Month: November 2008

Fed Secretive Over Where Our $2 Trillion Is Going

Buck Banks

shitsandwich.jpg
Remember the economic bailout that was supposed to head off the next Great Depression through an injection of $2 trillion in cash and loan guarantees? Do you know where your money is going? Neither do I, and apparently, that’s the way the Federal Reserve want to keep it.

According to Bloomberg:

Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn’t require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.

“The collateral is not being adequately disclosed, and that’s a big problem,” said Dan Fuss, vice chairman of Boston- based Loomis Sayles & Co., where he co-manages $17 billion in bonds. “In a liquid market, this wouldn’t matter, but we’re not. The market is very nervous and very thin.”

Apparently, the $700 billion bailout approved by Congress — with certain safeguards — is only a drop in the bucket of what the Fed really has access to. And most of the dough the Fed is doling out is being distributed through programs that are not approved or overseen by Congress.

But really, what kind of money are we talking about here?

The Fed’s lending is significant because the central bank has stepped into a rescue role that was also the purpose of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, bailout plan — without safeguards put into the TARP legislation by Congress.

Total Fed lending topped $2 trillion for the first time last week and has risen by 140 percent, or $1.172 trillion, in the seven weeks since Fed governors relaxed the collateral standards on Sept. 14. The difference includes a $788 billion increase in loans to banks through the Fed and $474 billion in other lending, mostly through the central bank’s purchase of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds.

In scenes reminiscent of how the Bush administration justified spying on U.S. citizens for our protection, both Paulson and Bernanke seem to be invoking the word transparency way more often than they are practicing it:

At a Sept. 23 Senate Banking Committee hearing in Washington, Paulson called for transparency in the purchase of distressed assets under the TARP program.

“We need oversight,” Paulson told lawmakers. “We need protection. We need transparency. I want it. We all want it.”

At a joint House-Senate hearing the next day, Bernanke also stressed the importance of openness in the program. “Transparency is a big issue,” he said.

Right. Well Bloomberg has filed a federal lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act to force the Fed to reveal the deals. And I bet we’re not going to like what we see when they lift that curtain ….

Palin Skulking for an Opening to Run Again

Trish

Everybody! Stop what you’re doing and go check your doors! Now! Make sure they are closed and locked. And some nails would be good too.

“I’m like, OK, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, I’m like, don’t let me miss the open door,” [Gov. Sarah] Palin said in an interview with Fox News on Monday. “And if there is an open door in ’12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I’ll plow through that door.”

On second thought, just brick over the opening. We can’t take any chances.

Bonus QdJ from the ‘Another Bad Decision’ File

Buck Banks

I’d never seen anything like that ad. Putting pictures of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden next to the picture of a man who left three limbs on the battlefield — it’s worse than disgraceful, it’s reprehensible.

— Sen. John McCain, quoted by CNN, on the campaign ads used by Saxby Chambliss (R) against Sen. Max Cleland (D-GA) in the 2002 U.S. Senate race. McCain is now scheduled to campaign for Chambliss in his Georgia run-off against Jim Martin (D).

Joe the Plumber Was On Welfare At Least Twice

Jon Ponder

Here’s another dim bulb the McCain campaign did not vet before trotting him out. But like Sarah Palin, Joe Wurzelbacher — who, let’s recall, is not a plumber, and who lied to Obama when he said he was going to buy a plumbing business — will remain a Dittohead icon for the foreseeable future.

In this video, he says that his family living on welfare was not socialism because they had paid into the system. Sorry, Joe, or whatever your name is, welfare is socialism.

The Most Irritating Phrases

Buck Banks

irritating.jpgWe here at Pensito Review pride ourselves on our ability to toss about the well-worn cliché with the best of them, but even we have a limit to what we can stomach in polite conversation or, worse yet, everyday basic communicative writing that is intended to convey meaning and emotion. Hence our joy at seeing that Oxford University — famed for its dictionary and shoe style — has published its own list of the top 10 most annoying phrases.

We mostly agree:

1. At the end of the day

2. Fairly unique

3. I personally

4. At this moment in time

5. With all due respect

6. Absolutely

7. It’s a nightmare

8. Shouldn’t of

9. 24/7

10. It’s not rocket science

While we consider the Oxford list to be an excellent starting point, we have a few more that we would like to see added to a longer list of obnoxious phrases:

In order to

When all is said and done

Going forward

Same difference

Six of one, half a dozen of the other

In the final analysis

Drill down

Reach out

Do you have some phrases that are pet peeves? Leave us a comment and, at the end of the day, we’ll add them to our list of banned language.

Mormon Church Owns Mainstream Radio Stations in 8 Top Markets

Jon Ponder

The Mormon Church owns a for-profit corporate empire worth at least $11 billion. One of the church’s highest-profile companies is a broadcast network that includes mainstream radio stations in eight markets, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington D.C., Seattle, Phoenix, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Salt Lake City. The church also owns the NBC television affiliate in Salt Lake City, KSL, Channel 5.

In its campaign against gay marriage, the Mormon Church, through its members, donated up to 70 percent of the funding for California’s Proposition 8, which passed last Tuesday by 52 percent to 48 percent.

Gay groups and their supporters are planning boycotts of businesses owned and operated by Mormons, but one of the many things that set the Church of Latter Day Saints apart from most other denominations is the fact that the church itself owns a wide range of for-profit companies. Recent revenue figures are not readily available on the Intertubes, but here are a couple of paragraphs from an Aug. 1997 Time Magazine article titled, “Mormons Inc.”:
In Seattle, the Mormon Church owns the right wing talk radio station, which it has branded “The Truth.” That just about says it all, doesn’t it?

The top beef ranch in the world is not the King Ranch in Texas. It is the Deseret Cattle & Citrus Ranch outside Orlando, Fla. It covers 312,000 acres; its value as real estate alone is estimated at $858 million. It is owned entirely by the Mormons. The largest producer of nuts in America, AgReserves, Inc., in Salt Lake City, is Mormon-owned. So are the Bonneville International Corp., the country’s 14th largest radio chain, and the Beneficial Life Insurance Co., with assets of $1.6 billion…

All told, TIME estimates that the Latter-day Saints farmland and financial investments total some $11 billion, and that the church’s nontithe income from its investments exceeds $600 million.

Bonneville International, the broadcasting network owned by the Mormon Church, is interesting because, unlike most broadcast outlets owned by religious groupsthat only run religious programming — the networks owned by Pat Robertson and Paul and Jan Crouch, for example — Bonneville’s stations broadcast mainstream programming. Their Los Angeles outlet, 100.3 “The Sound,” for example, plays “Hot AC,” or adult contemporary music. A typical Hot AC playlist might include a mix of songs by Bob Marley, the Waterboys, Cold Play, Jackson Browne and Tears for Fears.

While several of the stations owned by Bonneville are “news/talk,” only KTTH in Seattle is full-on right-wing talk radio. Its moniker is “The Truth” — which just about says it all, doesn’t it? Besides truth-averse hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly, KTTH also broadcasts the show by Glenn Beck, who is a Mormon.

In Salt Lake City, the church owns the NBC outlet, KSL, Channel 5. It would be interesting to learn from SLC residents if the channel makes it clear to viewers that church owns the station, and whether the station ever reports controversies involving the church.

A complete list of Bonneville’s radio stations follows.

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