Ok, Ok, I will admit the economy is recovering....

[SonOfAGun]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124970470294516541.html


By COREY BOLES (http://online.wsj.com/search/search_center.html?KEYWORDS=COREY+BOLES&ARTICLESEARCHQUERY_PARSER=bylineAND) and MICHAEL R. CRITTENDEN (http://online.wsj.com/search/search_center.html?KEYWORDS=MICHAEL+R.+CRITTENDEN&ARTICLESEARCHQUERY_PARSER=bylineAND)

Washington -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asked Congress to increase the $12.1 trillion debt limit on Friday, saying it is "critically important" that they act in the next two months.
Mr. Geithner, in a letter to U.S. lawmakers, said that the Treasury projects that the current debt limit could be reached as early mid-October. Increasing the limit is important to instilling confidence in global investors, Mr. Geithner said.
The Treasury didn't request a specific increase in the letter.
"It is critically important that Congress act before the limit is reached so that citizens and investors here and around the world can remain confident that the United States will always meet its obligations," Mr. Geithner said in a letter to lawmakers.
Mr. Geithner said the that it is "clearly a moment in our history" that requires support from both Democrats and Republicans for the increase.
"Congress has never failed to raise the debt limit when necessary," Mr. Geithner said.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office said Thursday the federal government's budget deficit reached $1.3 trillion through the first ten months of fiscal 2009, on track to reach a record high of $1.8 trillion for the 12-month period.



wait wut?

[clambake]

problem?

[ElNono]

I'm sure Goldman Sachs and Merryll Lynch are recovering... don't know about anybody else...

[fyatuk]

Happens every time we get near the limit. It's basically just routine. Of course, they just recently bumped it to the 12.1 trillion figure, so bleh.

[101A]

I'm sure Goldman Sachs and Merryll Lynch are recovering... don't know about anybody else...

:toast

[angrydude]

The banks are just playing with the money the FED printed and put in their reserves.

The stock market is a confidence game right now. They make the market go up with printed dollars for a while, then sell the shares to you. But when the dollars stop flowing in from the central bank demand evaporates, it all comes crashing down, and you're left holding the purse strings.

[DMX7]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124970470294516541.html



wait wut?

You don't know the difference between the federal deficit and the general economy?

Sad...:rolleyes

[Nbadan]

Anyone remember when Dubya was sending bails of $100 to Iraq?....remember that accountability?.....agree with the stimulus or not at least its going into America pockets that's not blackwater..

[Wild Cobra]

Anyone remember when Dubya was sending bails of $100 to Iraq?....remember that accountability?.....agree with the stimulus or not at least its going into America pockets that's not blackwater..
I remember them finding bales of $100 bills, not sending them.

Source please, or be shamed.

[Nbadan]

google is your friend

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2007/02/07/dollarsariveiraq372ready.jpg

How the US sent $12 bn to Iraq and watched it vanish (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1)

[Nbadan]

Billions of
dollars — some of it in shrink-wrapped bundles of $100 bills airlifted to Baghdad from the Federal Reserve Bank in New York — should have helped pay Iraqi bureaucrats, fix power lines and build schools. Instead, much of it can't be properly accounted for and millions have been stolen, auditors say.

Seattle Times (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002357082_iraqspend04.html)

[ElNono]

Bribing is expensive...

[Nbadan]

REP. HENRY WAXMAN (D), California: In a 13-month period from May 2003 to June 2004, the Federal Reserve sent nearly $12 billion in cash, mainly in $100 bills, from the United States to Iraq. To do that, the Federal Reserve Bank in New York had to pack 281 million individual bills, including more than 107 $100 bills, on to wooden pallets to be shipped to Iraq.

The cash weighed more than 363 tons and was loaded onto C-130 cargo planes to be flown into Baghdad. The numbers are so large that it doesn't seem possible that they're true. Who in their right mind would send 360 tons of cash into a war zone?

But that's exactly what our government did. My concern is that, without strong standards, we have no way of knowing whether the cash that was shipped into the Green Zone ended up in enemy hands.

PBS (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/government_programs/jan-june07/spending_02-06.html)

[Nbadan]

I guess the real point is that at least Democrats are trying to stimulate a dead-duck domestic economy rought by 8 years of a do-nothing GOP Congress...is there waste? probably...is there fraud...probably....but it's staying here....

[Wild Cobra]

Wow...

I didn't know the democrats were doing that.

[Spawn]

I guess the real point is that at least Democrats are trying to stimulate a dead-duck domestic economy rought by 8 years of a do-nothing GOP Congress...is there waste? probably...is there fraud...probably....but it's staying here....

So basically Democrats tend to waste money on domestic ventures and Republicans tend to waste money on foreign ventures.

[Nbadan]

So basically Democrats tend to waste money on domestic ventures and Republicans tend to waste money on foreign ventures.

Basically....but at least Democrats aren't all outright corrupt like the GOP, they're just inept....

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

I guess the real point is that at least Democrats are trying to stimulate a dead-duck domestic economy rought by 8 years of a do-nothing GOP Congress...is there waste? probably...is there fraud...probably....but it's staying here....

:lmao

You're not sure there's waste? You think pumping billions into bankrupt GM, Chrysler, etc. was productive? It was a union payback for their votes in November.

[Nbadan]

:lmao

You're not sure there's waste? You think pumping billions into bankrupt GM, Chrysler, etc. was productive? It was a union payback for their votes in November.

If they wanted to pay-back the unions then why go through GM/Chrysler? Besides GM/Chrysler are just debt restructuring, which is what they really needed, well, that and billions of $$$ in R&D...

[Winehole23]

Hold on you two, you're both right.

CB: your apparent disagreement with AHF may conceal a phony antithesis.

They're not mutually exclusive. Floating the corporations floats the unions. Corporatism and organized labor walk hand in hand. The magnanimity of public salvation stimulates the electoral loyalty of owners and workers alike.

[SnakeBoy]

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