The idea is now more publicly palatable within the media and public discussions.
Comments »America Needs to Clean House
Remember it is the citizen’s responsibility to vote. So “You pay for what you get”
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpAzRSWPt0w 450 300]Comments »
German CDS Spread Blowout Has Now Put Germany on the List of Being a Credit Risk
Law Makers Take Government Shutdown To the Brink Again
Europe May See Disruption to Gas Supplies as Russia and Ukraine Argue Over Contracts
Peter Schiff on Operation Twist (video)
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCYGVKBOcCo&feature=player_embedded 450 300]
Comments »EU Ministers Consider More Firepower On Debt Problems Given Global Equity Meltdown
Really they just noticed there was a problem in the market place.
Who hired the Euro trash ?
The Santelli Job Creation Rant
Geithner Says He is Sure the EU Will Boost the Bailout Funds For the Sovereign Debt Crisis
“They recognize that if you let, as the United States did in the early part of 2008, the momentum of these concerns build, they’re very hard to arrest, much more expensive to arrest,” Geithner said.
“So you’re going to see them act with more force in the coming weeks and months,” he said.
“I am very confident they’re going to move in the direction of expanding the effective financial capacity of that set of financial ring fences because they have no alternative and they recognize that and they’re going to do it,” Geithner said.
Comments »Republicans Making Another Attempt at Spending Bill
Republican leaders will propose cutting more spending to offset the amount of additional disaster relief money in a short-term government spending measure defeated earlier by the House, a GOP aide told CNN on Thursday.
The additional spending cut, called an offset, would be roughly $100 million from a Department of Energy loan program linked to a solar panel firm that recently collapsed, said another Republican source.
The move is intended to persuade the 48 Republicans who voted against the GOP measure Wednesday night to change their minds, according to the GOP aide, who spoke on condition of not being identified.
Democrats in the House and Senate said Thursday they oppose any offsets of emergency spending for natural disasters.
Comments »G20 Worries Over Contagion
Europe must have taken stupid pills as they have still not made any decisive actions to get ahead of the curb. G20 nations freak out over contagion writing a letter pleading for some sense of leadership.
Comments »Your Tax Dollars at Work
Had enough of being the police. Take care of home and citizens first before looking beyond our borders. Please no comments on how we need to be the police of the world. Our foreign policy helped greatly to force us into that position.
Comments »Rick Perry Supports Job Growth
Greece Commits to Budget Cuts to Ensure Next Support Tranche
The global problems are now extending well beyond Greece; which was the primary focus for downside in equities the past month or so…
Comments »“The claws are out and it’s going to get bloody”
Clam Babble; What Has Changed Since The Last Statement
Presidential Candidate Rick Perry’s Intense Ad {VIDEO}
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EL5Atp_vF0 550 412]
Comments »EARTH TO GOP
They just penned a letter to Bernanke, in an effort to stop him from implementing QE3. They cite the need to preserve the strength of the US dollar. What they fail to acknowledge is a weaker dollar is beneficial to US exporters. And, moreover, the dollar is barely down over the past two years.
3 month dollar return: +1.9%
6 month dollar return: +0.64%
1 year dollar return: -7.24%
2 year dollar return: -3.95%
Comparatively, the euro is -7.16% over the past two years.
Political bullshit.
Comments »FLASH: Idiot Republicans Send Letter to Bernanke
WASTE: $16 Muffins, $10 Cookies in Government Agency
H/T @macroQmicro
The Justice Department spent more than $120 million in fiscal 2008 and 2009 to host law enforcement conferences across the country, many of which featured “extravagant and wasteful” costs for food, beverages and event planning, including spending $16 on each of 250 muffins served at an August 2009 legal conference in Washington, D.C., a report said Tuesday.
Acting Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar, in an audit report that examined taxpayer expenditures incurred by the Justice Department at 10 of 1,832 conferences held during fiscal 2008 and 2009, said investigators also found that another conference featured a lunch that cost $76 per person and coffee costing more than $1 per ounce. Other costly items cited in the report included a $32-per-person snack break consisting of Cracker Jacks, popcorn and candy bars, $7.32 Beef Wellington hors d’oeuvres, $10 cookies and $5 Swedish meatballs.
The numbers are included in a report that examined expenditures incurred by the Justice Department during fiscal 2008 and 2009 following a 2007 audit by the Inspector General’s Office that also identified what it described at the time as “extravagant costs associated with food and beverages and event planning activities.” The new report said that while it found that the Justice Department had instituted conference cost guidelines since the 2007 report, individual components within the agency “are not taking all necessary steps to minimize conference-related costs and to eliminate wasteful spending.”
The report noted that the department hosted or participated in 1,832 conferences in fiscal 2008 and 2009, costing a total of $121 million. The new audit examined 10 conferences that occurred between October 2008 and September 2009 and cost over $4.4 million. It focused on the two major conference cost categories that the September 2007 report revealed as most potentially susceptible to wasteful spending – event planning services and food and beverages.
“Our audit found that two DOJ components, the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW), spent approximately $600,000 in grant funds to procure event planning services for five conferences without demonstrating that these firms offered the most cost effective logistical services,” Ms. Schnedar said. “The audit also found that neither OJP nor the OVW required event planners to track and report salary and benefit costs.
“As a result, the mandated DOJ conference cost reports submitted to Congress did not include over $500,000 of the $600,000 that it spent on event planning services for the five conferences we examined where event planners were used,” she said.
The audit also identified what it called “unallowable and unnecessary event planning costs,” including the hiring of a consultant as an event planner for one conference who lived in Anchorage, Alaska, to act as the liaison with the conference hotel located in Palm Springs, California. The audit questioned as “unnecessary” nearly $3,500 in Justice Departmentfunds paid to the consultant to travel three times between Alaska and California, especially since the event had been held at the same venue three times previously. Also questioned as unnecessary in the audit were over $29,000 in travel, lodging and food and beverage costs for a face-to-face planning meeting held in Palm Springs in January and February 2008 that was attended by Justice department employees and event planning consultants.
In a response to the Inspector General’s report, Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden sent a memo to all department heads saying that as the department works to accomplish its mission, “We must also make certain we do so with a focus on accountability and transparency to the American taxpayers.” He told the department heads to ensure that financial resources are utilized in the most advantageous and responsible manner.
“I want to emphasize the need to maximize our financial resources, ensure we are prudent in our spending, and avoid the fact or appearance of extravagant spending, especially during these challenging financial times,” he said.
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