This'n'That; July 30th[Louise;Fluffy/Ponzi;SafewayRemedy;PorkScams;InsuranceReform]

How's That "Hope'n'Change" Workin' For Ya?

Here we go again.....Geeze Louise needs some press, any press, even negative press!!! To satisfy that need, she's grasping at straws to get some notoriety. So now, we're gonna help the western New York dairy farmers who, for ALL OF HER 24 "House of Representatives" years, have been "sucking hind tit!!" Now she's gonna "represent her constituents" and form another layer of government to syphon off MORE MONEY!! Where the Hell was she when corporate farms were buying up tillable acreage by the hundreds of acres?? where was she when grain prices went outta sight, making animal feed cost prohibitive??

".....my colleagues and I are committed to serving as their voice in Congress...."

Do you suppose she's saying that to ALL her constituents?? I doubt it!! Go to her official website [ www.louise.house.gov ] and check the ongoing results of her survey concerning a highspeed rail connecting Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Albany......

• Against the Highspeed rail: 432 [74.7%]
• For the Highspeed rail: 127 [22.1%]
• Might support Highspeed rail: 19 [3.3%]

For those who don't know, Geeze Louise has been pushing a highspeed rail linking the above cities, all of whom have local economies in the toilet! She pushes this knowing full well that "after the fad wears off" the only users will be politicians travelling from home to their "play-pens" in Albany and back...... Who else can afford to ride it??? The "three men in a backroom" have taken all our economic resources, we have nothing left after paying New York's multi-multi-layered usurious taxes!!! Previous to this highspeed rail fantasy, we had "the fast ferry-" a $13million boat that was to run between Rochester and Toronto, Canada. This tub lost money every second of it's existence!!! Does Louise believe that just because she coerced a RepublicRAT [Chris Lee] to join her Mafia-that makes it economically feasible??

**From the KoolAid Media:

Responding to cries of woe from dairy farmers, who are having to sell their milk for less than it costs to produce, two local members of Congress announced the formation of a new bipartisan congressional caucus on dairy farming. “Milk prices have plummeted this year, and New York’s nearly 6,000 dairy farmers are facing tremendous hardship as a result,” said Rep. Louise Slaughter D-Fairport. “The formation of the Congressional Dairy Farmers Caucus should assure farmers across New York that my colleagues and I are committed to serving as their voice in Congress, and re-evaluating the effectiveness of the policies that ensure their livelihood.”Rep. Chris Lee, R-Clarence, is one of three vice chairmen of the caucus.

Fluffy obama's "Ponzi Scheme" You're Not Supposed To Hear About!

Fluffy obama [slowly evolving to "o-dum-a"] had one of his Ponzi schemes hidden in the $787 Billion Porkulus bill... and you weren't supposed to find out about it!! oduma is "lower than whale shit!!" .... to prey upon those who can least afford it-those Americans who are already retired and those who are approaching retirement. When one closes in on retirement, they tend to gradually move their investments into interest bearing instruments-away from stocks and other fluctuating vehicles. What Fluffy didn't want you to find out about is "ZIRP"-Zero Interest Rate Policy. This is an unpublished facet of the bank bailout legislation. The ZIRP is a zero-sum game-the banks win, the savers lose!! Many financially prudent savers are forced by FED induced policy of zero rates, into riskier and riskier asset classes and longer maturities in search of yields?? How's that Hope'n'Change workin' for ya'??? For those trying to survive without the gubmint dole, it's quickly becoming "Hopeless Change!!!"

Possible Relief From Fluffy's "Ponzi Scheme!" Safeway operates the nation's third-largest retail grocery chain with about 1,740 stores in the United States and Canada. Its primary markets include the western United States, western Canada, Texas, and the mid-Atlantic region. -Company profile from Morningstar Safeway [NYSE:SWY] July 28, 2009 $18.70; 52-week range: $17.19 (Nov. 21, 2008) - $28.95 (Aug. 15, 2008); Dividend = $0.10 quarterly = 2.14% current yield. Despite uncertain economic times people continue to eat. In fact, with decreased restaurant traffic, groceries for home-based meals seem to getting a boost. On balance full-year 2009 results are likely to drop from 2008’s $2.21 /share to about $1.80 this year. Zacks sees $2.23 next year while Value Line looks for $2.10 in 2010. That makes Safeway’s multiples just 10.3x and about 8.9x the 2009 – 2010 estimates. That is well below historical levels. Here are the per share numbers from continuing operations as reported by Value Line:

