WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE PRESIDENT IS AGAINST THE COUNTRY AND ITS GREATNESS, ACCUSES IT OF GREED AND TOO MUCH SUCCESS?

Lately the President has started again demonizing industry, demonizing banks, insurance companies, and businessmen in general as somehow being against the "people". Divide and conquer is the name of the game and not UNITY>

Has he forgotten that most people actually work for a living in a "business" that provides their livelihood? Why is the administration of a "uniter" consistently dividing the country by race, class, ethnic origin and finances and success. Success is put down, and hate of the successful people is emphasized.

Fiery speeches comparing constantly to slavery the current apparent condition of the population, is getting the county no-place. Demonizing employers, adding to the cost burden of employers though unnecessary mandates ranging from how to dispose of the waste water after washing your service truck to how many gallons are maximum per flush, is not making America or Americans more successful or happy.

The worst fears and forecasts relating to the onerous OBAMACARE mandates are starting to creep in. Employers are already warning of sharp cost increases for health care premiums, and many have announced that they will be canceling coverage altogether with the employees having to be covered on "government" plans of which realistically there are none at present.

On further analysis, there is absolutely nothing that this new "historic" president had done or said that has improved America's standing in the world, improved the life of any American, employed more people or made the population happier and more content-NOTHING.

Furthermore, through ill advised draconian measures, we are the ONLY country that is NOT drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico, while all the others there are sucking up the oil for their own use. The entire group of well paid employees working the rigs for US companies are out of work for no good reason.

It is hard to imagine, that a President would work to actually destroy the economic base of America though his policies and through class envy.

Here are some comments from readers of the WASHINGTON POST, a truly liberal paper, and there was not one comment favoring the president's actions to date...the comments are very interesting, as an insight into the distortions and outright lies put out by the administration in recent speeches.

Here are some of the comments:

In November 2008, more than half of American voters were hypnotized by this mysterious, messianic figure on whom they pinned all their hopes and dreams. But since then, many have gradually realized their shining savior was really an incompetent, deceptive, pathologically narcissistic man entranced by an evil ideology that has left a trail of unprecedented misery and death for 100 years.
"Change" has indeed come to America, but not the kind most people had "hoped" for.

uconnors wrote:
The headline should be...Obama takes his "offensiveness" to GOP country. 32 days.....Nov. 2, 2010

JW13 wrote:
Yeah, I'd say it's offensive alright. The only question is "Does he know he sounds like a nut? Or does he really believe this crap?" Unfortunately, the poor that he and his party have worked overtime to keep that way will buy his bs. Fortunately, those who started watching politics for the first time in a long time are seeing what a bankrupt ideology the left has developed. How pathetic.

gobnait06 wrote:
Still the left tries to convince you that the RIGHT is crazy and dangerous, that the RIGHT is responsible for our crises, that the RIGHT is the one with the problem. It would be hilarious if it weren't so sad.

bucksaw wrote:
Barry has made us his slaves!

larry22 wrote:
Obama planned to use his cap-and-trade legislation to "de-industrialize" America, thereby shrinking our national economy and job market for the middle-class in order to "re-distribute" our nation's wealth creation ability to China, South America, and other parts of Asia to finally create true social and economic justice on a global scale. But, when Obamaonomics produced a middle-class unemployment rate of 30% who was Obama going blame? Greedy capitalist corporations and their Republican stooges?

When America no longer has the national wealth creation abilities through our free market capitalist system to pay the bill for Obamacare and other progressive, social justice, welfare programs was Obama going to blame Bush for this, too!?!?

Obama said he wanted to see a day when the greedy US economy no longer drives the global economy. To achieve this day Obama has to create a nightmare for the middle-class by damaging our economy's ability to grow and create "greedy" wealth. Obama believes growth of the US economy damages the global economy. However, growth of our economy drives the growth of the global economy!!! It is not a zero-sum gain where our nation has to lose in order for other nations to gain.

When America grows others grow as well to the benefit of everyone, not the chosen elite, radical, leftwing, progressive few as is the case in all socialist, totalitarian societies.

Obama, the smartest president in our nation's history, doesn't seem to have even a basic grasp of Economics 101.

bahmi wrote:
Keep giving me candy, stupid people. I will cut your guts out, you stupid people. You haven't seen anything yet. I will make this country just another third world nation, you won't know what hit you, stupid people. Listen to me, idiots. I am the Messiah. You are the losers, now pay up.

uconnors wrote:
5000 characters? Not necessary ! Obama is a "joke"...albeit a dangerous one. It is obvious he is triggering and ginning up his African-American base. His tactic is disgusting. We begin the long process of making inroads into this National nightmare on November 2, 2010. 32 days

herzik wrote:
This country wants to be united again, like we were right after 9/11. But this president continues to divide us, the country does not have a problem with his race, we just have a problem that he continues to ignore what "We the people" want. The democrats have shoved everything down our throats and they and the president continue to move farther and farther left. Until they wake up and realize acting like the Republicans are poison they will never find favor again. I am a independent and will not vote for another democrat until I see them start to listen to the people again. I am fired up more and more when I see statements like this from the president and Pelosi. I hope things are turned upside down in November, and they all have to remember who is really in charge and that is us, "We the People". Wake up America!!!! Take a stand or watch this country continue to crumble!

gobnait06 wrote:
Why is anyone surprised by the state of this country and the impending implosion of this so-called leader? If you had only listened when the few of us who weren't taken in by his unctuous, disingenuous manner and blatant lies, we wouldn't be in this mess. When the MSM dismissed or tried to explain away his unsavory associations, when liberal pundits mocked and debased the right for questioning his motives, you believed them and looked the other way. When Michelle Obama told you that 'Barack wasn't going to let you go back to your old ways', you should have paid attention. The ominous remarks that Obama made before his inauguration, "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming this country"terrified some of us; did you think he was kidding? The signs were there, screaming in your faces. You chose to ignore them and not DEMAND answers and now. we are ALL paying dearly. NOW you're angry. NOW you're worried. You're about three years too late.

rjhasko wrote:
Slaves? Really? We are witnessing the beginning of the inevitable obama meltdown. And do we need any more proof of obama's racist motivations?

songsmithdan wrote:
"hoodwink a whole bunch of folks all across the country" Does that include the democrats that have gone AWOL from his policies? Have they left him for a reason? It it's possible for Bush to be wrong, while Obama does the same things Bush did (while saying "bush policies failed), just who's doing the "hoodwinking". Obama really thinks the people he speaks to are not capable of common sense.

OrnleyGumfudgen wrote:
It's a shame our liar and moron in chief is so intellectually and historically challenged. He utterly fails to comprehend the reason slavery didn't end instantly was largely due to the fact we didn't have instantaneous global communications technologies that cover the earth in a matter of seconds rather than a communications system that took days, weeks, months and even years to discriminate information.

JohnLeeHooker1 wrote:
It was said by other posters: Odumbo, our Erkel president, is a pathetic little man who never misses an opportunity to inject race into the discussion.

acalmingeffect wrote:
This ObombaClown has been EXPOSED as a Fraud, The Hope & Change Magic Pixie Dust has lost its Mystical Powers.It Now only works on the Stupid Gullible Weak and Lazy who are still waiting by the Mailbox for the Unicorn & Golden Ticket to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory . Trusting ObombaClown with the Safety & Security of this country is like letting your 9yr old son do a sleep over @ Micheal Jackson's Neverland Ranch

Rightly wrote:
Why does the media persist in the "Bush Era tax cuts for the rich" fallacy. Check the facts. A great many of the tax cuts (capital gains rates, dividend rates) affect people earning well under $200,000. The media support of this tax cuts for the rich line is one of the great Democratic triumphs in this campaign.

SamIam9 wrote:
What a disgrace this president is. What an embarrassment. What a mistake some people made in electing him. The man deceived the nation and lied about who and what he was but evidence of the truth about him was out prior to the election so there is no excuse.

If you helped inflict this catastrophe on our country you must begin to make amends next election by voting for divided government that can at least slow down his destructive agenda and policies.

fbanta wrote:
Is there anything that the president hasn't lied about? How can anyone listen to him when he has lied to us about every policy he has promoted?

He told us that if we gave him $1 Trillion that unemployment wouldn't exceed 8%: he lied.

He told us that he was suspending drilling in the Gulf (sending the only high paying jobs left in the Gulf to Brazil) because his 'expert panel' told him to: he lied!

He told us that healthcare reform would reduce costs for everyone: He Lied! He said we could keep our existing plans: He Lied! He told us we could keep our doctors: He lied! He told us there wouldn't be rationing: He Lied!

He told us that the surge in Iraq wouldn't work: he lied! He told us he had a plan for Afghanistan: he lied!

He told us he would post all legislation on the Internet for 5 days before signing it: he lied!

He told us he'd bring new transparency to government: he lied-with backroom deals with Big Pharma and Big Healthcare; Big Unions: all done in secret.

He told us he would build bridges and bring Americans together: he Lied! He's the most divisive president in our history, intentionally driving wedges between large segments of our population for his own purposes.

He told us that he would go through the Budget line by line to eliminate ineffective programs: he lied! Instead he added a layer of czars (un-vetted by Congress) over the existing Cabinet infrastructure. And, we still don't have a Budget!

He blames the opposition for failure to pass legislation although he has a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and an overwhelming majoriy in the House: he lies!

