The Federal Reserve determined that 10 U.S. banks need to raise a total of $74.6 billion in capital, concluding its unprecedented probe of the health of the nation’s 19 largest lenders.
The results showed that losses at the banks under ‘more adverse” economic conditions than most economists anticipate could total $599.2 billion over two years.
Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, tells TIME he's so outraged by GOP overspending, he's quitting the party ...
It's not clear exactly what he's looking for since he doesn't want to see cuts in "Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid", so his move may be based on (yet to be clarified) principles.
But whatever you can say about the guy, he got a ton of recognition and, presumably, opportunities to make money giving speeches or with a (well ghost-written) book. Conservatives and many Republicans were delighted to use him as a totem for everyman. And now he's saying he doesn't want to be a part of that.
George Will repeats himself, the second time in the august pages of the Washington Post:
Last Sunday, as reported by Steve Benen of the Washington Monthly: (emp add)
Over the weekend, ABC's "This Week" briefly covered the president's latest White House press conference. The show featured a clip from Obama in which he said, "I know that if the Japanese can design an affordable, well-designed hybrid, then doggone it, the American people should be able to do the same. So my job is to ask the auto industry, 'Why is it you guys can't do this?'"
"I assume the president is talking about the Prius. It's affordable because Toyota sells it at a loss, and it can afford to sell it at a loss because it is selling twice as many gas-guzzling pickup trucks of the sort our president detests. So as an auto executive, he's off to a rocky start."
Actually, the only thing "rocky" here is the quality of Will's analysis.
In reality, Toyota used to sell hybrids at a loss -- in 1997. The industry and consumer trends have changed considerably over the last 12 years, and Toyota started making a profit on each Prius sold way back in 2001.
Indeed, reader R.H. directed me to this item, which noted, "[T]he Nikkei newspaper in Japan estimated just last week that both Honda and Toyota make over $3,000 of profit on each hybrid sold."
[Obama] says: "If the Japanese can design [an] affordable, well-designed hybrid, then, doggone it, the American people should be able to do the same." Yes they can -- if the American manufacturer can do what Toyota does with the Prius: Sell its hybrid without significant, if any, profit and sustain this practice, as Toyota does, by selling about twice as many of the gas-thirsty pickup trucks that the president thinks are destroying the planet.
The way the website The FOX Nation appears to work is that they basically provide short headline-summaries to stories running on other (very right wing) websites (e.g. World Net Daily, Newsbusters). But FOX Nation does provide a comment thread for the links. For one story, Why Does NBC News Attack Average Americans?, there was this comment:
They [NBC] are in bed with the Chicago thugs [aka Obama]. WAKE UP AMERICA - I was listening to the Michael Slaughter radio show and our government during the Swine Flu Crisis tabled a bill (HJResolution 1) that will amend the Constitution on removing term limits on the Presidency. You can't trust the left wing media or the left wing Democrates.
WAKE UP AMERICA - The census takers (Federal Government) are taking GPS readings at your front door. This is scary. Next will come the micro chip in your body.
In a slam at California, Will writes about the state's current fiscal woes:
Liberal orthodoxy has made the state dependent on a volatile source of revenue -- high income tax rates on the wealthy. In 2006, the top 1 percent of earners paid 48 percent of the income taxes. California's income and sales taxes are among the nation's highest ...
It was the conservative-advocated Proposition 13 of 1978 that severely reduced taxes on property (which is a wealth tax, much less subject to economic rhythms). That's what has put California in the situation where its taxation is pro-cyclical, meaning that when times are bad, the state suffers just as much if not more so.
The sharp reduction in property taxes was not something "liberal orthodoxy" ever supported. George Will is wrong.
Will is flat out lying, and he knows it. He says "Liberal orthodoxy has made the state dependent on a volatile source of revenue -- high income tax rates on the wealthy." California's real problem is Proposition 13, which has for three decades produced artificially low property tax rates. Proposition 13 -- championed by conservatives -- is why the state is dependent on more volatile income taxes. Will doesn't even mention Prop 13, which makes this whole column, like every other column he has written on the subject, utter garbage. 5/3/2009 1:11:21 AM
[Josh Marshall @ TPM] notes that many are saying that the retirement of Justice Souter, like all other earthly events, is good news for Republicans. I expect to hear the phrase “a chance to get their mojo back” a lot over the next few weeks.
Why stop at Souter? Scalia should be urged, by Republicans, to exit the court because then conservatives would be really charged-up.
