Have bank loans really dried up? If you listen to the MSM you would think so!

by Administrator on October 3, 2008

in Economy, Politics

Casino Quality
Image by imageining via Flickr

As is usually the case the conventional wisdom from the main stream media is dead wrong and not supported by any real facts.  Thanks to our friends over at the Cato Institute we can get to the bottom of the sky is falling, doomsday, Depression scenarios that they are trying to use to ram through this 700 Billion bail out package on us.

Here’s a few examples of the histeria that they are spewing:

On Sept. 24, Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag

warned Congress that “short-term lending was virtually shut down.” The

following day, The Washington Post reported that “tightening

[bank] credit conditions are already affecting some consumers and

business.” Just before the $700 billion deal was announced on Sunday,

an alarmed Fox News anchor said, “McDonald’s can’t even get a loan.” (That comment confused a few franchise owners with the company.)

On CNBC Monday, Democrat majority leader Steny Hoyer said the

objective of the rescue package is to “unlock the credit” for consumers

and business. And a Wall Street Journal editorial writer told CNBC, “Until we get the banks lending again, the economy will continue to contract.”

Below you will see the the the actual #s from the Federal Reserve Board, what do you know they actually track these things!

Table One

U.S. Bank Loans (Billions of Dollars)
——————————————–

Federal Reserve Board, Asset and Liabilities of Commercial Banks in the United States (H.8).

In August, bank loans to consumers were 9.5% higher than they were a

year earlier–the fastest increase since 2004. The year-to-year

increase in consumer and industrial loans was 15.5%, down only slightly

from a recent record high of 21.6% in March. Real estate loans were up

4.1% for the 12-month period ending this August–flat lately, but not

down.

Also do not forget that it is election season!

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What the Democrats said about Fannie and Freddie

by Administrator on October 3, 2008

in Economy, Politics

The House Financial Services committee meets. ...

Image via Wikipedia

Over at the Online Journal Website they have put together a great list of what the Democrats had to say about Republican efforts to reform Fannie and Freddie.  The following quotes will amaze you when you consider the fact that they are trying to lay all of the blame on President Bush.

Clockwise from top left: Sen. Thomas Carper, Rep. Barney Frank, Sen. Robert Bennett, Rep. Maxine Waters, Sen. Chris Dodd and Sen. Charles Schumer.

House Financial Services Committee hearing, Sept. 10, 2003:


Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.): I worry, frankly, that there’s

a tension here. The more people, in my judgment, exaggerate a threat of

safety and soundness, the more people conjure up the possibility of

serious financial losses to the Treasury, which I do not see. I think

we see entities that are fundamentally sound financially and withstand

some of the disaster scenarios. . . .

Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.), speaking to Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez:

Secretary Martinez, if it ain’t broke, why do you want to fix it?

Have the GSEs [government-sponsored enterprises] ever missed their

housing goals?

* * *

House Financial Services Committee hearing, Sept. 25, 2003:

Rep. Frank: I do think I do not want the same kind of focus

on safety and soundness that we have in OCC [Office of the Comptroller

of the Currency] and OTS [Office of Thrift Supervision]. I want to roll

the dice a little bit more in this situation towards subsidized housing. . . .

* * *

House Financial Services Committee hearing, Sept. 25, 2003:

Rep. Waters: However, I have sat through nearly a dozen

hearings where, frankly, we were trying to fix something that wasn’t

broke. Housing is the economic engine of our economy, and in no

community does this engine need to work more than in mine. With last

week’s hurricane and the drain on the economy from the war in Iraq, we

should do no harm to these GSEs. We should be enhancing regulation, not

making fundamental change.

Mr. Chairman, we do not have a crisis at Freddie Mac, and in

particular at Fannie Mae, under the outstanding leadership of Mr. Frank

Raines. Everything in the 1992 act has worked just fine. In fact, the

GSEs have exceeded their housing goals. . . .

* * *

Senate Banking Committee, Oct. 16, 2003:

Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.): And my worry is that we’re

using the recent safety and soundness concerns, particularly with

Freddie, and with a poor regulator, as a straw man to curtail Fannie

and Freddie’s mission. And I don’t think there is any doubt that there

are some in the administration who don’t believe in Fannie and Freddie

altogether, say let the private sector do it. That would be sort of an

ideological position.

Mr. Raines: But more importantly, banks are in a far more risky business than we are.

* * *

Senate Banking Committee, Feb. 24-25, 2004:

Sen. Thomas Carper (D., Del.): What is the wrong that we’re trying to right here? What is the potential harm that we’re trying to avert?

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan: Well, I think that that is a very good question, senator.

What we’re trying to avert is we have in our financial system right

now two very large and growing financial institutions which are very

effective and are essentially capable of gaining market shares in a

very major market to a large extent as a consequence of what is

perceived to be a subsidy that prevents the markets from adjusting

appropriately, prevents competition and the normal adjustment processes

that we see on a day-by-day basis from functioning in a way that

creates stability. . . . And so what we have is a structure here in

which a very rapidly growing organization, holding assets and financing

them by subsidized debt, is growing in a manner which really does not

in and of itself contribute to either home ownership or necessarily

liquidity or other aspects of the financial markets. . . .


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Obama Lies About Own Statements on the Surge in Iraq

by Administrator on July 30, 2008

in Foreign Policy, Politics

Barack Obama Iraq Speech, Clinton, IA, 9/12/07 3
Image by Barack Obama via Flickr

Did Barack Obama forget his own comments on the surge in Iraq or did he forget that he could get a reminder of them on Youtube.com?  Appearently, he relies on his friends in the MSM to forget and to give him a free pass as they do so pretty reliably!

Thanks to Gateway Pundit & Powerline for finding these videos!

