-
The Democrats’ Walmart Obsession
June 4, 2013 | 112 comments
-
Real Immigration Reform Requires Free Markets
May 24, 2013 | 94 comments
-
McCain-Feingold Gave Us the IRS Scandal
May 21, 2013 | 122 comments
-
It’s.The.Law
May 20, 2013 | 20 comments
-
The Taxman Cometh (for Tea Partiers)
May 13, 2013 | 150 comments
Breaking News
Imagine My Surprise
So much can go south when one goes missing for a week.
Imagine my surprise, after the first week in several years in which I had no access to newspapers, television, or the Internet, to be re-plugged into the web on Tuesday, digging back through the news of early August, and wondering if Harold Camping was just a couple of months early.
In terms of finance, the stock market had its worst day in years on Monday — its sixth worst percentage loss ever —on the heels of losing 7.2% in the prior week. And that week was before ratings agency Standard and Poors (“S&P”) downgraded U.S. debt, on which more in a moment.
During the past several days, the yield on a U.S. government 10-year note has plummeted to about 2.2%, roughly equaling its panic levels reached briefly during the heart of the financial crisis in 2008.
Imagine my surprise to read that after the market closed last Friday, S&P downgraded U.S. sovereign debt for the first time in our nation’s history. Some argue that S&P wanted to make a political statement, and that its comments about political brinksmanship during the debt ceiling debate were a shot at Republicans. But make no mistake: This first-ever downgrade of U.S. debt happened on President Obama’s watch. S&P has done more damage to Barack Obama’s re-election chances than any other person or single event has.
It’s not just my opinion: Since the debt downgrade, betting odds on Obama’s re-election have dropped from about 56% to 50.5%, by far his lowest betting odds during his first, and increasingly likely to be his only, term.
During this week’s Black Monday, the market’s first opportunity to react to the downgrade, investors in American stocks lost a trillion dollars, more than seven percent of our GDP for the entire year. Think about that for a second.
In the early afternoon on Monday, President Obama decided to lead from behind again, offering another uninspiring, formulaic press conference. Perhaps telling Obama what investors think of him, the market proceeded to fall another 200 points. As the National Post’s (Canada) Matt Gurney put it, “His speech might have been a futile gesture, but it was still a bad futile gesture.”
Yes, imagine my surprise to miss just one week of trading and find stocks — and Obama’s re-election chances — fully 10% lower and U.S. debt no longer AAA-rated by S&P.
But that wasn’t the only shock upon returning to my plugged-in high-tech news-junkie everyday life. Imagine my surprise, anger and sadness to learn of the shooting down of a U.S. military helicopter in Afghanistan, ending the lives of 30 Americans including members of “SEAL Team Six,” the group of warriors who brought justice to Osama bin Laden. President Obama mentioned this tragedy at the end of his Monday “vanity press conference,” sounding as detached and robotic as we’ve come to expect from him lately.
How strange a change in a man who won election in large part due to soaring rhetoric: his words fail him now even in the presence of his teleprompter, and even on a subject that should instill genuine passion in a Commander in Chief. Ah, were he only that in spirit and character, instead of continuing to lead from behind, blaming everyone but himself for everything that befalls his presidency. Perhaps a new slogan for a Republican challenger: “Barack Obama: he just wasn’t as shovel-ready as we thought.”
And imagine my surprise to see pictures of riots, fire bombings, looting, beatings, and general mayhem in cities and towns across England. It’s Rodney King, British style, on a massive scale. Nile Gardiner, one of Britain’s best columnists (though he is based in Washington, D.C.), makes the point that “If British shopkeepers had the right to bear arms, vicious thugs would think twice before looting.” No doubt. After all, as Gardiner continues, “Britain’s gun laws are among the most draconian in the world, yet the nation has some of the highest levels of violent crime and burglary in the West, and there is no shortage of gun crime in major cities such as London and Manchester.” It’s unlikely that gun rights will stage a real revival in Britain, but here’s hoping…
Tuesday, checking news from my thin fog of jet lag, was not without shocks of its own, both pleasant and not so pleasant: On the bright side, the results in the Wisconsin recall elections are, despite the brave face the unions are putting on, a disaster for the left. They went “all in” to beat Republican state senators and only beat two out of six — and those two had serious vulnerabilities — incinerating millions of dollars of union members’ dues money in the process.
