Keep in mind that The Mayor always reads his charts from right to left. Things are always better that way.

**Everything is ok. Now go watch Glee.

Little to say here: total debt is now at, obviously, a new record high of $14,856,859,498,405.73, which is a $20 billion increase overnight, $67 billion in the past two days, and $162 billion in the last three days. We will repeat the last part: total US debt has increased by $162 billion in three days. Said otherwise, total US Debt/GDP is now 98.9%. Please carry on.

**Zero Hedge

**From Zero Hedge

America has now officially closed the books on the 2010-2011 fiscal year. It is only fitting that the last day of the year saw the settlement of all outstanding and recently auctioned off debt. The result: a surge of $95 billion in total government debt overnight, and a fiscal year closing with the absolutely unprecedented $14,790,340,328,557.15 in debt. Net net, in the past fiscal year, the US has issued a total of $1.228 trillion in new debt and has accelerated over time. At a rate of $125 billion per month, total US debt to GDP will pass 100% in just over a month. Incidentally, one may inquire about the benefits of centrally planned fiscal stimulus (cough Solyndra cough): the US economy added over 3$ trillion in debt in the past two years and the stock market is almost back to where it was back then. Perhaps it is about time someone demanded that all those lunatics who say that issuing debt for the sake of growth (and pushing the S&P higher of course) be finally locked away in perpetuity, and the key dropped into the deepest volcano in Mordor.

Read more

Speaking with ABC asshat, David Muir, Timothy Geithner defended Obama “jobs plan”, as well as the $200,000 price tag each job would cost to create:

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner didn’t dispute a Harvard economist’s estimate that each job in the White House’s jobs plan would cost $200,000, but said the pricetag is the wrong way to measure the bill’s worth.

And he also pointed out, in an interview today with ABC News’ David Muir, that there is no other option on the table for getting the economy moving and putting more people back to work.

“You’ve got to think about the costs of the alternatives,” Geithner said when asked about Harvard economist Martin Feldstein’s calculation that each job created by President Obama’s American Jobs Act would cost taxpayers about $200,000.

“If government does nothing, it does nothing now because they’re scared by politics or they want to debate what’s perfect, then there will be fewer Americans back to work, the economy will be weaker,” he said.

True, why would anyone want the government to come up with a perfect plan when the alternatives have worked so well the last 3 years or so? America is far better off now than in 2008 – 2009. Sure, the economy has lost 8 million jobs since then, food stamp use is at a record high, the housing market has completely tanked, debt and deficits have doubled – but at least the bankers and unions have gotten bailed out to the tune of trillions in taxpayer money. What a plan!

“We can borrow money for 10 years as the government of the United States because people have confidence in this country at less than 2 percent,” he said. “The responsible path now is to take advantage of the unique position we’re in as a country. People have a lot of confidence in us. Let’s take advantage of that now to do things that help growth in the short-term.”

I’m not sure if Geithner is saying that less than 2% of people have confidence in the US, or that 2% is the interest rate at which the States can borrow at. Either way is correct, it would be nice to get some clarification though.

Geithner sounds like a true cocaine addict. Pumping trillions of dollars into a black hole the last three years has gotten America exactly nowhere but further in debt, but Geithner believes if the States just sunk a few more trillions into the abyss that everything would be ok. Hell, just one more line and I’ll quit, promise. Just look at how panicked Geithner is, he can’t fathom for even a second that the best thing the government can do is nothing. America has been gutted by the banks and government and their insane policies the last three years, but Geithner still insists on picking up the straw for one final snort.

What is the cost of doing nothing? Nothing. That’s the cost. Nothing. Stay the hell out of the way and shove your ridiculous regulations up your collective asses. Does Geithner really want to help? Then he should get the hell out of the way. Stop bailing out banks and unions and stop subsidizing every special interest group that comes along. Stop stealing from the citizens. Does Geithner truly think 2% interest rates are a great thing? Ask a saver what they think about 2% interest.

Geithner is the problem. Not even part of the problem, but THE problem. These Keynesians need to be rounded up and put in jail for what they have done to the world economy. They are liars and thieves and have to be stopped.

