Geithner to Be Nominated as Treasury Secretary

President-elect Barack Obama plans to announce his economic team on Monday and will name New York Fed President Tim Geithner his nominee for Treasury Secretary, NBC News is reporting.

Here Comes the Greenie-Industrial Complex: What May Come Out of the Obama Administration

Micro-managing with no clue about basic economic principles appears to be the driving force behind Barack Obama's first 100 days. With the ascent of unions and the Greenie-Industrial Complex as icing on the cake.

At The Wall Street Journal's CEO Council Conference, Obama's incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told the audience, according to WSJ, that "a major economic stimulus would be 'the first order of business' for Mr. Obama when he takes office Jan. 20. The focus of spending will be on infrastructure, specifically 'green infrastructure,' which he said would include mass transit, upgraded electricity transmission lines, 'smart' electrical meters that allow consumers to save money by using electricity at off-peak hours, and universal broadband Internet access, which he said would encourage telecommuting."

With regard to unions, he said, "unions are addressing the concerns of a middle class that has seen U.S. median income slide over the past eight years, while health care, energy and education costs have soared."

He stressed that the new administration would "throw long and deep," taking advantage of the economic crisis to push wholesale changes in health care, taxes, financial re-regulation and energy.

Everyone of the proposals listed by Emanuel will slowdown the economy, create huge opportunities for pork and suffocate the producing class. The United States is about to enter a new stage of decline.

Larger Inmate Population Is Boon to Private Prisons

Like I said, prisons will be a major growth industry in America.

Stephanie Chen at WSJ is reporting:

Prison companies are preparing for a wave of new business as the economic downturn makes it increasingly difficult for federal and state government officials to build and operate their own jails.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons and several state governments have sent thousands of inmates in recent months to prisons and detention centers run by Corrections Corp. of America, Geo Group Inc. and other private operators, as a crackdown on illegal immigration, a lengthening of mandatory sentences for certain crimes and other factors have overcrowded many government facilities.

Prison-policy experts expect inmate populations in 10 states to have increased by 25% or more between 2006 and 2011, according to a report by the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts.

My bet is that these incarceration rate projections are too low.

Once Obama starts implementing his unworkable programs, the big question will be whether or not he uses force and prison time to try and muscle his programs. If he does, incarceration rates are headed way up---for the the college educated and white collar working class.

As I wrote:

I certainly hope it doesn't get this bad, but I fear it may...It won't happen right away. It may be barely noticeable, at first, but at some point you will think twice about doing something you do now without hesitation.

If Barack Obama is serious about sharing the wealth and bringing on bigger government, it is not going to be pretty. The greatest tyrants on the planet were big government socialists, Mao and Stalin at the top of the pack. Part of the reason they became tyrants is because the programs they instituted didn't work and thus surveillance and force were instituted.

Socialized healthcare won't work and could eventually result in black market healthcare with doctors ending up in jail. Other, regulations will make lawbreakers out of others who right now can't imagine that they will ever end up in jail. Ultimately, the broad based forcing of human action in a direction it doesn't naturally want to go has to be enforced at the point of a gun.

Obama Wants To Put $150 Billion Into the Greenie-Industrial Complex

...and wants "a new spirit of sacrifice" from all of us.

Is This An Endorsement?

"[Larry]Summers is one of a few who are at Krugman's level of intellect."

-Posted at Economists for Obama, in support of Summers being chosen by Obama as Treasury Secretary.

Obama A Blog Junkie?

"[Obama] received a scaled-down list of news clippings, with his advisers wanting to keep him from reading blogs and news updates all day long, yet aides said he still seemed to hear about nearly everything in real time." via AlleyInsider.com

Obama May Name Auto Czar

The socialism begins.

Barack Obama wants to give Detroit automakers $50 billion, but with Big Time socialist strings.

The latest news out of Detroit is that Obama may name an "Auto Czar" to oversee the industry. What would the czar oversee? It's not pretty.

