Neil Cavuto: America’s Financial Future Died Tuesday Because Senate Republicans Refused to Dismantle Medicare
May 11, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Neil Cavuto is terribly upset that the Republicans in the Senate have decided not to support Paul Ryan and the House’s budget plan and dismantle Medicare by turning it into a voucher system. Cavuto opened his segment with American Pie playing in the background and followed with this: CAVUTO: Alright, I don’t want to be melodramatic (too late for that Neil), but let it be known that this is the day America’s financial future died. I want you to write it down, May 10, 2011. The day tea partiers elected to the United States Senate not only caved, they quit. They folded their spending tent and left. And all because some Medicare recipients stomped their feet and roared. And those Republicans ran into their buzz-saw and just bugged out. I am telling you, they didn’t just blink, they bolted. Which is odd because Republican Senators like Pat Toomey and Marco Rubio got to where promising big cuts. Then they ran into this big old wall. They discovered some folks were fine, cutting spending, but in the case of some Medicare recipients, just not their spending. It is a familiar story. Cut, just don’t cut my stuff. So now my friends, we are all stuck. Republicans in the Senate said, because the reality is Democrats control the Senate today, so they’re keeping their powder dry for when they control the Senate some day. Which is why they are putting off things like Medicare until after 2012, as if the stark reality of things we’re facing will be any less after 2012. They won’t. I can understand their political math, but I fear out far more unfriendly math, by then likely one and a half trillion dollars more in debt, not even a game plan as how to hack that debt. They say they’ll focus then, but I fear it will be too late. No wonder all this talk of a third party now. The Grand Old Party has botched it. Time was of the essence and now the time has gone. And now, they’re of the essence and now they’re the ones risking being gone. History will show it started this day, the tenth of May, 2011, when they gave up the fight and they lost the war. This spring day in 2011, they lost something else, their souls. How dare all of those selfish seniors expect that their children and grand children be taken care of in their old age? Sorry Neil, but you just lost yours running this fearmongering segment. We’ve got the biggest income disparity since the Gilded Age in the United States and you want to throw seniors under the bus. Shame on you.
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Failure of intelligence in Afghanistan, notably about tribal loyalties and aggressive US operations, exacerbated already dangerous situation, says General Sir David Richards Serious intelligence failures meant British commanders were unprepared for the Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan as soldiers “turned up a hornets’ nest”, three of the country’s most senior military officers have said. General Sir David Richards, the chief of the defence staff, told MPs the British had got involved in a very serious situation, adding: “War is a bummer.” A failure of intelligence, notably about tribal loyalties and aggressive US operations, and ill-thought out attempts to eradicate the opium poppy harvest, combined to exacerbate an already dangerous situation facing the 3,000 British troops sent to Helmand by the Blair government in 2006, the officers said. The huge problems then confronting British soldiers – the situation is much better now that about 11,000 are deployed in operations in a smaller area – were described by Richards, his deputy, General Sir Nick Houghton, and General Sir Peter Wall, the head of the army, in evidence to the Commons defence committee on Wednesday. “It was very clear the British were going to get involved in a very difficult situation,” Richards, then Nato’s commander in Kabul, told the cross-party committee of MPs. He said: “War is a bummer. Politics and the enemy have a vote.” Richards, who had asked Britain and other countries to send more troops to southern Afghanistan, warned: “It is impossible just to chuck troops at the problem, because of the great duty of care”. Wall said: “I absolutely accept what we found when the forces arrived on the ground was starkly different from what we anticipated and had been hoping for.” He said British commanders did not expect the insurgency to be as “vehement” as it turned out to be, and told MPs it was clear there was a failure of intelligence. Houghton, a widely respected general who, along with Richards, was interviewed by Cameron for the top military post, listed a number of problems that came together. Britain’s military commitment to Iraq was higher than it was anticipated it would still be in 2006, and British troops arrived in May, “the natural start of the fighting season”. The Taliban, at the time, encouraged the belief that foreign troops were out to eradicate the poppy harvest, a valuable source of income for local farmers. Some 200,000 labourers migrated from Pakistan to help with the poppy harvest, and some were happy to stay as “guns for hire”. Houghton added that US troops had just engaged in “particularly kinetic” [aggressive] military operations at the time. Moreover, at the behest of President Hamid Karzai, British troops were deployed to forward “platoon houses” in northern Helmand areas such as Sangin and Musa Qala. The soldiers turned out to be dangerously exposed and too few in number. Asked about the effect of Osama bin Laden’s death on military operations in Afghanistan, Richards said it was too early to tell, but that it clearly had a psychological effect and possibly an effect on the ability of the insurgents to raise money. Military Afghanistan House of Commons Defence policy Foreign policy Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …NHS reforms: David Cameron rejects claim that ‘listening exercise’ is a sham
