Fed reports economy continued to deteriorate

Gee, I'd been wondering why we were paying the big bucks to these Fed officials and now I know. So they can tell us things we could have told them (for a lot less money, too).

Perhaps we should call the Fed "MOOSE" (the Ministry For Obvious Official Statements on the Economy)? You can see now why we needed Palin, who knows how to field dress a moose.

...and then there was Obama the other day telling Congress not to spend too much money. In case you didn't catch what I just said, this was Mr. Super-Deficit Obama, telling Congress they should watch the spending.

I think that the White House has been listening to the national backlash on Daddy MoreBucks' drunken spending spree, and wants to have something they can float during Obama's next campaign to show how fiscally responsible he is. Certainly, there's no connection between what he says and what he does.

But wait - we're already seeing Obama's next campaign, aren't we? The man never stops campaigning.

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Same with Clinton versus Bush. Clinton is a great, great man. He is a flawed human being, but I know he has the country's best interests at heart. By examining his life, it is obvious he is honored to serve our country. Bush has been a loser all his life. His business failures, his military "service," his drug use. He had only had his over-inflated ego in mind when he stepped up and claimed that he was told by God to be president. He has stayed in his little rich family cocoon all his life and has no interest in the lives of those less fortunate. Time will prove that he did not gain the presidency due to any ability, but just that he was just a malleable dupe snagged by the neocons to fulfill their plans.

There isn't one person on this entire board who has wished anyone to be killed, especially an MP.

For you to suggest that someone got their wish is inflammatory, irresponsible and an outright LIE (not that that's a new communication technique used by you people).

As far as looting, anybody who steals a plasma TV, computer, etc., should be considered criminal and should be stopped in whatever way is necessary.

I just wonder what YOU would do if you had children and were in a situation where you had no water, no electricity, no food, nowhere to sleep for DAYS ON END. Would you go into a Walmart and take some water, baby formula, food -- whatever it takes so that you CAN STAY ALIVE? I've never been in a position like that, but I can pretty much guarantee that if I were, I'd do whatever I had to do to feed my children and keep them safe from harm. If that included taking items from a store (that nobody was ever going to buy anyway), then you'd better believe I'd do it.

You sound very much like the person I heard in the store the other day, who said that she's let her kids FREEZE TO DEATH before accepting any help from Chavez.

Why would I ask a Jewish person if he or she were allowed to go to heaven according to someone's Christian beliefs? Wouldn't that be silly? And you're right. It has nothing to do with whether Jews go to heaven. But it has everything to do with whether you go to heaven or not, right? Is your undying, unquestioning loyalty to Israel because you love Jews who will never be good enough to go to heaven according to your religion, or is because of the real estate the Jews inhabit in Israel?

You yourself wrote: Then there is no Biblical alternative to supporting Israel and the Jewish people.

If you again refuse to answer that, then my next question is where in the Bible does it say that said hypocrisy and disingenuousness are next to Godliness?

You also wrote: If you are truly, then, a nonbeliever, it explains much of what I am seeing here.

I posted a lot of links a while back about the economy and terrorism prior to O becoming president.

Clinton knew the terrorists were getting ready for an attack, but just didn't know how and when it would happen. He could have stopped it, had he had GOOD information from the CIA, FBI. Those two groups were part of the reason we were attacked. They didn't work together or share information. There were plenty of warnings. He also knew there were WMDs in Iraq. It's in the report, but he didn't do anything about it and, in the meantime, Saddam tested his WMDs on his own people, killing thousands.

Clinton also did not leave such a large surplus. He and the accounting office cooked the books to make it look good. There was a surplus but not near as much as Clinton stated.

Global warming...I don't believe it. This is a natural happening every so many decades. It will turn around on its own in its own time. Part of the so-called global warming is the people. There are too many people in the world. People breathe in oxygen and give off carbon dioxide. Without trees, we're in trouble. Sounds dumb, but if you want to point fingers, point to the Amazon and destroying the rain forests. Prior to the Amazon forests being destroyed at the rate they are today, there was no problem.

Making peace instead of war doesn't work with terrorists. You have to "walk softly and carry a big stick." O is trying to charm them into peace and we all know that won't work. You have to be ruthless with them or else they will think the US is a pushover. If O wants to keep our country safe, he has to be a combination of FDR, JFK, Reagan, and both Bush's.

