"Left" Over Change

This morning has been an interesting one. One of my favorite CNBC hosts, Rick Santelli, (the others being Charlie Gasparino, Larry Kudlow and Dillon Radigan) went off on a tangent this morning live from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade. It was epic. The traders actually stopped trading to applaud him and offer their own thoughts. Santelli went further, urging a tea party in Chicago. Gotta love Rick!



The other interesting story came today from the East Valley Tribune in sunny Mesa, Ariz. Seems that Dobson High Advanced Placement students in Arizona are not necessarily fans of the Obamanation. It is reported that one student, Senior Brandon Miller, wore a shirt with the words, "Hitler gave great speeches, too" above a picture of Obama. Wow, rough crowd.

I guess even high school students aren’t fond of “sharing the wealth.”

Wow...so I knew it was going to be bad, but whoa...drunken sailors watch out, Barry's got his tax-payer secured credit card out and he is not afraid to use it.

So, just Tuesday, Barry – who apparently was not told the election was over and made a campaign stop in Colorado, signed his $1.2 trillion “economic pork” bill yesterday. Not content to stop the spending there, today he rolled out some “Homeowner Affordability and Stability Act.” Well kinda. You see, they don't really have the plan developed, but he needed something to talk about at today's campaign stop in Arizona, so why not toss it out there and see if it sticks.

Think I am exaggerating? Check out the web site they built for it: http://www.blogger.com/www.financialstability.gov. Heck, maybe Barry should have earmarked some stimulus money for Web designers at the White House! That thing is a time capsule that harkens back to the early days of the Web.

Want the full text of the bill? Well, you see, there is no bill. I talked to the Treasury myself today about it. Looks like March 4 is the magic day when all the details will be fleshed out. But here is the gist:

If you want to refi, but your loan exceeds 80% of the home's value, you can refinance. But, that is only if your loan was held or secured by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Confused yet? It gets better. Nobody knows yet what the PMI structure is, or who is providing the PMI. Also, do you have a second mortgage? Good luck getting that second lien holder to subordinate to allow you to refi the first...it just ain't going to happen.

But what if you are already behind? It will provide guidelines to lenders to modify your loan. There are other kickers in here too. Like if you pay your modified loan on time for 5 years, they will knock $5,000 off the principle balance. See, and silly me, I thought we all were supposed to be paying our mortgages monthly. What are the chances of me getting in on that $5K? And, if you tell your lender you are in trouble before you miss a payment, you may be eligible for a $1,500 principle reduction. Then, if all else fails and you enter bankruptcy, a judge can cram down the principle balance to the fair market value of your home.

There are other details, but I want to keep this light reading. Let me distill this for you. Have you been making your payments on time? Congrats, you get to pay for every schlub that over spent and over leveraged himself.

Isn't socialism grand?

Here is an interesting concept, run your business well, and reward your workers. That is the tact that Leonard Abess Jr. recently took. Abess, the former owner of Miami-based National Bancshares, recently sold a majority of his company, and did something amazing…he did the right thing by his employees.

He took $60 million of his own proceeds and gave it as bonuses to his 399 employees and 70+ other former employees that he tracked down. What’s more, this guy gets it, look at this quote:

''I saw that if the president doesn't come to work, it's not a big deal. But if the tellers don't show up, it's a serious problem.''

That’s right, it is the bees that build the hive, not the Queen (or in our case, our King). Now, I know you are all thinking, aren’t you the one always rambling about the new culture of wealth sharing. Nope. I am the one railing on big government dictating how the free market operates.

Mr. Abess is as far from a socialist as you can get. He recognized who deserved to be compensated and did so of his own free will. That is capitalism at its finest.

Bravo to you, Mr. Abess.

I just read an AP article that the FTSE and other large world stock indexes took a dump today, based on fear over the wasteful spending disguised as stimulus.

How dare they! How long until they learn what all us Americans have been taught: Obama is beyond reproach and is not to be questioned.

Or, maybe the world is seeing that the Emporer has no clothes...

Obama met with the Detroit News recently and in a report is quoted as saying the following regarding “Buy American” tax cuts to bolster US-made auto sales:

He raised some red flags against protectionist sentiments, which can "worsen the economic prospects for all countries. You start getting into a downward protectionist spiral that is very dangerous."

Really? So we are back to government by appeasement? First it was letters to Iran, now we are willing to let an industry collapse because we don't want to offend the EU or the WTO? Give me a break.

Perhaps this is one reason Ron Paul captured my attention, albeit briefly, this last election cycle. His views on protectionism and jingoism are the breath of fresh air that we need. People ramble on and on about the global economy, well, how well has that served us??

Well, the anointed one recently took a trip to Fort Meyers, Fla., to host a town hall meeting. Now, you know the types that show up for these gigs. It was definitely an interesting crowd, but those are the uninformed that also made him our monarch. Anyhoo, while there, the questions he received show the utter confusion among his electorate. One gentleman asked why unemployment benefits could not cover 100% percent of a person's former salary (ummm...I assume his previous gig was not in finance), another fool was acting spastic and when called on complained about having to work at McDonalds and not being able to find another job. Well buddy, if you are as annoying in person as you acted in the audience, perhaps it is your personality that has precluded you from landing more lucrative employment.

But the kicker came from a woman who said she was living out of a car and wanted Barry's help securing a new car and a house with a kitchen and bathroom. The King proclaimed that she should see his staff afterwards and they will see what they can do. But, it looks like her begging, shameless at that, paid off. Her state rep has offered the free use of his house to her until she gets back on her feet. On top of that, Ellen DeGeneres is said to be interested in her plight as well. I'm sure they are on the phone now trying to find someone to give them a free house, so they can take all the credit for the give away.

What's worse, we have this douche bag (click link) comparing her to Rosa Parks. Really? Come on now, are we so far removed from Rosa Parks that we now compare her acts to that of a woman who overextended herself and as a result of her own poor financial planning is forced to live in her car? At least we do have one thing in common. The reporter claims tears started flowing as she heard this woman speak. I had the same reaction, but mine was because I see our country sinking so low. This savior-based government has to stop.

Lord, please send us another Reagan!