With the G-20 looming many countries are unhappy with the Fed Move to depress the value of the dollar. Moves are also afoot internationally to stem the trade imbalances.
In related news, China’s trade surplus soared to $27 Billion in October.
Mr. Goodwrench has been shelved.
Operation Dragon Strike has displaced the population outside of Kandahar City and the Taliban has been funneling resources into the area in order to try and stop the U.S. forces. It is expected that the fight is going to shift from outside Kandahar to inside the city itself.
Christian homes are being targeted in Baghdad.
Journalists are being viciously attacked in Russia.
Apparently the United States is paying Brazilian Cotton Growers to grow… cotton.
Wonk Monkey cannot understand why someone would say this about a child who needs expensive medical care to stay alive:
Taxpayers should not have to pay anything for a child like Olivia. If Olivia's parents could afford to pay for this treatment, I cannot argue with their right to do so. If they cannot, how can they ask the rest of us to support their child?
The White House doctored a report in order to support their six-month ban on new oil drilling.
There are 47 million people without Health Insurance right now.
Jobless rates are down which is great. Now the challenge, we need 300,000 jobs per month in order to make a dent in our unemployment rate of 9.6%.
Almost half of the incoming House Republicans are pledging to leave office in 8-12 years.
Things are not looking good for Scott Brown getting re-elected.
Robert Gates foresees that ‘Don’t Ask’ will fall soon, if not in congress then in the courts.
Slate takes us down the road on how we changed from a country that decried torture to one that celebrates it.
The deficit reduction panel is recommending altering Social Security retirement age, reduce benefits of of Social Security, raise taxes on wealthier peoples incomes, reform of malpractice law, and slow the growth of Medicare.
Lots of Politifact updates today:
It is Half-True when Obama said, "One of the interesting things about the Recovery Act was most of the projects came in under budget, faster than expected, because there's just not a lot of work there,"
We'll break this into two parts: whether most stimulus projects came in under budget, and whether they were faster than expected.
So there is some truth to Obama's point. But without definitive data telling us what percentage of all stimulus projects have come in under budget, we think it's a stretch for Obama to claim that most stimulus projects have come in under budget. After all, that's based on a survey of just eight agencies that found "contract bids, in some cases" were coming in well below budget.
As with the claim about projects coming in under budget, Obama would have been on firm ground had he said "many" projects have come in faster than expected. Many have. But many have not. And if the claim is based on meeting a deadline to outlay funds, the overall target of 70 percent was reached -- barely -- by the end of September. That's only faster than expected if you expected the government to fail.
Obama makes a valid point about this being a good time to get deals on infrastructure projects. The recession has created desperate workers willing to work cheaper, and the cost of materials is still relatively low. Obama's point that this was borne out by the stimulus projects is on target. But he stretched the facts -- at least what is actually known -- when he claimed most projects have come in under budget and faster than expected. And so we rate his claim Half True.
It is True that "Animal abuse is often an indicative trait of future acts of violence against humans,"
It is False that “Anybody who is familiar with the historical data from the IRS knows that raising income tax rates will likely actually reduce federal revenues."
"There is no real dispute among economists that broad-based federal income tax cuts reduce revenue (except when tax rates are much higher than they are now)," said Alan D. Viard of the conservative American Enterprise Institute. "Revenue is lower than it would be without the Bush tax cuts -- liberal and conservative economists are in accord on this question."
To recap, Pence said that, "Anybody who is familiar with the historical data from the IRS knows that raising income tax rates will likely actually reduce federal revenues." Actually, the historical data doesn't show that. Experts said the economic theory Pence is drawing from doesn't apply in the current situation, and an increase in tax rates would not cause tax revenues to decline. So we rate his statement False.
It is True that the new financial services law requires 358 regulatory filings.
It is False that The debt is "nearly $6 trillion more than when President Obama was sworn into office."
Allen’s language in the Op/Ed plainly implies the Obama administration's actions have already caused the debt to rise $6 trillion. That’s simply wrong. The debt has risen by $3.1 trillion since Obama took office.
For that reason, we find Allen’s claim to be False.
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