Cheat Seeking Missiles

Posted by: Laer at 02:22 pm

ccording to calculations by Jon Christian Ryter, the sum total of the various bailouts Congress has committed us to is now $2.2 trillion (actually, $2,239,500,000,000). He computes the debt burden with compounding interest to be $71.7 trillion, (actually, $71,664,000,000,000) - a debt our great, great grandchildren will still be struggling to repay.

Ryter also notes that the Dems have finally figured out how to tax the air we breathe.

The office in charge of running the Troubled Asset Relief Program is called, I kid you not, the Office of Financial Security. Ah, I feel better already. No, wait; I just checked the Treasury Dept. Web site for it and it’s not there.

The FDIC’s fund for insuring your bank deposits will run dry in six months unless the banks pay a special fee of $200,000 for every $100 million in deposits. Small bankers say the fee will wipe out all their profits … which would force the FDIC to cover many of these banks’ deposits, right? FDIC payouts in 2008: $15 billion. Anticipated in 2009 - 2013: $69 billion.

Jim Cramer says Obama’s budget may be one of the great “wealth destroyers” of all time. Obama says it will restore the economy. 90.1% of MainStreet.com readers agree with Cramer; 4.8% agree with Obama.

Based on a study of 251 global stock market crashes and their economic consequences, economist Robert Barro predicts a 20% chance of a mild U.S. depression and a 2% chance of a major depression.

Nearly 12% of American homeowners - 5.4 million of us - are behind on their mortgage payments or in foreclosure. Did Obama bother to count on growing numbers of foreclosures when he promised bailouts handouts? And check out the fastest-growing foreclosure states, ‘cuz they’re mostly newcomers: Louisiana, New York, Georgia, Texas and Mississippi.

Given all this, it’s not particularly startling that six out of ten Americans think it likely the US will go bankrupt. (Aren’t we already, technically?) But, amazingly, about the same percentage think Obama’s policy of penalizing growth and spending our way out of a recession will actually help the economy. All in the same timeframe. Go figger.

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