Robert Snell and David Shepardson at The Detroit News speculate about the details:

A car czar could serve as a point person for federal agencies that deal with automakers, such as the Treasury, the Labor and Transportation departments, and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Creeping socialism my friends.

Lazard Rising

Goldman Sachs may have company in running government as a private fiefdom. It appears that former Lazard Freres employees are edging in under the Obama regime.

The latest signal comes from Obama in his announcement yesterday of his transition team. He has put Josh Gotbaum, a Clinton administration veteran and long-time investment banker at Lazard Frere, in charge of reviewing the Treasury.

Lazard has been cutting crony capitalism deals even before Paulson got out of diapers. Their last peak in influence came when Felix "The Fixer" Rohatyn "saved New York City" and ruled the roost at Lazard.

The Payoff for an Oligarch

Charles Laurence writes:

Penny Pritzker is the fairy godmother whom Barack Obama will be thanking most profoundly - if privately - when he gets to his Inauguration Ball in Washington in January...Pritzker showered Obama with more than money: before any of the rest of us had heard of Barack Obama, she had taken him under her wing to give him the keys to the Chicago Establishment's fabled political 'machine' which has taken him to the White House...

Her victory makes her the undisputed chief of one of Chicago's wealthiest families, which has a combined wealth of more than $12bn and which founded the Hyatt hotel chain and myriad other businesses. It is also notorious for its secrecy and its feuds...

Obama will be well aware that there is no such thing as a free lunch in Chicago politics. The Pritzkers have done a lot for the new president, and now the question is, what can he do for them? Something to do with foreign policy is the hot tip back on the Gold Coast.

The Pritzkers have always been major supporters of Israel. After the Six Day War, the family built the Hyatt Regency hotel in east Jerusalem, and in his early days as an Illinois senator, Obama co-sponsored an amendment to the Illinois Pension Code allowing the state to make loans to Israel.

So, is it an embassy for Penny Pritzker?

There are also rumors that Pritzker may be named Commerce Secretary.

Whatever the position she lands, it is likely to be only a small part of the rewards this oligarch will gain from putting her man in the White House.

The Truth About "Fuel" Surcharges

Today Bob Murphy at his blog site posted an email from a reader who was concerned about a "fuel tax" surcharge that was tacked on to the price of her flight.

This got me thinking about surcharges in general, and I posted the following comment at Bob's site:

When I book an airline, hotel etc., I always look at the final price versus the components.

Bob, as you know factors of production are determined by the consumer price, and not the other way around.

With clients I always recommend they create such price charges as gas surcharges, and the like, to establish a track record of doing such, so that in the case price controls are ever instituted, long established "fuel surcharges" might be allowed to be passed through when an increase in the ticket price would not. Bureaucrats live for this type minutia hair splitting. I suspect that if you dig deep, calling an airline price hike a "fuel surcharge" probably means that the airlines aren't paying some type of ticket tax on the increase, or some other tax.

Of course, you can't be idiotic about it and charge different "fuel charges" for the same destination.

To all consumers, I say don't sweat just what they call it, just evaluate the final price.

In the Obama Era, with more and more regs, there are bound to be more and more oddball justifications for what are basically price hikes.

Anderson: Foreign Owned Auto Plants Based in the US Will Be Smashed Beyond Recognition

Bill Anderson seems to have the best pulse on the specifics of what the Obama Adminstraton will be all about. He writes:

As we look at the upcoming Obama administration, it will do us well to remember that the main power groups of the Democratic Party which will call the shots for at least the next four years, and more likely the next 40, include the following: Labor unions, environmentalists, the American Trial Lawyers Association, the hardcore Religious Left, and ACORN. All of these groups are united in their visceral hatred for free markets and for personal liberty in general (except in areas of sexual freedom and in the "freedom" to kill unborn children).

These groups will be unchecked in their Grand Vision that they intend to impose on the rest of us. Not only will Obama and Congress make sure that the Big Three automakers survive in some form, but their political allies will make sure that the other auto plants in this country owned by foreign subsidiaries are smashed beyond recognition.

