The Melting Pot Project

A Tax to Grind

Big corporations have long had an image problem. Part of this isn't so much image as fact - after all, any science textbook will tell you that corporations are universally run by evil, Machiavellian men and women who spend most of their time cackling while playing "Whack-an-Orphan." So it's understandable that President Obama wants to crack down on corporate tax loopholes:

The president also wants to overhaul what he describes as a “much-abused” set of tax regulations known as the “check-the-box” rules. These regulations give companies some latitude in deciding where their subsidiaries will be taxed and make it easier for multinationals to transfer money between countries. The result, which Obama frowns upon, is that many companies have placed their offshore subsidiaries in low-tax countries.

There's one itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny, yellow polka-dotted problem with Obama's plan. Obviously there's a sense of unfairness surrounding the fact that most people being unable to hide their income overseas, while corporations can bury their money under the sand of some exotic beach. But by removing the loopholes, rather than simply removing the taxes, a certain chain of events is bound to occur. The companies that are able to move their headquarters overseas will do so - and the ones that aren't currently benefit little from the rules that Obama wants to change. This will bring overall economic activity and investment down at a time when we need them so badly.

Don't believe me? Just take Obama's own word for it:

No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top.

He couldn't be more right.

The Crash of 2009

You'd think the teleprompter would be too big to fail.

Groundhog Old Party

Apparently Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney are receiving some early donations for 2012:

Palin has collected at least $200,000 more for Sarah PAC since the reporting period closed at the end of last month, according to a source familiar with the numbers. Palin's resignation -- announced on July 3 -- triggered a flood of donations to the PAC, the source added....

Romney showed nearly $1.4 million raised through his Free and Strong America PAC at the end of May.

There's obviously still time for a new face to emerge, but if this really does turn into 2008, The Sequel, then the Republicans are banking the entire race on enough voters drinking Obama-flavored Haterade by then. That's a hell of a punt job.

Palin Resigns from Motherhood

The Daily Show with the exclusive:

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The CIT Hits the Fan

Here comes the first major domino in the commercial real estate collapse:

The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that CIT had hired a bankruptcy adviser and was considering a bankruptcy filing. CIT said late Sunday that it remained in "active discussions" with regulators and the government on ways to improve its cash position.

Hmmm. Bankruptcy. Isn't there another way to handle something like this?

U.S. government officials are in advanced talks about providing some sort of aid to CIT Group Inc., one of the country's primary lenders to small and midsize businesses, people familiar with the matter said.

Oh good. More bailouts. Let me see if I can properly express my glee:

Uncle Jay Explains Obama's Trip

Apparently Russia needs taller chairs:

They're Bankrupt. They're Bankrupt. They're Bankrupt.

Let's ask Pat Sajak what he thinks about the big banks.

While many investors have been spending the past few months happily buying financial stocks, a few people have maintained that the major banks are actually bankrupt, have been since last year, and will only be sliding further into the red with each passing day. They're still alive because the government is allowing them to ignore massive losses on their real estate assets. Naturally, when asked about this in public, Timothy Geithner awkwardly stutters for a minute before claiming, with all the charisma of a garden hose, that "nobody knows the true value" of those assets because we're experiencing a "distressed market." This is only true if the popping of the housing bubble is somehow wrong - which it isn't. Every once in a while, however, someone in the market is kind enough to mention the actual state of Citigroup and Friends:

“It is well understood that the four major banks would likely need an additional capital injection should they be forced to mark the second-lien mortgages on their balance sheets to a realistic value,” Greenwich Financial’s Frey said.

By the way, this is what that same article says Chris Dodd and Barney Frank are doing with their time:

Today, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd and House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank asked the heads of U.S. banking regulators to look into whether their companies are carrying home-equity loans at “potentially inflated values,” which “may contribute to resistance on the part of servicers to negotiate the disposition of these liens.”

Right. They want to "look into" the banks knowingly overvaluing their assets. Hey, guys, I know that's happening for a fact. How? Because the Treasury's own website tells me so:

The lack of clarity about the value of these legacy assets has also made it difficult for some financial institutions to raise new private capital on their own.