Red Board

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice (OSCJ), has authorized the receiver of bankrupt Blockbuster Canada Co. to close the remaining 200 and some odd Canadian stores:

Blockbuster Canada’s operations, which have been hit by competition, were consolidated by Grant Thornton — the legal custodian in charge — and about 150 retail locations were closed in June.

The final closure process will include a clearance sale of its inventory at a discounted rate. Clearance sales are scheduled to begin on September 9, Grant Thonton said in a statement.

Oh noes, where is The Mayor going to rent a movie for $7.99 now?

The article above seems to think the reason Blockbuster went under has to do with “competition”, but that’s only a small reason why BB is saying fini to the video rental business. Incompetence from upper BB management has more to do with it. Faced with a choice of moving into the 21st century or sticking with an old and tired business model, BB management did the latter, and now they’re history.

Netflix and Redbox didn’t exactly explode onto the video rental scene, they crept onto the scene, yet BB was too slow to figure out they were dying a death by a thousand cuts. By the time BB figured out their market share was plummeting, the only thing they could counter with was excusing late fees. Wow, sexy.

When BB knew they were toast, they then lowered rental costs from insanely stupid to just ridiculous. They actually went so low that they managed to kill every mom and pop operation right across North America. So when people wax poetic about the good old days of BB, The Mayor calls BS on that and reminds the romanticists that BB was always far too expensive, and when they had a chance to die with dignity, they gutted the market and killed a whack of jobs in the process.

Blockbuster couldn’t deliver a cost-effective way to deliver their product to consumers, and yet they had every chance to either copy, or buy up their competition. And they didn’t do it and now they are dead meat. Boo hoo.

In the future, if The Mayor ever gets sentimental about BB, he’ll simply take out $16.00 from his pocket and throw it into the gutter. The $16.00 would represent the cost of what BB use to charge The Mayor for 2 lousy movies.

US Jobless Claims Up, Gasoline Lifts Consumer Prices

Americans’ satisfaction with the way things are going in the United States has fallen back to 11%, the lowest level since December 2008 and just four percentage points above the all-time low recorded in October 2008.

One in five American children now living in poverty according to new report

United Space Alliance lays off an estimated 500 Houston workers

Pfizer (PFE) plans to lay off 16,300 more employees as it grapples with declining sales of Lipitor, its best-selling cholesterol product, and attempts to meet savings targets promised to Wall Street.

What you are looking at is not the approval rating of Barack Obama since 2009, but rather it’s the Dow Jones charted from the last five days. The Mayor would not walk down a flight of stairs that steep. Last week the Dow lost 500 points in a single day, and it was called by the *experts* a “buying opportunity.” Today the Dow is off by more than 600 points, stocks must now be considered a “steal.”

Sit back and enjoy the show, folks, the runaway train has not run out of steam yet. Let the jumping off of buildings commence.

From Zero Hedge

When you think of austerity, Europe tends to come to mind first. Faced with default, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and a handful of other Euro countries have embarked on austerity measures that have so far proven VERY unpopular. Euro countries that have lived beyond their means for the last 30 years are now scrambling to get their fiscal house in order. Too late though, that train left the station years ago.

Austerity isn’t talked about much in North America, it’s a word that we have reserved solely for the EU. Yet, even though we try to wish it away, austerity is here, and it’s only going to get worse:

Around 450,000 people who work for U.S. states, counties, cities, towns and villages could get pink slips in fiscal 2012, sharply up from the 300,000 positions shed this year, a report said on Monday.

Keep in mind that 450,000 is just the ante; states, counties and cities are going to be faced with a $150 billion deficit in 2012, up from about $120 billion this year. And in keeping with lefty fashion, you can rest assured that the jobs cut and the services slashed will come from places like libraries, schools, parks and campgrounds. Needle exchange programs, diversity wokshops and immigration services will not be touched in the least – after all, THIS is not to time to cut such important services. It is NEVER the time.

If the economy needs to add 150,000 jobs a month in the US just to keep the unemployment rate on an even keel, you can work out the math when you add another 450,000 unemployed to the mix. That pretty much means that an extra 40K jobs will be needed above and beyond the 150,000 that aren’t being created now, just to stay even. That’s not even counting the other massive layoffs that are going to occur in every sector from A – Z next year.

