Thursday, December 2, 2010

Insanity: US Ready to Back EU Bailout

The United States would be ready to support the extension of the European Financial Stability Facility via an extra commitment of money from the International Monetary Fund, a U.S. official told Reuters.

I have an anticipated a lot of moves by the U.S. government. Given the government has debt problems at the federal, state and local levels. That President Obama may hold off his Hawaii vacation for budget and tax talks, the last thing I expected is for the government to jump in to the PIIG pen.

I don't know who this official is, but he sure sounds high level, and Reuters is unlikely to run with a story like this unless it is from a clear in the know source. Here's more from Reuters :

"There are a lot of people talking about that. I think the European Commission has talked about that," said the U.S. official, commenting on enlarging the 750 billion euro ($980 billion) EU/IMF European stability fund. "It is up to the Europeans. We will certainly support using the IMF in these circumstances."


"There are obviously some severe market problems," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "In May, it was Greece. This is Ireland and Portugal. If there is contagion that's a huge problem for the global economy."
Knowing this. This is really scary:
The remarks foreshadow a visit to Europe this week by a U.S. Treasury envoy who is expected to visit Berlin, Madrid and Paris to hold talks on the ramifications of the debt crisis.
Well, it was fun to watch the clips of the Greeks and Irish getting squeezed by the banksters. Now, the bastard bankers are coming after us.

UPDATE: Contradicting the Reuters report, according to WSJ, the US is not discussing a larger IMF contribution to the European Rescue Fund.

Still we have a Treasury envoy headed over next week, which is not a good sign.

« A Message To The Wall Street Captured, Bailout Loving, Military Industrial Political Class - Take Your Austerity And Shove It Up Your Arse! »

Dear Esteemed Chairmen:

No huge surprise here. What's unfortunate for you is that for years, even decades - going back to Ross Perot - the American people have been prepared for and willing to accept changes (cuts) to Social Security. You, the politicians never gained the courage to ask, but I think for the most part the general public has been ready. And since I've been screaming about these issues my entire adult life, and have always pushed the concept of shared sacrifice as a means to budget sanity and limited government, I'm not comfortable with what I'm about to write, but it's inescapable after watching and recording a 32-month orgy of fiscal mayhem dominated by trillion-dollar bailouts, trillions in wasted stimulus, and trillions gifted to the military-industrial killing machine.

Fast forward from the Perot deficit awakening 20 years ago, and finally, you, the generationally-irresponsible political class seem to be facing up to the unfunded entitlement budget nightmare of your own creation - or at least you're in the discussion phase of 'facing it' - and what is the societal backdrop? Seething anger over the recession, the wars, multiple failed stimulus, dollar destruction, QE, and the government bailouts of favored industries.

So against this backdrop, your Commission now recommends cuts to Social Security and a hike in the retirement age to help us on our merry way to a fiscally sane future.

Here's my recommendation for you.

The American people are willing to sacrifice as part of a shared effort at righting our budgetary path, but they are not prepared to be sacrificial lambs led to the 'benefits and promises slaughterhouse' while the Wall Street Banker Pigs gorge on trillions in stealth FED and FDIC bailouts, ZIRP giveaways and a record $144 billion in bonuses - an amount equivalent to the 49th largest GDP in the world - $144 billion in bonuses being paid by criminally insolvent banks that are only still operating due to a Wall Street financed K-Street lobbying tsunami that forced FASB to change the accounting rules that now allow these same insolvent institutions of usury and arrogance to apply Faustian valuations to complete shit assets all over their lying, godforsaken, Enron resembling, off-balanced, imbalanced, bs-balanced, sheets.

Banks exist in the lala land of leveraged deferred tax assets representing most of tier-1 capital at Citigroup, of hundreds of billions of helocs at Wells Fargo worth pennies, but marked at dollars, of hundreds of billions of fraudulent MBS pumped out by Countrywide, whose liability now sits with Bank of America. This is a mere glimpse of the great banking lie that provides cover for the $144 billion insolvent bonus river that bathes the Street, all supported and paid for by taxpayers, Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Therefore, ultimately, taxpayers.

In this environment, selling 'cuts to social security' is not going to work, and considering the role you both played in creating the irresponsible federal spending machine that now controls Washington and has bankrupted future unborn generations, fuck you for even bringing it up.