There's only one way to have a "lack of clarity about value." The banks have to disagree with how the market is valuing their loans - and the banks aren't ever going to argue that those loans should be worth less.

Dodd and Frank might as well be "looking into" whether or not the sky is blue.

Sanford Should Have Used Verizon

Then his whole affair would never have happened.

Maybe He was Just Playing "Gay Chicken"

Columnist David Brooks dropped a little nugget during an interview last week that was, uh, awkward for everyone:

You know, all three of us spend a lot of time covering politicians and I don’t know about you guys, but in my view, they’re all emotional freaks of one sort or another. They’re guaranteed to invade your personal space, touch you. I sat next to a Republican senator once at dinner and he had his hand on my inner thigh the whole time. I was like, ehh, get me out of here.

Brooks won't disclose who the secret Thighmaster was, but God, I wish he would.

They Should Create a "Big, Fat Waste of Money" Alert Instead

A day that will live in infamy may be rapidly approaching. Once considered unthinkable, the Obama administration is now moving to dump one of America's greatest national treasures - our color-coded terror alert system:

The Obama administration next week is expected to create an official committee to consider modifying or even abolishing the widely ridiculed color-coded terrorism alert system introduced by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks.

Current and former government officials, who asked for anonymity when discussing nonpublic information, told NEWSWEEK that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will appoint a "task force" made up of national, state, and local government experts, possibly including governors and mayors, to examine whether the color-coded system has outlived its usefulness. Bush administration officials who developed and oversaw the system may also play a role. The committee is likely to solicit comments about the alert system from industries affected by it, including airlines and companies that make or ship hazardous materials. The committee will have 60 days to examine the system and draw up recommendations on its future.

Hold the phone. They need a task force to determine whether or not this thing is useful or not? And this is going to cost how much?

I think I've found a "task force" that's already done the hard-hitting analysis necessary for a decision, and as a bonus, it's brought to us by the letter T:

Palin Music Video: Don't Trust Me

Normally we eschew NSFW warnings around here, but this is really NSFW. It's also one of the closest YouTube equivalents to a car crash I've ever seen. Part of me is horrified, but I just can't... look... away...

Yeah, You're Gonna Need More Cover Sheets for Your TPS Reports, Yeah...

Want to learn about one of the possibly-infinite reasons for government being so slow and ineffective? Meet the form that must be filed to begin assessing the necessity of other forms:

Standard Form 152 is not a famous federal form like the Internal Revenue Service’s 1040. But for more than four decades, it has been assigned the job of standing sentry over other federal forms.

Agencies that want to create, kill or amend federal forms often have to fill out an SF152, also known as a “Request for Clearance or Cancellation of a Standard or Optional Form,” or file another form just like it.

In other words, the SF152 is a federal form that begets other federal forms — a dispenser from which red tape first flows.

Don't worry, these are the same people who will surely have the economy up and running again in no time.

More B(L)S

Continuing our seemingly never-ending series of nonsensical statistical methods used by the BLS...

If in the week prior to the survey a respondent has had more than one hour of paid employment, or has performed more than 15 hours of unpaid work, they would not be counted as unemployed. So, for example, a 45-year-old laid-off business executive I met last week, who had started mowing his neighbors' lawns and doing odd jobs for cash because he needed money to have his car repaired in order to go on any interviews for a full-time job, would be counted among the employed members of the labor force.

I'd bet that someone at the Bureau actually has the title of "professional finagler."

Give or Take a Few Months

I think Sarah Palin might need to start printing new bumper stickers:

Maybe Arlen Has Amnesia

That's pretty much the only thing I can think of to explain this:

"Congressman Sestak is a flagrant hypocrite in challenging my being a real Democrat when he did not register as a Democrat until 2006 just in time to run for Congress," Specter said in the statement. "His lame excuse for avoiding party affiliation, because he was in the service, is undercut by his documented disinterest in the political process."

Specter then mentioned that he was looking forward to supporting President Reagan in the upcoming campaign season, and also asked if anybody had seen his keys.

Um... Pssst, Barack...

Somebody might want to tell him to think through his statements a little more. This is what he said while speaking in Ghana:

No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top.

(I know, I know. He was talking about corrupt governments in Africa, not taxes. But the same logic applies to both.)

