Obongo's Economic Miracle

This is a geographic representation of the current economic recession starting in January 2007 up through last October. The map captures the unemployment rate for every county in the nation.

There are two benchmarks as far as I can see. The first one is when Bush signs the TARP bill last summer and the second one when Obongo starts his term as President. Watch the accelerated unemployment rate spread throughout the Country. It's like watching a lung cancer patient after he gets a prescription for a carload of unfiltered Camels.

In 2007 most of the US is painted in shades of yellow, orange and red (2% to 5.9% unemployment). There are over a dozen counties with an unemployment rate under 2%.

By October 2009 we are in deep kimchi, most of the country is dark purple or worse (7% to over 10% unemployment). By last October there appears to be one, only one county in the entire country that has an unemployment rate that is under 2%.

Some Honest Advice

According to Snopes, the following letters are real. The response to the letter from the President of General Motors was written in December, 2008 by the President of this company. His name is Greg Knox. This is his picture. Greg is the real deal.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dear Employees & Suppliers,

Congress and the current Administration will soon determine whether to provide immediate support to the domestic auto industry to help it through one of the most difficult economic times in our nation's history. Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this support is critical to our continuing the progress we began prior to the global financial crisis.As an employee or supplier, you have a lot at stake and continue to be one of our most effective and passionate voices.

I know GM can count on you to have your voice heard.
Thank you for your urgent action and ongoing support.

Troy Clarke
President,
General Motors North America
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Response from:

Gregory Knox, Pres.
Knox Machinery Company
Franklin , Ohio

Gentlemen:
In response to your request to contact legislators and ask for a bailout for the Big Three automakers please consider the following, and please pass my thoughts on to Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America.

Politicians and Management of the Big 3 are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has spread like cancerous germs in 20 UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping this nation, awaiting our new "messiah," Pres-elect Obama, to wave his magic wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living the dream." Believe me folks, The dream is over!

This dream where we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded "laborers" without paying the price for these atrocities. This dream where you still think the masses will line up to buy our products for ever and ever.

Don't even think about telling me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi, Kelsey Hayes, American Axle, and countless other automotive OEM's throughout the Midwest , during the past 30 years and what I've seen over those years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting.

Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America, states: "There is widespread sentiment throughout this country, and our government, and especially via the news media, that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management which it certainly is not." You're right Mr. Clarke, it's not JUST management.

How about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag ass so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour work week.

How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare tactics for putting out too many parts on a shift and for being too productive.(We certainly must not expose those lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?) Do you folks really not know about this stuff?

How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea: "over the last few years we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors." What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?!? Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them? The K car vs. the Accord? The Pinto vs. the Civic?!? Do I need to go on? What a joke!

We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades. It's time to pay for your sins, Detroit .

I attended an economic summit last week where brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu, from the Institute of Trend Research , surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of "bailout money." "Yes, he said, this would cause short term problems," but despite what people like politicians and corporate magnates would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day and the following very important thing would happen. Where there had been greedy and sloppy banks, new efficient ones would pop up. That is how a free market system works. It does work if we would only let it work."

But for some nondescript reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work - that we need the government to step in and "save us". Save us my ass, Hell - we're nationalizing and unfortunately too many of our once fine nation's citizens don't even have a clue that this is what is really happening.

But, they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams.
Yeah - THAT'S really important, isn't it?

Does it ever occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades in this country? How can that be??? Let's see. Fuel efficient. Listening to customers. Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul.

Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr.. W Edwards Deming four decades ago when he taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations could increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs. Ever increased productivity through quality and intelligent planning. Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy." Efficient front and back offices. Non union environment.

Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they really don't already know down deep in their hearts.

I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into - my children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did when I was their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way) - I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their actions and work through it. Radical concept, huh. Am I there for them in the wings? Of course - but only until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults.

I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and government. Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins.

Bad news people - it's coming whether we like it or not the newly elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand big enough to "make it all go away." I laughed as I heard Obama "reeling it back in" almost immediately after the final vote count was tallied. "We really might not do it in a year or in four." Where the Hell was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for office.

Stop trying to put off the inevitable folks. That house in Florida really isn't worth $750,000. People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits. That job driving that forklift for the Big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a year. We really shouldn't allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with products acquired from a country that unfairly manipulates their currency and has the most atrocious human rights infractions on the face of the globe. That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home.

Let the market correct itself folks - it will.. Yes it will be painful, but it's gonna' be painful either way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the other side of it all, is a nation that appreciates what it has and doesn't live beyond its means and gets back to basics and redevelops the patriotic work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world and probably turns back to God..

Sorry - don't cut my head off, I'm just the messenger sharing with you the "bad news". I hope you take it to heart.