Keating: Obama’s Economic Beliefs Could Be Damaging

Raymond Keating nails it.

Obama Planning "Big Bang" Economic Intervention

This is very scary. FT reports:

US President-elect Barack Obama intends to push a comprehensive programme of social and economic reform beyond an immediate emergency stimulus package, Rahm Emanuel, the next White House chief of staff, indicated on Sunday.

Mr Emanuel brushed aside concerns that an Obama administration would risk taking on too much when it takes office in January. He said Mr Obama saw the financial meltdown as an historic opportunity to deliver the large-scale investments that Democrats had promised for years.

Tackling the meltdown would not entail delays in plans for far-reaching energy, healthcare and education reforms when all three were also in crisis, he said. “These are crises you can no longer afford to postpone [addressing].”...

Sunday’s comments also reinforce the impression that Mr Obama’s transition economic advisory board – which includes leading lights of the Clinton era, such as Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin – is tilting heavily towards a “big bang” approach that would combine a short-term stimulus with large public investments to raise the longer-term US growth rate..

In contrast to 1992, when Mr Clinton postponed longer-term investments in favour of urgent budget deficit reduction, advisers to Mr Obama, including Mr Summers, who is tipped by some as his first Treasury secretary, are tilting towards investments. They emphasise that Mr Obama will stick to a medium-term goal of restoring fiscal discipline.

Since basic economics teaches that none of Obama's healthcare, energy and energy interventions will work, Obama is about to further muck up three key areas of the economy.

As for the calling an expanded government bureaucracy "investment", and then calling for "large scale investments", I wonder just how much of a private economy will be left.

Nothing comes for free. Again there is little to no talk about how these "investments" will be paid for. If Obama thinks he his just going to borrow the money and expand the deficit, he is counting on the Asians to be saps and buy the paper. Note to Obama, Asia is trying to figure out how to offload US paper.

Thus, it appears that in the first 100 days, Obama plans to muck up as many sectors of the economy as he can. He will crowd out the private sector with new government borrowing. This will result in much higher interest rates, higher inflation and a resumption of the collapse of the dollar.

Paul Krugman Wants Obama to Spend Your Money

On Saturday Krugman wrote:

Obama mentioned aid to state and local governments in his press conference yesterday. Indeed. This is a very quick form of fiscal stimulus, because it’s not about starting new spending, it’s about sustaining current spending. It should be done immediately.

And in a separate post on Saturday, he wrote:

Implications for Obama: be inspired by FDR, but don’t imitate him slavishly. In particular, your economic policy should be bolder, not more cautious.

Of course, no mention by Krugman as to how these "bolder" spending programs are to be paid for.

Krugman, btw, in part justfies this spending binge because he says that we are headed toward a zero interest rate policy, which means he has no idea what the Fed is really up to.

China Announces A $586 Billion Stimulus

China has unveiled a two-year, $586 billion economic stimulus program.

The announced sum represents about 16% of China's economic output last year, and is roughly equal to the total of all central and local government spending in 2006, according to WSJ.

The plan includes spending in housing, infrastructure, agriculture, health care and social welfare, and features a tax deduction for capital spending by companies.

As per usual, the Chinese government followed the step of other governments and did not detail where it expected to get the $586 billon it planned to spend.

Since this plan sounds an awful lot like Barack Obama's, maybe he should run both countries.

Obama Code Words

Barack Obama is certainly quick on the uptake when it comes to marketing his programs. Gone are the words redistribution and helping the poor.

When Obama wants to redistribute money, he now calls is either a "stimulus" package or a "rescue" package. It's all the same though, taking from one group and giving to another.

And when it comes to redistributing to the poor, it is now called "helping the middle class", since everyone outside of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett considers themselves the "middle class", helping the middle class should go down real easy with the masses,until they realize that Obama has promoted most of them to the "upper middle class" where they will be forced givers to the government and not takers from the government.

