House GOP Ends Day Without Vote on Debt Bill as Leaders Scramble to Muster Support – Fox News

El-Erian Forecasts ‘Massive Consequences’ From U.S. Downgrade – Bloomberg

If US Defaults, Stocks Fall 30%, GDP 5%: Credit Suisse – CNBC

Pelosi: “We’re Trying to Save Life on This Planet as We Know It Today.” – Weekly Standard     The Problem Is I Don’t Think She Knows What Planet She’s On!

America’s Credibility Is at Risk – NY Times      The Markets and the Rest of the World Are Worried, and They Should Be. We All Should Be.

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By Peter Morici

Cognitive dissonance—a refusal to accept objective facts that define rational behavior—is at the root of impending disaster in Washington.

House Minority Leader Pelosi and her colleagues simply won’t accept that the two wars, Bush tax cuts and prescription drug benefit for seniors didn’t cause the deficit. To point: in 2007, the last year before the financial crisis and with all the aforementioned in play, the deficit was a manageable $161 billion—that’s Read More »

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Cataracts, Hips, Knees and Tonsils: Britain’s NHS Begins Rationing Operations – UK Independent           Isn’t This Where Obamacare is Taking Us?

Warren Buffett Is Wrong On Taxes – Wall Street Journal

U.S. Will Pay for Half of All Health Care Costs by 2020 – CNN Money         This Is Totally Unsustainable!

New NASA Data Blow Gaping Hole In Global Warming Alarmism – Forbes

U.S. Contingency Plan Gives Bondholders Priority in Case of Default – Bloomberg

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By Jack Kneafsey

I couldn’t resist featuring this headline from Thursday’s London Telegraph, in which Ambrose Evans-Pritchard suggests that by letting the U.S. default “As an historic policy error it would match the New York Fed’s decision to raise interest rates twice in one week in October 1931, but at least the Fed had an excuse. (The Banque de France had withdrawn gold reserves from the US).

Earlier, this writer had suggested that Obama Read More »

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EDITOR’S COMMENT: This is a big concern that I have written about numerous times previously,  as I believe there is a real chance of U.S. government commandeering your IRA’s and 401K’s within the next year or two. I could see Obama or someone else declaring a “national emergency” in order to have access to the largest pool of untaxed funds in this country, and requiring the various Read More »

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The Antidote for Socialism: America Needs a New President – Wall Street Journal

Boehner Revises Debt Limit Plan as Aug. 2 Deadline Nears – Bloomberg

Hope for Debt Deal, Despite Disputes, Veto Threat – AP/Yahoo

It’s Time for QE3 to Begin – MarketWatch    “Monetary Policy’s All That Stands Between Us and Recession”

On Jobs, the U.S. Is Turning Into Europe – NY Times    And Obama Wants Us to Become More Like Europe?

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By Charles Kadlec

Spectacular failure.

These words came to mind as the dismal employment data for June were released earlier this month. After the biggest spending binge in peacetime American history, the unemployment rate is stuck above 9%, while in May fewer than 20,000 jobs were created in what was once a vibrant US economy. Adding in discouraged workers drives the combined rate to 16.2%. Wage rates fell, as did the average workweek.

It Read More »

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Banks Bracing for U.S. Downgrade See No Panic Yet – Bloomberg

The American Dream Slips Even Further Out of Reach – CNN Money

5 States at Risk in the Debt Ceiling Debate – CNN Money

US Money Market Funds Build Liquidity – CNBC     Just in Case

Americans’ Debt Rage Boils Over: Angry Calls, E-Mails & Tweets Wallop DC – NY Post

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By Alasdair Macleod

Forecasters face a dilemma: is the outlook inflation, or deflation? And given the recent signs of disappointing economic growth, are we worrying too much about inflation? Certainly, for the Keynesians, who are constantly on the look-out for signs of deflation, and who believe that governments must at all costs keep prices gently rising, the alarm bells are ringing.

At the heart of their economic philosophy is the tired old economic fallacy Read More »

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