Signed,

The Daily Bail

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« Black Friday Shopping In Post Apocalyptic America »

Video mash-up from Black Friday. Apparently, battling strangers for injection molded Chinese plastic is the New American Dream.

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WalStreetPro demonstrates how to treat Chinese plastic...

He makes some valid points..

America's Austerity Plan

Click this link .......

Foreclosuregate and The Great MERS Whitewash BillTo boil down Foreclosuregate into one sentence, it is the transfer of mortgages between financial ins

To boil down Foreclosuregate into one sentence, it is the transfer of mortgages between financial institutions and investors, while securitizing loans into bonds, without the proper paperwork and signatures required to legally document ownership. And this has resulted in numerous lawsuits filed on behalf of homeowners in foreclosure.

The company that tracks who owns what is a private company named Mortgage Electronic Registration System (MERS). Sixty-six million mortgages are registered in the MERS system.

Lobbyists are now on Capital Hill pushing legislation to affirm MERS as the standard for tracking mortgages. If this were to happen, the industry could get rid of all the Foreclosuregate lawsuits with congress’ implicit approval, Americans would be left with weakened property rights, and banks would be affirmed as America’s largest real estate holding companies.

Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), on the Oversight Government Reform Committee, isn’t keen on letting this happen, as she questions the efficiency and loyalties of the MERS mortgage system and associated issues. On MSNBC with host Dylan Ratigan, she says, “[MERS] was invented by the most powerful financial players in the country while regulators were asleep at the wheel.”

There is some great information in this video, beyond MERS, and it’s a definite Must See.

Let us leave you with this great quote from Thomas Jefferson that Ratigan pulled up for this segment:

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”

Nigel Farage: Euro Empire Collapsing, Bailout River Dry

Click this link ......

Florida judge: We don't look at the mortgage foreclosure paperwork we process

Thanks to Matt Taibbi, who's been all over the foreclosure crisis, including what's been happening in the courtroom, comes this, from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune:

Judges do not question the documents unless homeowners question them first, so they continue to rule in favor of lenders. Twelfth Circuit Chief Judge Lee Haworth said judges must remain neutral in court, and cannot raise possible defenses -- such as bad paperwork -- on behalf of homeowners who choose not to fight, or don't know how to fight, their foreclosure.

"The judges will accept, as they do in every case, pleadings that are represented by counsel as legitimate," said Haworth. "It's the defendant's case. ... If they don't want to hire an attorney, that's their business."
Before that starts to sound reasonable to you, consider this. Taibbi:
[T]he idea that it is beyond a judge to open a file and simply check to make sure the names and dates are right -- particularly given the widespread coverage of this phenomenon, when we know that virtually 100% of these securitized mortgages lack proper paperwork and will inevitably involve fraudulent or doctored filings upon foreclosure -- that is appalling.
This just gives judges a way to be complicit.

Why would they want to do that? you ask. It's the Judge Judy–Jerry Springer effect. Taibbi says it his way (my emphasis):
Judges I think are long used to the idea that individual people are deadbeats and don't pay bills -- they've seen enough lying-ass individual debtors stand in their courts with their faces unshaven and their shirts untucked, trying to sell them excuses and stories -- but they haven't quite made it to a place where they can accept the idea that the nation's top 10-20 banks could be engaged in ongoing criminal conspiracies. I think it blows their minds and they don't believe it.
My answer: Ignore the rest and look just at the bolded part above. We're carefully conditioned by Judge Judy and Cops on Parade (all politically slanted "culture" shows) to think of low-wage-earners-facing-The-Law as automatically wrong — and automatically disgusting.

Judges swim in that cultural pool as well; they drink the same tainted water you do. That thirty-year war against the poor — you could almost think it was planned by someone with something to gain, and someone to manipulate.

GP

Suicide by Foreclosure – Gulfport man tries to kill himself as bank forecloses on his home

St. Petersburg Times

Gulfport man tries to kill himself as bank forecloses on his home

GULFPORT — The foreclosure process started more than two years ago. Papers were served. Hearings held. Judges ruled. Back and forth it went, inexorably. Like millions across the nation, Boyd Rubright, 71, was slowly losing his home.

The writ of possession — the final document that strips someone of a foreclosed home — was signed Nov. 2. The occupant received 24 hours’ notice. Then, ready or not, he had to go.

Monday was the day.

The bank representative was the first to arrive at 5840 Gulfport Blvd. S. It’s the white house with the green trim and the empty birdbath.

