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

10/21/09 - Traders believe analyst before facts

Oh, it takes an analyst downgrade to make traders realize the banks are trash. I can see how it would be very difficult to deduce this on your own when you ignore blatant facts that relate to the true condition of the banks - like the suspension of mark-to-market, government bailouts not spurring lending and falsely padding financials, bank revenue made up of fees, mounting pressures from residential real-estate defaults, mounting pressures from commercial real estate defaults, etc.

US Stocks Tumble Into Red After Bove Cuts Wells Fargo To Sell - MarketWatch

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10/20/09 - Stunning revelation about the home-buyer credit program

Fraud in a government housing handout program?! Unheard of.

Home-Buyer Credit Is Focus of Inquiry - The Wall Street Journal

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10/19/09 - A sad American story

Banky DeFunct was the corrupt idiot son of a corrupt idiot dad named, Govy DeFunct. Banky was about to be killed by some drug dealers to whom he owed a heap of money. So Govy stole a bunch of money from everybody in the neighborhood and gave it to little Banky to get him out of all his troubles. Banky paid off his creditors and went on home. Being a responsible dad, Govy told Banky he was grounded and to go to his room. Banky told Govy to @*&!^% off, and then he bolted out the door and around the block to the local crack house. The end.

Obama Aides Fault Bank Opposition to New Regulations - Bloomberg

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10/16/09 - Bank of America posts strong performance

It's a good sign when the largest bank in the U.S. loses $2.2 billion - And the only things making the number look that good are outrageous bank fees and not anything core to their business. Those ol' bailouts are workin' well!

Bank of America posts $2.24 billion loss - MSNBC/Associate Press

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10/15/09 - Naive ECB kindly offers U.S. advice

That's very nice of the ECB president to give the U.S. advice on money policy. We will go ahead and ignore it and continue to destroy our dollars. Thanks anyway, and good luck.

Trichet Says U.S. Must Pursue ‘Strong Dollar’ Policy - Bloomberg

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10/14/09 - Dow breezes through 10,000 - on to 14,000

Very rational markets truly reflecting the state of the economy. No government-induced bubbles going on here. The future is bright, and P/E ratios show it!

U.S. Stocks Rally as Dow Hits 10,000 for First Time in Year - Bloomberg

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10/13/09 - Banks encourage a repeat of Great Depression

Banks to Obama:
We've got a great idea...Let's encourage more people to live beyond their means and build no equity in their homes! Let's offer out the same opportunity that significantly contributed to the original Great Depression!

JPMorgan Pitches Interest-Only Mortgages to Boost Obama Plan - Bloomberg

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10/12/09 - Obama not winner of Nobel economics prize

Given his performance to "earn" the Nobel Peace Prize, I would think Obama should get at least a share of this one too...

Ostrom, Williamson of U.S. Win Nobel Economics Prize - Bloomberg

By the way, check out what happened in the Soviet Union just before its collapse...

Gorbachev wins Nobel peace prize - Guardian

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10/9/09 - Empty suit wins hollow trophy

A fitting accomplishment - for a man that has done so much for our country (just about all of it wrong and destructive) domestically and internationally in 8 short months. Of course, none of this has to do with the Nobel Foundation's climate change agenda and the timing of the Copenhagen climate change conference. Cap-and-trade here we come!

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 - Nobelprize.org

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10/8/09 - Another New Deal program on verge of collapse

Nice job - Way to learn lessons from mistakes that were just made. Also, the government and media should agree that this obviously adds to their positive long-term outlook for the housing market.

FHA Shortfall Seen at $54 Billion May Lead to Bailout - Bloomberg

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10/7/09 - Credit catalyst check-up

The government's action plan to get credit flowing again continues to work quite well...

Consumer credit dives for 7th month - CNN

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10/6/09 - Cheap tab for climate change

Just $10 trillion...Upped by 37% from last year's estimate. Apparently climate change got more expensive within the year...Or maybe the IEA is making a conservative inflation estimate. Also, the tab assumes that all auto companies have 20 years to turn more than half their sales into green car sales - surely the IEA has mastered the art of 20-year market demand projections to justify the likelihood of this product shift. Then the climate will be cured. Perhaps there is another option that will be equally as effective and strategic...We can fire a rocket holding $10 trillion dollars toward the sun as payment to dim itself slightly.

Study Asks $10 Trillion for Climate - The Wall Street Journal

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10/5/09 - Plan to sink the Dollar is on schedule

Obviously this is what our brilliant economists wanted...A weaker dollar to make exports more attractive. Accept we don't make anything anymore. And we don't need the G-7 to abandon us for our currency to lose value...We know how to accomplish that through printing.

The G-7 Abandons The Dollar - Forbes

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10/2/09 - Obama is not a closer

It's a good sign of the potential for passing health reform, cap-and-trade, union support, and other damaging legislation when your president puts all his effort toward hosting the Olympics and can't get the deal done...Not even past the first round of cuts.

Obama disappointed over Chicago's Olympics loss - Associated Press

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10/1/09 - Government auto companies' sales are down...Again

So much for Cash-for-Clunkers. So much for tens of billions in bailouts. So much for taxpayer-funded bankruptcy restructuring putting the companies back on course. Nothing but quality at work when the government puts its business cap on. By the way, Ford's sales were down only 5%.

GM's Sales Slide 45%; Chrysler's Fall 42% - The Wall Street Journal

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9/30/09 - Greenspan looks into crystal ball

Ah, the sage is making yet another profound prediction. Everyone kneel and listen in awe at such astounding insight - “The odds are that we flatten out, even though earnings are doing very well." With age one grows wiser, and the enlightened one's track record is bound to become more accurate with such hedged predictions.

Greenspan Sees Growth Slowing as Stocks ‘Flatten Out' - Bloomberg

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9/29/09 - FDIC and banks: the greatest circus on earth

The too-big-to-fail banks are being "asked" to organize a bailout for the failing FDIC, a too-big-to-fail government organization. It appears the FDIC needs more money in order to support too-big-to-fail banks when said banks are on the verge of failing.

FDIC asks banks for help - CNN

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9/28/09 - The elephant in the room

[Warning: Dirty language and depictions]

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9/25/09 - Large-loan performance green shoots

More obvious evidence that the credit market is improving and the banks are healthy...

U.S. large-loan bank losses triple to $53 billion - Reuters

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9/24/09 - New protectionist strategy has legs

A couple of weeks ago it was tires. Now it's paper and steel. Next, we should just close our trading borders and the last of our factories and trade baseball cards amongst ourselves.

Paper Is Next Front in China Trade Fight - The Wall Street Journal

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9/23/09 - Fed extends MBS/Agency debt purchase deadline

FOMC statement translation:
We think the economy is getting better. We also think credit is extremely important to the economy getting better. Therefore we're going to keep interest rates at 0-.25% since credit is not getting better. Also, we're going to extend d-day for cutting loose our support of MBS and Agency debt since it still needs our support. But the economy is getting better.

FOMC Extends Deadline For MBS, Agency Debt Purchases - Forbes

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9/22/09 - Massachusetts changes rules mid-stride

To Obama: Need to get an unpopular and otherwise stoppable national health bill passed? Just dial Gov. Deval Patrick and he'll break the law to make it happen.

Kennedy Fill-In Might Be Chosen as Early as Tomorrow - Bloomberg

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9/21/09 - Omnipotent Fed rejects checks and balances facade

Seems like a case of the pot calling the kettle black. How about a study of the Treasury governance as well?

Fed Rejects Geithner Request for Study of Governance, Structure - Bloomberg

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