comMITTed to Romney!

Wow!! A group is beating the drums to have an independent audit of the gold at Fort Knox! Is the gold missing? If so, who has it?

Weigh in with your comments. This should be a fascinating discussion.

~~John Cronin~~

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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/World-stocks-tumble-amid-G20-apf-14779397.html

LONDON (AP) – World stock markets slid Monday amid renewed fears about the fate of the U.S. auto industry and the global banking sector as well as mounting pessimism surrounding this week’s G-20 meeting of leaders.

The FTSE 100 of leading British shares was down 79.39 points, or 2 percent, at 3,819.46, while Germany’s DAX slumped 129.32 points, or 3.1 percent, to 4,074.23. The CAC-40 in France fell 60.63 points, or 2.1 percent, to 2,779.99.

Earlier in Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average sank 390.89 points, or 4.5 percent, to 8,236.08, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slid 663.17, or 4.7 percent, to 13,456.33.

The retreat in Europe and Asia followed a sell-off Friday on Wall Street, where investors booked profits on the Dow Jones industrial average’s 21 percent gain over 13 trading days.

U.S. stock futures pointed to more losses Monday on Wall Street. Dow futures fell 161, or 2.1 percent, to 7,601 while Standard & Poor’s 500 futures fell 17.6 points, or 2.2 percent, to 798.50.
Stock market sentiment was hit by a combination of factors on Monday, with automakers under particular pressure after the White House rejected the turnaround plans from General Motors Corp. and Chrysler. The Obama administration also replaced GM’s CEO Rick Wagoner with the company’s chief operating officer, Fritz Henderson.

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With each passing day it becomes more evident how incompetent Obama & Co. truly is.

With the soaring oratory of the campaign now a dimming memory, the hard work of digging a $14 trillion economy out of the most serious recession in the last 30 years is proving infinitely harder than reading some speech writer’s text from a teleprompter.

In Karl Rove’s words, “Obama is just winging it in matters large and small.” The catch for us is, that he is out there, winging it with our checkbook. The markets are as nervous as a cat with a nine foot tail in a room full of rocking chairs, lenders are afraid to lend, borrowers are afraid to borrow, Middle Eastern dictators are lecturing the POTUS on how to conduct foreign affairs, Castro wants us to give back the military base at Gitmo, there are already plans for Stimulus 2.0, the country is being bankrupted, ACORN wants a $1 billion reward for their help getting O elected and that’s just the first 30 days!!

I am going to predict right now, that Republicans will be swept into office in 2010. After two more years of this circus, the electorate will insist on adult supervision of Congress starting in Jan. 2011.

~~John Cronin~~

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/02/18/mean-street-why-obamas-homeowner-rescue-is-bound-to-fail/

By: Evan Newmark

Is there anything more heartless than foreclosing on a home and throwing a family out on the street?

How about taxing the family next door into penury to pay for the reckless borrowing of its neighbors?

Welcome to the Obama Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan — a complicated wealth redistribution scheme dressed up as a cure for the nation’s housing woes.

It is almost certainly bound to failNow, there is no doubting that Obama’s heart is in the right place. With foreclosures at record highs, the American white picket fence dream is crumbling.

And the impulse of any caring President must be to do something, almost anything to keep the dream alive.

But the experience of politicians tinkering with the U.S. housing market is not a happy one. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, anyone?

Real estate is simply too complex to be manipulated by anything but the “invisible hand” of the market.

Disagree?

Just read the four page White House Executive Summary with its laundry lists of programs, federal and state bureaucracies, conditions and caveats.

It’s confusing stuff even for the average MBA. How will it be digested by the average low-income subprime borrower?

Here’s the loan modification process:

“For a sample household with payments adding up to 43 percent of his monthly income, the lender would first be responsible for bringing down interest rates so that the borrower’s monthly mortgage payment is no more than 38% of his or her income. Next the initiative would match further reductions in interest payments dollar-for-dollar with the lender to bring that ratio down to 31 percent…”

Again, that’s the Executive Summary.

