It was just announced that Congress and the Whitehouse have reached an agreement that will flood 117 million households (or families) with $600 to $1200 in mad money tax rebates. It supposedly amounts to 150 gigabucks.
Time to invest in Apple and Disney Resorts, because a lot of new iPods are going to be worn on trips to Disney theme parks. Same idea with flat screen TV’s.
Gold sounds like a good choice on which to spend the money.
Warren Buffett and Jim “Mad Money” Cramer see this latest Wall Street fiasco as a rat that will eventually pass through the python.
While Wall Street sorts itself out, the rest of us need to understand what the Finance MBA’s are learning in B-School. The finance geniuses wizards seem to have an endless supply of schemes for brittle financial instruments. Yet another house of cards has collapsed.
Deficit spending and the low value of US currency are huge problems that the GOP should be held accountable for before Bush the Lesser slinks out of DC. Where does Bush think the money will come from with his rebate? Obviously, it’s from the presses at the treasury or debt in the form of T-Bills.
Question of the day: What value does a country that is busy exporting its industry derive from a devalued currency?
Lamentations on Chemistry 
Helicopter Ben Bernanke received his moniker by suggesting the economy could be stimulated by dropping money out of Helicopters. Congress has jumped off the mountain with bags of money, but they’re not concerned about a soft landing. The reality is they just don’t care! In the Cong, where 1/3 of the members are millionaires and cost of living adjustment is the norm the distant plebian woes of the trogs are irrelevant distractions.
My thesis is this – the current predatory political and business elites are content to watch the historical USA burn to the ground.
The US economy has spun off its axis and is reaching for the nether reaches of the void. But they attempt to solve a problem that was created by too much cheap money by injecting more cheap money? And what about all those areas around the globe that are already red hot? Do they need more cheap money? It’s a fact your gov check will stimulate factories in asia and pad the pockets of Arabian princes. Or do you believe people wont use their funny money check to fill up their cars?
And why do Americans need $600 if the economy is strong and jobs are plentiful? Because the economic figures produced by the government are being manipulated if not outright fabricated.
The GDP = prosperity nonsense propagated by our elites has poisoned the debate. Recent analysis has shown the GDP figures are overvalued.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_25/b4039001.htm
In addition, the BLS statistics on US employment are now largely an artifact of the birth/death statistical model. In this model jobs are not actually counted, but inferred from business trends.
A look at the birth/death data shows most of all new jobs in 2007 were created by this monstrosity.
http://www.bls.gov/web/cesbd.htm
There has been critical debate on this matter. An ‘opinionated’ analysis of the BLS was provided by Barron’s Alan Abelson. He, like many were puzzled as to why the US employment statistics were off by several hundred thousand when compared with more objective indicia.
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2007/05/business_employ.html
see also
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2007/05/08/overestimating-jobs-growth/
Given the economy requires 150,000 jobs per month just to compensate for population growth (via both new births and immigration), It is obvious that the US economy is in a downward spiral. Even the Federal Reserve has been unable to ignore the stench from the numbers.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2007/07/fed-questions-bls-jobs-model.html
The stimulation plan is doomed to failure. The economy has been failing for years and all the paper money in the world won’t save it. What’s next is the collapse of the Asian markets.
The power elites have failed to comprehend the basic rule that every dairy farmer knows
DON”T KILL THE COW!