The house looked vacant, but the representative thought he saw someone inside. A deputy arrived, and knocked on the front door. He announced himself from the outside, loudly.

No one answered.

The bank sent someone to drill through the lock. It was 9:02 a.m. when the drilling stopped. The busted lock hit the floor inside.

That’s when they heard the gunshot.

• • •

The deputy moved everyone away from the house and called for backup. Then he and a Gulfport officer went inside, weapons drawn.

They found Rubright slumped in an armchair in a small room. Police said he placed the barrel of a .357-caliber revolver in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

The officers couldn’t find a pulse; paramedics were called.

His oldest daughter learned about the shooting when she talked to a St. Petersburg Times reporter Wednesday night.

“When the foreclosure started a couple of years ago, he told us that he was not giving up his house for anything,” said Margaret Fitzgibbons, 44. “They would have to take him out or he’d kill himself.

“That’s why I wasn’t surprised.”

Rest here…

Social Security cuts are part of deficit plan

WASHINGTON – Divisions remain within President Barack Obama's deficit commission on politically explosive budget cuts and slashes in Social Security benefits, even as the panel's co-chairmen go public with a revised plan to tame the runaway national debt.

The new plan by co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, to be unveiled Wednesday, faces an uphill slog. Resistance is certain, not only because of the idea of raising the Social Security retirement age, but also because of proposed cuts to Medicare, curtailment of tax breaks and a doubling of the federal tax on a gallon of gasoline.

Though the plan appears unlikely to win enough bipartisan support from the panel to be approved for a vote in Congress this year or next, Bowles has already declared victory, saying he and Simpson have at least succeeded in initiating an "adult conversation" in the country about the pain it will take to cut the deficit.

The plan faces opposition from many commission members. House Republicans appear uniformly against tax increases, while liberal Democrats like Jan Schakowsky of Illinois appear unlikely to be able to accept big cuts in federal programs for seniors.

Obama named the commission in hopes of bringing a deficit-fighting plan up for a vote in Congress this year, but it appears to be falling well short of the 14-vote bipartisan supermajority needed.

A new version of the plan, obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday, makes mostly minor changes to a draft that whipped up enormous controversy when unveiled earlier this month. Some domestic spending cuts are modestly higher than previously proposed, and health care savings from overhauling the medical malpractice system would reap less than proposed earlier this month.

Read Full Article

Mortgage mediation cases on hold as fraud allegations unravel David J. Stern Law Firm

Hundreds of mortgage mediation cases in the Tampa Bay area and other parts of Florida have been put on indefinite hold because of growing problems at a law firm that once represented many of the nation's biggest banks.

Beset by allegations of sloppy and fraudulent documentation, the David J. Stern Law Firm has lost some of its lender clients and must withdraw from their foreclosure cases. Until the banks hire new lawyers, efforts to mediate agreements with homeowners in those cases cannot continue.

The delay is a mixed blessing for the homeowners. They will be able to stay in their houses longer, though likely at the cost of mounting interest and late fees.

But the need to withdraw from so many cases marks another chapter in the stunning decline of the Stern firm, which once handled a fifth of all Florida foreclosures and made its founder a multimilllionaire.

"The mediations are supposed to occur within 120 days, and that's the problem the David Stern issue has created. We're having to continue those beyond the 120 days,'' said Dick Rahter, president of Mediation Managers Inc. in Clearwater. "The borrower is not going to lose their opportunity to meet with the bank, but the mediation might not occur as quickly as we want.''

Rahter's company, which has handled mediations in Pinellas and Pasco counties since July 1, has been forced to cancel or continue 15 mediation sessions in cases involving Stern's firm.

"He probably has 400 or 500 cases in our program, but a lot are still working their way through the system,'' Rahter said.

Lawyers from the firm attended two mediations in Hillsborough County the week before last, but the county's program is new enough that not many cases have reached that point, said Darlene Kelly, executive director of the Hillsborough Bar Foundation.

A spokesman for Stern, who lives in a $15 million waterfront mansion in Fort Lauderdale, did not return calls seeking comment.

With so many homeowners complaining of problems contacting their lenders, the Florida Supreme Court late last year ordered virtually all residential foreclosures involving homestead property to be referred to mediation. The statewide program operates on a 120-day timetable under which the homeowner must get financial counseling before sitting down with the lender, a mediator and an attorney for the law firm that filed the foreclosure documents.

