Only a few updates…
The socialists had it their way and the ‘economic stimulus plan’ has been signed. The rebates range from $300 to $1,200 and are expected to arrive this spring after you file your 2007 tax returns.
Roughly 130 million individuals are expected to receive them and a tiny cost of $168 Billion.
How will the Government pay for that?
Borrow more money, print more money and continue to increase the total debt of the country.
What’s even worse is that unfortunately the ‘smart’ individuals who came up with this bad idea assumed that consumers will spend it which is very unlikely to happen.
Will it help the economy?
No, not at all (unless you really think that if you drive to the ocean and pour a bucket of water in it will help the aqua system in any way).
It’s an election year so of course there had to be a rebate of some sort…I think back in the day this was called bribery but hey…times have changed.
One statement that claimed over 500,000 jobs will be created is really funny at first but if you really think about it…it’s sad.
Hey, just for the heck of it, let’s just play along and believe this ridiculous thought for 17 seconds which will cause me to ask the following question:
If this is really true…why was this not done every year so far?
Ok…17 seconds are up but here is the answer anyway:
The ‘economic stimulus package’ will not create 500,000 additional jobs.
Why?
Economist worked on this plan (among other reason of course), but you do not want an economist to make any monetary decisions or even work on anything that deals with the economy.
Sure, in theory (which is what economists are good for…crappy theoretical economical models they have learned in school or even worse a cartoon character whispered into their ear on their last trip) the plan may work but in reality this plan will do absolutely nothing for the economy…at least nothing in a positive way but it will have a negative effect on more than just one front.
Come on…it did not work for Road Runner when he tried to catch Wile E. Coyote and it will not work for any politician or economist who tries to rescue the economy from something the economy does not want to be rescued from.
The second of three companies has rejected the offer made by Warren Buffet yesterday. This may be a slap in the face for Berkshire Hathaway but it seems as they have underestimated the intelligent of the troubled bond insurers.
It is only a matter of time until the third company will reject the offer as well unless they are really desperate and seem to fall for the trap put in place by Mr. Buffet.
Berkshire Hathaway is in it to make some profits and the offer excludes an additional layer of ‘security’ for the CDO’s, the portion the bond insurers really want help with but of course they deserve the opposite, but rather just tries to pick the best of the pack and make a profit on that.
It seems like you have been uncovered and rejected…better luck next time.
Yahoo! fights back and after it rejects Microsoft’s $31 per share offer on Monday it now seeks a possible alliance with News Corp. in order to keep Microsoft at bay at least for the time being.
This new tech ‘love-Triangle’ between Microsoft, Yahoo! and Google is definitely interesting and if you wonder what could make this even more exciting here is the answer:
A ‘Pac-Man’ offer by Yahoo!
This is very unlikely since Yahoo! lacks the fire-power but who knows what they may come up with. Google seems to be out of it as their proposed alliance, which really calls for the official capitulation of Yahoo!, will face the most anti-trust issues on both sides of the Atlantic out of all options and is not something that Yahoo! really wants to do.
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