Arnold discusses like totally legalizing pot, Man

Man I must've been baked when I registered as a Republican. What was I thinking?

The pressure is on for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to fill the state’s mega-bucks deficit, and he might have found an answer: selling pot. Schwarzenegger is supporting a large-scale study to investigate the legalization and taxation of marijuana for recreational uses. “I think it’s time for a debate,” he said. A recent poll showed more than half of the state’s registered voters support legalizing and taxing marijuana as a way to fill the budget deficit. Sales could raise over $1.2 billion annually in tax revenues, according to estimates, though that would do little to counteract the state’s deficit, which could reach a staggering $20 billion in a little over a year.

A billion dollars in additional tax revenue is one good reason, but I can think of like a hundred others. Ummm… What was I saying again? Man, I need some more Cheetos! And Skittles! And Oreos with peanut butter! And…–BEREZ

               
Posted Under: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Economic Meltdown, Marijuana, Uncategorized, War on Drugs
This post was written by BerezObama on May 7, 2009 Comments (0)

This one goes to 11! Chrysler file for bankruptcy

I'm sorry... your big plan is to merge with who??!!

WASHINGTON — Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Thursday and announced it will temporarily halt most of its vehicle production while it completes a deal with Italian carmaker Fiat in an effort to revive the nation’s ailing third-largest automaker.
The Obama administration said it had long hoped to stave off bankruptcy, but it became clear that a holdout group of creditors wouldn’t budge on proposals to reduce Chrysler’s $6.9 billion in secured debt. Clearing those debts was a needed step for Chrysler to restructure by a government-imposed Thursday deadline.

Chrysler now has “a chance not only to survive but thrive” thanks to the deal with international car company Fiat and loans from the government, President Obama said Thursday. He said the company’s decision to file for bankrupcy “is not a sign of weakness,” but rather a necessary step that will allow the company to survive.

So Chrysler is claiming that merging with Fiat is not a sign of weakness??? That’s like pan-handling outside a homeless shelter and saying it’s not a sign of being broke and desperate.–BEREZ

               
Posted Under: Auto Industry Bailout, Economic Meltdown
This post was written by BerezObama on April 30, 2009 Comments (0)

Source: Chrysler won’t liquidate… chooses to rust instead

Liquidating sounds pretty fancy. We'll just do it the old fashion way.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Chrysler LLC will not be forced to shut down, according to a source familiar with the automaker’s plans. But the embattled company may still wind up declaring bankruptcy.

“Chrysler will survive and avoid liquidation, whether that happens in or out of bankruptcy remains uncertain at this point,” a source familiar with the negotiations between Chrysler and the federal government told CNNMoney.com

Those negotiations are expected to continue, possibly right up to the government-imposed deadline of midnight Thursday, according two senior officials in the Obama administration.  The Treasury Department’s auto industry task force found in late March that Chrysler was no longer viable as a stand-alone company.

Show of hands… how many of you out there own a Chrysler?  Hmmm.  Ok, now how many of you even know somebody who owns a Chrysler? Just as I thought. This is the same kind of wishful thinking that made me start collecting laserdiscs.–BEREZ

               
Posted Under: Auto Industry Bailout, Economic Meltdown
This post was written by BerezObama on April 29, 2009 Comments (0)

Reporters: We blew it on meltdown coverage… Ya think?

If I can't inflate the market, I can't afford my house!

In a windowless room at the Westin Hotel in downtown Denver, leading business journalists and editors explained how the media “blew it” in covering the economic meltdown. They admitted, on one hand, to falling under the sway of free-market ideology and celebrating risk-taking financial leaders and, on the other, to missing the complex story of the rupturing system by only reporting it in parts and to almost no effect for the past decade.

In his defense, Cramer was not the only one ginning up this mass-hysteria. Financial coverage the last decade has made Spike TV look like the Home and Garden Network. But these people were supposed to be journalists and “sorry” isn’t enough.  It’s a disgrace.–BEREZ

               
Posted Under: Economic Meltdown, Jim Cramer
This post was written by BerezObama on April 27, 2009 Comments (0)

Super-rich hurt by recession… Benefit planned

Sharing G-5s, SEMI-private islands, domestic caviar... It's been truly awful!