Below is a quote from a recent interview on the success of the surge in Iraq that you will see at the 6 minute section of this Youtube video:

“(snicker) What I said was even at the time of the debate of the surge, was if you put 30,000 troops in, of course it’s going to have an impact. There’s no doubt about that. The question is, does it solve our larger strategic questions and do the costs involved, uh, do they outweigh the benefits.”

 

Below is a quote and the video from an interview Barack Obama did on the surge in Iraq when it was proposed by President Bush:

“I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there in fact I think it will do the reverse. I think it takes pressuire off the Iraqis to arrive at the sort of political accommodation that every observer believes is the ultimate solution to the problems we face there. So I am going to actively oppose the president’s proposal… I think he is wrong.”


[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

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Barrack Obama keeps his distance from the Military

by Administrator on July 30, 2008

in Politics

They say a picture is worth a 1000 words, in a post over at the Stepping Right Up blog they found a picture that the Obama campaign released, below you will notice that Obama is shown with military personnel in Afghanistan, what few would show up anyways, you will notice that the line is barely 3 deep, but the more telling tale in the photo is how far Obama is standing from the military! Simply amazing! Enough said!

Barrack Obama with the Military

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Former CIA agent acknowledges that waterboarding works!

by Administrator on February 26, 2008

in Politics

PH2007121002144 The Washington Post reports that a former CIA agent who was involved in interrogations of captured al-Qaeda terrorists claims that waterboarding works!

A former CIA officer who participated in the capture and questioning of the first al-Qaeda terrorist suspect to be waterboarded said yesterday that the harsh technique provided an intelligence breakthrough that "probably saved lives," but that he now regards the tactic as torture.

Zayn Abidin Muhammed Hussein abu Zubaida, the first high-ranking al-Qaeda member captured after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, broke in less than a minute after he was subjected to the technique and began providing interrogators with information that led to the disruption of several planned attacks, said John Kiriakou, who served as a CIA interrogator in Pakistan.

I do not subscribe to the notion that waterboarding is torture but one of the big arguments from the left is that "studies show that it does not work, they will just tell you what you want to hear" well I always found that claim hard to swallow, they would be better off denying knowing anything than sending their torturers on wild goose chases that will inevitably bring them more wrath.

I find it amazing that this guy broke in less than a minute and gave info that disrupted several planned attacks and inevitably saved lives, so here is a technique that is not painful, at least not painful enough to deter a reporter from paying someone to perform the technique on him for a special report that he was doing, I do not know about you, but I am not going to pay someone to brake my bones so I can see what it is like to be tortured for a story!

The questioned that liberals need to ask here is, if this attack were to have been targeted at their families, and knowing that would they appose the use of that technique?  I find it hard to imagine that they would!

View the video of the reporter getting his torture below:

 

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Gore criticizes Bush for ignoring Iraq’s ties to terrorism

by Administrator on February 5, 2008

in Politics

In this amazing Youtube video you will witness Democrats going full circle in their criticisms of the 1st President Bush (attacking him for not doing enough against Saddam) & their criticisms of the 2nd President Bush (attacking him for doing too much against Saddam.

It is truly amazing to see Gore criticizing the 1st President Bush for being too friendly with Saddam and ignoring his ties to Terrorism and his efforts to develop WMDs and obtain Nuclear technology and then to fast forward to the present and listen to Democrats attack the current President Bush for lying about Saddam’s ties to Terrorism and lying about Saddam having WMDs.

In this video you will hear Gore make the following points and more:

  • Points out Iraq’s ties to Terrorism and criticizes President Bush for hiding these ties from the American people.
  • Criticizes President Bush for refusing to take tough actions against Saddam.
  • Criticizes President Bush for ignoring CIA reports, State Dept. reports & other reports that Saddam was seeking to develop WMDs and Nuclear weapons.
  • Criticizes President Bush for thinking that Saddam’s behavior would improve out of fear of economic and political sanctions.

 

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Democrats attack Free Speech

by Administrator on January 15, 2008

in Politics, US Constitution

 The Prowler reports that Rep. Henry Waxman is instructing his investigative staff to monitor popular conservative talk radio programs such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity & Mark Levin to attempt to do damage to their shows and will also put pressure on Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin to support the anti-Free Speech doctrine known as the "Fairness Doctrine"

Others on the Democrat side are pushing ahead with other plans. Rep. Henry Waxman has asked his investigative staff to begin compiling reports on Limbaugh, and fellow radio hosts Sean Hannity and Mark Levin based on transcripts from their shows, and to call in Federal Communications Commission chairman Kevin Martin to discuss the so-called "Fairness Doctrine."

"Limbaugh isn’t the only one who needs to be made uncomfortable about what he says on the radio," says a House leadership source. "We don’t have as big a megaphone as these guys, but this all political, and we’ll do what we can to gain the advantage. If we can take them off their game for a while, it will help our folks out there on the campaign trail."

Read more on this subject at the following sites:

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Rush to auction off Harry Reid/Rush Limbaugh smear letter

by Administrator on November 21, 2007

in Democrats, Politics

This was a great idea, Rush is going to auction off the original smear letter that Harry Reid and 41 US Senators sent to the CEO of Clear Channel Communications.  The entire proceeds of this auction.. the entire high bid… will be donated to The Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation.

Here’s the beginning text from the auction description:

When "Dingy Harry" Reid and the U.S. Senate turned away from the business of the nation to instead smear a private citizen, forty-one of them sent a letter demanding the "repudiation" of their inaccurate interpretation of Rush Limbaugh’s comments about Jesse Al-Zaid (a.k.a. Jesse MacBeth) and other "phony soldiers" who falsify their service. This letter was delivered to Mark Mays of Clear Channel Communications, Rush Limbaugh’s syndication partner, and widely quoted in the Drive-By Media.

 

View the aution page here!

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