Tax Hikes During Economc Downturns

There is no economic policy justifed in any economic theory that I am aware of that calls for raising taxes during an economic downturn. Yet, Barrack Obama is making noises that he wants to do so.

They tried it, of course, during the Great Depression.

The top income tax rate was increased from 25% in the early 1930s, to 63% in 1932, and then to 79% in 1936.

David Friedman: FDR Prolonged the Great Depression, and Obama May Do It This Time

Writes Friedman:

...the account I think more nearly accurate holds that the continuation of the Depression was more nearly because of the New Deal than in spite of it. A decade earlier, what looked as though it should have been the beginning of a great depression was met with no substantial government intervention and the effects were over in a year or so. This time Roosevelt intervened on a massive scale, following a similar but smaller intervention by his predecessor, and the depression was still going eight years later when the attack on Pearl Harbor pulled the U.S. into the war.

It could happen again. One can imagine a future in which President Obama, supported by Democratic majorities in both houses, engages in massive interventions in the economy following the massive interventions already under way and the result is a serious economic downturn prolonged for years, perhaps for two terms.

I think David is an optimist. If the country gets out of 8 years of Obama in any shape to easily rebel against oppressive back-to-back Obama interventions and accompanied crackdowns on liberties, I will be amazed. The Great Depression could very well look like a cakewalk compared to what Obama may leave us.

Mankiw Forces Obama to Blink?

Obama's nutty, coercive, community service plan, just became voluntary instead of mandatory. Maybe Greg Mankiw delivered the knockout blow.

Obama Bad Basic Economics Plan #1: Force Unions on Companies, Raise Minimum Wage

From the official Obama-Biden Office of the President-elect web site:

Obama and Biden will strengthen the ability of workers to organize unions. He will fight for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. Obama and Biden will ensure that his labor appointees support workers' rights and will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers. Obama and Biden will also increase the minimum wage and index it to inflation to ensure it rises every year.

Obama and Biden support the right of workers to bargain collectively and strike if necessary. They will work to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers, so workers can stand up for themselves without worrying about losing their livelihoods.

Obama Redistributionst/Fascist Program #1: Create a National Network of Public-Private Business Incubators in Disadvantaged Communities

From the official Obama-Biden Office of the President-elect web site:

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will support entrepreneurship and spur job growth by creating a national network of public-private business incubators. Business incubators facilitate the critical work of entrepreneurs in creating start-up companies. Obama and Biden will invest $250 million per year to increase the number and size of incubators in disadvantaged communities throughout the country.

Obama Socialist Project #1: National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank

From the official Obama-Biden Office of the President-elect web site:

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will address the infrastructure challenge by creating a National Infrastructure Reinvestment Bank to expand and enhance, not supplant, existing federal transportation investments. This independent entity will be directed to invest in our nation’s most challenging transportation infrastructure needs. The Bank will receive an infusion of federal money, $60 billion over 10 years, to provide financing to transportation infrastructure projects across the nation. These projects will create up to two million new direct and indirect jobs and stimulate approximately $35 billion per year in new economic activity

.

Obama Redistribution Step #1: A Windfall Profits Tax on "Excessive" Oil Profits

From the official Obama-Biden Office of the President-elect web site:

Barack Obama and Joe Biden will enact a windfall profits tax on excessive oil company profits to give American families an immediate $1,000 emergency energy rebate to help families pay rising bills. This relief would be a down payment on the Obama-Biden long-term plan to provide middle-class families with at least $1,000 per year in permanent tax relief.

A Perfect Trifecta of Trouble on the Horizon

Justin Raimondo sees nothing but trouble ahead, from the direction Obama appointments are headed.

Indeed, if any change is involved, it may well be for the worse, says Raimondo.

The Obama Press Conference: John Maynard Keynes and the Oligarchs Are Alive and Well

John Maynard Keynes and Oligarchs appear to be alive, well and ready for the Obama Administration.