Of the 400,000 or so foreclosure cases pending in Florida, about 20 percent were filed by Stern's law firm. But amid controversy over its practices, the firm has lost major clients — including mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — and can no longer represent them in mediation.

In Pinellas and Pasco, the firm has been slow to withdraw itself from foreclosure cases. And judges haven't received many motions for substitute counsel, meaning no new lawyers have been appointed to take over the cases.

"What we're seeing is multiple cases where it's set for hearing with the Stern firm, but they don't send the paperwork like they're supposed to, either to withdraw or for summary judgment (of foreclosure),'' said Chief Judge Thomas McGrady. "So we've had court time set aside that they request, but they didn't bother to call us and notify us. They just don't show up.''

Another problem: Because of the severe slump in business, the Stern firm and a spin-off company, DJSP Enterprises, have laid off more than 700 employees. Even in some cases in which the firm still represents a lender, it has no one to attend hearings.

"My understanding is that a significant amount of their staff was let go so they would not have any representation at the mediation,'' said Chris Bailey, deputy director of the Collins Center Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program. The Tallahassee-based center handles mediations in six judicial circuits, including Sarasota, Polk and Miami-Dade.

Bailey said the center put 400 Stern cases on hold while it waits for other law firms to be appointed.

"It may be only a couple of weeks; it may be an additional month,'' he said.

As thousands of foreclosure cases clogged the court system, defense attorneys charged that Stern's firm and other "mills'' were winning final judgments of foreclosure based on documents rife with errors and fraudulent information. The Florida Attorney General's Office is investigating the Stern firm and three others.

In January, Stern reaped $58.5 million by selling his back-office operations to a new public company, DJSP. But as allegations flew and clients withdrew their business, the company's independent accounting firm and most of its top officers resigned. From a high of $13.65 early this year, shares closed Monday at 43 cents.

Another Stern subsidiary, DAL Group, is in default on a $12 million Bank of America credit line. And last week, a Sarasota County homeowner facing foreclosure filed a class-action suit, alleging, among other things, that Stern's firm had charged excessive amounts for process serving and attorney fees.

"Maybe collapse is too severe a word,'' Rahter said, referring to Stern's beleaguered companies, "but there are a lot of issues there.''

Susan Taylor Martin can be reached at susan@sptimes.com.

THE LOOTING OF SOCIAL SECURITY TO BALANCE THE FEDERAL BUDGET (updated)


FEDERAL "BORROWING" OF SOCIAL SECURITY FUNDS

The following excerpt is from the 1998 Senate Budget Committee session. Note the underlined portions.

BEGIN EXCERPT

U.S. FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD CHAIRMAN ALAN GREENSPAN: .....making sure that surplus is there.

U.S. SENATOR ERNEST F. HOLLINGS (D-SC): Yeah, making sure that surplus is there. I'm telling you, Dr. Greenspan, that's music to my ears.

GREENSPAN: Well, I remember you taking this song a long way over recent years, and I must say, Senator, a number of us were skeptical that was even discussable, figuring we would never get to unified surplus that we said which you were preaching was very interesting, scientifically sound, but unrealistic. I apologize.

HOLLINGS: Well that's all right, because your Greenspan Commission report in section 21 says just exactly what you're saying here. That was in 1983; here now, in 1999, on page two, "simply put, enough resources must be set aside over a lifetime of work to fund retirement consumption." Now that section 21 said set it aside. President Bush, in section 13 3 01 on November the 5th, 1990 signed that into law. And we making headway. Let's understand, though, that we're still running deficits. 'Cause I'm not going along with this monkeyshine about unified. 'Cause unified is not net, the debt still goes up, is that correct?

GREENSPAN: If you're...it depends on whether or not you wish to create the savings...

HOLLINGS: I'm not asking what you're trying to create. The simple fact is the debt has been going up at least $100 billion for the last several years.

GREENSPAN: Outside, on budget, that is correct.

HOLLINGS: That's right, on budget, you're spending a hundred billion more than you're taking in.

GREENSPAN: Correct.

HOLLINGS: And this president's budget spends another hundred billion more than we take in.

GREENSPAN: I haven't seen it yet.

HOLLINGS: You haven't seen it? You're testifying about it now.

GREENSPAN: I haven't seen the budget. You haven't seen it either.

