Pelosi Says She's Running Most Ethical Congress Ever!:

During a Friday press conference, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she was running the most ethical Congress ever.CNSNews.com reported Friday:

When a reporter prefaced a question about Rangel by noting that Pelosi had promised to run the "most ethical and honest Congress in history" she interrupted him to say: "And we are." 

Despite the absurdity of this remark, CNSNews.com and Fox News were by themselves amongst major press outlets in finding it newsworthy (readers are cautioned to stow fluids as well as sharp items, and make sure their mouths are free of food or liquid before proceeding to the hysterical video embedded below the fold):

Oba-Kabuki: A box-office bomb

By Michelle Malkin  •  February 26, 2010 09:13 AM 

The Oba-Kabuki health care show at Blair House kicked off with a big lie on Thursday morning – and it all went downhill from there. The taxpayer-funded infomercial backfired by exposing the president’s thin skin, the Democrats’ naked disingenuous, and the ruling majority’s allergies to political and policy realities.
Responding to Sen. Lamar Alexander’s opening call for Democrats to renounce parliamentary tactics designed to limit debate, circumvent filibusters, and lower the threshold for passage of health care reform to a simple, 51-vote majority, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sputtered indignantly: “No one’s talking about reconciliation!” Everybody and their mothers have been invoking the R-word on Capitol Hill, starting with Reid himself.

The Calm Before the Coming Sovereign Debt Storm

by Martin D. Weiss

If I’ve learned anything in the 39 years since I founded Weiss Research, it’s this: I can only help those who are ready to help themselves.

I’ve seen it happen so many times and it never ceases to concern me deeply:
Our research reveals a crisis on the horizon — something with the power to wipe out millions of portfolios and retirement plans. 
We shout our warnings from the rooftops over many

Let's Enjoy The Depression!

By Bill Bonner
Baltimore, Maryland

The depression is alive and well!

US unemployment claims just came in higher than expected.

And new house sales in January were at their lowest ever. Pundits were quick to blame the snow. But sales were off even in areas that had better-than-usual weather.

Household income has gone nowhere in 10 years. Stocks have suffered a lost decade too. And now Ben Bernanke says we’d better be careful... because the recovery ain’t no sure thing.

The economists have no clue. But average people know what’s going on. They know how hard it is to find a job. And if you’re in the building trades... or you have only a year or two of college... you’re pretty much out of luck. You may have to retire before you ever start work again.

Doomsday Tax Predictions for Illinois

State watchdog group calls for 'historical' increase in personal income tax

By JENEL NELS

Updated 11:27 AM CST, Mon, Feb 22, 2010

In order to crawl from beneath crushing debt and reach fiscal solvency, Illinois legislators must choose from a series of options that range from bad to worse, according to a prominent watchdog group.

The Civic Federation wants to launch an intervention that includes significant budget cuts and the largest tax increase package in Illinois history, all in an effort to save the state from a

The Greatest Suckers Rally In History!

Headlines 1930

1. February 2, 1930: Market Recovering Faster Than Expected

2. February 2, 1930: Banks Have Started Hiring Again

3. February 5, 1930: The Cash On The Sidelines Is Coming Back!

4. February 7, 1930: Easy Money Driving Recovery

5. February 9, 1930: "New Era" Not Over Yet!

Obama Opens Door for 401(k)s

By Margaret Collins

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Insurers and mutual-fund companies are starting to sell retirement accounts with built-in annuities in response to concerns Americans will outlive their savings.

President Barack Obama on Feb. 1 called for a change in government rules to allow adding annuities to 401(k) retirement plans. While the annuities offer a steady stream of income in exchange for upfront payments, the price for peace of mind may be higher fees and less access to cash.

“You’re paying for a benefit that you may or may not use,” said Glenn Daily, a fee-only insurance consultant, referring to annuities. “These things are so complicated I doubt many people will

A brief history of the US… as it enters “the final stage”…

By Bill Bonner
Paris , France

No lobbyist left behind!