Can you imagine the chaos of a loan modification meeting between a subprime borrower and a bank officer?

Multiply that a few million times — and that’s the $75 billion “homeowner stability initiative.”

That’s if Obama is lucky enough to find the 3 to 4 million “responsible homeowners” he thinks would qualify or want to qualify for the government moolah.

But he’s almost certainly overestimating the number of “responsible homeowners” out there.

Those 3 to 4 million “responsible homeowners” are actually “credit challenged” borrowers. They put down very little money to purchase homes at very inflated prices.

Not only do they hold no equity in their homes today. Even with a modified loan, there is only a remote prospect of building equity in the future.

For most, economic self-interest says to walk away from the house rather than carry a modified mortgage that will suck up 31% of monthly income.

Truth is, many of the “credit challenged” borrowers won’t even get to running the numbers. They simply will have no interest in sitting down with a bank officer and going through pay stubs and tax returns.

Income verification? Are you kidding? That’s why many took the subprime mortgage in the first place.

That millions of homeowners were and are “irresponsible” is a harsh truth that Obama can’t really talk about.

In his America, the Obama housing plan is one neighbor helping another who is simply down on his luck. If only his America were real. Then maybe his program would actually work.

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Reading market reports this morning and listening to Barron’s videos discussing Geithner’s testimony before Congress the other day, one word keeps popping up in my mind: incompetence.

It’s not just one person’s opinion, the world wide financial community is spooked by this administration and especially Geithner’s timidity and lack of specificity. The market was looking for details and it got generalities. As an editor at Barron’s put it so ominously, “If there was a way to sell the world short, we would do it.”

~~John Cronin~~

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What was Mitt Romney’s advise to Detroit’s auto industry a couple of months and $15 billion ago?

File for bankruptcy protection.

The article quotes the need for more taxpayer money for the hapless GM, just so that they will have enough money to begin the chapter 11 filings. That is when you are really broke. When you need to “borrow” money to file for bankruptcy.

Last night we heard the internationally acclaimed financial expert, Barack Obama, tell we need to throw ANOTHER $800 BILLION at the economy, or we are facing a catastrophe. IMHO, the catastrophe has already occurred, his election as POTUS.

~~John Cronin~~

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f80a1926-f6d8-11dd-8a1f-0000779fd2ac.html

By Julie MacIntosh and Nicole Bullock in New York and John Reed in Detroit and Bernard Simon in Toronto

General Motors is working to convince key stakeholders to help it avoid the need to seek bankruptcy protection but, because such an effort would probably require more government money, its most critical task will be addressing the US Treasury’s concerns over the terms of its investment.

GM must present a plan proving its long-term viability to Congress by next Tuesday as a condition of the $13.4bn emergency bridge loan it was granted in December.

Several sets of negotiations are taking place simultaneously. They revolve around GM’s proposal to swap up to two-thirds of its debt for equity, and fresh concessions from the United Auto Workers, including the financing of a new union-administered healthcare fund.

Only advisers to the various parties are currently involved in the talks, which are expected to centre on due diligence issues for the next day or two, one person familiar with the negotiations said.

The US government has the power to either endorse GM’s plans or push it into bankruptcy and the US Treasury’s decision to hire advisers Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal and Rothschild suggest it may be toughening its stance.

“The government is the biggest stakeholder here,” one person close to the matter said. “Unless they agree the plan is viable and they consent, the debt becomes due.”

If the government gives GM additional funding, the structure and terms of both its old and new investments could come up for debate, including whether taxpayers’ interests should come before those of current debtholders.

The government’s role as stakeholder reduces GM’s options. But it also gives it more weight in negotiations with unions, auto dealers and bondholders.

The carrot is, this is in everybody’s best interest,” said Don Workman, a bankruptcy lawyer at Baker & Hostetler LLP. “The stick is, they’re saying that if we don’t do this consensually, GM and Chrysler will go into bankruptcy court and the judge will prime you.”

Separately, GM is negotiating with bankrupt Delphi, its largest supplier, to take over some of Delphi’s manufacturing plants, a person briefed on the talks said.