He said he would "fundamentally transform the USA": and he is doing his best to do so: but he has no Constitutional authority to do so and must be impeached for usurping powers not delegated.

gneubeck wrote:
Barack is fond of complaining of late that his opponents: "treat me like I'm a dawg". Well Barack, has it ever occurred to you that it just might be the Marxist dawg food that you've become fond of trying to force down the throats of a Center-Right America? Quite a difference from the $100/lb Kobe beef, lobster thermidore, and caviar that you and Michelle have become accustomed to as your standard WH fare. When is your next AF #1 sojourn to New York for a 5-star dinner and a Broadway show? It's become obvious to most by both your incendiary remarks and your conduct, particularly in the presence of foreigners, that you are the most anti-American President in our history. Your haven't said what kind of Dawg you envision yourself as; but for certain, the American electorate will neuter you this coming November. Greg Neubeck

BigLouie wrote:
Taking the words from John Kerry 'The electorate is uniformed' and as a result in 2008 they elected this liar who was supposed to rise above racism. However, much to the dismay of many, he and his AG - Holder have done nothing but exhibit and promote RACIST behavior. He is setting back many gains made by the blacks. MLK would take this guy to the wood shed.

IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE THAT ALL THESE COMMENTS FROM FROM A LIBERAL NEWSPAPER, THE WRITING IN ON THE WALL, THE POPULATION WHICH HAS BEEN TAKEN FOR GRANTED as dumb votes, is waking up and wants its country back?

The USA, ostensibly the most successful country in the history of the world, a country that has advanced the working class status to being able to live comfortably, own homes, several cars, and have plenty of food to be purchased on every corner, is now being ridiculed for its success by its own president!

The President who has personally profited from his status as a "black-man" though universities which gave passing grades, through no real jobs all on the public dole, and he now has reported over $5 million of cash in the bank though book deals and the like is now demonizing other who worked to achieve financial success...go figure!

LIES AND LIES ABOUT OBAMACARE HAS COME HOME TO ROOST AND THE VOTERS ARE ANGRY ABOUT ALL THE LIES THAT ARE NOW BEING EXPOSED

Six months ago, President Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rammed Obamacare down the throats of an unwilling American public. Half a year removed from the unprecedented legislative chicanery and backroom dealing that characterized the bill's passage, we know much more about the bill than we did then. A few of the revelations:

» Obamacare won't decrease health care costs for the government. According to Medicare's actuary, it will increase costs. The same is likely to happen for privately funded health care.

» As written, Obamacare covers elective abortions, contrary to Obama's promise that it wouldn't. This means that tax dollars will be used to pay for a procedure millions of Americans across the political spectrum view as immoral. Supposedly, the Department of Health and Human Services will bar abortion coverage with new regulations but these will likely be tied up for years in litigation, and in the end may not survive the court challenge.

» Obamacare won't allow employees or most small businesses to keep the coverage they have and like. By Obama's estimates, as many as 69 percent of employees, 80 percent of small businesses, and 64 percent of large businesses will be forced to change coverage, probably to more expensive plans.

» Obamacare will increase insurance premiums -- in some places, it already has. Insurers, suddenly forced to cover clients' children until age 26, have little choice but to raise premiums, and they attribute to Obamacare's mandates a 1 to 9 percent increase. Obama's only method of preventing massive rate increases so far has been to threaten insurers.

» Obamacare will force seasonal employers -- especially the ski and amusement park industries -- to pay huge fines, cut hours, or lay off employees.

» Obamacare forces states to guarantee not only payment but also treatment for indigent Medicaid patients. With many doctors now refusing to take Medicaid (because they lose money doing so), cash-strapped states could be sued and ordered to increase reimbursement rates beyond their means.

» Obamacare imposes a huge nonmedical tax compliance burden on small business. It will require them to mail IRS 1099 tax forms to every vendor from whom they make purchases of more than $600 in a year, with duplicate forms going to the Internal Revenue Service. Like so much else in the 2,500-page bill, our senators and representatives were apparently unaware of this when they passed the measure.

» Obamacare allows the IRS to confiscate part or all of your tax refund if you do not purchase a qualified insurance plan. The bill funds 16,000 new IRS agents to make sure Americans stay in line.

If you wonder why so many American voters are angry, and no longer give Obama the benefit of the doubt on a variety of issues, you need look no further than Obamacare, whose birthday gift to America might just be a GOP congressional majority.

ABOVE IS FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion

GOVERNMENT "SURPRISED" BY INCREASE IN JOBLESS CLAIMS, IT EXPECTED LESS AND LESS, AFTER ALL THE RECESSION WAS OVER A YEAR AGO!

Is it any surprise that the government is surprised about their predictions not being on target?

It seems that the government is surprised about everything it is predicting, or has predicted, and that somehow all the magical things that should have happened, have not in fact happened at all!

The simple fact is that the government honchos, most of whom have never lived in the real world, or were elites looking only at theory rather than reality through their university positions or the like,do not have a "connection" with the daily realities we all face. These include creeping increases in the cost of daily necessities such as gasoline,electricity, heating and cooking gas, and just about everything else.

Most importantly, the businesses that employ the majority of Americans, are carefully watching their dwindling profits collapsing and thus are forced to consider layoffs, just to remain viable. The thinking that they will keep a long time employee "just in case" business picks up is no longer the case, as realities take hold.

There is no surprise in the jobless claims, the increase in only the beginning of what will be a continuing trend as long as the nasty new mandates are in place and more are schduled to start in the future.

There is a little ray of hope in that some of the future mandates can be killed, or defunded after the November elections which foretell a backlash by voters, and may sweep in a new majority opposed to the continued destruction of jobs and finances of working people.

When the jobless start to have no jobs to replace those they lost, it becomes a strange circle of lower paying future jobs that will be replacing the ones that were lost, and this will cause a lower living standard for this entire group of people.

Thus, it will be no surprise when the jobless claims continue for a while to rise and the unemployed will stay that way or will finally accept lower paying jobs...which will inevitably cause a domino effect on the entire economy.

The result will be the continuation of loss of value in homes, in less demand from consumers for hard goods, clothing and automobiles most of which will be beyond the cost afforded by the average worker.

Government needs to get out of the way, and follow the advice of a former famous CEO, Lee Iaccoca, who said, " lead, follow or get out of the way". Right now it is only standing in the way, leading the country on the wrong path, and refusing adamantley to follow the will of the people.

GOVERNMENT PROPOSES THAT ALL EMPLOYEE PAYCHECKS FIRST GO THE THE GOVERNMENT, AND THEN BE SENT TO EMPLOYEES-INSANITY IS STARTING

AS UNBELIEVABLE AS IT SOUNDS. the UK's tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.

This is also something that the administration supports!

The proposal by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) stresses the need for employers to provide real-time information to the government so that it can monitor all payments and make a better assessment of whether the correct tax is being paid.

This is one of the craziest schemes yet proposed by the government which now needs to be removed, and sane people elected.

Currently employers withhold tax and pay the government, providing information at the end of the year, a system know as Pay as You Earn (PAYE). There is no option for those employees to refuse withholding and individually file a tax return at the end of the year.

If the real-time information plan works, it further proposes that employers hand over employee salaries to the government first.

"The next step could be to use (real-time) information as the basis for centralizing the calculation and deduction of tax," HMRC said in a July discussion paper.

HMRC described the plan as "radical" as it would be a huge change from the current system that has been largely unchanged for 66 years.

Even though the centralized deductions proposal would provide much-needed oversight, there are some major concerns, George Bull, head of Tax at Baker Tilly, told CNBC.com.

"If HMRC has direct access to employees' bank accounts and makes a mistake, people are going to feel very exposed and vulnerable," Bull said.

And the chance of widespread mistakes could be high, according to Bull. HMRC does not have a good track record of handling large computer systems and has suffered high-profile errors with data, he said.

The system would be massive in terms of data management, larger than a recent attempt to centralize the National Health Service's data, which was later scrapped, Bull said.

If there's a mistake and the HMRC collects too much money, the difficulty of getting it back could be high with repayments of tax taking weeks or months, he said.

"There has to be some very clear understanding of how quickly repayments were made if there was a mistake," Bull said.

HMRC estimated the potential savings to employers from the introduction of the concept would be about £500 million ($780 million).

But the cost of implementing the new system would be "phenomenal," Bull pointed out.

"It's very clear that the system does need to be modernized… It's outdated, it's outmoded," Emma Boon, campaigner manager at the Tax Payers' Alliance, told CNBC.com.

Boon said that the Tax Payers' Alliance was in favor of simplifying tax collection, but stressed that a new complex computer system would add infrastructure and administration costs at a time when the government is trying to reduce spending.

There is a further concern, according to Bull. The centralized storage of so much data poises a security risk as the system may be open to cyber crime.

As well as security issues, there's a huge issue of transparency, according to Boon.

Boon also questioned HMCR's ability to handle to the role effectively.

The Institute of Directors (IoD), a UK organization created to promote the business agenda of directors and entreprenuers, said in a press release it had major concerns about the proposal to allow employees' pay to be paid directly to HMRC.

Are you kidding, "major concerns?" is that all they can say. The government does not have any idea of handling some of the simplest tasks, now it wants this?

