Accountability and your money? Spare me
November 16, 2008
I am getting so upset with the vile being directed towards the auto industry’s request for $25 billion because after the 700 billion dollars doled out to Wall St. (and they are still not lending!), we find out that the Department of Treasury just gave Wall St. a tax deal worth up to $140 billion. See the excerpt below form the Washington Post.
The financial world was fixated on Capitol Hill as Congress battled over the Bush administration’s request for a $700 billion bailout of the banking industry. In the midst of this late-September drama, the Treasury Department issued a five-sentence notice that attracted almost no public attention.
But corporate tax lawyers quickly realized the enormous implications of the document: Administration officials had just given American banks a windfall of as much as $140 billion.
The sweeping change to two decades of tax policy escaped the notice of lawmakers for several days, as they remained consumed with the controversial bailout bill. When they found out, some legislators were furious. Some congressional staff members have privately concluded that the notice was illegal. But they have worried that saying so publicly could unravel several recent bank mergers made possible by the change and send the economy into an even deeper tailspin.
“Did the Treasury Department have the authority to do this? I think almost every tax expert would agree that the answer is no,” said George K. Yin, the former chief of staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the nonpartisan congressional authority on taxes. “They basically repealed a 22-year-old law that Congress passed as a backdoor way of providing aid to banks.”
It can not be said enough how much this financial bailout process mirrored the invasion of Iraq. Bush use fear tactics in asking demanding that Congress give him unchecked powers. Congress accepts this horrible framing and capitulates and then use Congressional hearings to explain why they voted the way they did while trying to lambast whoever they asked to appear before their committee. If it is so hard to be in Congress and do the right thing, don’t take the job!!!
If there is anything true about the Bush years is how Congress never debated saying no but they instead focused on trivial issues concerning oversight. It will be interesting to see how many on the hill will suddenly discover checks and balances under Obama.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
For undecideds needing an excuse to vote for Barack
October 15, 2008
In case any of you undecideds can’t get over your mental block of voting for Senator Barack Obama, take a mental poll of where you stand financially and read this great piece from the New York Times,
Bulls, Bears, Donkeys and Elephants
Since 1929, Republicans and Democrats have each controlled the presidency for nearly 40 years. So which party has been better for American pocketbooks and capitalism as a whole? Well, here’s an experiment: imagine that during these years you had to invest exclusively under either Democratic or Republican administrations. How would you have fared?
As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of 8.9 percent over nearly 40 years.
The WRONG Way to Pass Legislation
October 2, 2008
The Senate broke my heart by passing the bailout Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (note the re-framing) overwhelmingly.
What’s really eating at me though is the way that it passed. In an attempt to make the bill more palatable to members of Republicans in the House, they packed the bill with pork. Sure, this is how business gets done in Washington, but in this case it’s really, really, really sick. See some examples of the garbage in this bill here.
With all of the quasi-economic-populist rhetoric going on as this election draws nearer, why not throw in substantive measures to make this bill more palatable to homeowners, consumers, and everyday citizens? Isn’t that what economic populism is all about?
We need a change in Washington. Yes, I agree that we need a new President, and I think that new President should be Barack Obama. But what we really need is a change in how Washington works. This bill passed the way most bills pass in Washington: too quickly, without enough scrutiny, packed with “sweeteners” for politicians instead of people.
I wish my candidate & his VP (and, frankly, their opponent) hadn’t supported this. When a Democratic Senator who’s name is not on this list tells you they put regular people first, do a double-take.
Democratic Senators that Voted ‘No’ on the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act
- Maria Cantwell (WA)
- Byron Dorgan (ND)
- Russ Feingold (WI)
- Tim Johnson (SD)
- Mary Landrieu (LA)
- Bill Nelson (FL)
- Bernie Sanders (VT)
- Debbie Stabenow (MI)
- John Tester (MT)
- Ron Wyden (OR)
One Love. One II.
P.S. When was the last time that opposing candidates voted the same way on a such controversial legislation this close to an election?
The Republican quad-fecta
September 29, 2008
Today, the Democrats managed a quad-fecta (I just made that word up) by creating a space for Republicans to vote against the bail out which allowed them to simultaneously be,
- Anti-Bush and make it popular for Republicans to run against Bush economic policies
- Appear on the side of the people and seem more populist than Democrats
- Republicans can remain stalwarts of the free-market, less regulation ideology that got us in this mess in the first place
- Republicans can run against Wall St. which is something I would never see in my lifetime.
I don’t like this bill and the lack of protections for homeowners but if Pelosi felt that she had to do it, why didn’t she tell Bush that she wouldn’t put it up for vote until she secured a certain number of votes from Republicans? And why in the world is the media not hounding McCain for claiming that his presence helped seal the deal when we don’t have a deal!! That is not the type of leadership America needs. Make sure you get out and vote.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Financial madness
September 25, 2008
First off I want to say Happy Birthday to my partner in crime…Mr. Garlin Gilchrist II.