HOLLINGS: Well, you know his plan. Look you think he's going to spend less than a hundred billion more?

GREENSPAN: I will wait to see what the numbers look like.

HOLLINGS: Well, the truth is...ah, shoot, well, we all know there's Washington's math problem. Alan Sloan in this past week's Newsweek says he spends 150%. What we've been doing, Mr. Chairman, in all reality, is taken a hundred billion out of the Social Security Trust Fund, transferring it over to the spending column, and spending it. Our friends to the left here are getting their tax cuts, we getting our spending increases, and hollering surplus, surplus, and balanced budget, and balanced budget plans when we continue to spend a hundred billion more than we take in.

That's the reality, and I think that you and I, working the same side of the street now, can have a little bit of success by bringing to everybody's attention this is all intended surplus. In other words, when we passed the Greenspan Commission Report, the Greenspan Commission Report only had Social Security in 1983 a two hundred million surplus. It's projected to have this year a 117 million surplus. I've got the schedule, I'll ask to put in the record the CBO report: 117, 126, 130, 100, going right through to 2008 over the ten year period of 186 billion surplus. That was intended; this is dramatic about all these retirees, the baby boomers. But we foresaw that baby boomer problem, we planned against that baby boomer problem. Our problem is we've been spending that particular reserve, that set-aside that you testify to that is so necessary. That's what I'm trying to get this government back to reality, if we can do that.

We owe Social Security 736 billion right this minute. If we saved 117 billion, we could pay that debt down, and have the wonderful effect on the capital markets and savings rate. Isn't that correct? Thank you very much, Sir. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

END EXCERPT

It should be obvious from the above that the government has for decades been taking the money intended to pay Social Security benefits and spending it as general revenue. The Social Security trust fund is filled with Government IOUs, and those people who insists Social Security is solvent are operating in the faith that T-bills are always good, because the taxpayer can always be forced to redeem them.

But there is a problem. There are so many T-bills in the Social Security fund that when the baby-boomers start applying for benefits, the sudden surge of T-bills being presented for payment would collapse the Federal System, because there are not enough young taxpayers to carry the extra load.

Regardless of the mechanism, the bottom line is that the government looted the retirement funds of Americans, and that means one of two things has to happen (and maybe even both). Either Americans will be taxed twice for the same benefits, or the benefits will be cut.

UPDATE: April 29th

ANY QUESTIONS?

Europe pins hopes on ECB to ease debt crisis

The European Central Bank is under pressure to unveil new steps to stabilise the euro zone when it meets on Thursday as the currency bloc battles a crippling debt crisis that has stoked contagion fears in the United States and Asia.

Germany struggled to sell its government debt on Wednesday and Portugal's borrowing costs soared in further signs that an 85 billion-euro (71.39 billion pounds) EU/IMF rescue of Ireland last weekend and public assurances from leaders that the euro will be defended at any cost have failed to impress investors.

European Union leaders appeared to pass the baton to the ECB, which holds its monthly meeting on Thursday. Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said recent EU actions provided a sound basis for further stabilization measures by the central bank, and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he was confident the ECB would take whatever action was needed.

"I'm sure the ECB is analyzing the current situation and that it will take the decisions necessary to guarantee the financial stability of the euro zone," he said.

In Washington, the White House said President Barack Obama was receiving regular updates during his daily economic briefings, while a senior Treasury official was heading to Berlin for talks on the economic situation after meetings on Wednesday in Madrid.

"It's important to the global economy and to our economic recovery," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs. A senior G20 source in Asia also told Reuters that deputy finance ministers discussed the situation on Monday.

A U.S. official also told Reuters that Washington would support boosting an EU rescue facility via IMF funds, news that bolstered the euro currency. "It is up to the Europeans," the U.S. official said. "We will certainly support using the IMF in these circumstances."

A Treasury Department spokesman later said an "extra commitment is not something we're discussing right now.

HIGHLY CONTROVERSIAL

Markets were focussing on ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet's news conference due at 1330 GMT on Thursday where the central bank could announce an expansion of its government bond purchase program, launched in May after Greece was bailed out.

But it has been highly controversial within the bank and used erratically. Influential Bundesbank head Axel Weber has called for the program to be scrapped, and fellow ECB members have criticized the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to buy $600 billion of U.S. debt in a policy known as quantitative easing.