The move could give GM more flexibility in its negotiations with the United Auto Workers, the labour union.

Bondholders said their talks with GM were ongoing. The company’s long-term bonds were quoted at their low of 13 cents on the dollar. In an indication of the severity of the situation, the same bonds were quoted at around 80 cents a year ago.

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A word of unsolicited advise to the Obama administration: In the future, you would be better off if you didn’t let internationally acclaimed rocket scientist Nancy Pelosi write any more spending bills for you. Essentially the same bill that she wrote for the House is now being debated in the Senate. The same government as sugar daddy philosophy is at work in the Senate version, except it’s more sugar and less daddy.

This bill is as welcome as a skunk at a garden party. Here’s hoping the Pubbies can cobble enough votes together in the Senate to send this porker back to committee for a major re-write.

~~John Cronin~~

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/04/voter.anger/index.html
By: Lisa Desjardins

WASHINGTON (CNN) – The recent debate over the nearly $900 billion economic stimulus plan and revelations of tax problems by three Obama administration appointees have voters angrily jamming phone lines on Capitol Hill to air their frustrations to their elected representatives.

Their reactions are putting pressure on Congress and benefiting watchdog groups on both sides of the political aisle.

Capitol operators tell CNN Radio that phone lines have been jammed for the past two weeks, sometimes prompting busy signals.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Jim Webb, D-Virginia, said calls on the sweeping stimulus plan jumped from eight during all of January to hundreds a day now.

In a sampling of 12 Senate offices, half had so many messages that their voicemail boxes were full.
It’s because of people like Betty Davidson.

“I’m very upset!” exclaimed the 63-year-old from Laguna Hills, California.

She called her senators Tuesday, frustrated with the almost $900 billion-dollar economic recovery proposal.

“What a joke!” she said.

But she is particularly incensed by news that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and former Obama appointees Tom Daschle and Nancy Killefer didn’t pay their taxes properly in the past.

“They can make the laws, but they don’t have to abide by the laws,” she complained. “It’s only we taxpayers.”

Those bitter words are like spring rain to nonprofit watchdog groups across the spectrum, who are seeing big boosts in interest.

“Just in the last week … responses to our e-mails out to activists have jumped dramatically,” said Grover Norquist, president of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform. “We’ve had more calls into our offices, more e-mails.”

That same spike has hit Citizens Against Government Waste, which is also seeing a surge in e-mails, calls and angry posts to its Web site.

“These people are almost feeling like suckers now for paying taxes, because no one else does,” said the group’s vice president, David Williams.

He sees the tax issues and stimulus bill as hair triggers after months of frustration over bailouts, Wall Street greed and whether the rich and powerful get special treatment.

“In the past week, we have gotten numerous e-mails from people talking about how the interest rates on their credit cards are going up even though these companies have received taxpayer bailouts,” he said, “and they don’t understand why they’re not feeling any relief.”

At the left-leaning Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Deputy Director Naomi Seligman said that whenever a well-known politician, such as Daschle or Geithner, is involved in an ethics question, it does raise some interest for them.

Seligman suggested that tax issues are raising the greatest ire.

“I think the average American is looking at their taxes during tax time and saying ‘Wow, I pay my taxes. Why aren’t these guys?’ ” she said.

That’s certainly how Davidson feels. She’s worried about shoveling debt onto her grandkids from the stimulus bill, and she is convinced Washington is corrupt.

“I’m just getting so sick and tired,” she said.

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With today’s sell off in the bank stocks, Mr.Schiff’s warnings are taking on a new urgency.

~~John Cronin~~

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Reading this morning’s Wall Street Journal online I was struck by not only the enormity of the looming Federal deficit, but the tone of urgency that several articles had. This year’s deficit is projected to be $1.2 trillion. 2010’s figure may hit $2 trillion and 2011’s is guesstimated at $4 trillion.

