Arkady's Thoughts

Tim Geithner today was on Meet the Press selling to the public his plan to shore up the toxic assets and alleviate the bank's balance sheets. Right now the banks are crippled because they aer holding assets whose value nobody truly knows, some rough estimates suggest that the value of these mortgage based securities could be 50-70% lower than their original purchase price. At this point banks do not want to let go of these assets because they are partially hoping that prices will rebound and in part because they are waiting for government intervention. The latter is my speculative guess and their prudence certainly paid off given the Geithner plan. Tim's plan involves bringing in private moneys to offer them incentives to purchase these mortgage based securities. In other words, Tim thinks that private investors are going to use their own money to buy up assets whose true worth is impossible to evaluate at the moment. You are probably thinking, why would any private investo...

This is an absolute must watch because it so eloquently depicts the very things that fiscal conservatives have been trying to explain for years. You simply cannot spend your way out of problems and it has become a tragic reality to be living under the command of a president who believes otherwise. In the case of the United Kingdom, their recession woes are hitting even harder than ours, but the approach that must be taken to rectify the situation is the same whether it be here or across the pond. Watch and listen as this young politician grills the Prime Minister in ways that I can only dream of seeing here at home. Obama's absolutely ridiculous budget deserves much of the same attention.

A story in NY Times today suggests that plans by the administration will be unveiled soon detailing the most far reaching and intrusive regulations to date. The first sentence of the story sets the tone for what is sure to be a highly contested and controversial proposal. "The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan" With this introduction, banks and similar institutions that do not fall under the auspices of the TARP plan will be subjected to government oversight in all matters of compensation. Essentially our government will now be in charge of determining decisions currently being decided by industry experts and regardless of what noble intentions Obama has in mind, this cannot possibly end well. This kind of intervention may very well have devastating results in the form of talent fleeing the industry and seeking employment in other countries or simpl...

So much for the new age of transparency and change and while I am not going to blame Obama for this AIG mess - it's happening on his watch and he is the big boss. It has now become rather clear that Geithner and Dodd who once claimed they knew nothing about AIG bonus payouts are coming clean. Looks like Dodd's amendment in the massive 787 billion stimulus bill contained language that opened the door for these bonuses to be paid out and since Geithner is writing the check he is responsible. Dodd's language specifically protected contracts before a certain date and it seems incredibly ironic and might I say stupid that a bill was passed today to tax the living hell out of these very same bonuses they allowed in the first place! The entire concept of taxing 90% of these bonuses is ludicrous at it's face and today they passed legislation that is allowing just that. While AIG's executives most certainly do NOT deserve bonuses and frankly should be ashamed for ta...

Between the follies of Geithner and the Obama administration one can easily overlook the buffoonery of our federal reserve chairman, a man I tried defending earlier when he injected money into the system. Yesterday Bernanke announced during the scheduled FOMC meeting a plan for market operations that entailed the purchase of US Treasurys and since he was already in the business of destroying the US Dollar decided to throw in 750B worth mortgage backed securities for a grand total of 1 trillion dollars. As you would expect bonds rallied hardcore while commodities got energized immediately as the dollar fell. Dollar fell hard and it's no wonder, because in the most simple of terms our government is debasing our currency. What the purchase of these treasury indicate is a complete and utter distrust in our economy, considering we just spent hundreds of billions dollars on paper that yields us already historic lows. More importantly what does this signify for the rest of our d...

While I am no fan boy of Republicans I am all about restoring some semblance of power back in Congress. In a matter of weeks a special election in New York’s 20 th Congressional district to replace Congresswoman, Kirsten Gillibrand , will be held. As you recall Kirsten was appointed recently to fill Clinton's vacant seat, a blue dog democrat voting quietly and squarely with the liberal agenda. To make a long story short GOPTrust PAC is mobilizing to back the republican candidate and wrestle the district back from democrat hands. This may seem like a long shot , but they would not wasting their time and energies on this election. What I like about this PAC the most is their concentrated efforts to back any candidate that promises to stifle or slow down the spending of the stimulus bill. Check out their information page and obviously if you are from NY feel free to donate. GOPTrust pledge to back anti-stimulus candidates .

I have been meaning to focus on our illegal immigrant problem for quite some time, especially in light of California's dire financial situation and Arizona's growing crime problem. My girlfriend forwarded me a chain letter this morning and while I typically ignore them, this one looked about right. I have not verified all the numbers, but when dealing with illegals numbers change so often it becomes impossible to track them all. So I am going to copy and paste the following chain letter full of sources and links. Do yourself a giant favor and start sending this around, as always any errors please leave in the comment section so we can edit accordingly. WHY ARE WE BANKRUPT? Informative, and mind boggling! You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much? Read this: Boy, was I confused. I have been hammered with the propaganda that it is the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us. I now find that to be RIDICULOUS. I hope the following 14 reasons are forward...