Gregory J. Knox, President
Knox Machinery, Inc.
Franklin , Ohio 45005

There's A Storm Abrewing

Lotsa stuff today. The Chicago Traders Market wants to have another Boston Tea Party, instead of tea they'll throw worthless derivatives into Lake Michigan.

It's CNBC but take a look anyway. The traders are angry that Obama is rewarding bad behavior by subsidizing losers' mortgages; lowering the mortgage rate isn't going to help either- 40% of these bad mortgages can't be saved if the rate drops to -2%, these people should never had mortgages in the first place.

Even the Messiah's own administration is lowering expectations on what the stimulus package can or can't do. From the Investor's Business Daily:

Seven-hundred eighty-seven billion dollars apparently doesn't go as far as it used to. Even before the ink was dry on the stimulus bill, the president and his deputies were hinting it may not work as promised.

[...]Now with the $787 billion on the books — an amount greater than the entire federal budget in 1982 — the administration is suddenly in full expectation-lowering mode, throwing out strong hints that it may have to go back for second helpings in a matter of months.

"Signing Stimulus, Obama Doesn't Rule Out More," is how the New York Times put it. And, indeed, Obama sounded almost dour about the bill he had so aggressively pushed to get passed.

I guess a trillion dollars just don't go as far as it used to. And maybe with the new Tea Party they can remember to toss that useless, lying asswipe Roland Burris into the Lake also. From the Chicago Tribune:

Sen. Roland "Tombstone" Burris (D-Lying Weasel) insisted he was the Real Roland Burris, which must mean that some sneaky impostor is out there, doing evil deeds in our senator's name.

Yet Real Roland or Fake Roland, nobody believed him, because he's such a weasel who didn't tell the truth to a state impeachment committee about discussing fundraising for the former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, as part of a deal to have Blago appoint Burris to fill the Senate seat of President Barack Obama.

If he had told the truth, he wouldn't be senator today, and as he chattered on about how Democratic ward bosses really love him, a Democrat in the crowd whispered to me.

"What's Barack saying? Where's House Speaker Michael J. Madigan? Their silence is deafening," the guy said. "What are they saying?"

Nothing.

Burris is in such a deep hole that Chicago Race Baiters Religious Association pastors are now trying to get him to resign:

CHICAGO - A Chicago minister tells The Associated Press he and other black pastors who previously supported Sen. Roland Burris now plan to ask him to resign.

The minister spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because a meeting with Burris hadn't yet been scheduled. He says the senator can no longer serve effectively.

In Phoenix, AZ, high school seniors mocked Obama's economic incentives. They just don't believe him. They have more sense as 18 year old students than the entire Democratic caucus in Congress.

"Overall I think it's a good idea, but he's not addressing the issues of the economic crisis," said Daudfar, a John McCain supporter who added he leans more toward being a moderate conservative. "The spending bill he just passed is just progressing the Democratic agenda rather than addressing the economic issues in the country."

Daudfar thinks Obama's plan is backward and deals with the "less important stuff" first. "Bailing out businesses" and "providing better regulatory systems for giving out money to businesses" should have been first, he said.

"If businesses can't afford to hire people, then people won't be able to work and pay off their mortgages," he said. "It's kind of like putting money into a funnel."

It's exactly like putting money into the crapper, Daudfar. And the stock market agrees witht he high school kids and not the so called economic hot shots in Washington. Today the Dow closed at a six year low and just about every other indicator is also in the crapper like Daudfar's funnel.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Dow industrials closed at a more than six-year low on Thursday as investor fears that banks could be nationalized drove their stocks to a 17-year low and a rise in the number people receiving jobless benefits to a record high stoked worries about the deepening recession.

After several near misses this week, blue chips blew through the November 20 bear market closing low in late trade, erasing a year-end rally built on hopes a new president would successfully tackle the deepening recession.

The Nasdaq fared the worst of the three major indexes after a disappointing outlook from Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ.N) sent its stock down almost 8 percent and dragged down other technology shares, Hewlett-Packard, the world's largest PC maker, which warned its expects weak market conditions to persist, was also the Dow's biggest negative weight.

Yeeeehaw, ride the lightning.

And The Bad News Is?

If someone listens to the MSM as the sole source for all information on the middle east, there is but one one viewpoint given: Iraq is an unholy mess, get out, run away. But there are other measures of change, some of them fairly promising. This is one of them from Amir Taheiri of the NY Post:

WHILE the American political elite is using Iraq as an excuse for fighting internal political wars, a different reality is taking shape in parts of this war-torn nation. Wherever some measure of security is assured - that is to say in more than 80 percent of Iraq - towns and villages long left to die a slow death are creeping back to life.

Some are doing more than creeping. Things are booming in much of Iraq and it's not from IED's.

