Federation of Connecticut Taxpayer Organizations

From the Federation:� At this time of year, we have an opportunity to consciously reflect upon our forefathers and their sacrifices made in an effort to establish a country free from religious persecution, government suppression and excessive taxation.

As we reflect upon that which we have to be thankful for, we recognize Thanksgiving as an American heritage and symbol which began in October, 1621 at Plymouth as the� �Pilgrims celebrated their first harvest, and which continued throughout subsequent years. �During the American Revolution in the late 1770's, the Continental Congress proposed a national thanksgiving.�� Thanksgiving was ultimately proclaimed an annual national holiday in 1863 by then President Abraham Lincoln. ��

Our forefathers were men and women of conviction who worked hard and fought hard for a government which they would control.� They knew the effects of excessive taxation, and on December 16, 1773, in an act of defiance, set the stage in history for what came to be known as the Boston Tea Party.�� http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/E/teaparty/bostonxx.htm

Today, there is a taxpayer revolution growing throughout our country.� As the sub prime debacle has resulted in the loss of homes, jobs and savings, the next segment of the population to feel the effects of a government gone wild,� with the excessive spending and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars, will be homeowners who cannot afford to pay their property taxes.�� Where unpaid mortgages resulted in foreclosures, unpaid property taxes will result in tax lien sales by local municipalities.� The effects will be the same.� Like Eminent Domain, homeowners will lose their homes.�� The following offers insight into the effects of the sub prime debacle, the trillion dollar plus bailout, and the impact on homeowners as the effects of Wall Street flows down to Main Street.��

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Election Results from

The Secretary of the State of Connecticut

http://www.ct.gov/sots/cwp/view.asp?a=3179&q=392194

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STATE OF CONNECTICUT FACING HUGE DEFICITS

From the Federation:� The economy is in a freefall.� The country and our state is in crisis.�� Yet, the Democrat controlled State legislature has failed to take swift and decisive action to protect Connecticut taxpayers as our state is faced with huge deficits.�� The Connecticut legislature just ended their special session leaving Connecticut taxpayers confronted with State debts which include a $320 million deficit in the State�s General Fund, a $73.2 million shortfall in the Special Transportation Fund, and built-in deficits of $2.6 billion and $3.3 billion in the next two fiscal years.�� We commend those in our State legislature who attempted to reduce this debt with substantive plans which regrettably were rejected.�� The following link will take you to the article by the Journal Inquirer captioned Conn. trims deficit, but won�t seek bottle deposit money.� Please refer to FCTO�s comments following the article. ���http://www.journalinquirer.com/articles/2008/11/25/connecticut/doc492c0c4bac79b525321585.txt

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The Anatomy of a Meltdown

Ben Bernanke and the financial crisis.

:. A history of the lead-up to the financial crisis,

closely examining the leadership of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke

by John Cassidy December 1, 2008 for The New Yorker

http://www.truthout.org/112508D

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As mortgages went bad, executives cashed out, Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times� By William Heisel
November 26, 2008

Former executives of bankrupt Irvine mortgage lender New Century Financial are under a federal criminal investigation into their stock trades. No charges have been filed. While Irvine subprime lender New Century was failing, key executives continually changed their stock trading plans and often sold within days of colleagues' trades, a Times investigation shows.� The subprime lending industry was starting to buckle under the weight of bad loans in November 2006, when executives at Irvine-based New Century Financial Corp. held a conference call to release their latest earnings.� Loan volume was down and defaults were up, the earnings report showed, and in recent weeks at least five stock analysts had downgraded the company's shares. Moreover, four executives had sold nearly $20 million in stock in the last four months, six times as much as they had sold over the previous 12 months.� �.� Those executive stock sales, however, have emerged as a central element in the Justice Department's criminal investigation of New Century, according to a person familiar with the inquiry who was not authorized to speak publicly.�� Article continued at the following website:� http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-newcent26-2008nov26,0,94233.story

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Fed Defies Transparency Aim in Refusal to Disclose (Update2) , By Mark Pittman, Bob Ivry and Alison Fitzgerald

Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral.� Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said in September they would comply with congressional demands for transparency in a $700 billion bailout of the banking system. Two months later, as the Fed lends far more than that in separate rescue programs that didn't require approval by Congress, Americans have no idea where their money is going or what securities the banks are pledging in return.� ``The collateral is not being adequately disclosed, and that's a big problem,'' said Dan Fuss, vice chairman of Boston- based Loomis Sayles & Co., where he co-manages $17 billion in bonds. ``In a liquid market, this wouldn't matter, but we're not. The market is very nervous and very thin.''� Bloomberg News has requested details of the Fed lending under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and filed a federal lawsuit Nov. 7 seeking to force disclosure. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aatlky_cH.tY&refer=worldwide

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Fed Commits $800 Billion More to Unfreeze Lending (Update5)

Bloomberg, By Scott Lanman and Dawn Kopecki, Nov. 25, 2008�.The Federal Reserve took two new steps to unfreeze credit for homebuyers, consumers and small businesses, committing up to $800 billion. The central bank will purchase as much as $600 billion of debt issued or backed by government-chartered housing-finance companies. It will also set up a $200 billion program to support consumer and small-business loans, the Fed said in statements today in Washington. Continued �.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&refer=home&sid=aEGL76HEwHls

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Democrats' Stimulus Plan May Reach $700 Billion, Washington Post, November 24, 2008; Page A01 , Spending Package Would Rival Financial System Bailout� By Lori Montgomery

Facing an increasingly ominous economic outlook, President-elect Barack Obama and other Democrats are rapidly ratcheting up plans for a massive fiscal stimulus program that could total as much as $700 billion over the next two years.�� http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/23/AR2008112302064.html?nav=rss_politics/congress

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CITIGROUP GETS MASSIVE GOVERNMENT BAILOUT

Nov 24, 2008 NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. rescued Citigroup Inc, agreeing to shoulder most losses on about $306 billion of the bank's risky assets, and inject new capital, bolstering investor hopes that the government will support big banks as the economy sinks into recession.

The bailout, announced late Sunday, gives the government the right to buy an equity stake, and marks its latest effort to contain a widening financial crisis that has already brought down Bear Stearns Cos, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and Washington Mutual Inc.

U.S. President George W. Bush called the bailout necessary "to safeguard our financial system," and said the government would, "if need be," make similar decisions in the future. Continued � http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-us-citigroup.html�

Citigroup Saw No Red Flags Even as It Made Bolder Bets New York Times, Nov 22, 08 In September 2007, with Wall Street confronting a crisis caused by too many souring mortgages, Citigroup executives gathered in a wood-paneled library to assess their own well-being.There, Citigroup�s chief executive, Charles O. Prince III, learned for the first time that the bank owned about $43 billion in mortgage-related assets. He asked Thomas G. Maheras, who oversaw trading at the bank, whether everything was O.K.

Mr. Maheras told his boss that no big losses were looming, according to people briefed on the meeting who would speak only on the condition that they not be named. Continued �� http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/business/23citi.html

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Post office $2.8 billion in the red

WASHINGTON (AP) � The Postal Service ended its fiscal year $2.8 billion in the red, battered by a faltering economy that cut the amount of mail being sent. Postmaster General John Potter said the agency is making sharp cuts in hours and overtime, but added there are no plans for layoffs. The mail being sent dropped by 9.5 billion items. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: Year opens with $237.2B record deficit

"We expect the new fiscal year to be another difficult one," Potter said, adding: "We're not panicking here."