In Barack Obama's first press conference, since winning the presidential election, Obama sounded like a typical big spending Democrat. In opening remarks, he called for a "rescue package" for the middle class, unemployment extensions and other fiscal stimulus. He also said that something had to be done for the automobile industry since it is "the backbone of the country." Somewhere, John Maynard Keynes and Marx are blushing.

Obama did not address how any of these proposals would be paid for.

I took special note of some of the members of his "economic transition advisory team", most of whom stood behind him as he promised to do vasts sums more spending than Imelda Marcos ever did during a good shoe shopping trip to New York City. It was a politically correct mixed crowd that included many women, a Latino and even another African-American, interspersed with oligarchs. Just what you need to fight a downturn in the economy, a politically correct group and oligarchs.

The oligarchs we were told included Warren Buffett (who, golly shucks, usually just represents himself) and Robert Rubin (former Goldman Sachs CEO, now running the Rubin/Citigroup wing of Goldman),but both failed to appear in chorus line fashion behind Obama for the press conference, as did the politically correct and other oligarchs and oligarch representatives.

At the press conference chorus line, the towering Paul Volcker was there, who has been a career long Rockefeller operative. The tiny Robert Reich was there, who was most likely invited as a reward for his regular bashing, on his blog, of Hillary, during the primaries.

An oligarch stepped a bit out of the shadows for the chorus line, Chicago-based Penny Pritzker, who was an early Obama backer, was there. Pritzker served as Obama's National Finance Chair. She and her husband hosted a $28,500 per plate fundraiser for Obama's campaign in Chicago with Warren Buffett and his wife, and Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is 135th richest person on the Forbes 400 list of "America's wealthiest," with an estimated net worth of $2.8 billion US. If one was forced to come up with one name that Obama answers to, Penny Pritzker would not be a bad choice. They are on each others cell phone speed dials, guaranteed.

The Chicago Political Machine was well represented by Mayor Richard Daley's brother William, who also is a member of the executive committee at JP Morgan Chase.

Google's Chairman Eric Schmidt was part of the chorus line.

Much to my surprise, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was the token Latino. Readers will recall I had a Q & non-A encounter with the mayor, only a few weeks back.

In short, no one in this group strikes me as the type that understands Say's Law, never mind the business cycle. They all are very good, though, at protecting the very powerful interests that they are aligned with, nothing else. The oligarchs are sleeping very well tonight.

More On Rahm Emanuel

Lew Rockwell has a short-profile on Barack Obama's new chief-of-staff:

Emanuel is known for being smart and intense, mailing dead fish to people he hates, and freaking out at subordinates. Loving revenge, never forgiving a slight, and brooking no dissent, he's famous as an enforcer... Emanuel, with Pelosi's blessing, famously blocked antiwar Democrats from running for the House in 2006 (he controlled the money for new candidates). Emanuel is an advocate of endless war in the Middle East. No chickenhawk, during the Gulf War, he volunteered as a civilian worker for the Israeli army. His father Benjamin, a physician, was a guerilla fighter for the Irgun against the British occupation of Palestine. The Irgun, a secret insurgent group, is described by unfriendlies as a terrorist organization for such acts as bombing the King David Hotel and ethnically cleansing with extreme prejudice Arab villages. Rahm's mother, Martha, was a civil-rights activist and rock 'n roll nightclub owner in Chicago.

Alert: Obama Press Conference

US President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will hold a news conference at 2:30 EST on Friday after meeting with their team of economic advisers to discuss the transition to the White House.

Obama and Biden will be joined by economic advisers, including former Treasury Secretaries Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin, former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker, former Securities and Exchange Commissioner William Donaldson and several others. Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett will participate via phone.

All major networks are expected to carry the press conference live.

Hooker Crazed Spitzer Won't Be Charged

Yes, the Democrats are in charge.

In what may be the first sign that the Democrats are now in charge,the office of Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney from Manhattan has issued a statement, less than 48 hours after Obama's victory, stating that the the former Democratic governor of the state of New York, Eliot Spitzer, will not face federal charges for money laundering and other activities surrounding his use of a flock of hookers.