Instead of O going on talk shows and joking around, he should have his finger on the pulse of Washington and bring his congress and senate in line. They are so out of control, it's ridiculous. He has to stay in the WH or, before he knows it, those power mongers will be in power, not him (of course, that has already happened).

If O wants to turn this country around, he needs to let the people do it on their own. Government can't solve everybody's problems. People need to solve their own problems. Money doesn't solve any problems, it just creates more. More social programs that we can't pay for doesn't solve problems. It creates a society that depends on the government for all its needs. That's not the American way. If businesses fail, so be it. If banks fail, so be it. You can't prop up those failures by throwing money at them...as you well know, most of those failures are caused by inept CEOs. Remember Dodge, Cadillac, Studebaker, Rambler, etc.? Those businesses failed. GM and Chrylster absorbed some, but not all. The rest died. Did the world come to an end because of it? No.

As for the rest, small banks are gobbled up by large banks. Should they? No. It causes a monopoly and when that happens, that's a problem. Comcast is the largest cable company in the country. How did it get that way? By gobbling up the smaller ones. If I wanted to leave Comcast, I couldn't because there is no other cable company in this area. I am FORCED to have Comcast if I want internet service. There is no free enterprise when companies become conglomerates.

Oh shucks, some will understand what I'm saying, others will still keep their rose-colored glasses on and believe government will solve all our problems. NOT.

5. I give what I can to the food banks and my church etc. to help those who need help.

I did not vote for President Obama. I do not think he is the messiah and I certainly will not blame him for the mess we are in right now simply because we all played a part. No one forced anyone to take house loans that they could not pay, no one forces us to use our credit card and run up debts and live beyond our means, no one predicted that you would take a loan and then lose your job and be in foreclosure and no one regulated the banks like they should of.

Now that being said, in a crisis it is so easy to look for someone to blame, become angry, and forget who we are. So my advice the next time you are at your kitchen table wondering how you are going to make ends meet, that you remember who you are, an American. I would also advise getting some debt management help.

So please, instead of running around with your hands up in the air thinking the worst and claiming the sky is falling, try listening to the Star Spangled Banner or something that is positive. I have found that this helps me a lot.

Now let us all take a good long look in the mirror, have a little faith in ourselves as a country and stop beating up on each other. Have a good day everyone and God Bless America.

5. I give what I can to the food banks and my church etc. to help those who need help.

Now let us all take a good long look in the mirror, have a little faith in ourselves as a country and stop beating up on each other. Have a good day everyone and God Bless America.

One of the more ridiculous statements going around over the last few weeks is "this is an Obama bear market." This statement is, well, ill-informed at best and fraudulent at worst. Let's look at why.

First -- who is saying this? Such economic luminaries as John Hawkins at Right Wing News (who actually asked Is Obama Deliberately Tanking the Stock Market?), Powerline, Brit Hume along with a host of other right wing bloggers. What all of these people have in common is their incessant chearleading during the Bush years despite mounting evidence of an upcoming recession. There are the same people who argued that ... housing is a small part of the economy ... most people are paying their mortgages ... the US economy will decouple from the rest of the world .... it's the greatest story never told ..... you get the idea. Simply put, these are people who have distinguished themselves by being some of the best contrary indicators around.

Secondly, the SPYs -- the tracking ETF for the S&P 500 -- dropped from (roughly) 155 in the summer of 2007 to (roughly) 85 at the end of last year. Yet I don't remember any of them saying that was the Bush bear market -- even though that's a drop of roughly 43%. No -- it's the new President that's causing the problems. In addition, when Bush took office the SPYs dropped from roughly 130 at the begging of 2001 to 85 in the fourth quarter of 2002. Yet somehow I don't think any of them blamed Bush's policies for the drop. Then it was the "lasting effects of the Clinton recession" or something similar.

What all of these idiots are forgetting is the simple fact that the economy is the backdrop of the stock market. When the economy does well the stock market does well. When the economy doesn't do well, the stock market doesn't do well. And to that end, the economy isn't doing well right now. Let's look at some recent news events.