This year’s federal spending will hit 24-25% of GDP. Just think of it. One quarter of our GDP goes to Washington, not to be spent or invested the way individual Americans or private businesses both large and small decide, but the way a craven, corrupt Congress and out of control bureaucracy decide.

We have lost control of our government. Those who lust for unbridled power have won what I can only hope is a temporary victory. We have written the Treasury Sec’y a $700 billion blank check and this was only the down payment. More spending is coming, a tidal wave of spending. Even if the “stimulus” works short term to prevent a disastrous deflation, this money still has to be paid back. No matter what Obama says about tax cuts now, higher taxes are coming. Inflation is coming, too. Inflation is nothing more but a silent, insidious tax, levied by the Federal Reserve, without a single public hearing or authorizing vote.

At some point, foreign investors ( mainly China and Japan ) will say no, thanks, to our latest debt offerings. At some point, America, if it continues on it’s current path, will lose it’s AAA credit rating. The consequences of that are dire. Is it possible that are current crop of Congressional politicians are so dense, so utterly ignorant of economics, that they can’t see this coming?

I think we have to assume that the answer to that question is, yes. They are that dense. It has become abundantly clear to me that they will not stop unless we force them to stop. I don’t want to debate the issue with them. I want the American voters to rise up and send the politicians who are destroying this country a very clear message. You will vote to eliminate the wasteful spending that is causing these massive deficits, as soon as the economic crisis shows sustained signs of leveling off, you will move to cut the budget, end programs that duplicate other programs, cut the layers of federal bureaucracy that serve no purpose but to shuttle stacks of paper from one floor of a federal building to another or, failing that, we will sweep Congress clean in 2010 and then again in 2012 until we can elect representatives who are smart enough to follow our instructions.

I know that I have called for this several times before, but here goes. If everyone reading this will get involved on a personal basis, things will start to change. Write to your Congressional delegations on a regular basis. Recruit at least three friends or family members who will do the same thing. Use the Internet to spread the message. When a crucial vote comes up in Congress, get on the phone to your representative’s offices and let them know how you want them to vote. If they know we are watching, they will “vote their districts.”

Thanks for letting me vent. I want to see this country and it’s citizens succeed. When we return to sound fiscal and monetary policies, I believe we will succeed.

~~John Cronin~~

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http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid={223B0E95-C272-47B7-BCFA-2ECF65583015}&siteid=rss

U.S. stock futures pointed to opening gains on Monday after the last session’s blast higher, with Citigroup set to rise after the government injected $20 billion as part of a rescue package.

A late-hour rally pushed U.S. stocks to huge gains on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumping 494 points, the Nasdaq Composite rising 68 points and the S&P 500 rising 47 points. The gains came after news leaked that Timothy Geithner will be President-elect Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary, though not all observers were convinced the gains were on the new selection alone.

“Anyone watching the markets Friday will be seriously suspicious of the validity of the huge rally. It was option expiration, and the rally seemed to feed on it itself and in a few select stocks,” said Tom Hougaard, market strategist at City Index in London.

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When Mitt used to say, “I can’t wait to get my hands on Washington,” I believed him.  Here is a man with the background, knowledge and skills to effect change in the economy, and HE KNOWS IT!  Ann Romney used to say “I’ve never seen anyone work harder than this guy.”  It must be really hard for him to sit by, knowing his expertise and skill in turning things around isn’t being used at such a critical time.

Some excerpts from a great new interview with Mitt.  Notice his first interview after the election is with Fortune, an economy magazine.

Romney: Obama Must be “Educator-in-Chief”

“Any management advice for the next president? How does he rally a depressed nation to meet the challenges we face?

He should forget entirely about reelection and focus solely on helping the nation at a critical time. (Good idea, let someone with some actual financial expertise and experience have a turn in 4 years)  He should dismiss the people who helped him win the election and bring in people who are above politics and above party.

The unions have helped Barack Obama. They will hope to be paid back….This legislation would do more to harm America’s long-term competitiveness than almost anything I can imagine.

Right now, the auto industry is on life support, and its prospects look extremely dim. But they don’t need to be. The industry could be turned around.(Hmm… I wonder who could do that?)