Maybe the G8 Just Make Everything Up

Apparently they at least do that with global warming agreements:

I'm Holding That Job Hostage for One Million Dollars

The justification for bailing out GM, according to President Obama, was to save a company that employed so very many people. Laying off tens of thousands of workers in a short span of time would have supposedly caused another sudden, violent lurch in the American economy, which sounds quite similar to the experience of driving a car built by said workers. So the Treasury gave, and gave, and gave. In fact, it "donated" enough money to pay every GM employee in the country over one million dollars this year:

The “$19-$20 billion” (they don’t know?) mentioned in the article brings the grand total to just shy of $70 billion. The “$50 billion” the AP reporters refer to is the total of only the last line item above and the “$19-20 billion” that is not included in the above list....

Beyond all of this, the related FinancialStability.gov page lists $12.5 billion disbursed to GMAC, and $3.5 billion to an entity called “GM Supplier Receivables, LLC.” The latter is meant to make GM suppliers whole for unpaid amounts the “old GM” never paid. All of the disbursements identified add up to $86 billion (GM’s real total of $70 billion plus the two amounts in the previous paragraph).

Even assuming the ludicrous possibility of permanent unemployment for the roughly 68,000 workers "new" GM will keep on its payroll, that's still more than a million per job without counting bondholders and contractual partners who were screwed over.

Think you could find a few people who'd be willing to work some other job for less?

This Seems Like the Typical Job Hunting Experience Right Now

Well, this and spending hour upon hour emailing out resumes.

Yet Another Sign of the "Credit Crisis"

This one coming straight from credit cards:

U.S. banks issued 9.8 million credit cards from January through April, a 38 percent decline from the year-earlier period, according to data compiled by Equifax Inc., a credit bureau, quoted today in USA Today. The average limit on a new card fell 3 percent to $4,594, Equifax reported.

“There is less equity to draw on and certainly financial institutions have been scaling back the available lines of credit,” Chessen said. Banks boosted reserves for losses on delinquent loans and have adopted more cautious underwriting policies, he said.

Yes, it's those dastardly banks, making credit less available for deserving consumers and businesses. And why are the banks so unwilling to make it rain for Americans everywhere? Well, that same article might just tell us:

Delinquent bank-card accounts jumped to a record 6.60 percent of outstanding card debt in the first quarter from 5.52 percent in the previous period, a signal unemployed borrowers are relying on cards as falling prices erode the equity in their homes. More borrowers are using cards to meet daily expenses after losing their jobs, the ABA said.

That sounds suspiciously like part of a debt crisis, not a credit crisis. But you should already know that.

Iran-y

I wonder how long of an awkward pause this generated:

Iran has voiced concern over the recent clashes in China's northwestern province of Xinjiang where up to 150 people have been killed.

In a telephone conversation with Secretary General of the 56-nation Organization of the Islamic Conference Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki voiced Iran's support for “the rights of Chinese Muslims”.

Maybe Sanford Should Have Hiked the Oregon Trail Instead

I think these guys could have given him a few pointers:

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Roland, Roland, Roland

Head 'em up, move 'em out!

 

Six Degrees of Honey Bacon

We usually focus on American politics at the MPP, but this is too tasty to ignore: An Australian woman by the name of Honey Bacon is running to represent Tasmania for the Labor Party. The devil, you say!

I wonder if any reporter will be able to stifle a chuckle after asking her about her efforts to cut down on pork. Ms. Bacon wants to continue the vision of her late husband, Jim Bacon, who was the Tasmanian premier. With that kind of name recognition, one could argue that she is simply "selling the sizzle." At least Ms. Bacon is a widow, so we won't have to worry about any scandalous affair where her perplexed husband might say to his mistress, "I love Bacon, I love you. I love Bacon, I love you."

This is the only photo of Ms. Bacon that has surfaced thus far.

Back Dat Azz Up

We can all learn a lesson about context from the video below. The photo that's been floating around, showing President Obama and President Sarkozy seemingly gawking at a passing badonkadonk, makes Obama look the more conspicuous of the two. It's enough to make you think,"no wonder Obama was so tough on those pirates--he wants all the booty for himself!"

But the actual video footage tells a slightly different story: