U.S. Economy Worsens

Dow Plummets, Gas Rises, Jobless Rate Spikes, Foreclosures Up,

Financial Turmoil: Not A Good Way To End A Presidency

President George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice

The U.S. economy took another bad turn on Friday of last week, as the Dow Jones plummeted 400 points and gas went up to $139 per barrel.

The new national average for gas in America is $4 per gallon, which is a record high. Russia is predicting it will reach $250 per barrel.

Unemployment is also up in the U.S., as the economy lost 49,000 jobs last month. It is the biggest rise in job losses in almost 33 years. As I mentioned last week, foreclosures have hit a record high as well.

Clearly something needs to be done, but Congress is a house divided, and therein lies the problem.

Jobless rates jumps to 5.5 percent — biggest rise since `86

Friday June 6, 9:19 am ET - Unemployment rate jumps to 5.5 percent in May, biggest rise since 1986; payrolls cut again

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s unemployment rate jumped to 5.5 percent in May — the biggest monthly rise since 1986 — as nervous employers cut 49,000 jobs.

The latest snapshot of business conditions showed a deeply troubled economy, with dwindling job opportunities in a time of continuing hardship in the housing, credit and financial sectors.

“It was ugly,” said Richard Yamarone, economist at Argus Research.

http://biz.yahoo.com

U.S. Jobs Fall For Fifth Consecutive Month

May’s U.S. unemployment rate rose to 5.5%, up from 5.0% in April–the largest jump in the jobless figure since October 2004 and the fifth straight month of job losses, according to the Labor Department’s monthly report Friday.

Job losses continued their downward trend in May, with 49,000 jobs cut from payrolls, up from April’s revised number of 28,000 job cuts.

The larger than expected jump in unemployment delivered a psychological blow to Wall Street, which has been hungry for signs that the economy is on the road to recovery. The Dow was down by 1.1%, or 140 points, Friday morning. May’s job losses were less severe than feared–economists had been expecting job cuts between 60,000 and 70,000–but the unemployment rate was moved up well beyond the consensus forecast for a rate of 5.2%.

http://www.forbes.com

Dow plunges 400 points on oil, jobs news

June 6, 2008 - The U.S. stock market took a major hit on Friday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell nearly 400 points on news of steep job losses and soaring oil prices.

Before the trading day started, the U.S. Labor Department reported that 49,000 jobs had been lost in May and the unemployment rate had jumped from 5 percent to 5.5 percent, the highest seasonally adjustment monthly increase in 33 years.

http://thedailyvoice.com

http://www.judiciaryreport.com

U.S. Foreclosures Hit Record High Again

Problem Growing

New numbers that have just been released show foreclosures have hit a record high for the first quarter and show no signs of abating.

Homeowners are faced with the difficult task of having to catch up on payments or sell homes in a virtually flat lined real estate market. Banks clearly are not doing enough to ease the crisis, as the numbers keep rising.

Foreclosures hit a record high — and more coming

Thursday June 5, 4:30 pm ET - Foreclosures surge to a record high — late payments, too, signaling worse to come.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The foreclosure hammer is hitting ever harder. People lost their homes at the highest rate on record in the first three months of the year, and late payments soared to a new high, too — an alarming sign that the housing crisis and its damage to the national economy may only get worse.

Dumping more empty homes on an already glutted market also is likely to put a further drag on home prices — extending a vicious cycle.

Slumping home values are being blamed in large part for the rising tide of foreclosures. Troubled borrowers are left owing more to the bank than their homes are worth. They can’t sell without taking a huge financial hit, so they just walk away.

Nearly 1 percent, or roughly 447,723 loans, fell into foreclosure during the January-to-March period, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday in its quarterly snapshot of the mortgage market. That surpassed the previous high of 0.83 percent over the last three months in 2007.

The report also found that more homeowners slipped behind on their monthly payments. The delinquency rate jumped to 6.35 percent — or 2.87 million loans — compared with 5.82 percent for the previous three months. Payments are considered delinquent if they are 30 or more days past due.

Nearly 8.5 million homeowners had negative or no equity in their homes at the end of March, representing more than 16 percent of all homeowners with mortgages, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Economy.com. He estimates that will increase to 12.2 million, or almost one out of every four homeowners, by the end of June.

http://biz.yahoo.com

Story found here

Hillary Clinton’s PA Win Not Enough

NY Post: “Too Little Too Late”

Hillary Clinton

Outlets are reporting that Hillary Clinton’s win in Pennsylvania yesterday is not enough to help her get the nomination, as Democratic rival Barack Obama still has a significant lead across the board in the delegate count and popular vote.

He has also raised double the money she has this year, which has to annoy Hillary, as many of her campaign creditors are angry that she has not paid them. As a result, they’ve been going to the press and spreading the word not to do business with her.

Barack Obama

It’s a shame you guys can’t use some of that money you’re hiding from the IRS in the Cayman Islands and not paying taxes on, to pay your creditors, but that would be against campaign rules.

How can you responsibly and transparently address the current economic crisis that’s hit America, when you’re being shady with your own money.

Too Little, Too Late

April 23, 2008 — Hillary Clinton refuses to die. Having been given up for dead after losing Iowa, she rebounded in New Hampshire. Then a string of 11 straight consecutive losses - followed by a win in Ohio and a tie (in delegates) in Texas. Now, she’s won Pennsylvania.

Problem is, it doesn’t mean anything.

Because of the Democratic Party’s arcane proportional-representation rules, her win stands to give her a net gain of 10 to 15 delegates when all is counted. That means that Barack Obama will fall from a lead of 161 in elected delegates to about 145 or so. Big deal…

http://www.nypost.com

Here’s an article in the New York Times about Hillary’s crooked, cruel campaign she’s being running and how she “squandered a 20 point lead” via that meanness:

The Low Road to Victory

The Pennsylvania campaign, which produced yet another inconclusive result on Tuesday, was even meaner, more vacuous, more desperate, and more filled with pandering than the mean, vacuous, desperate, pander-filled contests that preceded it.

Voters are getting tired of it; it is demeaning the political process; and it does not work. It is past time for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to acknowledge that the negativity, for which she is mostly responsible, does nothing but harm to her, her opponent, her party and the 2008 election.

If nothing else, self interest should push her in that direction. Mrs. Clinton did not get the big win in Pennsylvania that she needed to challenge the calculus of the Democratic race. It is true that Senator Barack Obama outspent her 2-to-1. But Mrs. Clinton and her advisers should mainly blame themselves, because, as the political operatives say, they went heavily negative and ended up squandering a good part of what was once a 20-point lead.

http://www.nytimes.com

Story found here

Greenspan: America In Recession

Greenspan: America In Recession

April 9. 2008

Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan announced this week that America is indeed in a recession. He adds to the many people voicing their concerns regarding the financial mess the Bush administration has made of the nation’s economy:

Greenspan, on CNBC: U.S. in recession

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Tuesday the U.S. economy was in recession, and said it would be appropriate to tap public funds to resolve the mortgage-related crisis that has helped pull the economy under.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080408/bs_nm/usa_economy_greenspan_dc

Story found here

Obama Raises $55 Million - Hillary $35 Million

March 6. 2008

What a striking picture - they both look so manly:

Democratic frontrunner Barack Obama raised $55 million dollars in February 2008 towards his bid for the nomination, while rival Hillary Clinton brought in a lower figure at $35 million.

Obama is leading the race for the Democratic nomination with the most delegates, while yesterday Hillary was busy dropping hints about a joint ticket with Barack, which I slammed two weeks prior. She’s trying to take advantage of him because he’s black - why didn’t she ask John McCain if she could join his ticket (LOL I’m joking).

Obama to Hillary: would you like a campaign loan!

 

In all seriousness, given the state of the economy, the war in Iraq and problems with terrorism, America needs a new start. Out with the old and in with the new. The Clintons and Bushes have had their turn running the country and neither have brought the nation to where it needs to be.

Let two new candidates vie for the presidency. Time for a change. Sometimes change is good, unless you are at the bank, cause then that would just mean you’re broke (ok, bad joke).

Story found here

Study: 2.3 Million Americans In Prison

Worldwide confirmation this week regarding my web site’s home page intro article that has been on here since March of 2007, regarding U.S. jails having an unusually high amount of prisoners, with the figure being 2,300,000 people. That’s a lot of folks and I don’t believe all of them are criminals.