Any sense from fiercely independent central bankers that they were being bullied by EU politicians into making bond purchases could further deepen opposition to such a step.

With the euro under threat, however, they may decide they have no other choice.

In recent days, economists have urged the ECB to throw out its rule book and do all it can to save the euro, particularly since governments seem to be running out of ideas for restoring confidence in their monetary union.

"There is a feeling that things have got to a point where the ECB has to do more," said Gilles Moec, an economist at Deutsche Bank.

The premium investors demand to hold Portuguese, Spanish and Italian bonds instead of German benchmarks fell and European bank stocks rebounded, with Spain's Banco Santander and BBVA up more than 7 percent after the Spanish government announced new steps to reduce the national debt.

Debt auctions in Portugal and Germany, however, showed investors remain nervous. Lisbon's borrowing costs surged in a 12-month bill auction and a German five-year note sale drew the weakest demand in half a year.

Manufacturing data underscored the economic divergences plaguing Europe.

Citigroup's chief economist said this week euro zone turmoil might be the "opening act" of a global sovereign debt crisis that could infect the United States and Japan.

EU plans to make private bond holders bear some of the pain from any sovereign debt restructuring after mid-2013 have led investors to reassess the risk of putting their money in the government bonds of high-debt countries.

But German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Wednesday that all the anxiety in financial markets was overblown.

LIMITED OPTIONS

Strong action by the ECB is one of a small number of unattractive options for stopping the rot, given divisions among European governments over how to respond.

Germany has resisted pressure from France and others to turn the euro zone into a "fiscal union," a step that could help the bloc address its economic imbalances but require members to sacrifice sovereignty for the good of the group.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is also sceptical about putting up more funds for bailouts, concerned that German taxpayers could end up underwriting the rescues of countries her government believes have become targets because of economic mismanagement.

Pressure from Germany's partners is mounting. Portuguese Treasury Secretary Carlos Pina told Reuters the EU needed to "deepen its budget and create a European Treasury" to defend the euro, a move that would be anathema to Berlin.

(Writing by Noah Barkin; Editing by Andrew Dobbie and Sandra Maler)

2 million lose jobless benefits as holidays arrive

Extended unemployment benefits for nearly 2 million Americans begin to run out Wednesday, cutting off a steady stream of income and guaranteeing a dismal holiday season for people already struggling with bills they cannot pay.

Unless Congress changes its mind, benefits that had been extended up to 99 weeks will end this month.

That means Christmas is out of the question for Wayne Pittman, 46, of Lawrenceville, Ga., and his wife and 9-year-old son. The carpenter was working up to 80 hours a week at the beginning of the decade, but saw that gradually drop to 15 hours before it dried up completely. His last $297 check will go to necessities, not presents

"I have a little boy, and that's kind of hard to explain to him," Pittman said.

The average weekly unemployment benefit in the U.S. is $302.90, though it varies widely depending on how states calculate the payment. Because of supplemental state programs and other factors, it's hard to know for sure who will lose their benefits at any given time. But the Labor Department estimates that, without a Congress-approved extension, about 2 million people will be cut off by Christmas.

Congressional opponents of extending the benefits beyond this month say fiscal responsibility should come first. Republicans in the House and Senate, along with a handful of conservative Democrats, say they're open to extending benefits, but not if it means adding to the $13.8 trillion national debt.

Even if Congress does lengthen benefits, cash assistance is at best a stopgap measure, said Carol Hardison, executive director of Crisis Assistance Ministry in Charlotte, N.C., which has seen 20,000 new clients since the Great Recession started in December 2007.

"We're going to have to have a new conversation with the people who are still suffering, about the potentially drastic changes they're going to have to make to stay out of the homeless shelter," she said.

Forget Christmas presents. What the so-called "99ers" want most of all is what remains elusive in the worst economy in generations: a job.

Read Full Article

Millions may lose jobless benefits as holidays loom

Extended unemployment benefits for nearly 2 million Americans begin to run out Wednesday, cutting off a steady stream of income and guaranteeing a dismal holiday season for people already struggling with bills they cannot pay.

Unless Congress changes its mind, benefits that had been extended up to 99 weeks will end this month.

Hours before beefed-up benefits were set to expire at midnight on Tuesday, Democrats sought to extend them for another year. But they were blocked by Republican Senator Scott Brown, who said Democrats should have taken time to work out a compromise.