• Year ......Sales ..... C/F ..... EPS ...... Div. ....... B/V ...... Avg. P/E
• 2004 .....80.02 .... 3.25 .... 1.25 ......Nil ......... 9.62 ........ 17.0x
• 2005 .....85.48 .... 3.48 .... 1.40 ......0.15 ..... 10.95 ........ 15.8x
• 2006 ......91.31 .... 4.01 ..... 1.73 ..... 0.22 ..... 12.88 ........ 15.7x
• 2007 ......96.08 ... 4.45 ..... 1.99 ..... 0.27 ..... 15.23 ........ 17.2x
• 2008 ....102.83 ... 4.91 ..... 2.21 ..... 0.32 ..... 15.82 ........ 12.4x

Dividends were initiated in 2005 and have been raised in each year since. The quarterly distribution was increased to $0.10 in the most recent quarter. Today’s 2.14% yield is better than the rates on most bank CDs and short- term treasuries. Value Line notes Safeway’s financial strength as 'B++’ and assigns it an ‘above average’ safety rating. They also note that SWY has a 95th percentile ‘stock price stability’ ranking (with 100th being best) and a 0.7 Beta. Morningstar gives Safeway their highest 5-Star rating and sees ‘fair value’ as $30 /share. This steady, somewhat conservative company appears undervalued based on all historical metrics such as P/BV, P/CF and P/E. The shares trade near multi-year lows going all the way back to 1996. Peak prices from $24.20 - $38.30 were touched in each calendar year from 2003 right through 2009. SWY shares actually hit $61 - $62 highs in 1998-1999-2000 and 2001 when the supermarket group was ‘hot’.

Porkulus Scams: How's That "Hope'n'Change Workin' For Ya' Today?

• A Piece of the Stimulus Pie
• by Bill Bonner-London, England

An article in today's International Herald Tribune tells the story of one area in Tennessee that has gotten stimulus money. "The cash that salvaged a county," says the headline. Perry County, southwest of Nashville, must be one of those places you don't want to stop when you're driving across the country.

• With 25% unemployment and no significant industry, it sounds dreadful - at least from an economic point of view. It might be a nice place to live - if you don't have to work for a living.
• So the county honchos figured the county needed a little stimulus. They managed to lay their hands on cash being passed out by the feds. It doesn't seem to bother anyone that the money belongs to someone else. Nor does the fact that it is now being frittered away in a bunch of make-work projects that nobody wanted to pay for even when they had some money.
• Stimulus-assisted businesses of Perry County now have an unfair advantage over their honest competitors in other parts of the state. The Armstrong Pie Company, for example, used taxpayers' money to expand: "New workers [hired with stimulus money] have helped the company triple its pie production and expand its reach through central Tennessee."
• A quick question: what happened to the pie companies that lost market share to Armstrong?
• And another: how is the economy any better off by stimulating one pie company to make more pies at the expense of other pie companies?
• And a final one: even if total pie consumption goes up - a larger pie! - where's the benefit?
• The whole thing is a scam! The government will just keep on using taxpayers' money to pay for the stimulus -
• What are you going to see in return?
• Most likely...a whole lot of nothing.

"The credit crisis is over," declared Ian Mathias. "No seriously, it is!" Banking lending rates reached a historic low today. At a wimpy 0.48%, three-month Libor is at its lowest rate since at least 1986, when the British Bankers' Association started keeping track.

The London Interbank Offered Rate (or LIBOR) is a daily reference rate based on the interest rates at which banks borrow unsecured funds from other banks in the London wholesale money market (or interbank market). It is roughly comparable to the U.S. Federal funds rate.

