commission.

"We need to come to a shared understanding of the failures of the recent past," Leahy said in a speech at Georgetown University.

"Rather than vengeance, we need a fair-minded pursuit of what actually happened," he said. "And we do that to make sure it never happens again."

This is still more "Get Bush" doctrine even after the guy is back in Crawford cutting brush. The Dems are in power but they still want to look back and give Bush a black eye. Obama has rightly avoided this "Truth" BS because he knows that every President has some scandal in their administration and he doesn't want to get investigated after his 4 years are over. It is just more of the same "Bush Derangement Disorder" that "Tailgunner Pat" Leahy is foisting on everyone.

This is Not the Way Obama Wanted to Start the Week

You know it is going to be a tough week for him when he hits his head going into Marine 1. That really looks like it hurts as well.

Obama Hits the Campaign Trail Again

Wait I thought he already won the Presidency but he seems to still be campaigning for some reason or another.

At ease back in campaign mode, Obama took a range of questions after making an opening pitch for the stimulus package. He tried to put the economic legislation in real terms, saying it would help people through broader unemployment benefits, tax relief and job opportunities.

"Being here in Elkhart, I am more confident than ever that we will get where we need to be," Obama said. "Because I know people are struggling, but I also know that folks here are good workers and good neighbors who step up, who help each other out, who make sacrifices when times are tough."

I guess he actually went into the den of the "clingers" and assured them that new sod for the capital hill lawn will somehow create 4 million jobs and rescue Elkhart's economy. I'm pretty sure that the American people are smarter then that. If he did, however, tell them that they would get more money in their next paycheck due to income tax cuts then he would be talking their language.

Ebay Former CEO to run for Governor of California

I guess she is running for technocrat and chief to replace the Governator.

Former eBay Inc Chief Executive Meg Whitman, one of the highest profile Republican technology executives in Silicon Valley, has formed a committee to explore running for governor of California in 2010, the first official step of a campaign.

Could she be angling for a Presidential nod in 2012 or 2016? I could see that happening if she wins in California. We already elected a Republican governor from that state.

Tentative Stimulus Deal Reached

It seems like the price tag might be more palatable for Americans as well.

At $780 billion, the legislation would be smaller than the measure that cleared the House on a party-line vote last week. It also would mean a sharp cut from the bill that has been the subject of Senate debate for a week. That measure stood at $937 billion.

At $780 billion it is about the same size as the TARP so that Trillion dollar figure won't be thrown around as much. Now I just need to see the bill in order to pass judgment on the thing. There better be tax cuts for me and no freebies for liberal fat cats or I will not be happy.

Why Does Amazon Thrive?

This is a great breakdown on why Amazon is doing so well while almost every other retailer in the world is suffering.

Customers want cheap stuff, but they also want convenience, quality, and a friendly, hassle-free atmosphere. Amazon isn't Tiffany's, but it's not a chaotic, out-of-the-way discount zoo, either. Instead it occupies a sweet middle spot—it's the nicest place to buy cheap stuff. These days, that combination goes a long way.

I think this is the crux of Amazons appeal. You can save money but not feel like you are forced to do it. I think the idea that people can still feel like it wasn't the recession even though they are forced to save money. Amazon fills the niche that Wal-Mart or the Dollar Store has a hard time with. They provide just about everything you want at a discount and without the hassle of driving, parking and dealing with giant bins of things you probably wouldn't buy if there wasn't a recession on.

The Historical Record on Sarah Palin

This is a very insightful piece that should go into the historical record book whenever someone asks about Sarah Palin and the election of 2008. This part is especially good.

Either way, the Palin moment shed a powerful light on the power, the potential, and the ultimate inadequacy of a conservatism grounded solely in cultural populism. It also exposed the vulnerability of the Left to a challenge to its most cherished claims—as the sole representative of the interests of the working class and the only legitimate path to political power for an ambitious woman.

And, perhaps even more telling, it revealed the unfortunate and unattractive propensity of the American cultural elite to treat those who are not deemed part of the elect with condescension and contumely.