From the BEA:

Real gross domestic product -- the output of goods and services produced by labor and propertylocated in the United States -- decreased at an annual rate of 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008,(that is, from the third quarter to the fourth quarter), according to preliminary estimates released by theBureau of Economic Analysis. In the third quarter, real GDP decreased 0.5 percent.

From the BLS:

Nonfarm payroll employment continued to fall sharply in February (-651,000), and the unemployment rate rose from 7.6 to 8.1 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. Payroll employment has declined by 2.6 million in the past 4 months. In February, job losses were large and widespread across nearly all major industry sectors.

From the Federal Reserve:

Reports from the twelve Federal Reserve Districts suggest that national economic conditions deteriorated further during the reporting period of January through late February. Ten of the twelve reports indicated weaker conditions or declines in economic activity; the exceptions were Philadelphia and Chicago, which reported that their regional economies "remained weak." The deterioration was broad based, with only a few sectors such as basic food production and pharmaceuticals appearing to be exceptions. Looking ahead, contacts from various Districts rate the prospects for near-term improvement in economic conditions as poor, with a significant pickup not expected before late 2009 or early 2010.

Consumer spending remained sluggish on net, although many Districts noted some improvement in January and February compared with a dismal holiday spending season. Travel and tourist activity fell noticeably in key destinations, as did activity for a wide range of nonfinancial services, with substantial job cuts noted in many instances. Reports on manufacturing activity suggested steep declines in activity in some sectors and pronounced declines overall. Conditions weakened somewhat for agricultural producers and substantially for extractors of natural resources, with reduced global demand cited as an underlying determinant in both cases. Markets for residential real estate remained largely stagnant, with only minimal and scattered signs of stabilization emerging in some areas, while demand for commercial real estate weakened significantly. Reports from banks and other financial institutions indicated further drops in business loan demand, a slight deterioration in credit quality for businesses and households, and continued tight credit availability.

From the FDIC:

Expenses associated with rising loan losses and declining asset values overwhelmed revenues in the fourth quarter of 2008, producing a net loss of $26.2 billion at insured commercial banks and savings institutions. This is the first time since the fourth quarter of 1990 that the industry has posted an aggregate net loss for a quarter. The ?0.77 percent quarterly return on assets (ROA) is the worst since the ?1.10 percent in the second quarter of 1987. A year ago, the industry reported $575 million in profits and an ROA of 0.02 percent. High expenses for loan-loss provisions, sizable losses in trading accounts, and large writedowns of goodwill and other assets all contributed to the industry's net loss. A few very large losses were reported during the quarter-four institutions accounted for half of the total industry loss-but earnings problems were widespread. Almost one out of every three institutions (32 percent) reported a net loss in the fourth quarter. Only 36 percent of institutions reported year-over-year increases in quarterly earnings, and only 34 percent reported higher quarterly ROAs.

I could go on, but you you get the idea. The news of the underlying economy has been terrible (at best). And that's what's causing the problems.

Democrats own congress....... they are the ones responsible for the complete mess of this economy. But because there is a republican president, the republicans get the blame.

Republican president really can't get anything done with an all democrat congress.

Mr. President. This is the biggest problem I have with Barrack Obama. He is all about implementing his personal agenda and making us all dependent on government while it grows bigger and bigger that he doesn't stop to think about the consequences that these actions will have on our already horrible economy. All he talks about are the jobs he has created or saved and I'm sorry.....but I don't see that from where I'm sitting. I see people all around me losing jobs or about to lose jobs and cap and trade will most definitely cause more job loss.

Let our economy fix itself, Mr. President, and then we can talk about your personal agenda. Any person who wants to raise taxes during a recession is a complete and utter moron. Obama is doing nothing but hurting the middle class....which is the class he professed to want to help so badly.

I have no doubt that Obama is smart or he wouldn't be where he is at. However, I think he lacks the experience to be our president. I personally feel that any person wanting to be president of the US should be required to have run or owned a business in the past.

I tell ya what....come 2012....I'm seriously going to be looking outside the box for our next president. Not only will I thoroughly check out the pub and dem candidate but I'm going to check out the indepedents a lot more than I ever have in the past. I think it is about time we show the two parties that they both suck and we have decided to go against both of them. Maybe that will wake them up because this going back and forth between pub and crat hasn't done us much good here lately.