WHO IS WATCHING THE $800 BILLION OF STIMULUS SPENDING...APPARENTLY NOBODY AS $823,000 SPENT ON "PENIS WASHING" STUDY OF AFRICAN MEN ( STIMULUS??)

Feds Spent $800,000 of Economic Stimulus on African Genital-Washing Program
We discivered another necessary use of STIMULUS MONEY.

AS YOU MAY RECALL THIS stimulus WAS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY TO SAVE THE UNITED STATES. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), a division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), spent $823,200 of economic stimulus funds in 2009 on a study by a UCLA research team to teach uncircumcised African men how to wash their genitals after having sex.

The genitalia-washing program is part of a larger $12-million UCLA study examining how to better encourage Africans to undergo voluntary HIV testing and counseling – however, only the penis-washing study received money from the 2009 economic stimulus law. The washing portion of the study is set to end in 2011.

“NIH Announces the Availability of Recovery Act Funds for Competitive Revision Applications,” the grant abstract states. “We propose to evaluate the feasibility of a post-coital genital hygiene study among men unwilling to be circumcised in Orange Farm, South Africa.”

Because AIDS researchers have been unsuccessful in convincing most adult African men to undergo circumcision, the UCLA study proposes to determine whether researchers can develop an after-sex genitalia-washing regimen that they can then convince uncircumcised African men to follow.

“The aim of the proposed feasibility study is to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of a post-coital male genital hygiene procedure, which participants will be asked to practice immediately post-coitus or at least 12 hours after,” reads the abstract.

Entitled “Community-Based HIV VCT: South Africa,” the name of the broader umbrella project, the program plans to test how well received the penis-washing regimen is among South African men.

If most of the men in the study wash their genitals after sex, are willing to do so after the study ends, and report that their partners accept the regimen, the researchers will develop another study to see if the “penile cleansing procedure” actually works to prevent HIV infections.

“If we find that men are able to practice consistent washing practices after sex, we will plan to test whether this might protect men from becoming HIV infected in a later study,” the grant says.

The study’s lead investigator Dr. Thomas J. Coates was the fourth highest-funded researcher in the country in 2002 and is currently conducting HIV research on three continents.

CNSNews.com asked both Coates and NIMH the following question: “The Census Bureau says the median household income in the United States is $52,000. How would you explain to the average American mom and dad -- who make $52,000 per year -- that taxing them to pay for this grant was justified?”

Coates, who was unavailable for comment, directed CNSNews.com to ask grant-related questions of his assistant, Darya Freedman, who did not respond.

The NIMH also declined to respond to CNSNews.com’s question.

NATION'S DEFICIT HAS GROWN MORE IN THE LAST TWO YEARS THAN IN THE FIRST 200 YEARS DUE TO FISCAL MISMANAGEMENT

During the first 19 months of the Obama administration, the federal debt held by the public increased by $2.5260 trillion, which is more than the cumulative total of the national debt held by the public that was amassed by all U.S. presidents from George Washington through Ronald Reagan.

The U.S. Treasury Department divides the federal debt into two categories. One is “debt held by the public,” which includes U.S. government securities owned by individuals, corporations, state or local governments, foreign governments and other entities outside the federal government itself. The other is “intragovernmental” debt, which includes I.O.U.s the federal government gives to itself when, for example, the Treasury borrows money out of the Social Security “trust fund” to pay for expenses other than Social Security.

At the end of fiscal year 1989, which ended eight months after President Reagan left office, the total federal debt held by the public was $2.1907 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That means all U.S. presidents from George Washington through Ronald Reagan had accumulated only that much publicly held debt on behalf of American taxpayers. That is $335.3 billion less than the $2.5260 trillion that was added to the federal debt held by the public just between Jan. 20, 2009, when President Obama was inaugurated, and Aug. 20, 2010, the 19-month anniversary of Obama's inauguration.

By contrast, President Reagan was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 1981 and left office eight years later on Jan. 20, 1989. At the end of fiscal 1980, four months before Reagan was inaugurated, the federal debt held by the public was $711.9 billion, according to CBO. At the end of fiscal 1989, eight months after Reagan left office, the federal debt held by the public was $2.1907 trillion. That means that in the nine-fiscal-year period of 1980-89--which included all of Reagan’s eight years in office--the federal debt held by the public increased $1.4788 trillion. That is in excess of a trillion dollars less than the $2.5260 increase in the debt held by the public during Obama’s first 19 months.

When President Barack Obama took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, the total federal debt held by the public stood at 6.3073 trillion, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, a division of the U.S. Treasury Department. As of Aug. 20, 2010, after the first nineteen months of President Obama’s 48-month term, the total federal debt held by the public had grown to a total of $8.8333 trillion, an increase of $2.5260 trillion.

In just the last four months (May through August), according to the CBO, the Obama administration has run cumulative deficits of $464 billion, more than the $458 billion deficit the Bush administration ran through the entirety of fiscal 2008.

The CBO predicted this week that the annual budget deficit for fiscal 2010, which ends on the last day of this month, will exceed $1.3 trillion.

The first two fiscal years in which Obama has served will see the two biggest federal deficits as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product since the end of World War II.

“CBO currently estimates that the deficit for 2010 will be about $70 billion below last year’s total but will still exceed $1.3 trillion,” said the CBO’s monthly budget review for September, which was released yesterday. “Relative to the size of the economy, this year’s deficit is expected to be the second-largest shortfall in the past 65 years: At 9.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), that deficit will be exceeded only by last year’s deficit of 9.9 percent of GDP.”

USA SLIPPING AS A COMPETITIVE ECONOMY DUE TO HUGE DEFICITS AND PESSIMISM ABOUT GOVERNMENT

The U.S. has slipped down the ranks of competitive economies, falling behind Sweden and Singapore due to huge deficits and pessimism about government, a global economic group said Thursday.

Switzerland retained the top spot for the second year in the annual ranking by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum. It combines economic data and a survey of more than 13,500 business executives.

Sweden moved up to second place while Singapore stayed at No. 3. The United States was in second place last year after falling from No. 1 in 2008.

The WEF praised the United States for its innovative companies, excellent universities and flexible labor market. But it also cited huge deficits, rising government debt and declining public faith in politicians and corporate ethics.

"There has been a weakening of the United States' public and private institutions, as well as lingering concerns about the state of its financial markets," the group said.

Mapping a clear strategy for exiting the huge U.S. stimulus "will be an important step in reinforcing the country's competitiveness," it said.

The report was released in Beijing ahead of a WEF-organized gathering of global business executives next week in neighboring Tianjin. The group is best known for its annual Davos meeting of corporate leaders.

The report ranks 139 countries by assessing business efficiency, innovation, financial markets, health, education, institutions, infrastructure and other factors.

The United States was followed by Germany, Japan, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark and Canada.

Switzerland held its top rank due to its strong innovation, evenhanded regulation and one of the world's most stable economic environments.

The WEF cited education and regulation as key areas for improvement in a number of economies and warned leaders not to lose sight of long-term needs as they struggle with the global crisis.

"For economies to remain competitive, they must ensure that they have in place those factors driving the productivity enhancements on which their present and future prosperity is built," one of the report's co-authors, Columbia University economist Xavier Sala-i-Martin, said in a statement.

China performed best among major developing economies, rising two places from last year to 27th based on its large and growing market, economic stability and increasing sophistication of its businesses.

Japan gained two places, helped by strong innovative abilities, though its status was hurt by the country's two-decade-old financial malaise.

Greece plunged 12 places to 83rd, plagued by a debt crisis and mounting public concern about corruption and government inefficiency, according to the WEF.

GENERAL MOTORS RISES FROM THE DEAD AS "NOSFERATU" THE UNDEAD ONLY TO SHAFT INVESTORS AGAIN SOON; PROSPECTUS DISCLOSES SCARY INFORMATION

GM, as the undead creature formed by a government committee, having shafted its previous stockholders is attempting to shaft some new ones once again though its new IPO stock offering. The purpose of the IPO is to generate funds to pay off old loans and to give a value to the unions and other constituencies created in that financial debacle orchestrated by the Obama administration which circumvented all bankruptcy laws.

General Motors Co. will have to persuade investors to look past declining market share, less than a year of profitability and management new to the auto industry to buy shares in its initial public offering.

GM, 61 percent owned by the U.S., said yesterday its North America market share may fall by 2014, while the company has forecast earnings growth will slow in the second half of the year after a two-quarter return to profitability. The automaker must have a market capitalization of $69.4 billion after the IPO for the government to be able to break even on its investment, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

GM’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday laid out the challenges the Detroit-based company will face generating enough investor demand to complete an offering that people familiar with the plan have said may be as large as $16 billion.

“It will be a tough sell because the company has only posted two quarterly profits and the CEO is stepping down,” said Peter Jankovskis, who oversees $2.3 billion as co-chief investment officer at OakBrook Investments in Lisle, Illinois. “Those aren’t the normal types of things associated with an IPO that’s going to be highly subscribed.”

The company must be worth even more than the $69.4 billion for the U.S. to fully recover its investment if the bondholders and the United Auto Workers union exercise warrants and dilute the government’s stake, data compiled by Bloomberg show. That’s more than three times the value of GM’s equity at the end of the last bull market in U.S. stocks and 65 percent higher than Ford Motor Co.’s market capitalization of $42 billion.