If you still have any doubts as to whether austerity is here, simply go to Daily Job Cuts and scroll down the left hand side until you’re sick to the gut. As an example, here are the austerity cuts from yesterday. Yes, this is just from one day:

St Paul Schools – 300 jobs

TYC – 40 jobs

ST Mary’s Hospital – 14 jobs

Indebtness reached an all-time high in Canada last month, but not to worry, we’re waaaaaaaay better off than our cousins south of the border. Right? Buehler?

Canadian household total indebtedness reached a record $1.5 trillion in the first quarter of this year, Statistics Canada has reported, or 147 per cent of disposable income, another record.

When talking about the economy, the line The Mayor hears all the time is, “at least we’re better off than the Americans.” Even though that’s hardly true, and even if it was, that’s not going to save our bacon.

Look at it this way: The US has 10x our population. Canadian household debt is $1.5 trillion while US household debt is a little over $13 trillion. Based on that, which households hold more debt, US or Canadian? Exactly.

But the Canadian housing market is way better off than the US housing market? Oh really? What’s the average house worth in Toronto or BC? Any bubble there?

As well, for nearly a decade, to get families into overpriced housing, the regulations were changed making it easier for Canadian families to get credit. There are a TON of 30 and 35 year mortgages out there with families sitting on low variable rates. When interest rates rise, and they will, and Chad & Brook’s mortgage rate goes from 2.45% to 8%, what do you think will happen?

Debt is a killer, we all know that. The Mayor is on the front-line every day and hears the horrible stories Canadian families are going through right now. Gas prices are through the roof, taxes are obscene, inflation is skyrocketing. The Mayor would say the majority of Canadian families are living paycheque to paycheque, and when interest rates rise – again, and they will – there is going to be a mass household destruction like we’ve never seen before.

But warning Canadian’s about debt doesn’t do any good anyway. You can tell them until you’re blue in the face about the evils of debt and how it’s going to affect them in the not-too-distant future, and it won’t make a difference one bit. You’ll still find debt-ridden Canadian’s stuffing their piggy faces at the fast food joints, buying useless Apple products (take your pick which one, they’re all the same), and blowing through money like it’s going out of style.

For the smart crowd, pay off all your debt fast, don’t put ANYTHING on time (the no-interest, no-payment schemes and such), and stay in cash. Cash is king, credit is for suckers (unless you have the means to pay every cent back every month,of course.)

Newest General Motors Co. CEO, Dan Akerson, in an interview with The Detroit News, gives his take on where his company is headed, the direction of the American economy, and a bunch of other nonsensical crap.

How does Akerman plan to get the general public to buy more GM cars? Tax the bastards until they buy:

General Motors Co. CEO Dan Akerson wants the federal gas tax boosted as much as $1 a gallon to nudge consumers toward more fuel-efficient cars.

A government-imposed tax hike, Akerson believes, will prompt more people to buy small cars and do more good for the environment than forcing automakers to comply with higher gas-mileage standards.

“People will start buying more Cruzes and they will start buying less Suburbans.”

That’s a pretty decent plan. Especially considering that GM makes about $8000.00 for every Suburban sold and about $3000.00 for every Cruze they sell. For that plan to work, GM will only have to triple their sales to be exactly where they are right now.

If Akerman gets his way and the government slaps a $1 tax on every gallon of gas, he believes this will increase sales of GM’s Cruze’s. The Mayor believes the populace will buy more Corolla’s and Accords, Hyundai’s and Mazda’s, seeing as they are far superior cars, but Akerman has been in Telecommunications for 50 years, so he’s probably right. The Mayor is just a consumer.

GM is still in the hole when it comes to paying taxpayers back the tens of billions it owes them, but Akerman manages to put on his best happy face when asked about this:

After printing more money, cutting programs you intend to fund, then comes the tax the middle and upper class.

To recap: The new CEO of GM intends on making GM profitable by trying to institute a gas tax that will get more people to abandon buying profitable cars for less profitable cars. After that initiative, tax the hell out of the only people that can afford cars.

Sounds like Akerman will fit in quite nicely at government motors.