And earlier in the day, the Federal Reserve Board announced that it would keep short-term interest rates near zero for two years. It’s an unprecedented statement by the Fed, not only because it substantially limits its range of action but also because three voting members of the Board dissented from the action, something which hasn’t happened in 19 years.
Imagine my surprise to hear Ben Bernanke imply that Barack Obama’s economic policies will continue to be so ineffective (or counter-productive) that the Fed is writing off any chance of substantial economic growth until well after the next presidential election. When you look at it that way, The Bernanke’s move makes sense: There’s no reason to suggest the job-and-growth-creating entrepreneurial class will or should take any risk, start or expand any business, or hire anyone, until this president and his tax cheat treasury secretary, are gainfully unemployed, trying for the first time in their unproductive lives to make a living in the private sector they understand so little about.
Imagine my surprise to hear Al “Rent Seeker” Gore’s expletive-laden tirade against those who are skeptical of human impact on climate — which is to say those who threaten the value of Gore’s large stakes in “green” technology companies whose success requires a gullible and spendthrift government willing to funnel taxpayer money down the Gore rat hole. Sorry, Al, nobody’s buying that “the very existence of our civilization is threatened”; we’ve figured out that it’s your portfolio that’s threatened. OK, I really wasn’t surprised by any of this, but it’s so much fun to hear Gore say “bulls—t” that I had to mention it.
About the Author
Ross Kaminsky is a self-employed trader and investor and is a senior fellow of the Heartland Institute. He is the host of The Ross Kaminsky Show on Denver’s NewsRadio 850 KOA at 11 AM on most Sundays. You can reach Ross by e-mail at rossputin(at)rossputin(dot)com.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (39) | Leave a comment
More Articles by Ross Kaminsky
More Articles From Breaking News
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/08/12/imagine-my-surprise
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
Current Issue
- A Panoply of Beauties
- Confessions of a Soft-Drinking Newspaperman
- The Continuing Crisis
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Pat Spooner| 8.12.11 @ 7:40AM
Ross, your words are right on and accurately describe the situation. Obama and his team put in their time between taxpayer funded trips around the globe and vacations in Spain, Brazil, Marthas Vineyard and other locations where the uppty ups play. Murray and Kerry (the sales tax cheat until he was caught) are two jokers and honestly we all know that the demoncrats of the "special" committee will want more and higher taxes on working taxpayers. The committee will be a total waste - voters need to elect more conservatives to the house, senate and win the White House if there is any hope of ever cutting and gutting Washington's bloated, excessive spending.
massmile | 8.12.11 @ 12:55PM
By appointing Murray to this committee, Harry Reid is proving that he is all politics all the time, especially when the circumstances are dire. The greater the crisis, the greater the opportunity for political advantage.
I am a 26 years old nurse, young and beautiful. Now I am seeking an older gentle man who can give me real love , so i got a username Annababe2011 on---a'ge'l'ov'e'r. C óM---it is the first and best club for y'ounger women and older men, or older women and younger men,to int'eract with each other. Maybe you wanna ch'eck it out or tell your friends.
martin j smith| 8.12.11 @ 7:54AM
Perhaps one thing that Presidential candidate must ask Obama and his entire government is this: You ask Americans for shared sacrifice yet you show no sacrifice. Is it not time for YOU to set an example ?
How abo0ut a 25% salary and benefit cut for all Government workers making 200,000 or more ?
How about 25% less golf.
How about 25% fewer vacations ? or make that 50%
How about 25% less on cheese burgers and milk shakes ?
How about 25% less on Parties ?
>9| 8.12.11 @ 9:25AM
As for the rioters and looters in England, most of them are gay, just as the Flash Mobs who attack people on the street and loot shops in this country are also gay.
It's time the media identify exactly who these looters are!
Drunken Sailor| 8.12.11 @ 10:10AM
How in the hell did you deduce that? Your insecurities are showing.
JimH| 8.12.11 @ 2:17PM
Maybe it’s all the Vogueing being done for the cameras that was the clue.
megapotamus| 8.14.11 @ 12:28PM
I think this was a joke, neighbors. Or I hope to god so.