Part of Garcia's statement said:

...we have determined that there is insufficient evidence to bring charges against Mr. Spitzer for any offense relating to the withdrawal of funds for, and his payments to, the Emperors Club VIP.

Insufficient evidence? Spitzer structured withdrawals to avoid having cash withdrawal notices filed by the bank. He did this to avoid detection of his criminal activity (The hiring of prostitutes, such as Ashley "Kristin" Dupre, see pic). This is money laundering 101.

Based on the evidence, OJ Simpson could win a case against Spitzer, in Nevada.

Mankiw Kissing the Commies Butt...

Already.

Obama Offers Rahm Emanuel Chief of Staff Position

Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, is strongly considering an offer from President-elect Barack Obama to serve as White House chief of staff, according to Democratic sources, reports WaPo.

According to Wikipedia, his father, the Jerusalem-born Benjamin M. Emanuel, is a pediatrician and was a member of the Irgun, a militant Zionist group treated as a terrorist organization during British rule.

Emanuel was a leading strategist in the unsuccessful White House efforts during the Clinton Administration to institute universal healthcare. After the White House years, he joined the Chicago office of the investment banking firm Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, where he worked from 1999 to 2002 and reportedly earned $18 million. He is a member of the Democratic Leadership Council.

He endorses the United States Public Service Academy Act.

The United States Public Service Academy is a lobbying group founded to promote the foundation of an American public service academy modeled on the military academies. Applicants to the Academy would follow a congressional nomination process similar to that used for admission to the military academies.

Once admitted, students would earn credits toward a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree. Students would be required to choose a public service concentration in the field in which they ultimately will serve post-graduation.

Graduates would be required to serve their country for five years in the public sector.

Failure to complete five years of service would result in a dishonorable discharge from the Academy. Delinquent graduates would be required to repay the Academy for the cost of their education.

UPDATE: MSNBC reports Rahm has accepted the post.

America's Next Growth Industry: Prisons

I certainly hope it doesn't get this bad, but I fear it may. The United States is going to have a new president. A clueless kid. As Thomas Sowell put it:

The kind of self-righteous self-confidence that has become Obama's trademark is usually found in sophomores in Ivy League colleges-- very bright and articulate students, utterly untempered by experience in real world...

For someone who has actually accomplished nothing to blithely talk about taking away what has been earned by those who have accomplished something, and give it to whomever he chooses in the name of "spreading the wealth," is the kind of casual arrogance that has led to many economic catastrophes in many countries.

America is about to change.

It won't happen right away. It may be barely noticeable, at first, but at some point you will think twice about doing something you do now without hesitation.

If Barack Obama is serious about sharing the wealth and bringing on bigger government, it is not going to be pretty. The greatest tyrants on the planet were big government socialists, Mao and Stalin at the top of the pack. Part of the reason they became tyrants is because the programs they instituted didn't work and thus surveillance and force were instituted.

Socialized healthcare won't work and could eventually result in black market healthcare with doctors ending up in jail. Other, regulations will make lawbreakers out of others who right now can't imagine that they will ever end up in jail. Ultimately, the broad based forcing of human action in a direction it doesn't naturally want to go has to be enforced at the point of a gun.

If you understand this, then Obama's recent call for a Civilian National Security Force is the scariest thing a freedom lover could hear.

On a best case scenario, Obama will go after only the producers in America. He has no concept of the value of producers. He sees it as "the neighborly thing to do", to take from them and give to the non-producers. This will have one impact and one impact only, it will result in the cutback in production. There will be less for everyone. Again, it will be barely noticeable at first, but less capital will flow to producers, and this will mean, in the beginning, an elevator or escalator that takes days instead of an afternoon to fix, and slowly the deterioration will become more obvious. Things just won't work as smoothly as they once did. Forget the excitement of new clubs or restaurants, or new style cell phones or automobiles. When a nation's capital structure is shrinking that stuff doesn't happen anymore.