By cutting back on spending the post office had a net operating income of $2.7 billion in 2008, but still ended up in the red because of the requirement for a $5.6 billion payment to a health benefit fund for retirees http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-11-13-post-office-budget_N.htm

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From the Guardian.co.uk

2025: the end of US dominance

� US intelligence: 'We can no longer call shots alone'
� European Union will be 'hobbled giant' by 2025
� Triumph of western democracy not certain

Julian Borger, diplomatic editor, guardian.co.uk , Thursday November 20 2008 19.05 GMT

The Guardian, Friday November 21 2008, Article history

The United States' leading intelligence organisation has warned that the world is entering an increasingly unstable and unpredictable period in which the advance of western-style democracy is no longer assured, and some states are in danger of being "taken over and run by criminal networks". The global trends review, produced by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) every four years, represents sobering reading in Barack Obama's intray as he prepares to take office in January. The country he inherits, the report warns, will no longer be able to "call the shots" alone, as its power over an increasingly multipolar world begins to wane. Looking ahead to 2025, the NIC (which coordinates analysis from all the US intelligence agencies), foresees a fragmented world, where conflict over scarce resources is on the rise, poorly contained by "ramshackle" international institutions, while nuclear proliferation, particularly in the Middle East, and even nuclear conflict grow more likely.

"Global Trends 2025: A World Transformed" warns that the spread of western democratic capitalism cannot be taken for granted, as it was by George Bush and America's neoconservatives.� Continued � http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/20/barack-obama-president-intelligence-agency

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Housing is bad enough, but wait � it'll get worse By Kevin G. Hall | McClatchy Newspapers WASHINGTON, Nov 24, 2008 � If you think the housing slump can't get much worse, Martin Feldstein thinks that both home prices and the broader economy can � and very likely will � get a whole lot worse. The Harvard University professor and former chief economic adviser to Ronald Reagan isn't part of the crowd that continually forecasts doom. For two decades, he's headed the National Bureau of Economic Research, which officially determines when U.S. recessions begin and end. So when he spoke on Monday night at the annual dinner of the National Economists Club, a gathering of like-minded wonks, Feldstein's grim calculations were noteworthy. "There are now 12 million homes in the United States with a loan-to-value ratio greater than 100 percent. That's one mortgage in four. The aggregate amount of that is some $2 trillion," said Feldstein. "If you look at the median (midpoint) loan-to-value ratio in that 12 million group of underwater mortgages � mortgages with negative equity � the median loan-to-value ratio is 120 percent." That means about 25 percent of all U.S. mortgages are exceed the value of the homes the mortgages are financing. In the case of half the homes that are underwater, homeowners are paying a mortgage that's now 20 percent higher than the value of the home.

That's bad � but it's likely to get worse. A recent report by First American Core Logic, a real-estate data firm in Santa Ana, Calif., estimated that as of Sept. 30, 7.5 million mortgages, or 18 percent of all properties with a mortgage, had negative equity. The group thinks there are another 2.1 million mortgages that are within 5 percent of going underwater. Continued � http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/56241.html

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Economy shrinking, home prices dropping, By Alan Zibel, AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON � The economy shrank more than expected in the third quarter and home prices fell to levels not seen since early 2004 as the government announced new plans to provide $800 billion to boost consumer spending and home buying. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said key markets for consumer debt such as credit cards, auto and student loans essentially came to a halt in October, and that the new programs are aimed to get lending back to more normal levels. Meanwhile, data released Tuesday provided further proof the country is almost certainly in the throes of a painful recession. Continued � http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2008-11-24-3784489146_x.htm

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Treasury Denounced Over Bailout , New York Times, Nov 19, 2008 WASHINGTON � The Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., on Tuesday rejected pleas to use money from the $700 billion bailout program to help homeowners avoid foreclosure or to stave off bankruptcy by Detroit�s Big Three automakers.

Facing a barrage of complaints from Democratic lawmakers that he was ignoring the will of Congress, Mr. Paulson dug in his heels and said he wanted to put money only into financial institutions.

�The primary purpose of the bill was to protect our financial system from collapse,� Mr. Paulson told the House Financial Services Committee. �The rescue package was not intended to be an economic stimulus or an economic recovery package.�

Democrats pummeled the Treasury secretary in response, with some accusing him of carrying out a �bait and switch� by discarding his original plan and others expressing fury that the Treasury had allocated $290 billion for banks and insurance companies but nothing for individual homeowners. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/business/economy/19bailout.html?_r=1&partner=rss

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2008 Congressional Hall of Shame

http://truespew.com/?p=133

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