There’s strong populist sentiment against free trade deals. Given that, how does an American president move forward on this?

I can only hope the President abandons the populist current, which seems to be growing in our country. (Yea, that seems likely)”

It’s great to see Mitt back out there already!

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http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/european-shares-tumble-financial-turmoil/story.aspx?guid={AE94769F-A8F3-4FA5-9C64-2BB1106EBD30}&tool=1&dist=bigcharts&

LONDON (MarketWatch) – European shares tumbled again on Monday after more heavy losses in Asia and more trouble in the financial sector after German retail banking group Deutsche Postbank reported a quarterly loss and unveiled plans to raise capital.

The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index fell 4.3% to 190.36, just off a five-year low reached earlier in the session. Losses in the last year now exceed 50%.

The index fell sharply on Friday, in line with other global stock markets, as growing worries about a longer and deeper recession than earlier envisaged slammed stocks.

“There is a distinct sense of déjà vu as equity markets continue to slide. This is largely because bad news (recession) is being priced on top of the response to previous bad news,” said Peter Dixon, strategist at Commerzbank Corporates & Markets.

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Here is a brief excerpt from an article in the Monday, Oct. 13, 2008 edition of the Wall Street Journal print edition. It is so ironic to see the same, not similar, but the same things that you have written about on Committed to Romney on the pages of the Journal. If you have not read the article, please take a few minutes to check it out.

~~John Cronin~~

WSJ Oct. 13, 2008

By: Judy Shelton

These days, it seem difficult to defend the efficacy, let alone the morality, of an economic approach to human interaction that is now blamed for having put the entire global economy at risk. But that is exactly what we need—-most importantly, from America’s next leader.

Sometimes it takes an outsider to help us gain perspective. Deep within the condemning speeches delivered by Mr. Sarkozy, ( President of France ) both in New York and Toulon, are the grains of a new approach to capitalism that should give Americans reason to hope, not only for economic salvation but for a sense of redemption on a deeper level. France’s President held out the possibility that all is not lost, that we can fix what is broken. “”The financial crisis is not the crisis if capitalism,” according to Mr. Sarkozy. “It is the crisis of a system that has distanced itself from the most fundamental values of capitalism, which betrayed the spirit of capitalism.”

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http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/shares-europe-plunge-again-tumultuous/story.aspx?guid={B5882B27-F163-4F02-B597-A19AB3B5E8A8}

German DAX down 8.2%, French CAC-40 down 6.8%, FTSE 100 down 6%

By Sarah Turner, MarketWatch

LONDON (MarketWatch) – The main national European shares indexes all plunged on Friday, capping a week of carnage in equity markets when policymakers and central banks desperately battled to shore up financials and limit damage to the global economy.

The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index fell 6.2% to 208.11, a drop that ranks among the worst one-day falls for the index.

The Stoxx 600 has fallen more than 20% in the last week, leading some strategists to call it a bear market within a bear market. For the year, the Stoxx 600 is down close to 44%.

The European drops followed similar declines in Asia. Japanese shares plunged Friday, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 Average seeing the biggest one-day drop in more than two decades, as panic-stricken investors rushed to dump stocks to raise cash.

U.S. stocks on Thursday collapsed to fresh five-year lows, with the major indexes slammed for a seventh straight session as financial shares and General Motors Corp. tanked and global credit woes spurred panic-stricken investors to flee equities.

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After the article on today’s market sell off, please note the addendum that I have added below the text of the Dow story. In this environment, I think it is critically important for conservatives and right-center voters of all parties to stay true to our convictions and not be swayed by the Left’s siren song of a return to the failed policies of Depression era economic theories.