It is going to be bad, just how bad remains to be seen, but the public at large is going to be in for a big, not very positive, surprise.

-Robert Wenzel

Wall Street's Influence On Barack Obama

Two spheres of influence appear to circle around Barack Obama. Wall Street investment bankers, who have paid, through donations, to sit at the Obama table, and fellow traveling lefties who appear to be kindred spirits with Obama. Here's a breakdown on the Wall Street influence.

Naturally, Goldman Sachs won't miss a beat with the Obama Administration.

Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey, former CEO of Goldman Sachs is close to Obama, and what I call the Robert Rubin Wing of Goldman Sachs will have a very strong presence in the Obama Administration. Rubin served as Co-Chairman and Co-Senior Partner at Goldman Sachs from 1990 to 1992. He later became Secretary of the Treasury in the Clinton Administration. He is now Director and Senior Counselor of Citigroup, and co-Chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations. In addition to Rubin, himself, being a player in the Obama Administration, many around Rubin appear to have likely roles in an Obama Administration.

Lawrence H. Summers, rumored to be a strong candidate for the position of Treasury Secretary, served under Rubin as Deputy Secretary, when Rubin was Treasury Secretary. He also is an Advisory Council Member of Rubin's very own think tank, The Hamilton Project.

Jason Furman, a senior fellow at The Hamilton Project, is an economic adviser to Obama and is likely to be offered some position in an Obama Administration.

Others from the Rubin Wing of Goldman that may end up with positions in the coming Obama Administration are:

Michael Froman, a top executive at Citigroup, who served as Rubin's chief of staff at Treasury.

Jamie Rubin, the son of the former Treasury secretary.

Kevin Thurm, an executive at Citigroup.

Frank Brosens, who runs Taconic Capital Advisors and is seen as very close to Rubin.

Non-Goldman players close to Obama include:

Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co

Robert Wolf, an investment banker and CEO of UBS Americas

Mark Gallogly, a private-equity expert who used to work for Blackstone

Jim Torrey, Hedge fund manager Jim Torrey

Josh Gotbaum, the former chief executive of the September 11 Fund who has worked for the Carter and Clinton administrations and Lazard Freres.

Obama has also relied on the left leaning, pro-tax hikes, senior advisers Warren Buffett and Paul Volcker.

At a recent conference held by the Financial Professionals Association, economist Marty Feldstein told the conference that Buffett and Volcker were being used by Obama as fronts to hide a much more radical left agenda that Obama believes in.

Sell Your Stocks, Now; Get Your Bonuses, Now...

Next year, the Obama tax hikes will be here.

Based On Polls, Rove Has It Going To Obama: 338-200

Based on the 14-day average of public polls (as Of 11/3/08)Karl Rove has Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida all going to Obama, in his final electoral map.

Obama Flips Off Hillary and McCain

Timing An October Surprise

We have already had one mini-October Surprise, is a big one on the way?

Justin Raimondo identifies possible sources of an October Surprise that would attempt to derail the Barack Obama election juggernaut. He lists as flash points, Iraq, and notes the curious incursion into Syria, The Caucasus and Al-Qaeda, as points from where an October Surprise could emerge, internationally.

On the domestic front, he lists rumors about an Obama friendship with one, Vera Baker, that had Michelle Obama boiling, and thus has the potential for boiling over wide at any point.

Whatever the October Surprise, if such is planned by those who plan such things, my bet is that it will occur within 24 hours of Obama's paid-for 30 minute network speech scheduled for tomorrow night. You do not want additional traction from such an Obama speech, so why not dominate the news with the October Surprise?

Calculate Changes To Your Taxes Under McCain and Obama Proposals

Here.

