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Mississippi Appliance Rebate Program Starts April 22

melt — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 06:49:47 +0000

Time to throw out that old clunker and get one of them thar new fangled ice box thingy’s. Thanks to a 2.8 million dollar grant from the American Recovery Act the program encourages folks to replace their old appliances with more efficient ones.

”The State of Mississippi will implement a mail-in rebate program to help residents replace old, inefficient appliances with new, ENERGY STAR® qualified appliances. The program is scheduled to begin April 22, 2010 and will continue until funds are depleted.”

Here’s the scoop on all you need to know, complete with local participating retailers:

Mississippi Energy Efficient Appliance Rebate Program

FBI knew of Mortgage Mess early as 2002

melt — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 19:22:12 +0000

The Seattle p-i is reporting that the Bush Administration went to extraordinary measures to thwart the FBI’s investigation of Financial Institutions. It is clear the agency knew the implications of such actions as evidenced by this testimony

“Based on various industry reports and FBI analysis, mortgage fraud is pervasive and growing,” Chris Swecker, then assistant director of the criminal investigation division, said in October 2004 before the House subcommittee on housing and community opportunity.

Then Swecker made a chillingly accurate prediction of the coming mortgage meltdown and financial collapse:

“The potential impact of mortgage fraud on financial institutions in the stock market is clear. If fraudulent practices become systemic within the mortgage industry and mortgage fraud is allowed to become unrestrained, it will ultimately place financial institutions at risk and have adverse effects on the stock market.”

You can read about the whole slimy mess here: FBI saw mortgage fraud early

Once mighty Nortel succumbs to times.

melt — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 04:15:21 +0000

Back when I first entered the world of computers and networks these people were practically at the top. A share of their stock would have set you back $850, today you can buy that share for 15 cents. Once the largest maker of telephone equipment in North America, the company has filed for protection from it creditors.

Probably a combination of the bad times and the further decline of the traditional telephone. Traditional telephone vendors have been subjected to the double-wammy of Internet phones and, of course, the cell phone. I haven’t had a “traditional telephone” for over 2 years now and I ain’t going back now.

Here’s the jump: Nortel files for bankruptcy, shares plunge

Review: United States National Debt

melt — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:16:35 +0000

One of the best graphical representations of the subject I have seen on the net. In revision since 2003, Steve McGourty, has recently updated, September 21, 2008, this good work.

Graphs include, “United States National Debt and the Presidents Responsible”, “United States National Debt 1791 to Present”, “Change in Average Revenue and Spending by Administration”, and my favorite, “United States National Debt versus Percent of Gross Domestic Product”.

Here’s the Jump: United States National Debt

Uncle Sam’s Farm

melt — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 19:46:47 +0000

The price of the big bail out is going up faster than you can say “pow zoom, straight to the moon”. Just last week they were talking about 100 billion, a few days ago they were saying 400 billion, late yesterday, and in all the morning papers, 500 billion dollars. Now it’s 700 billions dollars! Most of the reliable places say that the total price tag will be closer to 4 trillion dollars.

Bush team, Congress negotiate $700B bailout

High Oil Prices, Hallelujah Brother!

melt — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 05:09:31 +0000

For the past 50 years or so it has been economically advantageous for manufacturers to partake in some fairly wasteful ways to make their products available to the American market. Things like buying raw lumber to ship to Asia to be made into furniture and shipped back to the US to be sold. We are, by the way, the last industrialized country to still allow the exporting of raw lumber. Most countries will only allow the exporting of finished lumber goods, thereby creating many more jobs with their raw resources. In the US, lobbyists have long carried many big sacks of money to Washington to guarantee the continued export of raw lumber. I can’t believe the Lumberjack’s Union could afford such a thing.

High oil prices will bring a great decline to this practice. Phrases like “the made-here revolution”, “the neighborhood effect”, and “globalization death watch” are all propagating the net rapidly. A welcome sign of things to come? We can only hope!

Economics 101

melt — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:16:23 +0000

As we watch the governor and state representatives squabble over ways to pay for the 90 million dollar Medicaid shortfall, keep in mind the following:

Taxpayers in Mississippi will pay $2.6 billion for total Iraq war spending approved to date. That’s 2600 million.

Taxpayers in Mississippi will pay $529.8 million for tax cuts for the richest 10% in FY 2009.

Have a nice day folks.

Source Jump

Economy literally hits the Sewer

melt — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:17:32 +0000

A great metaphorical analysis of the American economic times. And, as a true sign of the American economic atmosphere, people up in Michigan are literally stealing the covers off of manholes to make a living. How do we ever expect to maintain a functioning society with deeds such as this pervading the landside?

Jump to AP story via Yahoo

Thinks like me….Fannie Plan a `Disaster

melt — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:16:37 +0000

Much like I proposed in the previous post, this fellow thinks much the same: July 14 (Bloomberg) — The U.S. Treasury Department’s plan to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is an “unmitigated disaster” and the largest U.S. mortgage lenders are “basically insolvent”.
"They’re ruining what has been one of the greatest economies in the world," Rogers said. Bernanke and Paulson “are bailing out their friends on Wall Street but there are 300 million Americans that are going to have to pay for this.”

Jump to Bloomberg story

Loaning money to drunken Sailors

melt — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:16:33 +0000

The new Bush and Co. plan to shore up the housing sector lending bodies is just pure garbage and is much like loaning money to a drunk or junkie. You just know where the money will go.

We should also know that any money the U.S. government gives or "loans" to these lending institutions will go to more garbage loans like the loan known as a "ninja loan". Ninja is an acronym for, No Income, No Job. Image yourself as a lender and a fellow comes in with no job and no income and he wants to buy a $500,000 home. Fat chance you say? Well not at U.S.mortgage companies. They will loan the money solely on the value of the property. And who sets this value? Well, they do! It’s a truly sweet game for them.

Another popular loan scheme is the "liar loan". The lender simply tells the borrower to lie about his income and they will take care of the rest. Of course, the key here, is lack of oversight.

You may say that this is crazy, why would anyone make a loan like this, knowing that it won’t be paid back? And how could you make money from such a deal? It’s simple. Make the loan and immediately sell it. You have made your money and it is someone else’s problem how it gets paid back. They are easy to sell too because the loans are guaranteed by the U.S. government.

You have to hand it to them though, it was a grand and well orchestrated scheme, and they have even provided the village idiot to blame it all on.