That’s the new motto of the whole Washington establishment. Every spending bill has something in it for everybody.

Today is a holiday in America. It’s “Presidents Day,” a day set aside for Americans to honour those who rule over them. Most Americans think of Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt... but here at the Daily Reckoning we honour America’s truly great presidents – William Henry Harrison, Chester Arthur and Warren Harding – those who didn’t make things worse.

But look on... ye dead chiefs... at what your country has become:

People are afraid to lose money and an unusual study released on Monday explains why

the brain's fear center controls the response to a gamble study of two women with brain lesions that made them unafraid to lose on a gamble showed the amygdala, the brain's fear center, activates at the very thought of losing money.

The finding, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers insight into economic behavior and suggests that humans evolved to be cautious about the prospects of losing food or other valued possessions.

UPDATE:Asian Shares Tumble; Europe Debt Concerns Spur Sell off

By Colin Ng and Leslie Shaffer

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Asian equity markets tumbled Friday, dragged by sharp losses in Wall Street Thursday as heightened concerns over European sovereign debt hurt demand. Resources stocks were hit hard as a spike in risk aversion and renewed strength in the U.S. dollar dented commodities.

It Is Now Mathematically Impossible To Pay Off The U.S. National Debt

A lot of people are very upset about the rapidly increasing U.S. national debt these days and they are demanding a solution. What they don't realize is that there simply is not a solution under the current U.S. financial system. It is now mathematically impossible for the U.S. government to pay off the U.S. national debt. You see, the truth is that the U.S. government now owes more dollars than actually exist. If the U.S. government went out today and took every single penny from every single American bank, business and taxpayer, they still would not be able to pay off the national debt. And if they did that, obviously American society would stop functioning because nobody would have any money to buy or sell anything.

And the U.S. government would still be massively in debt.

So why doesn't the U.S. government just fire up the printing presses and print a bunch of money to pay off the debt?

Well, for one very simple reason.

Outrageous judicial pick still requires scrutiny

Expose Edward Chen’s radicalism and squash his nomination
Feb 2, 2010

Tomorrow the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on five of President Obama’s controversial court-and-justice nominees. Among them is federal district court nominee Edward Chen of Northern California, whose radical agenda has not been fully exposed and requires further public hearings rather than a vote.

If the Senate reveals Mr. Chen’s long record of ill-advised statements and legal positions so that the general public can listen, plenty of Democratic senators will have to reconsider voting for such an extreme nominee.

Obama must spend while he can

One rule of budget reporting is to watch what the politicians are spending this year, not the frugality they promise down the road. By that measure, the budget that President Obama released yesterday for fiscal 2011 is one of the greatest spend-while-you-can documents in American history.

The war on Toyota

FP Comment

Terence Corcoran, Financial Post Published: Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Terence Corcoran, Financial Post

There can be little doubt that Toyota, the world's greatest auto maker in recent years, has become the victim of much more than another typical out-of-control All-American media frenzy. When top-line political gamesman such as U.S. Transport Secretary Ray LaHood, Congressional pit bull Henry Waxman, and conniving United Auto Workers executives start piling on, this is clearly much bigger sport that the usual ritual public lynching of auto executives, a routine occurrence in Washington. The attack on Toyota, at this time of U.S. economic weakness and populist excess, is fast turning into a great American nationalist assault on a foreign corporation, an economic war.

Arizona gaming revenue to state down in 4Q of 2009

PHOENIX - The recession continues to take its toll on reservation gaming, affecting not just the tribes but the state programs that share in the profits.

New figures Monday from the Arizona Gaming Department show revenue sharing by the tribes for the last quarter of 2009 was just slightly more than $11.1 million. That compares to $12.8 million in the same period a year earlier - and $15.2 million the year before that.

State Gaming Director Mark Brnovich said the numbers appear to be consistent with what is happening elsewhere in the country.