"It's not the way to do business in the United States Senate, and if it is it needs to change," Brown said.

With the unemployment rate stuck at around 9.6 percent, the two parties have been sharply divided over how to cover the cost of weekly checks that help jobless people stay afloat.

'Immediate crisis'
Congress has let jobless benefits lapse twice already this year as Republicans insist the cost — $160 billion in the last fiscal year — be offset by cuts elsewhere to prevent the nation's $13.8 trillion debt from growing further.

"I think we have to deal with the immediate crisis," Democratic Senator Jack Reed said. "I think we have to deal with the families that are struggling today."

Jobless benefits usually expire after six months, but since the recession took hold in 2007 Congress has voted to extend them for up to 99 weeks.

Nearly half of the 15 million unemployed people in the United States have been out of work for more than six months, the highest level of long-term unemployment since the government began keeping track in the 1940s.

Christmas is out of the question for Wayne Pittman, 46, of Lawrenceville, Ga., and his wife and 9-year-old son. The carpenter was working up to 80 hours a week at the beginning of the decade, but saw that gradually drop to 15 hours before it dried up completely. His last $297 check will go to necessities, not presents.

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"I have a little boy, and that's kind of hard to explain to him," Pittman said.

The average weekly unemployment benefit in the U.S. is $302.90, though it varies widely depending on how states calculate the payment. Because of supplemental state programs and other factors, it's hard to know for sure who will lose their benefits at any given time. But the Labor Department estimates that, without a Congress-approved extension, about 2 million people will be cut off by Christmas.

Story: Jobless aid loss could choke economic growth

Congressional opponents of extending the benefits beyond this month say fiscal responsibility should come first. Republicans in the House and Senate, along with a handful of conservative Democrats, say they're open to extending benefits, but not if it means adding to the $13.8 trillion national debt.

Even if Congress does lengthen benefits, cash assistance is at best a stopgap measure, said Carol Hardison, executive director of Crisis Assistance Ministry in Charlotte, N.C., which has seen 20,000 new clients since the Great Recession started in December 2007.

"We're going to have to have a new conversation with the people who are still suffering, about the potentially drastic changes they're going to have to make to stay out of the homeless shelter," she said.

Forget Christmas presents. What the so-called "99ers" want most of all is what remains elusive in the worst economy in generations: a job.

"I am not searching for a job, I am begging for one," said Felicia Robbins, 30, as she prepared to move out of a homeless shelter in Pensacola, Fla., where she and her five children have been living. She is using the last of her cash reserves, about $500, to move into a small, unfurnished rental home.

Robbins lost her job as a juvenile justice worker in 2009 and her last $235 unemployment check will arrive Dec. 13. Her 10-year-old car isn't running, and she walks each day to the local unemployment office to look for work.

Jeanne Reinman, 61, of Greenville, S.C., still has her house, but even that comes with a downside.

After losing her computer design job a year and a half ago, Reinman scraped by with her savings and a weekly $351 unemployment check. When her nest egg vanished in July, she started using her unemployment to pay off her mortgage and stopped paying her credit card bills. She recently informed a creditor she couldn't make payments on a loan because her benefits were ending.

Video: Obama, House leaders close to tax deal? (on this page)

"I'm more concerned about trying to hang onto my house than paying you," she told the creditor.

Ninety-nine weeks may seem like a long time to find a job. But even as the economy grows, jobs that vanished in the Great Recession have not returned. The private sector added about 159,000 jobs in October — half as many as needed to reduce the unemployment rate of 9.6 percent, which the Federal Reserve expects will hover around 9 percent for all of next year.

'A hopeless situation'
Tara Carman told Kennewick, Wash.-based NBC station KNDU that she had been seeking work for six months.

"The checks ... they help me eat," Carman said. "I'm able to drive my car to an interview because I'm getting an unemployment check. If I didn't have that, I don't know where I would be going."

Edgar Woodward, 66, of Daytona Beach, Fla., was laid off in January 2009. He is set to be among 100,000 Floridians whose unemployment benefits will run out by Saturday, the Daytona Beach News-Journal

« Obama Debt Commission Delays Final Vote: "The Era Of Deficit Denial In Washington Is Over" (VIDEO) »

http://dailybail.com/home/obama-debt-commission-delays-final-vote-the-era-of-deficit-d.html

The plan will be unveiled Wednesday with a vote scheduled for Friday.