Seek| 8.12.11 @ 11:23AM
Gay? I think not. How about black?
Drunken Sailor| 8.12.11 @ 1:56PM
Not all.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....z1UogKJGwE
Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 8.12.11 @ 8:18AM
The Democrats had to put a woman and a black guy on the Committee which indicates that they could care less about the economic emergency. Appearances must be kept up even in times of dread.
James Clyburn has been implicated in several wasteful, perhaps they could even be termed criminal, enterprises, all funded of course with your money. It's galling that the Justice Department, which is run by another incompetent black man, does not investigate this type of fraud.
However, by placing Murray and Clyburn on the Committee it's obvious that Reid and Pelosi have already planned the Committee's demise. They are both steeped in the practices of pork barrel politics and the corrupt pay back system that emanates from that practice.
Why would Pelosi and Reid want the Commitee to fail? Because it puts the discussion back in the Congress where they have power.
The so called triggers will never happen or, if they do, the Defense Department will be gutted if necessary. Nothing of consequence will happen because the cuts from the triggers will start in 2013. A new Congress and and most likely will override them. In a sense the Democrats are gambling they can win back the house or at the very least box things up in the Senate no matter who wins the Presidency.
In the meantime don't look for anything significant from Washington insiders. It doesn't matter which party they are in, both parties have a vested interest in big government.
http://www.conunderground.com/.....us-part-i/
Rep. Clyburn claims the U.S. Constitution mandates him to earmark, and if you are going to earmark why not help a brother out, or a nephew or a son or a friend? .
Here are excerpts from a great article on the Clyburn scandals form “The Shot”
“Let’s start with the “Five Rivers Scandal”.In 2006 Congressman Clyburn set aside $145,000 for the Five Rivers Development Corp. to build a community center. According the Myrtle Beach Sun News:
Five Rivers Community Development Corp. spent $105,950 on two consultants who lobbied federal legislators for money and influence, but the nonprofit agency did not report those activities on its federal tax returns, according to a review of Georgetown-based Five Rivers’ financial records by The Sun News.
Five Rivers paid $16,600 over 16 months in 2004 and 2005 to Charles Clyburn, the brother of U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, for consulting work.
Sun News further reports that “Five Rivers also paid consultant David Richardson $89,350 between 2002 and 2005 to lobby legislators for grants.
Richardson, the former head of the Atlantic Beach Community Development Corp., would not discuss his work for Five Rivers. The Atlantic Beach group received $800,000 in federal grants starting in the late 1990s and dissolved in 2001 without making any progress toward development in the town.”
“I’m not going to talk to you because I don’t think you like black people,” “he stated to the Sun News reporter. ” Five Rivers’ executives, board members and clients predominantly are black.” ( Evidently David Richardson had no compunctions about taking money from those who may or may not like back people)
“About two-thirds of the $5 million Five Rivers received over the past decade was from state and federal grants.
But it doesn’t stop there. to add insult to corruption The Sun News also discovered:
… Five Rivers did not get to use the money James Clyburn appropriated because the nonprofit went out of business before its community center was built.
Clyburn’s use of federal money to benefit his family members didn’t stop there. Just this month Clyburn stepped down from the board of the International African-American Museum because his nephew’s architecture firm (the same firm from the Five Rivers scandal) was going to benefit from another federal earmark. The Charleston Post & Courier reported:
RAMIII| 8.12.11 @ 9:18AM
"There's no reason to suggest the job-and-growth-creating entrepreneurial class will or should take any risk, start or expand any business, or hire anyone, until this president and his tax cheat treasury secretary, are gainfully unemployed, trying for the first time in their unproductive lives to make a living in the private sector they understand so little about."
You are G.D. right!
Drunken Sailor| 8.12.11 @ 11:15AM
And today's headline is Bloomberg is:
U.S. Consumer Confidence Drops to Three-Decade Low Amid Economic Headwinds
Lets see, 30 years ago would be 1981. Jimmy Carter's last year. Coincidence?? Nope, Identical Ideologies more likely.
PolishKnight| 8.12.11 @ 9:37AM
", until this president and his tax cheat treasury secretary, are gainfully unemployed, trying for the first time in their unproductive lives to make a living in the private sector they understand so little about."