Profit Forecast

GM posted profit of $865 million in the first quarter and $1.54 billion in the second quarter. Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said last week he expected earnings to moderate in the second half, without giving a specific target.

Recent economic reports have signaled the U.S.’s recovery from the longest recession since the Great Depression is deteriorating. Unemployment claims unexpectedly rose in the first week of August and sales at retailers increased less than forecast last month, reports showed last week. The Federal Reserve said Aug. 10 that the pace of recovery will probably be “more modest” than forecast.

“This is going to be harder than it would have been if the economy and the auto market were in better shape,” said Joe Phillippi, principal of AutoTrends Inc., a consulting firm in Short Hills, New Jersey. “Every week, people are ratcheting down their outlook for the economy and that will affect the price of this deal.”

Fleet Sales

GM and other automakers have sold more vehicles this year to rental and government fleets, which tend to be less profitable than retail sales. GM said yesterday that fleet sales were 32.3 percent of its volume in the first half of this year, up from 24.7 percent last year. Ford got 31 percent of its sales from fleets this year, according to Automotive News.

Such purchases will account for 25 percent to 27 percent of sales for the year, Liddell said last week.

Retaining its share of the North American auto sales also will be a challenge, GM said. The company now has 17.8 percent of the market and forecasts that will slip to 17.6 percent by 2014.

GM’s past dominance of U.S. auto sales has shrunk steadily since its market share peaked at 51 percent in 1962. Since 2002, when the company’s share of new vehicle sales in the U.S. was 28.4 percent, it’s fallen every year to just 19.2 percent this year through July.

The last time GM accounted for a smaller share of new U.S. vehicle sales on an annual basis was in 1925, according to data from trade publication Automotive News.

‘Public Perception’

GM said competitors have succeeded in poaching its customers because of a “negative public perception” of its products.

“It’s something they have been working on for a few years, said Rebecca Lindland, director of IHS Automotive, in Lexington, Massachusetts. ‘‘They’re starting to see some results, but it’s an ongoing battle for them.”

GM also may face a decline in the Chinese market, where the company is a top performer and highly profitable, AutoTrends’ Phillippi said.

GM’s second-quarter sales for the Chinese market fell to 586,000 from 624,000 in the first quarter. GM’s share in China fell to 13.1 percent in the second quarter from 13.3 percent in the first quarter, the company said last week.

New Management

GM flagged its new management team as a potential risk yesterday. Chief Executive Officer Ed Whitacre, 68, said last week that he would step down as CEO Sept. 1 and as chairman at the end of the year, ceding both titles to Dan Akerson, a managing director of the Carlyle Group. Akerson, 61, has been on GM’s board since July 2009 and previously served as chairman and CEO of XO Communications, Nextel Communications and General Instrument Corp.

In its prospectus, GM said the lack of automotive industry experience for Akerson, the company’s fourth CEO since April 2009, and Liddell, who previously CFO for Microsoft Corp. and International Paper Co., was a risk.

Steve Rattner, who led the Obama Administration’s Auto Task Force, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television that Whitacre should have stayed longer.

“It is not optimal for a company to have four CEOs in a year and a half,” Rattner said. “That is not best management practice.”

Some investors will be willing to shoulder the risk because GM has potential for greater profits and growth, said Michael Yoshikami, who oversees about $1 billion as chief investment strategist at YCMNet Advisors in Walnut Creek, California.

“It’s going to well-received by investors,” Yoshikami said. “People believe GM is coming back.”

He said he doesn’t plan to buy the shares for his firm because it’s not a conservative enough investment. Ha ha, better than saying its very stupid as a buy.

Wait till you see how many people do not buy the products it is being forced to sell like its 40 mile electric power car..??

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- For those who are interested in buying General Motors once it goes public again, you won't be able to say you weren't warned.

The GM prospectus has plenty of scary material in it. Admittedly, every company does -- that's their lawyers' job. But there are plenty of factors worth giving pause to snapping up the company when it re-lists, above and beyond the larger concerns about the state of the automotive markets.

The first version of course doesn't list the price of the 500 million common shares it plans to sell. But in any event, those shares would be buying a company that earned $2.2 billion in the first half of this year on revenue of $64.7 billion -- a profit margin of 3.4%. Ford /quotes/comstock/13*!f/quotes/nls/f (F 11.93, +0.13, +1.10%) earned $4.5 billion on revenue of $59.4 billion, so it's more than twice as profitable.

Now it's no shock that Ford is in better shape than GM -- that's how Ford avoided bankruptcy in the first place. A Wall Street analyst could well say that GM has more upside, and that's undeniably true.

But look at all the balls GM is going to juggle. It's getting rid of 700 U.S. dealers and has axed four brands -- which, given other companies' experiences has led GM to conclude that "our market share could decline because of these reductions" from its current top position of 19% in North America.

GM is also worried that four years down the road, it may have to make "significant contributions" to its U.S. defined pension plan that was underfunded by $17 billion at the end of 2009 -- when the interest rates of corporate bonds were higher.

The old GMAC, now called Ally Financial, doesn't have the financing power of old; the vaunted Chevy Volt relies on battery power "that has not yet proven to be commercially viable"; the top two executives don't have previous automotive experience; and, not to be ignored, its controls over financial reporting "are currently not effective."

Just as with Ford, there are no dividends on offer, and while it's dumped previous healthcare obligations, new ones are coming on stream.

Now granted, GM's strong in China, has virtually no short-term debt obligations and has $31.5 billion of cash. But as GM has shown, cash can get burned up rather quickly.

Plus, there's the small matter of the economy on shaky footing.

Until the price is set, it's obviously impossible to say whether GM is a buy or sell. But investors may want to pause before joining the United States and Canadian governments and the United Auto Workers as co-owners.

GOVERNMENT IS CLUELESS ABOUT HOW TO STIMULATE JOBS; TAX CREDITS ARE OF NO USE WHEN THERE IS NO DEMAND FOR THE PRODUCTS MADE BY "NEW" EMPLOYEES!!!!

When the nation elected the new President who had touted HOPE AND CHANGE, they expected a positive change and hoped for it to happen.

The new President, being a totally inexperienced and naive community organizer, really has no idea about how any business really operates. He had chosen then to attempt to demonize every "big" business as somehow bad for the country, and oil companies, health care companies and the auto companies were the first recipients of the "change" announced previously.

Furthermore, the new President then decided to make executive level appointments of even more politically driven, agenda driven equally inexperienced people to run this country. So they proceeded to demonize more industries, more entrepreneurs and business in general.

Where do these guys think all the USA population will work? The answer is in a business!

After noticing that their rhetoric is not adding to business, the administration then concocted a variety of "business friendly" incentives to stimulate the hiring of employees. However, none of these stimulants are related to the "real world" of business, but are rather academic mumbo-jumbo concocted by inexperienced and agenda driven politico operatives that do not understand anything, (emphasis added anything) about what motivates a business to hire new employees.

For instance the center piece of their strategy was a TAX CREDIT, for every employee hired, but as usual there were so many restrictions and conditions, that no business has really even bothered to be incentivised to use such a credit.

There is absolutely no reason for a business to hire a new employee until there is a NEED FOR THE EMPLOYEE! Hello, does anyone out there understand this?

A tax credit also means that there has to be a taxable income to offset, and for many businesses, that is a very small amount, so there is no incentive per-se to add an employee. Why would I hire a new employee, if I got now stuck paying for health care, the added taxes at all levels for such an employee, and then receive a one time credit that I may not be able to use?

Clueleess is not the name of a movie, it is reality coming from our elected officials who are just adding to the problems of a business which is already burdened with needless regulations, taxes, tax forms, reports, compliances, mandates and threats of fines for every little thing.

The new OBAMACARE plans would force the providing of health care to employees, and that cost will become astronomical with all the conditions put on those plans.

So, the bottom line is that there will not be any job growth, when businesses do not see a pick up in business, since business adds employees wisely, unlike the government, and adds them when necessary not due to a tax credit.

HELP save us from our incompetent government...what have they done well, ever?

Every single government program, which was touted as the end all be all, is a disaster, every one: Social Security is broke; New Orleans rebuilding is broke; stimulus is broke; banking guarantee funds are broke; the budget is impossible and the country is only borrowing but is technically broke; welfare handouts, housing vouchers and medicaid is broke, AND SO ON AND SO ON.

Now, the government wants to make all business broke....what will then be left?

As a famous movie hero said, " stupid is as stupid does!".

ARIZONA BEING TAKEN OVER BY MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS WHILE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DOES NOTHING OTHER THAN PUT UP SIGNS WARNING OF DANGERS; YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN

Barack Obama ordered the federal government to post signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state of Arizona.

The signs were put up by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend, a major east-west corridor linking Tucson and Phoenix with San Diego.

The signs warn travelers that they are entering an "active drug and human smuggling area" and they may encounter "armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed." Beginning less than 50 miles south of Phoenix, the signs encourage travelers to "use public lands north of Interstate 8" and to call 911 if they "see suspicious activity."

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county lies at the center of major drug and alien smuggling routes to Phoenix and cities east and west, attests to the violence. He said his deputies are outmanned and outgunned by drug traffickers in the rough-hewn desert stretches of his own county.

"Mexican drug cartels literally do control parts of Arizona," he said. "They literally have scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills and they literally control movement. They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has.