Considering some of the cases I have covered on this web site over the last year, that illustrated incidents of Americans being stitched up, framed and denied their day in court, it’s no surprise the U.S. prison population is rising and is currently the largest in the world.

For the U.S. prison system to have more prisoners than China’s jails - a country that has three times the population of America - says Congress needs to take a serious look at what is going on.

The U.S. prison system now has more prisoners than it has ever had in the history of the country. Another historic low in the Bush presidency.

But he set the tone via some of the judges he appointed and they in turn through their unwillingness to listen to and thoroughly read evidence in cases.

Some judges are treating the court system like it’s a fast food restaurant - get the product out the window as fast as possible even if you get the order wrong - and there have been high profile judicial orders that have gotten it quite wrong and for all to see.

Judges are convicting people and in other incidents tossing out serious cases, based on their opinions and not the evidence at hand. They are operating under the unlawful premise that perception is more important than fact (evidence). Then other judges followed the trend and now the jail system is at capacity’s fill.

Further proof that something has gone wrong in the jail system is DNA evidence later exonerating many of crimes they were wrongfully charged with or convicted of committing.

One in 100 US adults behind bars: study

Record-High Ratio of Americans in Prison

More than one in 100 adults are now behind bars in the United States, home to the world’s largest penal population, with a startling one in nine young black men incarcerated, a study has shown.

The prison and jail population rose by 25,000 to 2.3 million last year, out of a US adult population of 230 million, bringing the incarceration rate to one in 99.1 for the first time in US history, the Pew Center on the States said.

By comparison, China, with a population of one billion people, was second in the world with 1.5 million inmates, followed by Russia with 890,000 people in the slammer, the study said.

America also has the dubious distinction of leading the planet in the rate of incarceration, which is higher than nations like South Africa and Iran, the study said. http://comments.breitbart.com

Story found here

Bush Rebuffed By Buffett

Warren Buffett To Bush: We Are In A Recession!

March 3, 2008

Last week, President Bush said America is not in a recession, which I didn’t agree with, as written about in my Column here.

This week, Warren Buffett, one of America’s greatest financial minds, said America is in a recession. You heard that, President Bush.

A man well known in domestic and international financial circles, who can pronounce the word “situation” and exit the room without walking into the door, said America is in a recession.

Berkshire Hathaway is one of America’s most profitable companies. Buffet said on CNBC and I quote, “I would say, by any commonsense definition, we are in a recession.”

Based on what I believed was coming (that has now happened), I wrote about the U.S. economy a year and a half ago (here), 6 months ago (here) and last week again (here), because the president seemed to be in another world on the issue.

What is most concerning about Bush is he seems to be in denial, which is dangerous considering the state of the U.S. economy. People in denial don’t solve problems, because they don’t believe there are any (problems), and that’s how circumstances get worse.

That’s like a person who has cancer being in denial that there is anything wrong with their health and not getting the treatment they need to beat it.

Not only are there problems with the mortgage crisis, the dollar hit a new historic low today against the Euro and oil climbed to $104 a barrel (link). There is also an article in the Telegraph today stating, “The Fed’s emergency rate cuts in January have failed to halt the downward spiral towards a full-blown debt deflation.”

If the president doesn’t think that is a problem, he is delusional. Problems don’t fix themselves.

Buffett: US Essentially in Recession

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett said Monday that the U.S. economy is essentially in a recession even if it hasn’t met the technical definition of one yet.

Buffett said in an interview with cable network CNBC the reports he gets from the retail businesses his holding company owns show a significant slowdown in purchases.

The chairman and CEO of Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said millions of people have also lost equity in their homes because home prices have dropped.

“I would say, by any commonsense definition, we are in a recession,” Buffett said on CNBC. But Buffett said it’s not clear how far the recession will go because that is difficult to predict. http://ap.google.com

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The Federal Reserve’s rescue has failed

The verdict is in. The Fed’s emergency rate cuts in January have failed to halt the downward spiral towards a full-blown debt deflation. Much more drastic action will be needed. http://www.telegraph.co.uk

Story found here

NATIONAL NEWS FBI To Investigate Mortgage Crisis

This month it was announced the FBI has begun an investigation into the U.S. mortgage crisis that has severely damaged the American economy. Ah, 2 years too late.

