July 2009

T. Boone Pickens Can't Get Transmission Lines

T. Boone Pickens is scrapping his alternative energy mega wind farm because he cannot raise $2 billion for the needed transmission lines.

Rosser said Mesa Power was also unable to borrow $2 billion for transmission lines to link the wind farm to the Texas grid. "Now we're going to wait for the state to put the transmission [lines] in, which will invariably be slower than what we were planning," Rosser said.

What is strange is he has $2 Billion of Wind Turbines already. I don't quite understand why he would order so many Wind Turbines without the infrastructure in place to get the generated electricity out to cities.

But since D.C. is so busy wasting money right and left, one would think they could strike a deal with good ole T. Boone with some sort of return on investment in the future.

More on the Sovereign States Banking Solution - North Dakota Shows the Way

The only State in the Union chartered to be the primary depositor and guarantor of the deposits of its own Bank is North Dakota. All state funds are deposited into this bank (by law) and its deposit base becomes the capital reserve from which to create credit.

Our system of hopelessly insolvent mega banks across the nation has leveraged, gambled and lost it all in the insane derivatives casino. Despite more than six months of massive taxpayer bailouts, credit markets are still frozen, the economy continues to collapse and 2.3 million more Americans have lost their jobs since Obama took office.

But North Dakota’s GNP has grown 56%, personal income has grown 43%, and wages have grown 34%. The state not only has no funding issues, but this year it actually has a budget surplus of $1.2 billion, the largest it has ever had.

IMF: The U.S. sees a "Diminishing Rate of Deterioration"

The IMF has updated it's global economic projections and now claims the world will grow about 2.5% in 2010, with the caveat of > 10% unemployment into 2010 for the United States. (Folks, how can you call that a recovery if working people cannot find a job?)

This is in line with the World Banks recent estimates of 2% by removing China and India from their calculations.

Stabilization uneven, challenges remain

OIl, consumer spending, and the Recession

Back in April, I crunched retail and oil price numbers and concluded that the price of oil was responsible for over half of the changes in real retail spending in the last two years. As the price of oil continued to shoot higher, on June 2, after examining the role of China's hoarding in its burgeoning strategic oil reserve, and the hoarding going on at sea by oil companies and speculators, I wrote that

Delveraging Anyone?

Economic growth in the U.S. since the mid- 90's has not been organic - it was synthesized with CREDIT.

 From Reuters:U.S. consumers fall behind on loans at record pace

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Soaring U.S. unemployment and a shrinking economy drove delinquencies on credit card debt and home equity loans to all-time highs in the first quarter as a record number of cash-strapped consumers fell behind on their bills.

Even the Pope Says Globalization has run amok and steam rolled workers

Even the Pope is saying current economic policies around the globe are nutso. From the New York Times, Pope Urges New World Economic Order:

Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday called for a radical rethinking of the global economy, criticizing a growing divide between rich and poor and urging the establishment of a “world political authority” to oversee the economy and work for the “common good.”

He criticized the current economic system, “where the pernicious effects of sin are evident,” and urged financiers in particular to “rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity.”

Here is the Pope's Caritas in Veritate.

on outsourcing

Boston Fed: Obama's efforts toward housing "misdirected"

It isn't hard to find news articles claiming that the bottom in housing is in.

Harney notes that “even the most bearish researchers” are saying that home prices are almost at bottom

The problem is when you look at the actual numbers they show something entirely different. For instance, just today, the PMI Mortgage Insurance Company predicts that housing prices will continue to fall for the next two years. These guys aren't exactly a group that likes to spread doom and gloom.

So who is right? Well, let's take a look at today's news.

Debt burden shifts global power away from G8

This should be obvious to most people, but its interesting to see it all spelled out in the MSM.

(Bloomberg) -- The world’s most affluent nations will take decades to work off the biggest buildup in debt since World War II. The political costs may be permanent, laid bare at this week’s Group of Eight summit of leading industrial powers.

Bank bailouts and recession-fighting measures will explode the debt of the advanced economies to at least 114 percent of gross domestic product in 2014, more than triple the 35 percent of the main emerging economies including China, the International Monetary Fund forecasts.

Surprise, Surprise: Obama Advisor Says Second Stimulus Needed

I believe this is the second person who has publicly acknowledged that we need a SECOND stimulus. This time it is Laura Tyson, Obama economic advisor.

The U.S. should consider drafting a second stimulus package focusing on infrastructure projects because the $787 billion approved in February was “a bit too small,” said Laura Tyson, an adviser to President Barack Obama.

"A bit too small" WTF? There were plenty of people who were saying that the first stimulus was not enough. But no, in the interest of bipartisanship we settled for something much smaller.
Good luck getting a second stimulus passed now.

Check this great insight:

Pages