Just a nudge to help you decide when you get in that elections booth, a little poem from anon:

‘Twas the night before elections
                 And all through the town
                 Tempers were flaring
                 Emotions all up and down!
            
                 I, in my bathrobe
                 With a cat in my lap
                 Had cut off the TV
                 Tired of political crap.
             
                 When all of a sudden
                 There arose such a noise
                 I peered out of my window
                 Saw Obama and his boys
            
                 They had come for my wallet
                 They wanted my pay
                 To give to the others
                 Who had not worked a day!
             
                 He snatched up my money
                 And quick as a wink
                 Jumped back on his bandwagon
                 As I gagged from the stink
             
                 He then rallied his henchmen
                 Who were pulling his cart
                 I could tell they were out
                 To tear my country apart!
             
                 On Fannie, on Freddie,
                 On Biden and Ayers!
                 On Acorn, On Pelosi’
                 He screamed at the pairs!
             
                 They took off for his cause
                 And as he flew out of sight
                 I heard him laugh at the nation
                 Who wouldn’t stand up and fight!
             
                 So I leave you to think
                 On this one final note-
                 IF YOU DONT WANT SOCIALISM
                 GET OUT AND VOTE!!!!

 I just heard this great example of the difference between a Republican and a Democrat and just had to pass it along:

A  young woman was about to finish her first year of  college. Like so  many others her age, she considered herself to be a  very liberal  Democrat, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in  favor  of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other   words redistribution of  wealth.

             She  was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather  staunch  Republican, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the  lectures  that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a   professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an  evil,  selfish desire to keep what he thought should be  his.

             One  day she was challenging her father on his opposition  to higher  taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs.  The  self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be   the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by  asking how  she was doing in  school.

             Taken  aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a  4.0 GPA, and  let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that  she was  taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying,   which left her no time to go out and party like other people she  knew.  She didn’t even have time for a boyfriend, and didn’t really  have many  college friends because she spent all her time  studying.

             Her  father listened and then asked, ‘How is your friend  Audrey  doing?’

             She  replied, ‘Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes  are easy  classes, she never studies, and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She  is  so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She’s always   invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn’t even show  up  for classes because she’s too hung  over.’

             Her  wise father asked his daughter, ‘Why don’t you go to  the Dean’s  office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to  your  friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA   and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of  GPA.’

             The  daughter, visibly shocked by her father’s suggestion,  angrily  fired back, ‘That’s a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I’ve   worked really hard for my grades! I’ve invested a lot of time, and  a lot  of hard work!  Audrey has done next to nothing toward  her degree. She  played while I worked my tail  off!’

             The  father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, ‘Welcome  to the  Republican  party.’

             If  anyone has a better explanation of the difference  between  Republican and Democrat I’m all ears.

Now the Senate is proposing their version of the “Bailout” better known as the  Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

This version is definitely more detailed and is pretty hefty logging in with 451 pages compared to the House version which is 110 pages.

The bill adds new provisions - including raising the FDIC insurance cap to $250,000 from $100,000 - along with some unrelated tax breaks for business and plus changes to the alternative minimum tax.

The vote is scheduled for after sundown today in order to be in observance of Rosh Hashanah.

The table of contents of the bill are listed below but you can get the entire Senate draft right HERE.

