Talks set out terms of US mortgage deal

The banks would receive less credit if they reduce balances for loans packaged in bonds or by reducing monthly payments through cuts in borrowers’ interest rates. In one scenario, the banks would get about 50 cents of credit for every $1 of reduced mortgage principal in home loans used to back bonds. In another scenario, balances on loans held on the banks’ books that are cut in the first year of the deal would receive $1.25 credit. This means, under certain circumstances, the aid to homeowners would be less than the aggregate size of the settlement, people familiar with the matter said.

Steve Clemons. You could not make this up.

Jack Lew: Obama's OMB Pick Oversaw Citigroup Unit That Shorted Housing Market

Corzine wasn't available?

Democrats’ New Super Committee Proposal Includes $400 Billion In Medicare And Medicaid Cuts

Democrats on the Super Committee are offering a $2.3 trillion tax-and-cut proposal “that includes $400 billion in Medicare and Medicaid reductions,” but only if Republicans compromise by putting new tax revenues on the table, Politico reports.

Do these idiots suppose that voters will forgive them for gutting the crown jewels of the Great Society in exchange for a few paltry tax increases on the wealthy?

Occupy!

'Back to the Source': Members of Debt Panel Have Ties to Lobbyists

The Washington Post article uses GE as a case study to discuss the almost 100 registered lobbyists who are former employees of super committee members and are now "representing defense companies, health-care conglomerates, Wall Street banks and others with a vested interest in the outcome of the panel's work

."

Occupy!

Harry Reid says he'd favor Huntsman over Romney

Why is he even commenting on the Republican race? Can you imagine any previous party leader making a remark like this?

Get the feeling that our parasitic overlords have selected Huntsman?

If I were King of the World, I would order a massive blog swarm with the subject line JOBS.

It has been a long time since there was a true netroots blogswarm, so long I cannot even remember. But maybe if we picked one day, assuming we could reassemble a long since shattered coalition, and posted about jobs, we could get the attention of our benighted elite.

Just a thought.

Democrats won in 2006 and 2008 because Bush messed up and the economy was a mess. Also Katrina and Iraq.

So what did the Republicans learn? When the economy is a mess the incumbent party loses power. So clearly to the Republicans, they needed to do whatever necessary to mess up the economy even more.

It seemed to me that initially the Republicans were worried that Obama would try to be FDR 2.0 and were determined to block his actions. Clearly they need not have worried. Obama does not seem to think that unemployment is a serious political problem for him and he might even be correct.

apres moi, le deluge

Scott Pelley interviews Ben Bernanke:

Asked if it's tax money the Fed is spending, Bernanke said, "It's not tax money. The banks have accounts with the Fed, much the same way that you have an account in a commercial bank. So, to lend to a bank, we simply use the computer to mark up the size of the account that they have with the Fed. It's much more akin to printing money than it is to borrowing."

"You've been printing money?" Pelley asked.

"Well, effectively," Bernanke said.

This quote captures it all, which is why Warren Mosler used it in his book.

That is what a friend of mine said last summer and I have been trying ever since to come up with a reason what she is wrong and coming up short.

It is simply incredible to me that with a Dem president and Dem Senate we are going to spend the next several months defending social security.

And how is it possible that Obama is considering hiring someone from JP morgan Chase as his Chief of Staff???? If the voters had any influence at all no one would even mention such a thing.

Contrary to what Atrios suggests, there is a way to stop the freak show, or at least stop it from mattering.

Tell Capitol Hill to TURN OFF THE TV!. Every office on Capitol Hill has the cable harpies on, which is why they can warp our politics so easily. Moreover, no one else watches the cable harpies, let it be known that Capitol Hill had turned off the freak show and their advertising dollars would dry up. The ratings on these shows are not very good.

Warren Mosler

With the 2%, 1 year reduction in FICA taxes for individuals, arguably traceable to my efforts, there was some consideration of declaring victory and moving on, but I’m feeling more the opposite.

First, it’s tiny and at the macro level the propensity to spend of the recipients is trivial.

And it probably doesn’t even offset the drag from prices for imported crude and products.

And it may just be an interim step in letting the next Congress ‘pay for it’ with Social Security cuts.

NONE of the basic appropriations bills have passed. NONE. They have all passed the House of Representatives, the House did its job.

The ONLY thing the House and Senate are REQUIRED to do is pass the appropriations. They don't actually have to pass any legislation at all.

This is an EPIC FAIL for Harry Reid and Obama. To go in with overwhelming majorities and not even perform basic tasks such as passing appropriations is indicative of their arrogance and indifference to the concerns or ordinary people to say nothing of their obliviousness to basic accountability.

Earmarks are for projects that voters actually want. That is why they are denigrated by the VRWC and their pet intellectuals in stinkthink tanks, along with their flunkies in the celebrity press corps.

Warren Mosler Offers $100 Million of His Own Money to Pay Down the Federal Deficit If Any Lawmaker Can Prove Him Wrong

Why is the Henrico County Economic Development Commission hosting a book event for Michael Isikoff in Fairfax County? (a two hour drive from Henrico County even in good traffic)

Henrico County Virginia presents Newsweek's and MSNBC's Mike Isikoff

Hear him answer the question on the mind of every business person:
“Obama’s Record and the Election
Outlook for 2010: How Vulnerable
Are the Democrats?”
Join Michael Isikoff for an exclusive free-of-charge breakfast/conversation.

Unemployed? Fax or email your resume to your Congressional representatives!

Dems hope to be seen as ‘party of results’

The Huffington Post has a fascinating article about the health care fight from the point of view of one faction of courtiers.

Cutting defense spending more popular than cutting education or Social Security

Defense spending may be sacred to GE, but not to voters.

Hugh is done, Bruce is done, Rochelle is done. In fact there is at least anecdotal evidence that a significant part of the female volunteer base has already walked.

Mike Lux has an inkling that something is amiss, but clearly fails to comprehend the extent of it.

If I had the resources to do an opinion poll, I would poll on the generic ballot for Democrats, Republicans, Greens, left wing third party, Libertarian, right wing third party.

I think one of the reasons that Versailles doesn't get it, even after the Massachusetts senate race, is because they don't poll for third parties, so they don't see the growth of support of third parties.

Or they think that the enforcer routine of crying Nader Nader is going to work.

There are a lot of women who are going to walk. Not just women, but women are the most dissatisfied group right now.

Let me start with the biggest lie of the health care reform Kabuki. Obama, to this day, keeps saying that if people like their present insurance they can keep it. We know very well that as a practical consequence of this legislation, should it pass, workers with quality plans are likely to see them replaced with inferior ones. That is because the taxes on those plans will force employers to trade down. As it is now, providing your workers with quality insurance is breaking the bank at many businesses. Otherwise responsible employers are being forced to trade down without punitive taxes, add that to the mix and the money simply won't be there.

Health insurance parasites don't like those plans. That is why they pushed the "Cadillac plan" talking point.

Only in Versailles are there votes for the mandate to require people to purchase health insurance with the IRS as the collection agency. Taxing health insurance benefits to subsidize this only adds to its unpopularity.

This was thought up by a bunch of fellows at stink tanks financed by health insurance parasites and promoted in news publications owned by health insurance parasites. It has no popular support. None. The whole proposition is an illustration of how out of touch Versailles is with the United States of America.

Mo. House seeks to block health insurance mandate