I think Palin is the model for a conservative woman that wants to hold the reigns of power to follow. This woman, however, needs to keep in mind that they *must* fill their own vessels. They cannot rely on the MSM for anything and she needs to show that she is a strong, and capable leader and must not fall into the trap of the cultural elite.

I think the next Sarah Palin will come out of the women now serving in Iraq. War heroes usually make decent Presidents and a woman that can lead men into battle can easily lead this country. I think the Republican party needs to scour the ranks of the military as they start to leave the service. I think the Iraq War will spawn another "greatest generation" of American leaders and the GOP needs to be there the harness them.

Blagojevich Earmark in the Stimulus Bill

You read that right. The disgraced former governor put a $2 billion earmark in the stimulus bill.

After FutureGen was abandoned, disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich paid Cassidy and Associates, a major Washington, D.C. lobbying firm, $468,000 in public funds to lobby to restart the project. The Illinois delegation in Congress has also been pushing hard for the FutureGen earmark, despite the fact that the Obama administration has been vocal about their opposition to earmarks in the stimulus, and has even specfically said they are oppposed to including funding for FutureGen in the bill.

Obama is against this but it is still in the stimulus. I have to agree that this thing is just one big Christmas Tree for liberal fat cats. $30 billion for infrastructure is just too little if they wanted to follow the Obama rhetoric of biggest road expansion since Eisenhower created the Interstate Highway system in the late 50s. I hope the GOP can block the thing and turn it into actual stimulus and not just a bunch of giveaways to Blago.

Congress Bungles Digital Switchover

It seems that instead of everyone switching over to digital Feb. 17 we will end up with a piecemeal transition over the next few months.

When Congress postponed the mandatory transition to digital TV until June, it also gave stations the option to stick to the originally scheduled date of Feb. 17.

That means the shutdown of analog signals, which broadcasters had hoped would happen at nearly the same time nationwide, could now unfold in a confusing patchwork of different schedules.

Instead of sticking with the date that has been in the works for what seems like years we will push things back 4 months pretty much for no reason at all. So instead consumers will get just certain channels with only some being blacked out on Feb. 17. There will now be no rhyme or reason to what channels will be okay and what channels will be blacked out. And people wonder why Congress has such low approval ratings.

Hamas Negotiators Found with Millions in Suitcases

It looks like Hamas "negotiators" were trying to add to a slush fund/buy more rockets/pocket bribes or something.

An Egyptian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the group initially refused to be searched by Egyptian authorities at the Rafah border crossing. When the group relented, authorities found $7 million and 2 million euros ($2.5 million) in cash in their suitcases. Another security official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said $9 million and 2 million euros were found. The discrepancy could not be immediately explained.

My money is on cash funneled out of pro-Hamas groups that they were taking into Gaza for either bribes or bomb making material.

Wired Writer Gets Job at Wal-Mart

He finds that Wal-Mart it really isn't as bad as Barbara Ehrenreich of Nickel and Dimed fame will have you believe.

Several of my co-workers had relocated from other areas, where they had worked at other Wal-Marts. They wanted more of the same. Everyone agreed that Wal-Mart was preferable to the local Target, where the hourly pay was lower and workers were said to be treated with less respect (an opinion which I was unable to verify). Most of all, my coworkers wanted to avoid those “mom-and-pop” stores beloved by social commentators where, I was told, employees had to deal with quixotic management policies, while lacking the opportunities for promotion that exist in a large corporation.

I have read in several places that many Wal-Mart associates move from other stores and stay in the system for their entire career. They must be doing something right. I think most of the anti-Wal-Mart sentiment is out there because they aren't unionized. If there was a Wal-Mart workers union affiliated with the Service Employees International or something then most of the criticism would disappear overnight.

Amazon Introduces New Downloadable Game Service

This seems like a pretty interesting way to pick up those Jewel Quest style puzzle games.