This current crisis reminds me of something Bill Maher said, (I am paraphrasing) “Conservatives have the easiest job in the world because when they mess up doing things like governing, they can claim that government itself is the problem and whatever they planned to do wasn’t supposed to work anyways.” So now you have Democrats bending over backwards to make this deal work with House Republicans posturing against the bill.
And here is the problem, people keep saying that this bill is going to end up with a nice return for taxpayers right? If that was the case, then shouldn’t someone in the free market see this gem and buy it up so that taxpayers don’t have endure this socialism for the rich? What’s more is that if Obama said he wanted to invest $100 billion in education, conservatives would cry, “We already spent $700 billion on bailing out Wall Street and we can’t just throw away taxpayer money.” And a bold Democrat would respond by saying, “Wait, you just robbed taxpayers of a trillion dollars because businesses were too big to fail but we can definitely afford to let our children down in the form of disinvesting in education. And if money is not the cure all for whatever the issue, why does this logic apply to Wall St. and not education?”
Seriously, if there was ever anything that would prove a guaranteed return on investment, wouldn’t it be investing in education? Your money is where your heart is.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
My thoughts on the financial meltdown
September 23, 2008
I need to speak my piece about the financial crisis facing America. This will be free form but take from it what you will.
Real people
Many families are in a situation where the only real safety net is that of other family members who are relatively well off. To be clear, we are not talking about McCain rich; rather I am defining well off by having good credit and being able to give “loans” to the family that rarely get paid back. These family anchors (including some in my own family) are being wiped out with this economic crisis. And I am tired of real people being categorized as “Main Street” and banks being characterized as “Wall Street.” This level of distance from real people in our media leaves everyone and no one responsible for our current crisis. In the end, the real victims are faceless and nameless. Read more
What a weekend on Wall Street
September 14, 2008
What’s up fam,
So the mortgage crisis is steadily swimming upstream and reports show that Bank of America just bought out Merrill Lynch. After what appeared to be Treasury Secretary Paulson’s unwillingness to use taxpayer money to help bail out Lehman Brothers, Merrill saw the writing on the wall and took care of their investors before time ran out. In the interest of full disclosure, I interned for Merrill when I was in college when Stan O’Neal was there. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see writers talk about how difficult it is for banks in this economic turmoil. Trust me on this, people who lost their homes in a far worse situation than the top folks at Merrill. What worse is that for as bad as this situation is, what will prevent our economic system from riding the boom and bust of the bubble. In the 90’s it was the tech bubble. The first decade of the 21st century is witnessing the bust of the housing bubble. I say we use the 10s to ride a clean and renewable energy that only busts global warming, poverty, and a national security dependent on oil security.
Stay up fam
The myth of the Christian candidate
August 3, 2008
Good morning fam,
I hope all is well with you. A friend of mine just recently body sort of shut down due to the heat so be careful out there and stay hydrated. Speaking of heat, the cost of heating your home this fall and winter will more than likely be higher than last year so start considering putting money away now to deal with those bills.
However, I am here today to talk about the myth of the Christian candidate. Too often, the two wedge issues that conservatives use to determine if a candidate is moral or Christian enough are gay marriage and abortion. What I hate about this debate is that it forces God into a political framework that is too small and quite frankly, disrespectful.
Why is it that we never talk about tax policy in terms of Christian values? Are tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy really in line with this mistaken notion that God wants everyone to be rich? Man often defines as rich as monetary wealth, none of which we can take with us when we leave this earth. It is the love we give and receive from each other that makes one truly rich. Just think about it, anyone reading this column that went to college and stayed in the dorm remember how fun it was to be a broke college student, eating Ramen noodles, finding the most creative ways to eat and pay bills, always knowing that you had to laugh to keep from crying.
Having said that, what if we had a tax policy reflected in Proverbs 30:8-9 that reads,
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. 9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say , ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal and so dishonor the name of my God.
And let’s consider war and consider the fact that yes, sometimes war is justified but if we honest with ourselves, sending troops to fight a wars chiefly designed support our conspicuous consumption as opposed to ending genocide is crazy to me.
Our health care system is designed to make sure that when you need health care most, insurance companies profit margins grow to the extent that they find ways to deny payment for needed services. And we are talking about people with health care so you can imagine the fear of not having it. I am just trying to imagine Jesus charging payment before he healed the sick and I just can’t see it.
The problem is that we all need help because even bad things happen to good people. You may do everything right and may have to end up taking care of a sick parent or child or enduring a debilitating disease yourself. I don’t know about you but I want to elect candidates that realize that we can’t put God in a box or a political party, but we can apply Biblical principles to the full spectrum of issues facing our society.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