"This is going on here in Arizona," he said. "This is 70 to 80 miles from the border - 30 miles from the fifth-largest city in the United States."

He said he asked the Obama administration for 3,000 National Guard soldiers to patrol the border, but what he got were 15 signs.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer condemned what she called the federal government's "continued failure to secure our international border," saying the lack of security has resulted in important natural recreational areas in her state being declared too dangerous to visit.

In a recent campaign video posted to YouTube, Mrs. Brewer - standing in front of one of the BLM signs - attacked the administration over the signs, calling them "an outrage" and telling President Obama to "Do your job. Secure our borders."

BLM spokesman Dennis Godfrey in Arizona said agency officials were surprised by the reaction the signs generated when they were put up this summer.

"We were perhaps naive in setting the signs up," he said. "The intention of the signs was to make the public aware that there is potential illegal activity here. But it was interpreted in a different light, and that was not the intent at all."

He said there should be "no sense that we have ceded the land," adding that no BLM lands in Arizona are closed to the public.

"I kind of liken it to if I were visiting a city I were not familiar with and asked a policeman if it were safe to go in a particular area," Mr. Godfrey said.

Rising violence along the border has coincided with a crackdown in Mexico on warring drug gangs, who are seeking control of smuggling routes into the United States.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has waged a bloody campaign against powerful cartels, yesterday announcing the arrest of Texas-born Edgar "La Barbie" Valdez - a powerful cartel leader captured outside of Mexico City on Monday evening.

More than 28,000 people have died since Mr. Calderon launched his crackdown in late 2006, and the bloodshed shows no sign of ending. Law enforcement authorities have been warning for more than two years that the dramatic rise in border violence eventually would spread into the U.S.

T.J. Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, which represents all 17,500 of the Border Patrol's front-line agents, said areas well north of the border are so overrun by armed criminals that U.S. citizens are being warned to keep out of those locations.

"The federal government's lack of will to secure our borders is painfully evident when signs are posted well north of the border warning citizens that armed and dangerous criminals are roaming through those areas with impunity," he said. "Instead of taking the steps necessary to secure our borders, politicians are attempting to convince the public that our borders are more secure now than ever before.

"Fortunately, some responsible civil servants are candidly warning the public about the dangers that exist not just along the border but, in some cases, well beyond," he said. "This situation should alarm all sensible people, and should spur endless demands that our legislators take whatever actions are necessary to restore law and order to these areas."

Rep. Ted Poe, Texas Republican and a member of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees, said the federal government's new border security plan apparently is to "erect some signs telling you it's not safe to travel in our own country."

This process of non-action by the federal government has exposed this country and its citizens to dangers that can only result in the Destruction of America.

DEATH OF PRIVACY, END TO CASH AS GOVERNMENTS ALL OVER THE WORLD TRY TO FOLLOW YOUR MONEY; PRISON TIME FOR NON-REPORTING YOU!

The Death Of Cash? All Over The World Governments Are Banning Large Cash Transactions

Are we witnessing the slow but certain death of cash in this generation? Is a truly cashless society on the horizon? Legislation currently pending in the Mexican legislature would ban a vast array of large cash transactions, but the truth is that Mexico is far from alone in trying to restrict cash.

All over the world, governments are either placing stringent reporting requirements on large cash transactions or they are banning them altogether. We are being told that such measures are needed to battle illegal drug traffic, to catch tax evaders and to fight the war on terror.

But are we rapidly getting to the point where we will have no financial privacy left whatsoever? Should we just accept that we have entered a time when the government will watch, track and trace all financial transactions? Is it inevitable that at some point in the near future ALL transactions will go through the banking system in one form or another (check, credit card, debit card, etc.)?

The truth is that we now live at a time when people who use large amounts of cash are looked upon with suspicion. In fact, authorities in many countries are taught that anyone involved in a large expenditure of cash is trying to hide something and is probably a criminal.

And yes, a lot of criminals do use cash, but millions upon millions of normal, law-abiding citizens simply prefer to use cash as well. Should we take the freedom to use cash away from the rest of us just because a small minority abuses it?

Unfortunately, the freedom to use cash is being slowly stripped away from us in an increasingly large number of countries.

In fact, as countries like Mexico "tighten the noose" around big-ticket cash purchases, our freedom to use cash is going to erode rather rapidly.

The following is a summary of some of the very tight restrictions being placed on large cash transactions around the globe right now....

Mexico

In Mexico, a bill before the legislature would completely ban the purchase of real estate in cash. In addition, the new law would ban anyone from spending more than MXN 100,000 (about $7,700) in cash on vehicles, boats, airplanes and luxury goods.

$7,700 is not a very high limit, and this legislation has some real teeth to it. Anyone violating this law would face up to 15 years in prison.

Greece

In Europe, some of the "austerity packages" being introduced in various European nations include very severe restrictions on the use of cash.

In Greece, all cash transactions above 1,500 euros are being banned starting next year. The following is a comment by Greek Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou at a press conference discussing the new austerity measures as reported by Reuters....

"From 1. Jan. 2011, every transaction above 1,500 euros between natural persons and businesses, or between businesses, will not be considered legal if it is done in cash. Transactions will have to be done through debit or credit cards"

Italy

Even Italy has gotten into the act. As part of Italy's new "austerity measures", all cash transactions over 5,000 euros will be banned. It is said this is being done to crack down on tax evasion, but even if this is being done to take down the mafia this is still quite severe.

The United States

The U.S. government has not banned any large cash transactions, and hopefully it will not do so any time soon, but it sure has burdened large cash transactions with some heavy-duty reporting requirements.

For example, your bank is required to file a currency transaction report with the government for every deposit, withdrawal or exchange over $10,000 in cash.

Not only that, but if a bank "knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect" that a transaction involving at least $5,000 is "suspicious", then another report must be filled out. This second type of report is known as a suspicious activity report, and it is also filed with the government.

But the reporting does not stop there. As Jeff Schnepper explained in an article for MSN Money, if you are in business and you receive over $10,000 in cash in a single transaction you must report it to the IRS or you will go to prison.....

If you're in a business and receive more than $10,000 in cash from a single transaction, or from related transactions within a 12-month period, you have to file Form 8300 and report the buyer to the IRS. Don't file, and you go to jail.

The IRS isnt kidding. I had a client who was a dealer in Corvette sports cars. He told me he didnt have time to file the forms. I told him several times to file. He thought he knew better. He went to jail. So did his children who were involved in the business.

This is very, very serious.

Just because someone forgets to file a certain form with the IRS, that person can go do serious jail time?

Yes.

According to Schnepper, quite a few Americans have already received very substantial sentences for this kind of thing....

In fiscal 2004, the Internal Revenue Service initiated 1,789 criminal investigations. There were 1,304 indictments and 687 convictions -- and an 89.1% incarceration rate. The average sentence: 63 months.

In fiscal 2005, the IRS started 4,269 investigations, winning 2,406 indictments and 2,151 convictions and an 83% incarceration rate. Average sentence: 42 months.

The reality is that governments around the world are getting very, very sensitive about large amounts of cash and they are not messing around.

They don't want all of us running around with big piles of cash. They want our money in the banks where they can track it, trace it and keep a close eye on it.

On the one hand, it is a good thing to catch criminals and terrorists, but on the other hand how much privacy and freedom are we willing to lose just so that we can feel a little safer?

And as cash becomes criminalized, are all of us going to be forced into the banking system whether we like it or not? If we cannot pay for things in cash, what other choices are we going to have?

The truth is that the more you think about this issue, the more disturbing it becomes.

THE GOVERNMENT IS WATCHING YOU ALREADY, ALL YOUR MOVEMENTS CAN BE TRACKED THROUGH GPS ON YOUR PHONE OR ATTACHED TO YOUR CAR

The Government Can Use GPS to Track Your Moves
By Adam Cohen

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn't violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway — and no reasonable expectation that the government isn't tracking your movements.

That is the bizarre — and scary — rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants — with no need for a search warrant. (See a TIME photoessay on Cannabis Culture.)

(ALSO REMMBER THAT ALL THE CELLULAR PHONE COMPANIES WERE MANDATED UNDER VARIOUS HIDDEDN AGENDAS TO HAVE A GPS TRACKING ABILITY...WONDER WHY???)

It is a dangerous decision — one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.

This case began in 2007, when Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents decided to monitor Juan Pineda-Moreno, an Oregon resident who they suspected was growing marijuana. They snuck onto his property in the middle of the night and found his Jeep in his driveway, a few feet from his trailer home. Then they attached a GPS tracking device to the vehicle's underside.

After Pineda-Moreno challenged the DEA's actions, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled in January that it was all perfectly legal. More disturbingly, a larger group of judges on the circuit, who were subsequently asked to reconsider the ruling, decided this month to let it stand. (Pineda-Moreno has pleaded guilty conditionally to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and manufacturing marijuana while appealing the denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained with the help of GPS.)

In fact, the government violated Pineda-Moreno's privacy rights in two different ways. For starters, the invasion of his driveway was wrong. The courts have long held that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their homes and in the "curtilage," a fancy legal term for the area around the home. The government's intrusion on property just a few feet away was clearly in this zone of privacy.

The judges veered into offensiveness when they explained why Pineda-Moreno's driveway was not private. It was open to strangers, they said, such as delivery people and neighborhood children, who could wander across it uninvited. (See the misadventures of the CIA.)

Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who dissented from this month's decision refusing to reconsider the case, pointed out whose homes are not open to strangers: rich people's. The court's ruling, he said, means that people who protect their homes with electric gates, fences and security booths have a large protected zone of privacy around their homes. People who cannot afford such barriers have to put up with the government sneaking around at night.

Judge Kozinski is a leading conservative, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, but in his dissent he came across as a raging liberal. "There's been much talk about diversity on the bench, but there's one kind of diversity that doesn't exist," he wrote. "No truly poor people are appointed as federal judges, or as state judges for that matter." The judges in the majority, he charged, were guilty of "cultural elitism." (Read about one man's efforts to escape the surveillance state.)

The court went on to make a second terrible decision about privacy: that once a GPS device has been planted, the government is free to use it to track people without getting a warrant. There is a major battle under way in the federal and state courts over this issue, and the stakes are high. After all, if government agents can track people with secretly planted GPS devices virtually anytime they want, without having to go to a court for a warrant, we are one step closer to a classic police state — with technology taking on the role of the KGB or the East German Stasi.

Fortunately, other courts are coming to a different conclusion from the Ninth Circuit's — including the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court ruled, also this month, that tracking for an extended period of time with GPS is an invasion of privacy that requires a warrant. The issue is likely to end up in the Supreme Court.

In these highly partisan times, GPS monitoring is a subject that has both conservatives and liberals worried. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's pro-privacy ruling was unanimous — decided by judges appointed by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. (Comment on this story.)

Plenty of liberals have objected to this kind of spying, but it is the conservative Chief Judge Kozinski who has done so most passionately. "1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it's here at last," he lamented in his dissent. And invoking Orwell's totalitarian dystopia where privacy is essentially nonexistent, he warned: "Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we're living in Oceania."

Cohen, a lawyer, is a former TIME writer and a former member of the New York Times editorial board.

GOVERNMENTS WILL DEFAULT ON THEIR DEBT-THAT IS THE CURRENT AND FORCAST REALITY-LOSSES TO INVESTORS ARE INEVITABLE

Bond investors holding the bonds of foreign countries are just sitting on a ticking time bomb.Investors will face defaults on government bonds given the burden of aging populations and the difficulty of securing more tax revenue, according to a report issued by the well known investment banking firm, Morgan Stanley.

“Governments will impose a loss on some of their stakeholders,” Arnaud Mares, an executive director at Morgan Stanley in London, wrote in a research report today. “The question is not whether they will renege on their promises, but rather upon which of their promises they will renege, and what form this default will take.” The sovereign-debt crisis is global “and it is not over,” the report said.

It is not unusual for debt burdened countries to just stiff their bond holders when they are unable to pay their debts as they mature. They could care less as the markets are literally anticipating this event, and the buyers of these securities know that full well.

They are playing musical chairs with the debt, buying it when the price dips, selling it when it goes up a fraction, and just trading it daily/weekly at times, with no interest in holding it to maturity.

Thus the marginal countries, are literally at the mercy of daily market action related to buyers interest and sellers desire to exit, rather than actual market fundamentals and long term economic outlook for their economies.

Those countries, and the USA is looking more like them every year, simply can not balance their budgets by making needed cuts in typically social welfare programs that their populations have grown accustomed to as a "right".

Countries that try to cut local expenses or benefits are unable to do as due to protests and riots...what will happen next as the spending above their collections continue...expect more of the same.

Borrowing costs for so-called peripheral euro-region nations such as Greece and Ireland surged today, resuming their ascent on concern that governments won’t be able to narrow their budget deficits. Standard & Poor’s downgraded Ireland’s credit rating yesterday on concern about the rising costs to support nationalized banks.

Mares said debt as a percentage of gross domestic product is a false indicator of an economy’s health given it doesn’t reflect governments’ available revenue and is “backward- looking.” While the U.S. government’s debt is 53 percent of GDP, one of the lowest ratios among developed nations, its debt as a percentage of revenue is 358 percent, one of the highest, the report said. Conversely, Italy has one of the highest debt- to-GDP ratios, at 116 percent, yet has a debt-to-revenue ratio of 188, Mares said.

Double Dip

“Outright sovereign default in large advanced economies remains an extremely unlikely outcome, in our view,” the report said. “But current yields and break-even inflation rates provide very little protection against the credible threat of financial oppression in any form it might take.”

Mares once worked at the U.K.’s Debt Management Office and is a former senior vice-president at credit-rating company Moody’s Investors Service.

“Note that a double-dip recession would not invalidate this conclusion,” Mares’ report said. “It would cause yet further damage to the governments’ power to tax, pushing them further in negative equity and therefore increasing the risks that debt holders suffer a larger loss eventually.”

Investors’ concern that the U.S. may fall back into recession has grown in recent weeks as U.S. economic data missed economists’ estimates. A Citigroup Inc. index of U.S. economic data surprises fell to minus 59 last week, the least since January 2009.

Credit-Default Swaps

A report from the Commerce Department today showed U.S. durable goods orders increased 0.3 percent, compared with the 3 percent median estimate of 75 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures showed today in Washington. The number of unemployment claims unexpectedly shot up by 12,000 to 500,000 in the week ended Aug 14, Labor Department figures showed Aug. 19.

Yields on German and U.S. benchmark securities sank today as investors sought the safest assets. U.S. two-year Treasury yields, at a four-month high 1.18 percent on April 5, fell to a record low 0.4542 percent yesterday.

The yield on Greek debt rose to more than 900 basis points above that of Germany today, the most since the European Union and International Monetary Fund created a 750 billion-euro ($948 billion) bailout package in May. Greece’s so-called yield spread over German debt was at 932 basis points as of 2:18 p.m. in London, short of the 973 basis point record set on May 7. The Irish-German yield spread rose to a record 347 basis points, from 318 points yesterday.

Credit-default swaps that insure Irish government bonds against non-payment for five years rose 21 basis points to 331 today, the most since March 2009, according to data provider CMA. Greek swaps jumped to 921.5, the most since June, from 896.

“The conflict that opposes bondholders to other government stakeholders is more intense than ever, and their interests are no longer sufficiently well-aligned with those of influential political constituencies,” such as elderly voters and their claims on pensions and health insurance, Mares wrote.

*
Stocks Retreat, Treasuries Rally on Economy; Yen Weakens
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Ireland's Credit Rating Cut by S&P on Costs of Bank Aid
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Goldman Sachs Loses Muscle in Corporate Finance
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U.S. Durable Goods Orders Show Sign of Cooling Economy

GOVERNMENT MANDATES ARE DESTROYING AMERICAN JOBS-RULES, REGULATIONS, HIGH TAXES AND MANDATES ARE JOB KILLERS

This Is Why There Are No Jobs in America

By Porter Stansberry

I'd like to make you a business offer.

Seriously. This is a real offer. In fact, you really can't turn me down, as you'll come to understand in a moment…

Here's the deal. You're going to start a business or expand the one you've got now. It doesn't really matter what you do or what you're going to do. I'll partner with you no matter what business you're in – as long as it's legal.

But I can't give you any capital – you have to come up with that on your own. I won't give you any labor – that's definitely up to you. What I will do, however, is demand you follow all sorts of rules about what products and services you can offer, how much (and how often) you pay your employees, and where and when you're allowed to operate your business. That's my role in the affair: to tell you what to do.

Now in return for my rules, I'm going to take roughly half of whatever you make in the business each year. Half seems fair, doesn't it? I think so. Of course, that's half of your profits.

You're also going to have to pay me about 12% of whatever you decide to pay your employees because you've got to cover my expenses for promulgating all of the rules about who you can employ, when, where, and how. Come on, you're my partner. It's only "fair."

Now… after you've put your hard-earned savings at risk to start this business, and after you've worked hard at it for a few decades (paying me my 50% or a bit more along the way each year), you might decide you'd like to cash out – to finally live the good life.

Whether or not this is "fair" – some people never can afford to retire – is a different argument. As your partner, I'm happy for you to sell whenever you'd like… because our agreement says, if you sell, you have to pay me an additional 20% of whatever the capitalized value of the business is at that time.

I know… I know… you put up all the original capital. You took all the risks. You put in all of the labor. That's all true. But I've done my part, too. I've collected 50% of the profits each year. And I've always come up with more rules for you to follow each year. Therefore, I deserve another, final 20% slice of the business.

Oh… and one more thing…

Even after you've sold the business and paid all of my fees… I'd recommend buying lots of life insurance. You see, even after you've been retired for years, when you die, you'll have to pay me 50% of whatever your estate is worth.

After all, I've got lots of partners and not all of them are as successful as you and your family. We don't think it's "fair" for your kids to have such a big advantage. But if you buy enough life insurance, you can finance this expense for your children.

All in all, if you're a very successful entrepreneur… if you're one of the rare, lucky, and hard-working people who can create a new company, employ lots of people, and satisfy the public… you'll end up paying me more than 75% of your income over your life. Thanks so much.

I'm sure you'll think my offer is reasonable and happily partner with me… but it doesn't really matter how you feel about it because if you ever try to stiff me – or cheat me on any of my fees or rules – I'll break down your door in the middle of the night, threaten you and your family with heavy, automatic weapons, and throw you in jail.

That's how civil society is supposed to work, right? This is Amerika, isn't it?