Nowhere is this slow but steady return to life more startling than in Um Qasr, in the southeast extremity of Iraq on the Persian Gulf. Four years ago, this was a jumble of rusting quays, abandoned houses and gutted buildings. By the spring of 2003, its population had dwindled to a few dozen, along with hundreds of stray dogs. There was even talk of abandoning it altogether.

This is the same talk in Democratic circles. The Iraqi's aren't buying it though, and perhaps we should be listening to them rather than the likes of Pelosi.

Today, however, Um Qasr is back in business as a port with commercial and military functions. Hundreds of families that had left after the first Gulf War in 1991 have returned - joining many more who have come from all over Iraq.

The boom in Um Qasr is part of a broader picture that also includes Basra (the sprawling metropolis of southern Iraq), the Shi'ite "holy" cities of Najaf and karbala, Mandali on the Iranian border and much of Baghdad.

You didn't see many new hotels springing up in Berlin in March of 1945. Investors are not idiots. They are not going to invest a lot of money in ventures that are bound to fail in a war zone, so why is this economic activity occuring at all?

Newsweek has just hailed the emergence of a booming market economy in Iraq as "the mother of all surprises," noting that "Iraqis are more optimistic about the future than most Americans are." The reason, of course, is that Iraqis know what is going on in their country while Americans are fed a diet of exclusively negative
reporting from Iraq.

Just how much growth is being experienced in Iraqi market segments?

The U.S. State Department reports that there are now 7.1 million mobile-phone subscribers in Iraq, up from just 1.4 million two years ago.

That is a 407% increase in just two years. Of course everything is not coming up roses in Iraq. Unemployment is about 30% in a country that is in the midst of an alleged civil war. But 30% is the average unemployment rate for the 3 billion workers for the entire planet!

What are the comparative unemployment rates in other countries, many of which are not plagued by daily bombings, kidnapping and murders? Take a look here.

Zimbabwe (unrest) - 85%
Liberia (unrest) - 85%
Zambia (no war) - 50%
East Timor (unrest) - 50%
Djibouti (no war) - 50%
Lesotho (recent unrest) - 45%
Turkmenistan (no war) - 45%
Bosnia/Herzegovina (recent war) - 45%
Nepal (no war) - 42%
Swaziland (no war) - 40%
Afghanistan (unrest) - 40%
Libya (no war)- 40%
Kenya (no war) - 40%
Macedonia (no war)- 37%
Yemen (no war) - 35%
Armenia (no war) - 32%
Gaza Strip (crazy idiots) - 31%
Serbia (recent war)- 31%
American Samoa (Hey, it belongs to us!) -30%
Cameroon (no war) - 30%
(I left out many small island nations such as Nauru with less than 20,000 pop. and an unemployment rate of 90%).

And these countries are just those with an unemployment rate of 30% and higher. Sometimes all you need are corrupt government officials to mess things up. And on top of everything else, that is exactly what Iraq is also recovering from - 30 years of Saddam's corrupt choke hold on the Iraqi economy.

But a good part of the boom is due to an unexpected flow of foreign
capital. This has been facilitated by the prospect of a liberal law on direct foreign investments, which exists only in such free-trade parts of the region as Dubai and Bahrain. None of Iraq's six neighbors offers such guarantee for the free flow of capital to and from the country.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the number of private companies in Iraq has increased from a mere 8,000 to more than 35,000 this year. Each week an average of 60 new companies spring up in Iraq's booming areas. A good part of the investment in southern Iraq, including in Um Qasr, comes from Kuwait and the
United Arab Emirates.

Iraq's neighbors are pouring investment capital into this country. What does that tell us? It appears that these countries do not read the Times or listen to the democrats.

"Whatever happens, Iraq is Iraq," says a Kuwaiti businessman, building hotels in the south. "Iraq will always remain the country with the world's largest oil reserves and the Middle East's biggest resources of water."

One hears similar comments from local and foreign businessmen investing in real estate in Najaf and Karbala. Over 200 million Shiite Muslims regard the cities as holy. Najaf and Karbala have always been dream destinations for pilgrims. Under Saddam Hussein, however, few foreign pilgrims were allowed. With the despot gone, pilgrims are pouring in - and with them the fresh money.

That good business is possible in Iraq is reflected in the performance of new companies, most of which did not exist three years ago. One privately owned mobile phone company is expected to report revenues of more than $500 million this year, a sevenfold increase in three years. Another private firm marketing soft drinks has seen profits double since the end of 2003. The number of luxury cars imported has risen from a few hundred in 2002 to more than 20,000 this year.

Conditions certainly are harsh in Iraq, but that is true of many other places in the world. With a stable, secular government and the end of bloody interference by other nations, Iraq could become the economic powerhouse of the Middle East. And perhaps this is what the White House was trying to accomplish. With everyone in DC appearing to go all wobbly I somehow doubt this will come to pass.