~~John Cronin~~

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122337732542911119.html?mod=article-outset-box

Frightened investors took no comfort in regulators’ continued efforts to stanch the credit crisis and sent stocks to more steep losses, led by the financial sector.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 170 points at its morning high but slumped to finish lower for a fifth consecutive day, with the selling gaining momentum as the closing bell approached.
The Dow finished near its daily low, off 508.39 points, down 5.1%, at 9447.11. It was led down by a 26.2% plunge in shares of component Bank of America, which is cutting its dividend and seeking $10 billion in capital. J.P. Morgan Chase and Citigroup also saw declines of more than 10% each. The Dow has plummeted more than 1400 points, or 13%, during its five-day losing streak.

Other stock measures tumbled. The S&P 500 dropped 5.7% to 996.24. All its sectors declined, led by a 10.1% drop in financials. The technology-focused Nasdaq Composite Index lost 5.8% to end at 1754.88. The small-stock Russell 2000 tumbled 6.2% to 558.96.

Stocks began to turn sharply lower as chatter spread around trading floors that Mitsubishi-UFJ could abandon its agreement to take a stake in Morgan Stanley. The buzz sent Morgan shares sliding roughly 30% and helped cause a broader rush out of stocks. Morgan Stanley later issued a statement saying that the deal remained on track, helping stanch the selloff, but its shares still ended down 24.9%. Rivals like Merrill Lynch and Barclays also cratered, falling 25.6% and 22.7%, respectively.

Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak, said the “noise” surrounding Morgan Stanley had put the entire market on edge. “Everybody’s nerves are completely fried,” he said “On the slightest chance of a reversal, everyone runs for the doors.”

Addendum:

WSJ Journal Print Edition Oct. 7, 2008

Perhaps you’ve read—several hundred times by now—that the financial panic means we are returning to a new day of expanding government. Well, maybe not, if the American people are consulted. A new survey by the Kaufman Foundation describes a country that is worried about the impact of the financial turmoil on their lives, but is equally worried about what government might do to fix it.

For example, the survey asked, “What poses the greatest threat to your own economic situation?” The runaway winner was “higher taxes” which 50% cited as the first or second biggest worry. “The low value of thew dollar abroad” was runner up, picked first or second by 30% of respondents. The “housing market collapse” clocked in at third, with 25%, the federal budget deficit and debt next at 20%, and “corporate fraud and abuse” at 17%.

Perhaps this explains why all that pounding by John McCain and Sarah Palin about corruption on Wall Street hasn’t done much for their standing in the polls. Perhaps this also explains why Barack Obama is at such pains to conceal his plans to raise taxes.

The survey, which was conducted by Luntz, Maslansky Strategic Research between Sept. 26 and 29, did show that 59% supported increased government regulation of the financial markets. Amid the current mess, that’s not surprising. But when asked in whom they had the most “faith and confidence” when it comes to guiding the economy, a mere 7% picked “the government in Washington.” “The American people,” with 25%, was the favorite; “the free market system,” with 14%, got twice the support of the Beltway class. The public doesn’t seem to be aching for a new New Deal.

~~John Cronin~~

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http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/shares-europe-skid-bank-sector/story.aspx?guid={EC779520-B001-4304-ACF2-A97B96D63899}

European shares staggered on Monday, with banks slumping as governments in Europe didn’t match a $700 billion bailout package from the U.S. and instead continued to shore up institutions on a piecemeal basis.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 5.1% to 248.27, with a 6.9% drop for the banking index.

“It’s all down to what’s going on in the banking sector or perhaps what’s not going on in the banking sector,” said Peter Dixon, strategist at Commerzbank Corporates & Markets.

“This is markets in pure panic mode. The financial system is seizing up and I think that there are major counterparty-risk fears out there in the market. Investors are cutting risk left, right and center,” he said.

“Investors are dumping commodities, they’re dumping equities. Anything with a cyclical or a risk-based element in the returns is somewhere not to be,” he added.

The share move follows an extraordinary weekend in which Germany backed its retail deposits, Iceland reportedly tried to hammer out a plan to rescue its distressed banking industry and the Danish financial sector agreed on a two-year guarantee scheme with the government to shore up confidence.

But a Paris meeting Saturday of top EU leaders — French President Nicolas Sarkozy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi — offered no pan-European plan for dealing with troubled banks.

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