Britain’s richest people lost 155 billion pounds in the past year because of a deep recession and the global financial crisis, a survey showed on Sunday. The Sunday Times newspaper’s 2009 Rich List, featuring the thousand wealthiest people based in Britain, also found the number of billionaires sank from 75 to 43 people in the last 12 months as the credit crunch took its toll.

The country’s 1,000 richest people have a collective fortune of 258 billion pounds, according to the weekly newspaper. That compared with a record 413 billion pounds in last year’s survey, “I am beyond being surprised, except by the scale of the devastation,” said Philip Beresford, who has compiled the annual list since 1989. “It is extraordinary how people have seen their fortunes being whittled away. It is devastation all round.”

Break out the world’s smallest violin. Multi-billionaires are being reduced to regular billionaires. How should I say this?… I DON’T CARE!–BEREZ

               
Posted Under: Economic Meltdown
This post was written by BerezObama on April 26, 2009 Comments (0)

Hard loss for Microsoft; worst decline in 23 years

Brother can you spare a... Oh who the f*ck am I kidding? I can still buy you soul 1000 times over.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Microsoft Corp. said Thursday that declining PC sales hurt revenue, as the software giant reported quarterly sales that fell for the first time in its 23-year history as a public company. The Redmond, Wash.-based company said sales fell 6% from a year earlier to $13.7 billion, missing analysts’ expectations of $14.1 billion.

 Meanwhile, the company’s net income fell 32% to $2.98 billion, or 33 cents per share, in its third quarter ended March 31. Results included charges totaling 6 cents per share for job cuts and investments that took place in the quarter. Without the charges, Microsoft earned 39 per share, in line with forecasts by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, which typically exclude one-time items.

Microsoft said weakness in the global PC market negatively impacted its results.

Don’t worry Bill, everyone in the world is going to need a new computer pretty soon to calculate how much f*cking money they lost.–BEREZ

               
Posted Under: Bill Gates, Economic Meltdown, Microsoft
This post was written by BerezObama on April 23, 2009 Comments (0)

World economy shrinks: “No sh*t!” says any 6 year old

And it also appears that the sky is still blue and Paris Hilton is still a skank

(CNN) – World economy — better luck next year.  That’s the message the International Monetary Fund gave this week, further downgrading its projection of 2009 global economic growth to -1.3 percent — nearly 2 percent less than originally forecast.

The IMF called it “the most severe recession since World War II.”  A modest recovery is predicted for 2010, but at 1.9 percent would be “sluggish relative to past recoveries.”"These projections are based on an assessment that financial market stabilization will take longer than previously thought, even with strong efforts by policymakers,” Oliver Blanchard, IMF chief economist and Jose Vinals, head of the IMF’s monetary and capital markets department, said in a joint statement.

Just in case you haven’t watched TV, listened to the radio, read a paper, surfed the internet or spoken with another living soul,..  the IMF says we’re having economic issues. Gee, thanks for that update.–BEREZ

               
Posted Under: Economic Meltdown
This post was written by BerezObama on April 23, 2009 Comments (0)

Grasp of the obvious: Iraq war hurt economy

And now they're saying smoking causes cancer. I mean, Jeez, who knew?

JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon, in a letter to shareholders, touched on a theme that critics of the Iraq war were highlighting more than a year ago: That spending on the war was damaging to the economy.

Dimon cited “an expensive war in Iraq” as one of the possible triggers of the economic collapse. Spending on the war ballooned the deficit and crowded out investment in domestic priorities. Meanwhile, the trade deficit soared.

“I suspect when analysts and economists study the fundamental causes of this crisis, they will point to the enormous U.S. trade deficit as one of the main underlying culprits. Over an eight-year period, the United Sates ran a trade deficit of $3 trillion. This means that Americans bought $3 trillion more than they sold overseas. Dollars were used to pay for the goods. Foreign countries took these dollars and purchased, for the most part, U.S. Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities. It also is likely that this process kept U.S. interest rates very low, even beyond Federal Reserve policy, for an extended period of time.  ”Those depressed interest rates, in turn, pushed air into the housing bubble until it popped.

We’ve thrown 1-2 trillion dollars down the toilet with our Arabian misadventure in Iraq and this guy needs to put out a formal statement telling us that its had a damaging effect on our economy? And reading leads to literacy and alcohol leads to a hangover. I can’t take it anymore –BEREZ 

               
Posted Under: Economic Meltdown, Iraq War
This post was written by BerezObama on April 20, 2009 Comments (0)