Note: Actual tax hikes will vary, and will likely be much higher. HT2GM

Obama's Core Belief System

The soundbites off the release of the Obama Chicago Public Radio interview, do not surprise U.S. News and World Report's James Pethokoukis:

This should be a Saturday Night Live sketch. Use the court to redistribute wealth? Really? The Warren court was not radical? Really? Anyone could craft a theoretical justification to use the court to spread the wealth? Really? This all strikes me as highly weird...Keep in mind, now, that every Obama economic adviser I can think of—Warren Buffett, Austan Goolsbee, Jason Furman, Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Jared Bernstein—thinks that we need higher income and investment taxes to deal with income inequality and that tax rates would pretty much have to double before they would hurt the economy. So Obama's comments reflect a core belief system that he's apparently held for years and continues to hold.

Will we yearn for the days gone by when only the banks were nationalized and Paulson stuffed billions into the pockets of his crony buddies?

The Guns and Ammo Economy

There's an unintended consequence to Barack Obama's strong showing in the polls. Gun and ammo sales are soaring.

Purchases of firearms and ammunition have risen 8 to 10 percent this year, according to state and federal data, reports WaPo.

Gun purchases have been climbing because of the worsening economy, which fuels fears of crime and civil disorder, but Obama is another reason.

WaPo again:

"Even though [Obama] has a lot going for him, he's not very pro-gun," said Paul Pluff, a spokesman for Massachusetts-based Smith & Wesson, which has reported higher sales. Gun enthusiasts are "going to go out and get [firearms] while they still can."

October Surprise #1: Obama In His Own Words On Redistributing Wealth

A 2001 Chicago Public Radio audiotape of Barack Obama surfaced and in it the Presidential candidate laments that the Supreme Court under former Chief Justice Earl Warren did not go far enough in its civil rights rulings.

Obama said that the Supreme Court should have decided that government should have redistributed the wealth to African-Americans...



via CrimeFileNews.com

President Obama Will Crush Greg Mankiw's Incentive To Do Additional Work

Mankiw does the numbers, here.

Note: Although he details well the heavy additional tax burden he will face during an Obama Administration and that he is thus less likely to work additional hours, he fails to note that this will also impact the standard of living of others, who will fail to benefit from his work. (Or perhaps, deep down, this is a Freudian slip, where he realizes an economist who doesn't have a business cycle theory isn't much of an economist.)

Obama Tries To Lock It Down

Barack Obama is running as many as seven ads for every one of John McCain's, in certain key states. Overall, he s spending $4.00 to every $1.00 spent by Mccain.

Obama reported spending $82 million on advertising during the first two weeks of October -- more than half of what Sen. John F. Kerry spent on television commercials for the entire 2004 presidential campaign, according to WaPo.

Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission late Thursday show that Obama and the Democratic Party committees that are supporting his effort spent nearly $105 million from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15. McCain and Republican Party entities, by contrast, spent approximately $25 million.

Don't Wait By The Mailbox For Your Check From The Proposed New Stimulus Package

These checks will go only to politically correct groups and politically connected. Your role in the stimulus package will be to pay for it.

WSJ has the ugly details:

The latest plan is even worse than the spring round of $100 billion or so in tax rebate checks. At least rebates allowed taxpayers to spend their own money. Under this stimulus the government will tax or borrow $150 billion to $300 billion in order to spend the money on social and pork-barrel programs. The latest draft would direct dollars to food stamps, another expansion in unemployment insurance, some heating subsidies, more aid to states and cities, and "infrastructure" like roads, bridges and public transit. Because of Davis-Bacon wage requirements on these brick and mortar projects, a portion of the dollars would coincidentally flow to the Democrats' biggest campaign contributors: unions. Call it a political "rebate" check.

What's Obama's take on this boondoggle:

On Tuesday Senator Obama said this spending would create millions of new jobs by closing a federal "investment deficit."

The Bizzarro World of Obamanomics

It's going to be one hell of an LSD trip.

One proposal clarified yesterday during a debate between McCain and Obama economic advisers is this, as reported by WSJ.:

Obama adviser Austan Goolsbee said at the debate that a proposed 10% deduction on mortgage interest for taxpayers who don't itemize would carry a "work requirement."

Got that. At some point during unemployment you would lose the tax deduction. Just what America always needed, a tax increase for the unemployed.