Bloopers

Economic Bloopers

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

6/12/09 - Japan confident in dollar

From Japan:
"U.S. Treasuries make up about 60% of our reserves and we would like them to hold their value for as long as possible. There is no self-serving motive here. Also, we use the word "unshakable" because we can't imagine any possible scenario under which our investment in U.S. Treasuries could lose value."

Yosano Says Japan’s Trust in Treasuries ‘Unshakable’ - Bloomberg

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

6/11/09 - Sissy bank CEO buys trash

Poor guy buckled under pressure.

BofA’s CEO: Fed pressured bank to buy Merrill - MSNBC/Associated Press

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

6/10/09 - Russia moving out of U.S. Treasuries

Russia seems to be competing with China to be the country sending the most loud public signals about their faith in and strong commitment to the U.S. dollar.

Dollar recovers vs euro after Russia Treasury comment - Reuters

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

6/9/09 - Banks don't need bailouts

Of course they can repay their bailouts. They are all flush and healthy and ready for the economic boom. There's certainly no PR, avoidance of the government vice grip, or misstated accounting going on here.

Treasury: 10 big banks can repay bailout - MSNBC/Associated Press

Had to add this same-day article for relevance too...

Panel says stress tests didn’t go far enough - MSNBC/Associated Press

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

6/8/09 - Don't carry over $130 billion when traveling

A briefcase carrying more U.S. Treasury securities than any country holds in their reserves besides China, Japan, the UK, and Russia. Entertaining if counterfeit, telling if real; is someone trying to dump the dollar?

US government securities seized from Japanese nationals, not clear whether real or fake - AsiaNews.it

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

6/5/09 - Crown he who monitors pay

The administration continues to add the title "Czar" to their newly created government posts. The Marriam-Webster dictionary's first definition of the word "Czar" is:

Emperor; specifically: the ruler of Russia until the 1917 revolution.

Makes perfect sense to model ourselves after Russia.

White House Set to Appoint a Pay Czar - The Wall Street Journal

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

6/4/09 - Banks make Houdini look amateur

The mark-to-market facade went well. Why not toss another magic trick into the show?

Banks Try to Stiff-Arm New Rule - The Wall Street Journal

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

6/3/09 - Banks don't need to sell bad assets

The banks are so confident in their balance sheet health that they are unwilling to sell their bad assets above market value. I am so confident that I can use one arm to lift a crashed car off of myself that I am not going to do it.

Plan to Help Banks Clear Their Books Is Halted - New York Times

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

6/2/09 - Pending-home sales up!

Yes, some people are "bottom" feeding and don't realize the amount prices will likely drop in the not too distant future as interest rates rise and Alt-A/Option ARM defaults kick in. Green shoots.

Pending-Home Sales Post Increase - The Wall Street Journal

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

6/1/09 - GM gets another $50 bil as a bankruptcy gift

After the great success with the attempt to keep GM out of bankruptcy with $20.6 billion from the taxpayers, let's go ahead and toss them another $50 billion to go through the bankruptcy process and still watch them fail.

GM Files Bankruptcy to Spin Off More Competitive Firm - Bloomberg

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/29/09 - Oil prices hitting highs

Here's another green shoot stomper. Time for Obama to play Robin Hood with the oil industry.

Oil hits 6-month high - CNN Money

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/28/09 - People still can't keep up with mortgages (Dow +100)

On a day when 10-year yields are near 6-month highs, jobless claims are over 600k, oil is over $65 a barrel, and there's housing news like this, the stock market moves up over 100 points. Stock market manipulation by the government? Mass drug use? Both?

12 pct. are behind on mortgage or in foreclosure - Yahoo Finance/Associated Press

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/27/09 - Here come the interest rates

Get used to this. Bernanke's goal was 4% mortage rates. We never got close and now we're moving back up. He probably has one more big quantitative easing announcement in him that can push rates back down - temporarily delaying the inevitable, of course. Maybe his true calling is meteorology.

Yield Curve Steepens to Record as Debt Sales Surge - Bloomberg

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/26/09 - Consumers think we're home free

This is by far the best economic indicator to gauge the health of the economy. If people think everything is ok, then it is ok. It doesn't matter if the media has sugarcoated or back-burnered every last piece of bad economic news to make people believe things are better than they actually are. Just wondering, if consumers think everything is brighter, then why aren't they buying anything?

Consumers' confidence surges on brighter jobs view - MarketWatch

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/22/09 - Bernanke admits he has no idea what he's doing

From Bernanke's speech at the BC Commencement:
“Like weather forecasters, economic forecasters must deal with a system that is extraordinarily complex, that is subject to random shocks, and about which our data and understanding will always be imperfect. In some ways, predicting the economy is even more difficult than forecasting the weather, because an economy is not made up of molecules whose behavior is subject to the laws of physics, but rather of human beings who are themselves thinking about the future and whose behavior may be influenced by the forecasts that they or others make.”

Since Bernanke is God, our economy is in good hands.

At the 2009 Commencement of the Boston College School of Law - The Federal Reserve

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/21/09 - Threat of S&P downgrade of U.S. ruffles feathers

Japan was downgraded a couple days ago...The U.K. was toyed with today...The U.S. will soon have its day in the sun.

Ratings Fears Roil Markets - The Wall Street Journal

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/20/09 - Cali budget tally is $21 billion in the hole

Ignore this. Remember that the economy is recovering as we speak. Green shoots are sprouting. California's economy making up 13% of U.S. GDP and being the 9th largest economy in the world means nothing.

Calif. Voters Reject Budget Measures - The New York Times

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/19/09 - Local banks likely to lose $100 billion soon

But these banks weren't in the stress tests...It was only the top 19 biggest banks. Must be because $100 billion doesn't really matter anymore...And surely the Option ARM and Alt-A $1 trillion+ second wave that's approaching won't add to these small banks' problems.

Local Banks Face Big Losses - The Wall Street Journal

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/18/09 - Another hint from China

Losing track of the number of hints China has given the U.S. - Pretty sure we just don't mind.

Brazil and China eye plan to axe dollar - The Financial Times

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/15/09 - Credit Card defaults setting records

Oh, but the banks will still be healthy and we're recovering.

Credit Card Defaults Reach Record Highs in April - CNBC

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/14/09 - Obama has a sudden revelation about U.S. debt

Did Obama's economic "intelligence" team tell him to say this while laughing behind his back that he must have no idea about the gargantuan record multi-trillion dollar deficits he's racking up and the tens of trillions in social security and medicare shortfalls not being addressed?

Obama Says U.S. Long-Term Debt Load ‘Unsustainable’ - Bloomberg

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/13/09 - Consumer spending: a failed crop of green shoots

Oops - A 0.4 percent decline in retail sales when the "experts" were expecting an increase of 0.1 percent. And inventories increased against the sales decline. The fertilizer used for the green shoots must have been poisoned.

April retail sales fall, raising recovery doubts - MSNBC

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers

5/12/09 - Social Security and Medicare insolvency revised to sooner

Yes, these programs are inherently insolvent - to the order of $43 trillion to over $100 trillion - and the time to the day of reckoning is accelerated every time an analysis is done. Not to worry, the gov will print a bunch of cash to cover it. Everybody will still get their promised Social Security amounts and each month's wad will enable them to buy a pack of gum. And don't forget, the costs added from Obama's coming health reform plan will be covered through printing as well...And you'll get "pack of gum" value out of that too.

Social Security and Medicare finances worsen - MSNBC/Associated Press

Arbitrary Vote Bloopers