That's the offer Amerika gives its entrepreneurs. And the idiots in Washington wonder why there are no new jobs…

Regards,

Porter Stansberry

DAN ROSTENKOWSKI, THE ACCEPTABLE CROOKED POLITICIAN-HE IS THE LAST, HE WAS THE BEST FOR THE COUNTRY AND HIS NATIVE CHICAGO

The death of Dan Rostenkowski, the big smiling affable politician, the former Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee brought back some memories for me.

Dan Rostenkowski represented what we always imagine politicians to be; gregarious, cigar smoking, hard drinking, on the take in a small,reasonable and quiet way and loud...but also they were expected to bring to their district the treasures from Washington, that is why we as voters set him there.

In return for that, we fully expected then to be involved in petty graft, expected then to supplement their income with cash payments from lobbyists, and others, that is why they would spend millions to get elected...it was not for the salary alone.

We however never expected them to get caught, but we expected them to just do it, and come home bringing in the goods from their lofty perch of power.

I grew up in Dan's Congressional district, and saw him for the first time at our Church steps where he and the first Mayor Daley were announcing the future construction of "affordable public housing, townhouse units-a first in the country" just across the street on some empty lots.

I was 1967 and I was an 8th grader at the Holy Trinity Elementary School adjoining, and was impressed with that gigantic man standing next to a short stocky funny looking Mayor Daley who was about a foot shorter than Congressman Dan. The money for the housing came from Washington, and Congressman Dan announced how he secured it for the Mayor and now we would benefit by having that housing.

Even back then all us kids knew that public housing represented a different class of people and that they were going to move right into our neighborhood, it would not be my family living there...we did not qualify...my dad had a job apparently, so we had to fend for ourselves.

So that being said, we moved to the suburbs!

Dan continued in Washington as Mayor Daley's powerhouse bringing home the goodies for years and years, in fact another almost 30 years working his way up the ladder to the highest position in the House.

Then, after years of "acceptable" graft and payoffs, he actually was so bold as to do the unthinkable...got caught in a petty graft, and went to prison, losing it all at the pinnacle of his power and illustrious career. Apparently, to make a long story short, he would send a staffer to the House post office to buy a stamp, one stamp apparently, but would give him a $5000 check, and then got the change back in cash...which he apparently just kept!

It was probably the way he did it for years, but then he got caught.

His graft was acceptable, getting caught was the ultimate violation of our "trust".

He went to prison, his seat was "won" by a "unknown" republican, who made it for one two year term, and the was ultimately replaced by, no other that Rod Blagojewich; apparently inheriting the graft and corruption curse attached to that seat.

Same story, different decade!

So, Dan was the last of the acceptable politicians, those who were supposed to steal small amounts, and not get caught. He changed the thinking, now we do not accept that anymore...I think.

I could be wrong, but I remember big Dan, the last of the politicians from the old school, who still brought in the bacon, while stealing stamps for himself!

Now, it seems that BILLIONS are unaccounted for in all types of domestic and foreign programs...I sure will miss Dan, the pilferer of stamps....no wonder our deficit is now $1.8 trillion, they seem to be stealing way more than stamps today.

AMERICA QUICKLY LOSING VALUE, NEEDS REVOLUTION TO GET BACK ON TRACK; NO RECOVERY POSSIBLE DUE TO OUT OF CONTROL GOVERNMENT SPENDING

The Ecstasy of Empire

By:Paul Craig Roberts
Infowars.com


The United States is running out of time to get its budget and trade deficits under control. Despite the urgency of the situation, 2010 has been wasted in hype about a non-existent recovery. As recently as August 2 Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner penned a New York Times column, “Welcome to the Recovery.”

Without a revolution, Americans are history.

As John Williams (shadowstats.com) has made clear on many occasions, an appearance of recovery was created by over-counting employment and undercounting inflation. Warnings by Williams, Gerald Celente, and myself have gone unheeded, but our warnings recently had echoes from Boston University professor Laurence Kotlikoff and from David Stockman, who excoriated the Republican Party for becoming big-spending Democrats.

It is encouraging to see some realization that, this time, Washington cannot spend the economy out of recession. The deficits are already too large for the dollar to survive as reserve currency, and deficit spending cannot put Americans back to work in jobs that have been moved offshore.

However, the solutions offered by those who are beginning to recognize that there is a problem are discouraging. Kotlikoff thinks the solution is savage Social Security and Medicare cuts or equally savage tax increases or hyperinflation to destroy the vast debts.

Perhaps economists lack imagination, or perhaps they don’t want to be cut off from Wall Street and corporate subsidies, but Social Security and Medicare are insufficient at their present levels, especially considering the erosion of private pensions by the dot com, derivative and real estate bubbles. Cuts in Social Security and Medicare, for which people have paid 15 per cent of their earnings all their lives, would result in starvation and deaths from curable diseases.

Tax increases make even less sense. It is widely acknowledged that the majority of households cannot survive on one job. Both husband and wife work and often one of the partners has two jobs in order to make ends meet. Raising taxes makes it harder to make ends meet–thus more foreclosures, more food stamps, more homelessness. What kind of economist or humane person thinks this is a solution?

Ah, but we will tax the rich. The rich have enough money. They will simply stop earning.

Let’s get real. Here is what the government is likely to do. Once Washington realize that the dollar is at risk and that they can no longer finance their wars by borrowing abroad, the government will either levy a tax on private pensions on the grounds that the pensions have accumulated tax-deferred, or the government will require pension fund managers to purchase Treasury debt with our pensions. This will buy the government a bit more time while pension accounts are loaded up with worthless paper.

The last Bush budget deficit (2008) was in the $400-500 billion range, about the size of the Chinese, Japanese, and OPEC trade surpluses with the US. Traditionally, these trade surpluses have been recycled to the US and finance the federal budget deficit. In 2009 and 2010 the federal deficit jumped to $1,400 billion, a back-to-back trillion dollar increase. There are not sufficient trade surpluses to finance a deficit this large. From where comes the money?

The answer is from individuals fleeing the stock market into “safe” Treasury bonds and from the bankster bailout, not so much the TARP money as the Federal Reserve’s exchange of bank reserves for questionable financial paper such as subprime derivatives. The banks used their excess reserves to purchase Treasury debt.

These financing maneuvers are one-time tricks. Once people have fled stocks, that movement into Treasuries is over. The opposition to the bankster bailout likely precludes another. So where does the money come from the next time?

The Treasury was able to unload a lot of debt thanks to “the Greek crisis,” which the New York banksters and hedge funds multiplied into “the euro crisis.” The financial press served as a financing arm for the US Treasury by creating panic about European debt and the euro. Central banks and individuals who had taken refuge from the dollar in euros were panicked out of their euros, and they rushed into dollars by purchasing US Treasury debt.

This movement from euros to dollars weakened the alternative reserve currency to the dollar, halted the dollar’s decline, and financed the US budget deficit a while longer.

Possibly the game can be replayed with Spanish debt, Irish debt, and whatever unlucky country is eswept in by the thoughtless expansion of the European Union.

But when no countries remain that can be destabilized by Wall Street investment banksters and hedge funds, what then finances the US budget deficit?

The only remaining financier is the Federal Reserve. When Treasury bonds brought to auction do not sell, the Federal Reserve must purchase them. The Federal Reserve purchases the bonds by creating new demand deposits, or checking accounts, for the Treasury. As the Treasury spends the proceeds of the new debt sales, the US money supply expands by the amount of the Federal Reserve’s purchase of Treasury debt.

Do goods and services expand by the same amount? Imports will increase as US jobs have been offshored and given to foreigners, thus worsening the trade deficit. When the Federal Reserve purchases the Treasury’s new debt issues, the money supply will increase by more than the supply of domestically produced goods and services. Prices are likely to rise.

How high will they rise? The longer money is created in order that government can pay its bills, the more likely hyperinflation will be the result.

The economy has not recovered. By the end of this year it will be obvious that the collapsing economy means a larger than $1.4 trillion budget deficit to finance. Will it be $2 trillion? Higher?

Whatever the size, the rest of the world will see that the dollar is being printed in such quantities that it cannot serve as reserve currency. At that point wholesale dumping of dollars will result as foreign central banks try to unload a worthless currency.

The collapse of the dollar will drive up the prices of imports and offshored goods on which Americans are dependent. Wal-Mart shoppers will think they have mistakenly gone into Neiman Marcus.

Domestic prices will also explode as a growing money supply chases the supply of goods and services still made in America by Americans.

The dollar as reserve currency cannot survive the conflagration. When the dollar goes the US cannot finance its trade deficit. Therefore, imports will fall sharply, thus adding to domestic inflation and, as the US is energy import-dependent, there will be transportation disruptions that will disrupt work and grocery store deliveries.

Panic will be the order of the day.

Will farms will be raided? Will those trapped in cities resort to riots and looting?

Is this the likely future that “our” government and “our patriotic” corporations have created for us?

To borrow from Lenin, “What can be done?”

Here is what can be done. The wars, which benefit no one but the military-security complex and Israel’s territorial expansion, can be immediately ended. This would reduce the US budget deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars per year. More hundreds of billions of dollars could be saved by cutting the rest of the military budget which, in its present size, exceeds the budgets of all the serious military powers on earth combined.