The FBI came across a tip in early 2006 warning that there was something wrong in the U.S. housing market. But being the “after the fact” agency Time magazine and others referred to them as, Mueller sat on his butt, ignored the tip, while flying around on a luxury $40,000,000 jet that costs 3 million to refuel each trip, that Congress sanctioned for FBI agent anti-terrorism missions, which he was misusing to make appearances to tell everyone, “Hey, there are dangerous terrorists out there. Be vigilant and have a nice day.” It would be cheaper to post an internet bulletin.

But Mueller wasn’t about to do anything about what would evolve into the worst banking crisis in U.S. history. He meets with the president weekly and some of Bush’s rich friends run said banks that caused the catastrophe, via gouging and swindling Americans.

Washington Mutual and Countrywide pioneered it and are the biggest offenders of all. Their respective CEOs should be locked up and stripped of all their assets for what they perpetrated against the public.

But back to the “after the fact” agency argument many have posed regarding the FBI. It’s true. It doesn’t appear the FBI is into crime prevention. They wait until things are so far gone and destroyed, then they say, “Hey, let’s investigate.”

People have been robbed, harassed, assaulted and murdered while the FBI knowingly sat back and let it happen. They have framed people for crimes they didn’t commit just to have a body in the jail they could pin a crime on - in cases that were later uncovered and the agency severely sued for.

During the tragic church shooting that occurred this year, it was later reported the FBI received a tip 3 HOURS before it happened and no one bothered to get up off their butt and check it out. The caller even furnished them with the name and address of the church and the would be shooter. Well, 3 HOURS LATER several innocent people were murdered. People whose taxes were paying their salaries at the FBI.

Then there was that other time the FBI sat back and ignored an important tip, but one that was from one of their agents. It had to do with the September 11th tragedy.

The FBI had credible evidence that could have prevented the loss of 3,000 innocent lives, but headquarters in Washington, with Mueller at the helm, stonewalled the FBI agent, Harry Sammit, that wanted to investigate one of the would be hijackers that knew of the plan, but got dropped at the last minute.

But that wasn’t enough damage with 9-11. It was reported another FBI agent took a crystal Tiffany chandelier from Ground Zero, among other items, prompting another FBI agent to denounce him. Grave robbing!

While there have been FBI whistleblowers, clearly not enough. Some agents forget their oath is to the country and the American public, not Robert Mueller. They have a constitutionally sworn duty to go to Congress and report serious misconduct, not help Mueller cover it up and end up in prison later for it.

Congress needs to do something about the FBI before they cause a national catastrophe the country can’t recover from, through their famed criminal negligence.

http://www.soundoffcolumn.com/february_08.htm

President Putin Takes A Shot At Hillary Clinton

No, Not Literally – A Verbal Shot

February 15. 2008

Russian President Vladimir Putin shot back at a comment Hillary Clinton made about him in the press. While in New Hampshire Hillary said Putin, “Doesn’t have a soul.”

Putin has now fired back stating, “At a minimum, a head of state should have a head.”

I don’t know about you, but I think he just called her a dumb blonde. Either that or it was a comment about Hillary’s mullet overtaking her head. See, even Russians know that’s a mullet. Like I said a few months ago, you can’t be president and have a mullet.

Putin: she said vwhat?

Seriously, as if U.S./Russian relations weren’t strained enough, you had to go make that statement about him. Is that your idea of diplomacy, Hillary.

With the communist block already up in arms over Bush’s crazy, ill-advised, penetrable missile shield (which is essentially U.S. missiles placed in other countries pointing at other countries like Russia) would it not be wise to try and calm tensions, rather than inflaming them.

Why keep pouring gasoline on the fire with these needless offenses. You’re just showing the world why you should not get the nomination or be president. Your outlook is too limited and undiplomatic unlike your top rival for the nomination.

No mullet is an island, Hillary. Um, I mean, no man is an island.

(article link)

Story found here

INTERNATIONAL NEWS Flooding

It seems the world is out of whack. There has been massive flooding in England, America, China and Pakistan. It’s times such as these that should remind us that we are a global community, none of us immune to disaster or struggle.

We all need to help each other weather these storms and rebuild, as they can happen anywhere and overnight. No country is exempt from natural disasters. They have happened all over the world at some time or another.