I wish this was the case, but Democrat ex-presidents have an established track record of making money on expensive speeches to the companies of political supporters.
Ross Kaminsky | 8.12.11 @ 10:15AM
You're right, of course, and I thought of that when writing that line, but I still thought it was a great sentence. Geithner will get a job easily, too, actually, because of who he knows and how well he knows the system, not because he's actually a useful human being.
chuck| 8.12.11 @ 11:23AM
"because of who he knows and how well he knows the system, not because he's actually a useful human being."
That includes most of those taking up space(just can't bear to say "serving") in Washington.
PolishKnight| 8.12.11 @ 3:40PM
Great sentence but unfortunately it's highly misleading. If Obama or Clinton had to get normal jobs like the rest of us after they left the presidency go through most of the stuff we do, then they might perhaps reflect upon their lives and even repent.
That chances of that are nill. Going to speaking engagements and picking up checks isn't a "job" for these guys, it's an ego boost with a bonus. Clinton, especially, LOVES to wag his tail in front of crowds. Although Obama will probably consider giving speeches for corporate donors reading off a teleprompter menial labor.
megapotamus| 8.14.11 @ 12:33PM
At worst (for him) Geithner will land in a cushy sinecure as an econ professor. Read it and weep, friends. You know it's true. This is one small splinter of the practicaql political reasons that a full, uncontrolled burn-in crash of Gliberalism straight into the salt flats may well be preferable to a mediated forced landing as our current crop of Bob Doles perhaps do not know is their best case scenario.
PolishKnight| 8.15.11 @ 11:14AM
Generally, such professors especially have an easy job. They make 2, perhaps 4 lectures a week and then have the TA's give the tests and college and grade the homework. The rest of the time, they are doing "research" again involves basically ordering their TA's around. They get six figure salaries, retirement plans, and a nice parking spot to cruise onto campus with and then hit on the loose, emotionally confused co-eds.
He's set for life and he knows it.
POST American| 8.12.11 @ 10:08AM
---Nice '70s Show' side OP!
NOW ----back to what's really the ONLY show
currently on the go --the broad daylight, 4 decades on, RED China sellout and TREASON OP.
Ross Kaminsky | 8.12.11 @ 10:38AM
Wow, I don't understand any of that.
NYMPH| 8.12.11 @ 11:26AM
Niether does anybody else, I always skip his posts.....
Occam's Tool| 8.12.11 @ 1:26PM
Ross, ROSS---I'm talking to you! You know the children always need adult supervision, and you went off and left me all alone with Barack and Michelle! How could you!
Ross Kaminsky | 8.12.11 @ 1:29PM
Hey, Occam, at least I didn't go to Martha's Vineyard.
But seriously, South Africa is an amazing place. Been there four times now and recommend it to anyone.
Occam's Tool| 8.12.11 @ 9:54PM
Actually, funny you should say that, Ross. Last week I was in Eastham on the Cape. Attending lectures on Bipolar Disorder and catchimng up on my thousand year deficit on sleep.
Tina B| 8.13.11 @ 10:28AM
Oh, Occam's, you did just fine. We didn't eat a gallon of ice cream or sneak out at night. You were always there monitoring, and many of us, like little ducklings, werequacking along in a line right behind you.
Dan Mathewson| 8.12.11 @ 5:06PM
POST American is the humorless version of Mr. Doubletalk. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EjlXaBQFq8
Ground Control| 8.12.11 @ 10:52AM
Of course this is all politics all the time. And Patty Murray on this Super Committee? Patty Murray is the dolt who said Osama Bin Laden was a hero to the Middle East because he builds schools, hospitals, and day care centers. Patty Murray is a blithering idiot, easily as abjectly stupid as President O'Bozo himself. By appointing Murray to this committee, Harry Reid is proving that he is all politics all the time, especially when the circumstances are dire. The greater the crisis, the greater the opportunity for political advantage. But then, why is this a surprise? Is there anyone over the age of 11 who still thinks Democrats are about anything but politics? It would be easier to believe in the tooth fairy, and the tooth fairy clearly has more compassion for people than Reid has. Let's face it, the Democrat Party is composed of the mose selfish, self centered, egotistical, and dishonest people on Earth. You know, people like Reid, and Murray, and O'Bozo, and Pelosi, and...
megapotamus| 8.14.11 @ 12:36PM
I had forgotten that about Patty Murray, the mom in tennis shoes. My distaste had destratified into a miasm of resentment; a whiff of forgotten facts. But that will do, I guess. I vaguely recall a 2nd Am issue with her. Maybe that Recovered Memory movement wasn't so stupid after all.
