Every day the government makes new mistakes or discovers new economic consequences of their past errors. Arbitrary Vote brings you the country's biggest economic bloopers.
t Blooper of the week Blooper of the month
8/17/09 - TALF working well
Actual Fed press release quote: "the markets for asset-backed securities (ABS) backed by consumer and business loans and for commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) are still impaired and seem likely to remain so for some time."
Glad to see this fine program is working like a champion (they haven't even been able to put to work more than $30 billion out of the $1 trillion devoted to TALF). Fed extends TALF lending program through June - MarketWatch
$181 billion in the red in July alone widens the fiscal year 2009 deficit to $1.267 trillion. Well on pace to beat a White House projection of $1.841 trillion. To put these numbers in context, the deficit for all of 2008 was a record $455 billion. Small change. U.S. Posts $180.68 Billion Deficit for July - The Wall Street Journal
It seems that the government quickly claims to have learned lessons and then quickly duplicates the mistakes that led to the lessons. This twisted behavior and deception must be part of an extremely sophisticated game of chess these masterminds are playing.
More overdraft fees means more unfunded bank accounts, which means more customers without cash to pay overdraft fees, which eventually means less customers, less revenue, and less profit.
When was the last time government "experts" did anything good? Aren't those at the Fed considered experts in their field? They've done a fine job getting us into this mess and not getting us out...But they're certainly experts at finding experts. They also have a supremely wise plan to use a defunct and corrupt bank stress test system as a basis for tighter bank regulation.
This is the one millionth sign that the recession is over!! Except it's another quarter of negative GDP growth, which means it's not over...And an unsustainable burst in government spending still couldn't even put GDP in the positive...Even a positive GDP jump of 2.5% isn't enough to fuel job growth; it only keeps the jobless rate constant...By the way, nice stealth revision on Q1 - from a 5.5 to a 6.4% contraction. Surely there won't be any revision to the latest fluff-up numbers.
It was just the top 19 largest banks that were critical enough to be involved in the stress tests. No need to include the regionals. It's small change when there's up to $3 trillion of regional bank exposure to commercial real estate.
Calpers Managers: "Hey, after gambling and losing $60 billion last year, let's gamble some more! After all, we are right next casino great britain door to Vegas. Plus, the state of California has our back."
Wow - Bernanke is really on the ball. Commercial real-estate has been a known approaching risk for about eight months now. Way to promptly prepare everyone.
7/20/09 - White House conveniently postpones budget update
Nothing shady going on here. It's just coincidence that they're putting it off 'til the August recess. No political ploy here. The target date for having the healthcare bill passed has nothing to do with it. Surely the budget is strong and the administration's ratings will be sky-high after the update.
7/17/09 - Supply and demand getting the best of the media
Hmmm...The media seems to not know what to do with this one...Maybe not taking a position is better than taking the wrong one. Let's make it easy for them - It's bad. There's a ton of inventory on the market from foreclosures. Foreclosures are still rising. This increases supply. Adding new houses ("starts") to the market adds supply while demand is stagnant or declining. Aside from several other harmful influences, this causes prices to fall and adds to the depth of the real estate problems we face. U.S. housing starts up 2nd straight month in June - MarketWatch
Also, a noteworthy overlooked blooper from yesterday...
In the past, "Baucus, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and a key figure in the health debate, has publicly lectured Elmendorf, saying he has a moral duty to be "creative" and deliver the favorable budget estimates "we have to have" to win broad support."
Blooper of the week 
Blooper of the month
$181 billion in the red in July alone widens the fiscal year 2009 deficit to $1.267 trillion. Well on pace to beat a White House projection of $1.841 trillion. To put these numbers in context, the deficit for all of 2008 was a record $455 billion. Small change.
This is the one millionth sign that the recession is over!! Except it's another quarter of negative GDP growth, which means it's not over...And an unsustainable burst in government spending still couldn't even put GDP in the positive...Even a positive GDP jump of 2.5% isn't enough to fuel job growth; it only keeps the jobless rate constant...By the way, nice stealth revision on Q1 - from a 5.5 to a 6.4% contraction. Surely there won't be any revision to the latest fluff-up numbers.
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