US military spending reflects the unaffordable and unattainable crazed neoconservative goal of US Empire and world hegemony. What fool in Washington thinks that China is going to finance US hegemony over China?

The only way that the US will again have an economy is by bringing back the offshored jobs. The loss of these jobs impoverished Americans while producing oversized gains for Wall Street, shareholders, and corporate executives. These jobs can be brought home where they belong by taxing corporations according to where value is added to their product. If value is added to their goods and services in China, corporations would have a high tax rate. If value is added to their goods and services in the US, corporations would have a low tax rate.

This change in corporate taxation would offset the cheap foreign labor that has sucked jobs out of America, and it would rebuild the ladders of upward mobility that made America an opportunity society.

If the wars are not immediately stopped and the jobs brought back to America, the US is relegated to the trash bin of history.

Obviously, the corporations and Wall Street would use their financial power and campaign contributions to block any legislation that would reduce short-term earnings and bonuses by bringing jobs back to America. Americans have no greater enemies than Wall Street and the corporations and their prostitutes in Congress and the White House.

The neocons allied with Israel, who control both parties and much of the media, are strung out on the ecstasy of Empire.

The United States and the welfare of its 300 million people cannot be restored unless the neocons, Wall Street, the corporations, and their servile slaves in Congress and the White House can be defeated.

Without a revolution, Americans are history.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts is the father of Reaganomics and the former head of policy at the Department of Treasury. He is a columnist and was previously an editor for the Wall Street Journal. His latest book, “How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds,” details why America is disintegrating.

IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION REPORTS SHOWS GOVERNMENT INCOMPETENCE: $8 BILLION NOT ACCOUNTED FOR DUE TO NON-COMPLIANCE WITH ACCOUNTING RULES-NOBODY COMPLIED!

Is it really necessary to say that government bureaucrats are incompetent, and there are just thousands and thousands of them. This fact is proven every day all over the country and all over the world.

The latest report shows just one tiny multi-billion unaccounted for entry for reconstruction expenses in Iraq. there are countless examples all over. I noticed a local major road that was just rebuilt in my area that was resurfaced last year, and this year it was torn up, (the new road that was just resurfaced last year) was torn up and a sign was put up stating that this is a project using the "stimulus" funds...HAPPY DAYS, needless money spent on a project that was not needed, while adjoining roads are full of potholes.

From: Federal News Radio

The Defense Department is unable to account for $8.7 billion of the $9.1 billion in Development Fund for Iraq monies in received for reconstruction in Iraq. This according to a study published today by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

"This situation occurred because most DoD organizations receiving DFI (Development Fund for Iraq) funds did not establish the required Department of the Treasury accounts and no DoD organization was designated as the executive agent for managing the use of DFI funds," the report states.

The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) finds that only one Defense organization actually set up the accounts required by the Treasury.

"The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss," SIGIR says.

The study recommends that the Secretary of Defense create new accounting and reporting procedures to avoid such mistakes in the future. It also recommends designating an executive agent to oversee progress, establishing measurable milestones, and determining whether any DoD organizations are still holding DFI funds.

So, let me see; nobody was in charge of watching these billions while they were dispensed? Were the checks just written to "CASH" and cashed at the local QUICK MART for cash? It is hard to believe that there was no oversight of all these BILLIONS!

That picture of the water well, probably represents what was described as a $1 billion water reclamation project that nobody ever checked out!!!!

For more reports and publications from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, see http://www.sigir.mil/publications/index.html

I have not seen this story run on ANY national media....I guess just nobody cares????

GOVERMENT MANDATED CLOSING OF GM AND CHRYSLER DEALERSHIPS CAUSED JOB LOSSES THOUGHOUT THE INDUSTRY NEEDLESSLY

We can all remember how the administration forced GM and Chrysler to close a significant portion of its dealer network so as to be able to "save" those companies.

Only the government's convoluted and misunderstood logic could be used to explain how closing dealerships, which cost GM and Chrysler nothing, would save those companies.

Both GM and Chrysler were arm twisted to close forever dealerships which often were in business faithfully representing those auto brands for 30, 40 and even 70 years!!!

The sheer stupidity of telling the manufacturers that having less representation and providing less service to the buyers of those vehicles will somehow help them, is just nonsense, and proved to be so.

In a nearby suburb, this insanity played out strangely as a local long established Chrysler dealership was canceled by Chrysler and a Cadillac dealership was canceled by GM.

Immediately after this happened, the Chrysler dealership was awarded to the former Cadillac dealership, so it took off the Cadillac sign, and put on the Chrysler sign,...these dealers were one block apart! The result, about 50 lost jobs.

These dealer networks took decades and often more to build up, as local businessmen invested usually their life savings, and often their family's and investor's savings to get them started, paying the franchise fees, and acquiring buildings to meet the manufacturer's guidelines.

Each such dealer would then be an outlet for NEW cars of that manufacturer, often being forced though arm twisting by the manufacturer to stock and take in as much inventory as he could handle, due to a threat next year of not getting his "allocation" of new vehicles, especially if they were "hot" vehicles, big sellers.

Often the manufacturers would come up with models that sold badly, looked out of style or were strange colors, yet the dealer network would deliver, stocking the hard to sell cars which the manufacturer could report as SOLD!

The manufacturers then further forced the dealers to accept so called floor plan financing, which provided for the vehicles to be financed by a subsidiary of the manufacturer, and charged ongoing interest on the inventory that was on the dealer's "floor", making more profits for the manufacturer.

You may recall how it was usually this financing arm of the manufacturer which provided most of the profitability of the manufacturer, and not the actual autos, and thus the reason it was crammed down the throats of the dealer network!

Think about it, the manufacturer starts to make its money on the cars, while they are sitting on the dealers' lots, even before they are actually sold to a consumer, yet they are booked and shown as a sale for the manufacturer.

Now a report has discovered that these mandated closings, in effect, had no real benefit and instead caused the losses of jobs in the industry that the government was attempting to save.

I do not know about you, but I will only support the manufacturers who did not shaft their dealer networks, who did not take any taxpayer money to bail out its union pension plans, and who survived as businesses should; on their own ingenuity and with a strong competitive spirit, not taking my tax money!!!

Neither GM or Chrysler will get my money, and over the years I have had all types of GM products, as well as several Chryslers, which I stopped buying eventually as their quality became atrocious.

The Treasury Department failed to consider the economic fallout when it told General Motors and Chrysler to quickly shutter many dealerships as part of government-led bankruptcies, a federal watchdog found ( are we surprised by this revelation, or just knew deep down in our heart of hearts that another fiasco would follow a government intervention in private business?).

The report released by the special inspector general for the government's bailout program raised questions about whether the Obama administration's auto task force considered the job losses from the closings while pressuring the companies to reduce costs. That would be very strange since 95% of the "Obamans" appointed to office by president Obama, never worked in a business or private industry. They never met a payroll, never had to learn the tough conditions that exist in running a business.

Treasury didn't show why the cuts were "either necessary for the sake of the companies' economic survival or prudent for the sake of the nation's economic recovery," said the audit by Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the $787 billion stimulus program known as TARP.

"Treasury made a series of decisions that may have substantially contributed to the accelerated shuttering of thousands of small businesses," investigators said.

Those decisions resulted in "potentially adding tens of thousands of workers to the already lengthy unemployment rolls — all based on a theory and without sufficient consideration of the decisions' broader economic impact," the report said.

Obama administration officials said they strongly disagreed with the findings and said the audit focused solely on one element of a painful restructuring. Without the shared sacrifices of workers, dealers, retirees, suppliers and creditors, they said, the companies may not have rebounded. What stupidity is this?

Herbert M. Allison Jr., Treasury's assistant secretary for financial stability, said the administration's actions "not only avoided a potentially catastrophic collapse and brought needed stability to the entire auto industry, but they also saved hundreds of thousands of American jobs and gave GM and Chrysler a chance to re-emerge as viable, competitive American businesses."

The audit also found that General Motors "did not consistently follow its stated criteria" for reducing its dealer network and noted that Chrysler failed to offer an appeals process.

The report, sought by lawmakers critical of the dealership closings, was seized upon by Republicans who have questioned the administration's dealings with private industry during the economic downturn.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the audit "should serve as a wake-up call as to the implications of politically orchestrated bailouts and how putting decisions about private enterprise in the hands of political appointees and bureaucrats can lead to costly and unintended consequences."

GM's initial plan submitted to the government in February 2009 called for the gradual reduction of 1,650 of its 5,750 dealers by the end of 2014. Chrysler pointed to plans to trim its network from 3,181 dealers to about 2,000 dealers by 2014.

After Treasury rejected those earlier plans, the two companies released accelerated efforts to cut their dealership ranks. Chrysler said it would quickly close 789 dealers by June 2009 and GM said it would slash its dealer ranks by 1,454 by October 2010.

Following a fierce lobbying campaign by car dealers, Congress approved legislation last year requiring arbitration for closed dealers. GM said it would reinstate more than 660 dealers it had threatened with closure, reducing the number of dealers planning to appeal. Chrysler also agreed to restore about 80 franchises.

In a statement, GM said the events described by the report "have since been overtaken by a new GM and a stronger dealer network to match. More than a year since bankruptcy, GM is showing substantial progress." Chrysler did not immediately comment on the report, ( apparently caught by surprise that it had to make a comment).

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