[lotuseclat79]

Here's Why The US Is Screwed.

Here's Why The US Is Screwed

First, the big picture. The pie on the left is "revenue"--the money the government has available to spend. The pie on the right is "expenses"--the money the government actually spends. Note the vast portion of spending that comes from the Entitlement programs.

Mary Meeker's Definitive Guide To The American Public Debt Crisis.

-- Tom

[poochee]

William Alden
Alden@huffingtonpost.com
Laden's Death Gives Markets Boost Of Optimism, Eases Fear Of Recession (UPDATE)
First Posted: 05/ 2/11 08:08 AM ET Updated: 05/ 2/11 11:06 AM ET

Osama bin Laden's death has decreased the risk of doing business around the globe and especially in the Middle East, providing a needed boost to the broader economic recovery, economists said Monday.

The leader of the al Qaeda terrorist group is dead, President Barack Obama announced from Washington late Sunday. The news has been a tonic for financial markets: the price of a barrel of oil fell; Japanese stocks rose to a post-earthquake high and U.S. stock futures surged. We live in a new and potentially less dangerous world, headlines are declaring. It's a change that promises more investment in Middle East countries, cheaper transportation costs and less risk the U.S. economy will tip back into recession.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0...=Daily%20Brief

[poochee]

William Alden
Alden@huffingtonpost.com
Oil Prices Plunge In Record Sell-Off
First Posted: 05/ 5/11 04:36 PM ET Updated: 05/ 5/11 06:24 PM ET

Crude oil plunged 10 percent as startled investors unloaded their positions and a weeklong decline accelerated into an outright freefall. The price of U.S. crude went from triple digits to double digits, falling below $100 after opening at close to $110. Brent crude, a European benchmark, lost $12 at one point in a sell-off that exceeded the one following Lehman Brothers' collapse, Reuters reported.

An oil correction is underway, experts said, as the price is moving toward what fundamental economic factors dictate it should be. For the American consumer, plagued by weeks of rising energy prices that have begun to weigh heavily on the economy, a bit of respite may be at hand.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._content=Title

[eggplant43]

The U.S. will likely owe $10.4 trillion this year, its largest debt relative to the economy since 1950. However, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected in 2001 that the federal government would erase its debt in 2006 and be $2.3 trillion in the black by 2011 – a $12.7 trillion difference from today’s reality.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/05...Big+Picture%29

[poochee]

CEO Pay Now Exceeds Pre-Recession Levels: Equilar
By RACHEL BECK 05/ 6/11 07:01 AM ET

NEW YORK -- In the boardroom, it's as if the Great Recession never happened.

CEOs at the nation's largest companies were paid better last year than they were in 2007, when the economy was booming, the stock market set a record high and unemployment was roughly half what it is today.

The typical pay package for the head of a company in the Standard & Poor's 500 was $9 million in 2010, according to an analysis by The Associated Press using data provided by Equilar, an executive compensation research firm. That was 24 percent higher than a year earlier, reversing two years of declines.

Executives were showered with more pay of all types – salaries, bonuses, stock, options and perks. The biggest gains came in cash bonuses: Two-thirds of executives got a bigger one than they had in 2009, some more than three times as big.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0...=Daily%20Brief

[poochee]

U.S. tax burden at lowest level since '58
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
Updated 1d 5h ago |

The total tax burden — for all federal, state and local taxes — dropped to 23.6% of income in the first quarter, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis data.

By contrast, individuals spent roughly 27% of income on taxes in the 1970s, 1980s and the 1990s — a rate that would mean $500 billion of extra taxes annually today, one-third of the estimated $1.5 trillion federal deficit this year

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/...cord-low_n.htm

[poochee]

Posted on Thursday, May 5, 2011
Americans are under-taxed
By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Here's a dirty little secret that most Americans don't want to hear: We're under-taxed.

That may sound like heresy; nobody wants to pay more taxes. But by historical standards, what we pay in federal taxes — rich, poor and everyone in between — has gone down.

At a time when Washington is wrestling with how to end federal budget deficits and trim the national debt — huge questions that are expected to dominate the nation's politics through the 2012 elections — the fact that Americans are under-taxed compared with U.S. historic norms is central to the discussion.

This fact is separate from the politically charged questions of whether government spends too much, the fairness of who pays how much and what we value or don't in government spending. It's simply that our tax burden is low in the long view of U.S. history, and there are many ways to measure that central truth.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/05/0...americans.html

[eggplant43]

If this happens, it takes gas to $5.20 per gallon.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) was established in the wake of the 1973-74 oil crisis to ensure the uninterupted supply of oil to industrialized nations. This autonomous agency now predicts oil prices will rise an additional 30% over the next three years.

http://gas2.org/2011/05/06/iea-says-...t-three-years/

[eggplant43]

A new report by Zillow says that 28.4% of all single-family houses in America with mortgages are underwater. No, we're not talking about flooding in the south, but homes that owe more on their mortgage than they are worth. It's even worse in places where the bubble was the biggest. In Tampa, FL, 59.8% of homes have negative equity and in Phoenix, AZ, it's 68.4%. Declines in home values are still happening and Zillow doesn't see a bottom happening until 2012, at the earliest.

http://consumerist.com/2011/05/284-o...nderwater.html

[poochee]

Originally Posted by eggplant43

http://consumerist.com/2011/05/284-o...nderwater.html

[ekim68]

Originally Posted by eggplant43

If this happens, it takes gas to $5.20 per gallon.



http://gas2.org/2011/05/06/iea-says-...t-three-years/

Since it's not a renewable resource and will eventually run out, $5.20 a gallon is a bargain right now....

[eggplant43]

Back in 2006 when the price of gas was running up, I predicted $7.00 a gallon gas in 2011, it could still happen.

[poochee]

Hedge fund founder convicted in inside-trade case
Faces a maximum term of more than 19 years in prison.
TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER | May 11, 2011 04:01 PM EST | AP

NEW YORK — A former Wall Street titan was convicted Wednesday of making a fortune by coaxing a crew of corporate tipsters into giving him an illegal edge on blockbuster trades in technology and other stocks – what prosecutors called the largest insider trading case ever involving hedge funds.

Raj Rajaratnam was convicted of five conspiracy counts and nine securities fraud charges at the closely watched trial in federal court in Manhattan. The jury had deliberated since April 25, and at one point was forced to start over again when one juror dropped out due to illness.

Prosecutors had alleged the 53-year-old Rajaratnam made profits and avoided losses totaling more than $60 million from illegal tips. His Galleon Group funds, they said, became a multibillion-dollar success at the expense of ordinary stock investors who didn't have advance notice of the earnings of public companies and of mergers and acquisitions.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-w...sider-trading/

[eggplant43]

I've been following this for some time through publications likes Forbes, it's nice to see a successful prosecution in this matter. I'd like to see more of these crooks prosecuted.

[poochee]

Originally Posted by eggplant43

I've been following this for some time through publications likes Forbes, it's nice to see a successful prosecution in this matter. I'd like to see more of these crooks prosecuted.

Same here! They have no shame.