• Compared with its post-Lehman Brothers peak of 4.8%, banks can now lend to each other at practically no cost. Credit, it would seem, is extremely liquid.
• Remember the Libor/OIS spread? It's the complicated ratio of inter- bank lending rates to overnight index swaps that Alan Greenspan famously called a 'barometer of fears of bank insolvency.'
• It peaked at 3.6% basis points in October.
• Greenspan said credit would be in a 'normal' state when the spread hit 0.25%.
• This morning, it shrank to 0.29%.
• That reminds us of a key theme of last week's AF Investment Symposium: Inter-bank credit is flowing, but that's no longer the problem.
• It was once about what banks didn't have - credit. Now it's all about what they've got - bad assets.

Talk about scams... Elliot Spitzer is back in the news. Speaking to MSNBC, the disgraced crime-fighter described the Fed as a "Ponzi scheme":"You look at the governing structure of the New York Federal Reserve."

• it was run by the very banks that got the money.
• This is a Ponzi scheme, an inside job. It is outrageous!!
• It's time for Congress to say enough of this. And to give them more power now is crazy.
• The Fed needs to be examined carefully.
• "Poor Spitzer resigned as governor of New York in March 2008. At the time, he had been warning about sub-prime mortgage loans.
• Some think the feds found a way to silence him - by revealing that he had a bad habit...$1,000-an-hour hookers.
• Investigative reporters maintain that federal enforcement officials had the option of leaving Spitzer out of the news. Instead, the Bush Administration Justice Department decided to out Spitzer.

The former NY Attorney General and Governor had this to say about regulatory reform:

• "Regulatory agencies already had the power to do everything they needed to do," he said. "They just affirmatively chose not to do it.
• "Stimulus is a scam - on both sides of the Atlantic.In Europe the banks have a good hustle going - almost as good as in the United States.
• They borrow money from the European central bank and then lend it back to the government. The ECB loans money at low rates to the banks - hoping to encourage consumer and business lending. In June, for example, the banks borrowed 442 billion euros at a fixed interest rate of 1%.
• Lending to business and households is at its lowest level since record-keeping began - and slowing down, says James Saft in the International Herald Tribune.
• In May, Europe's money supply grew at a 3.5% annual rate, he notes. But lending to the private sector in June slowed to 1.5% from 1.8% a month earlier. Loans to nonfinancial corporations actually fell in May, while lending to households grew at less than 1%.
• If they didn't lend the money out...what did they do with it? Well, they did lend it - back to the people they borrowed it from. In June the banks bought $75 billion worth of government bonds and lent nearly $30 billion directly to European governments.
• Of course, the banks are doing well.
• They earn money without taking the risk of lending to the real economy.
• But what good does it do?
• None.

More Whinning On obamaCare

To be perfectly clear at the outset: obamaCare has nothing to do with healthcare!!

It's all about obama's hatred of America and all it stands for; all it's citizens have!! It's all about obama's need to control more and more of the national economy!! It's all about obama's need to "redistribute the nation's wealth 'to it's rightful owners'" It's all about obama's need to financially protect his campaign donors.

Now we find out that GoldmanSachs has a Cadillac of a healthcare plan that costs over $40,000, just less than the average American family makes in a year. This plan is truly amazing —

• no co-pays
• no deductibles
• no cost for prescriptions
• Don't worry about pre-existing conditions
• and of course, all free
• it is not taxed, all deductible

Here are the facts on small businesses:

1. Firms with fewer than 20 employees account for 18 percent of private-sector jobs but almost 25 percent of net employment growth in the past 15 years; 2. However, small businesses pay nearly 20 percent more for the same health insurance policy than larger firms because of broker fees, administrative costs and adverse selection; 3. While 99 percent of firms with over 200 employees offer health insurance only 49 percent of firms with three to nine employees do. 4. What's needed here IS NOT healthcare reform!!

America has the best healthcare system on the planet!!

How many of your relatives, friends or neighbors have left the United States for better healthcare abroad??

What's needed here IS health INSURANCE reform!!

• The administration should model an insurance plan after that of Safeway, Inc.!!
• The administration should model an insurance plan after the highly successful auto insurance format.

Start with a base monthly rate that reflects the worst in Americans' lifestyles

• Subtract discounts for weight reduction to the recommended levels.
• Subtract discounts for verifyable regular exercise.
• Subtract discounts for gym membership and verifiable use.
• Subtract discounts for an active work environment.
• Subtract discounts for each of several annual/semi-annual tests and exams.
• ....and other lifestyle changes to enhance wellness.

Til Nex'Time....