Gamers, take note. Today we are pleased to announce the beta launch of the Amazon Game Downloads store, www.amazon.com/gamedownloads, our first step into the downloadable games space. Loaded with an ever-growing roster of casual gaming titles for your PC, the Amazon Game Downloads store features more than 600 games on day one, all priced under a tenspot at either $6.99 or $9.99. As a bonus for exploring our new Game Downloads store, for the next week we’re offering three free, full-version games – “Jewel Quest 2,” “The Scruffs” and “Build A Lot.”

Too bad there is no Rocket Mania 2 on there.

University of Texas Physicists Figure Out How to Recycle Nuclear Waste

Well, I think it might be time for Mike Kotschenreuther, Swadesh Mahajan and Prashant Valanju, of the IFS, and Erich Schneider of the Department of Mechanical Engineering to win the Nobel Prize for Physics because they may have solved one of the only drawbacks left to nuclear power. Here's how they did it.

First, 75 percent of the original reactor waste is destroyed in standard, relatively inexpensive LWRs. This step produces energy, but it does not destroy highly radiotoxic, transuranic, long-lived waste, what the scientists call "sludge."

In the second step, the sludge would be destroyed in a CFNS-based fusion-fission hybrid. The hybrid's potential lies in its ability to burn this hazardous sludge, which cannot be stably burnt in conventional systems.

"To burn this really hard to burn sludge, you really need to hit it with a sledgehammer, and that's what we have invented here," says Kotschenreuther.

One hybrid would be needed to destroy the waste produced by 10 to 15 LWRs.

You could even make these hybrid reactors a part of the system so the act of destroying the waste will actually generate power as well. Now that is a cool deal. I wonder how they will be getting the sludge to the hybrid reactor though? I guess in barrels in the back of a truck or something. Either way these Physicists just earned themselves $1.5 million dollars and may have solved the global warming problem in one fell swoop. Hook 'Em Horns!

Republican Stimulus Plan Provides Immediate Relief

Unlike the Dem Plan which is all about the pork-barrel and $500 next year sometime. Here is the highlight of the GOP plan.

McConnell also said Republicans favor cutting the two lowest tax brackets as a way to " put money back in people's hands directly." If adopted, that would reduce the tax rate from 10 percent to 5 percent for the first $8,350 in individual income for the current year, and $16,700 for couples. The tax rate would be lowered from 15 percent to 10 percent on income between $8,351 and $33,950 for individuals and between $16,001 and $67,900 for couples.

So that means they will start getting more money in their next paycheck and not next year after we are already recovering from the recession. Nobody can argue against receiving more money each paycheck. The other part of the plan tackles mortgages:

The goal was to have banks lower the interest rate to 4 percent or 4.5 percent on 30-year fixed rate loans for many primary residences, by directing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to buy the mortgages.

In other words the US Government will provide a low interest/fixed interest loan that is below the rates other mortgage brokers charge. That means Uncle Sam has become a mortgage market monopoly that will funnel all new mortgages into government controlled Fannie and Freddie. In other words nationalizing the mortgage industry in the US. Let's hope the cure is not more destructive then the cause.

Pork and Eugenics in Stimulus Bill?

That may be the case according to this CNN article. Here is the pork:

I'd settle for removing more of the ridiculous items that House Democrats slipped into the legislation to advance their sociopolitical agenda. Like $350 million for child care on military bases. Or $335 million to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

Here is the creepy eugenics part which amounts to $200 million for birth control funding to stimulate the economy.

When ABC's George Stephanopolous asked Pelosi to explain how birth control helps the economy, here's what the speaker said: "The family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now, and part of what we do for children's health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those -- one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government."

You know the nation's cupboard is bare when politicians propose limiting the number of births as a way of improving the economy. That's a conversation we shouldn't be having.

The bad part is that the people with higher birthrates are usually Latino or Black. So Pelosi pretty much said she wanted to lower the birthrates of minorities in order for "states to meet their financial needs." Pelosi must really be losing it when she considers reducing the number of future Latinos and Blacks as a way to "reduce costs."