More detail on this clip is here...

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The members of President Barack Obama's deficit commission will begin to go on the record Wednesday as they debate politically explosive budget cuts, including proposals to lower Social Security benefits, in a revised plan to wrestle the national debt under control.

The new plan by panel co-chairmen Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, to be unveiled Wednesday, faces an uphill slog because of proposals to raise the Social Security retirement age and lower cost-of-living increases, cut Medicare costs, curtail a huge assortment of tax breaks, like the deduction for mortgage interest, and almost double the federal tax on a gallon of gasoline.

Though the plan appears unlikely to win enough bipartisan support from the panel to be approved for a vote in Congress this year or next, Bowles has already declared victory, saying he and Simpson have at least succeeded in initiating an "adult conversation" in the country about the pain it will take to cut the deficit.

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A few more links...

Deficit Panel Cancels Public Meeting - WSJ

A Road Show of Sorts for Debt Panel Chiefs - WSJ

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« How The FDIC Shuts Down Failed Banks - Official Video »

http://dailybail.com/home/how-the-fdic-shuts-down-failed-banks-official-video.html

Video - FDIC Resolution Process

For the record, the FDIC fights bank insolvency in a mediocre fashion, with very slow response times. By the time the weekend team arrives for a shut-down, losses are massive.

Adam Levitin Tells Congress: Citigroup, Bank Of America, JPMorgan & Wells Fargo Are All INSOLVENT

Richard Suttmeier: Half Of U.S. Banks Are So Insolvent They CAN'T Make Any New Loans (VIDEO)

When The Books Were Finally Opened, Colonial Bank Wasn't Just Insolvent, It Was Mega Insolvasorus

« PIMCO's El-Erian: "European Debt Crisis Will Be Slow Motion Wreck" - Default! Say The People Of Ireland »

http://dailybail.com/home/pimcos-el-erian-european-debt-crisis-will-be-slow-motion-wre.html

Video - El-Erian on Squawk Box with Joe Kernen - Aired yesterday

Why the first rule of crisis management has not been met by the Europeans.

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Source - CNBC

More European countries will need bailouts until policy makers address the underlying causes of their financial problems, which include too much government debt and not enough spending controls, Pimco's Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC.

The CEO of the world's largest bond manager said balance sheet issues will cause Europe to be "a slow-motion wreck" that will cause crises in "Ireland, then Portugal, then Spain, then Belgium, then Italy."

"The first rule of crisis management hasn't been met by the Europeans, and that is to get ahead of the crisis, be seen as proactive rather than reactive," El-Erian said. "As long as they're being seen as reactive we're going to have a slow-motion wreck going on on in Europe. We're going to wake up and it's going to be a new country we're talking about."

"Unless we see more than just liquidity support, unless we see something that deals with the balance sheets, expect this contagion to go up," he said.

The problems in Europe have roiled world markets and essentially counteracted the Federal Reserve's moves to pump money into the economy by buying Treasurys.

Instead of the dollar weakening that would be expected to follow the Fed's $600 billion quantitative easing action, the US currency has strengthened against the euro. That in turn has pressured US stocks, which opened lower Tuesday.

El-Erian said investors, then, ought to be looking for opportunities to buy non-European debt that has been sold heavily in response to the European crisis. He recommended emerging markets with high reserve levels, high-quality corporate bonds, as well as currencies "around the world being contaminated by what's happening in Europe."

While the IMF bailout likely has prevented a default by Ireland for as many as three years, it is far less certain whether the temporary fix will address long-term problems.

"The problem if you tell creditors that at 2013 something's going to happen, creditors will try to move ahead of that. That's what we're seeing today," El-Erian said. "We're seeing people exit European exposures because...they're afraid that this time line may change."

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Related stories...

If Ireland Doesn’t Take The Bailout - Gonzalo Lira

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Default! Say the people

Irish negotiators raised defaulting but 'Europe went completely mad'

A SUBSTANTIAL majority of the Irish people wants the State to default on debts to bondholders in the country's stricken banks, according to a Sunday Independent/Quantum Research poll.

The finding that 57 per cent favour and 43 per cent oppose default reflects a growing view among policymakers and opinion formers that the State simply cannot support the debt burden it has taken on.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/default-say-the-people-2439331.html

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Prince Charles with the Ryder Cup wives in October of 2010...