 ‘‘Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008’’.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS.—
 The table of contents for this division is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title and table of contents.
Sec. 2. Purposes.
Sec. 3. Definitions.
TITLE I—TROUBLED ASSETS RELIEF PROGRAM
Sec. 101. Purchases of troubled assets.
Sec. 102. Insurance of troubled assets.
Sec. 103. Considerations.
Sec. 104. Financial Stability Oversight Board.
Sec. 105. Reports.
Sec. 106. Rights; management; sale of troubled assets; revenues and sale proceeds.
Sec. 107. Contracting procedures.
Sec. 108. Conflicts of interest.
Sec. 109. Foreclosure mitigation efforts.
Sec. 110. Assistance to homeowners.
Sec. 111. Executive compensation and corporate governance.
Sec. 112. Coordination with foreign authorities and central banks.
Sec. 113. Minimization of long-term costs and maximization of benefits for taxpayers.
Sec. 114. Market transparency.
Sec. 115. Graduated authorization to purchase.
Sec. 116. Oversight and audits.
Sec. 117. Study and report on margin authority.
Sec. 118. Funding.
Sec. 119. Judicial review and related matters.
Sec. 120. Termination of authority.
Sec. 121. Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
Sec. 122. Increase in statutory limit on the public debt.
Sec. 123. Credit reform.
Sec. 124. HOPE for Homeowners amendments.
Sec. 125. Congressional Oversight Panel.
Sec. 126. FDIC authority.
Sec. 127. Cooperation with the FBI.
Sec. 128. Acceleration of effective date.
Sec. 129. Disclosures on exercise of loan authority.
Sec. 130. Technical corrections.
Sec. 131. Exchange Stabilization Fund reimbursement.
Sec. 132. Authority to suspend mark-to-market accounting.
3
O:\AYO\AYO08C32.xml S.L.C.
Sec. 133. Study on mark-to-market accounting.
Sec. 134. Recoupment.
Sec. 135. Preservation of authority.
Sec. 136. Temporary increase in deposit and share insurance coverage.
TITLE II—BUDGET-RELATED PROVISIONS
Sec. 201. Information for congressional support agencies.
Sec. 202. Reports by the Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional
Budget Office.
Sec. 203. Analysis in President’s Budget.
Sec. 204. Emergency treatment.
TITLE III—TAX PROVISIONS
Sec. 301. Gain or loss from sale or exchange of certain preferred stock.
Sec. 302. Special rules for tax treatment of executive compensation of employers
participating in the troubled assets relief program.
Sec. 303. Extension of exclusion of income from discharge of qualified principal
residence indebtedness.

Well let’s hope we can get this thing resolved so we can get back to slinging mud in the Presidential campaign.

Well the sky didn’t fall today as was widely expected after the stock market
fell 777 points yesterday due to the failure of Congress to pass the $700 Billion Bailout Package or more accurately the ‘‘Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008’’.

In fact, as of this writing, the market is now up 490 points!  Carumba!

So what is going on?  Did Secretary Paulson cry wolf?  Well they are still working on passing this bill and after the debacle yesterday you can bet the Democrats will pass it in about a week with no problem.  They have always had the votes, 95 Democrats voted against it, and it only lost by 12 votes.

Without getting into the political aspects of this package, if that’s possible,
let’s take a read of the actual bill. It’s 110 pages long and really is an eye opener.  You can get a copy FREE by clicking HERE.
      
It looks to me like this package will create a huge government trading business that the U.S. Treasury Dept.is in charge of, establishing values on any distressed loan, auto, real estate, etc., buying and selling with the hope of making a profit to be returned to the U.S. Government.  That is a very simplified assessment and I may be wrong but that’s the way it appears to me.

I can understand why some of our elected officials voted against this bill.  They feel that there are many ways that this liquidity problem can be remedied without creating this huge bureaucracy and I would tend to agree with them.

As we all know, as soon as the Government becomes involved it becomes a political football and bills rarely solve the immediate problem.

If the SEC would do it’s job, much of these problems would be eased.

If the FICA would increase the Government guarantee on deposits from $100K to
$100 million for small business, it would help increase the overall confidence in the markets

If the Mark to Market rule was changed, it would immediately change the liquidity picture for those banks that are adversely affected.

So there are many ways to “skin a cat” and I think we should investigate these and many other ways to make our financial markets more efficient.

In conclusion, download the proposed bill, ‘‘Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008’’ and draw your own conclusions….after all, you can’t complain about it if you don’t know what it’s all about.

If you play golf long enough you will accumulate numerous golf strategies.  Some strategies will prove to be better than others but they will all be put to use at one time or another.

Since I have been playing golf for more years than I would like to admit, I have amassed plenty of strategies and learned many lessons and now feel it is time to share them with some of you younger golfers.

The following is a list of my most profound golf strategies:     Read the rest of this entry »

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Sorry for the inconvienience but all good things take time!