Stefan Stackhouse| 8.12.11 @ 12:23PM
So this is all YOUR fault! If only you had stayed around, it would have been an uneventful couple of weeks!
;-)
Ken (Old Texican)| 8.12.11 @ 6:41PM
Ross,
are you the guy who came on here and advertised yourself as a fool?
("The man who says there is no God is a fool")
enjoy being dogfood.
Ross Kaminsky | 8.12.11 @ 8:15PM
Ken, what's the point of your comment?
POST American| 8.12.11 @ 10:10PM
--------------------BOTTOM LINE----------------------
AS those MASSIVE tunnels connecting Asia
with Pidgeon Lake British Columbia (--check it out!) wait ominously
---AS that 1.5 quadrillion in FAKE USURY
derivatives debt remains uncriticized, undiscussed, unmentioned
----AS the ILLEGAL, Consitution violating,
foreign owned, USURY crazed, PRIVATE
'Federal' Reserve likewise
---------------------WHILE, the NOW decalassified
State Dept MEMO 200, from 1975, by then
US Ambassador to RED China, Bush Sr. emerges
detailing, in good Freemasonic fashion, 'the plan'
--RED China to be MASSIVELY funded and
enabled by the U.S. taxpayer to 'bring in and
bring up' as world industrial center,
and eventual TOP of the NWO
--America to be taken down to third world
status via waste, debt, 'DE-IN---DUST--REAL -EYE -zation'
and a worthless, unsustainable franchise
slum wampum 'economy'
-----ALLL contingent on RED China, already the
undisputed leader in 'peacetime', indeed, anytime
genocide --zealously embrace Rockefeller EUGENICS.
Special emphasis on the selective extermination
of such inexpedient elements of the society as the unborn.
AND NOW, there happens to be a male w/o female
surplus of 30 MILLION with nothing much to
do ---waiting.
AGAIN, think Pigeon Lake.
----Yeah, we'd call it RED China TREASON----
Certainly TREASON is nothing new to the
'Trading With the Enemy' NAZI era Bushes.
--------------HUAC meets NUREMBERG-------------
Ross Kaminsky | 8.12.11 @ 11:58PM
Someone seems to be off his meds this evening.
megapotamus| 8.14.11 @ 12:40PM
If there are indeed motorable tunnels from BC to, where? Singapore? The Kalinins? Well, in any case I am very excited and may re-invest in some high-speed low cost sled like a Silverwing. I will be in Rangoon by Friday next.
Dacron Mather| 8.13.11 @ 2:12AM
Thank goodness Ross has provided a refuge from the hypocrite Gore's profanity:
http://rossputin.com/blog/inde.....ing-budget
Ross Kaminsky | 8.13.11 @ 9:06AM
I just love that video...I hope lots of black Americans see it.
Appleby| 8.13.11 @ 9:23AM
I think even Satan has got tired of Zero; he, like anybody else, has stopped investing in Loserville. Hence the loss of Personal Magnetism at home and abroad.
Jack London| 8.13.11 @ 11:35AM
I've had a search about gun crime in the UK - it's actually very low and their homicide rate is very low. I see that in their 2009/10 year in England and Wales there were 619 homicides and only 41 with guns. I think the population of England and Wales is about 55 million. A lot of their gun incidents are with air weapons and converted BB guns. The last thing they could possibly want is a huge influx of modern weapons - just think what would happen to their tiny gun homicide rate then.
Marc Jeric| 8.13.11 @ 11:55AM
Patty Murray, a life-long socialist, was re-elected with the help of ACORN brownshirts and SEIU thugs; by double votes, votes of illegal aliens, votes by dead people, and destruction of legal votes. She has only a one-note symphony: "Tax the rich! Tax the rich!"