May 11, 2011 No Comment
Cameron promises ‘significant and substantial changes’ to health and social care bill as Ed Miliband accuses him of ‘dumping on’ health secretary Andrew Lansley David Cameron has promised “significant and substantial changes” to the government’s plans to reform the health service amid accusations that ministers are conducting a “sham” consultation exercise. The prime minister became embroiled in a row with the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, at prime minister’s questions over treatment waiting times and plans by the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, to revamp the National Health Service, which have sparked widespread opposition from staff. The two leaders traded insults as Miliband ramped up the pressure on Cameron by linking him personally with the NHS reform plans. The Labour leader read out a quote from Cameron last month, in which he claimed he had been involved in designing the reforms “way back into opposition with Andrew Lansley”. “Can he therefore confirm that the NHS plans are not Andrew Lansley’s fault; they’re his?” asked Miliband, before accusing him of “dumping” on a minister rather than taking responsibility himself – a practice Miliband claimed was “becoming a pattern”. “This morning in the papers we see the universities minister [David Willetts] being dumped on for his tuition fees policy, we see the schools secretary [Michael Gove] being dumped on for his free schools policy and the poor deputy prime minister [Nick Clegg], he just gets dumped on every day of the week.” He said the decision to throw open a “listening exercise” last month, with the legislation for the reforms already making its passage through parliament, was proof that Cameron thought “something has gone wrong”. But he went on to claim that the exercise was “nothing more than a sham” in light of the fact that the NHS chief executive, Sir David Nicholson, had told health managers to carry on implementing the reforms after the “so called pause” in the legislation had begun. Cameron insisted the government was determined to get the reforms “right”. “I can absolutely guarantee there will be significant and substantial changes to the reforms because we want to get them right, because we want to guarantee an NHS, free at the point of use, available on need rather than ability to pay and unlike the party opposite, which is cutting the NHS in Wales, this government will put more money in the NHS.” The prime minister cited a letter signed by 42 GPs that hailed Lansley’s health reforms as “good for patients”. The letter, published today in the Daily Telegraph called on the government to press ahead with the health and social care bill. The 42 signatories, all family doctors, who together lead 1,100 practices across England and who are all heads of recently-formed GPs’ consortiums, said that ditching the reforms would be a mistake. They insisted the reforms would benefit the most elderly, infirm and vulnerable people in society. But it emerged almost three weeks ago that Jonathan Munday, a former Tory councillor who chairs the board of the Victoria Commissioning Consortium, had emailed GP colleagues urging them to back his reforms by signing the letter of support to the prime minister that went out today. Miliband told Cameron he should be “embarrassed” by the assessment by the Royal College of General Practitioners, which represented thousands of GPs, and has warned that the government’s plans would cause “irreparable damage to the core values of the NHS”. The prime minister challenged Miliband to deal “with the substance of the reform” since he agreed that “no change is not an option”. “He should be seriously engaging in how we make sure we have a strong NHS for all our people in the future. Instead we have an empty opposition, which got him nowhere last week.” Miliband used his first question to ask Cameron to rate his handling of the NHS after a year in office before pointing to figures published today which show waiting times for diagnosis have risen : “Over 10,000 people waiting to get their tests, that’s three times the number it was a year ago.” Cameron instead seized on a previous claim Miliband made two weeks ago about rising waiting times for inpatients and outpatients, which the prime minister said had turned out to be wrong, and told the Labour leader he should have the “guts” to admit he had been wrong. But the Labour leader insisted “waiting times are rising” and said Cameron had refused to take responsibility for the NHS reforms. The NHS surfaced again later in prime minister’s question as Cameron told MPs that the government would consider terminating its contract with a private firm to overhaul the NHS’s computer system. He faced calls from Richard Bacon, the Conservative MP for South Norfolk, to scrap the new system and save a further £4.7bn, which he said could be better spent directly on patients. The NHS computer programme would “never deliver its early promise”, he added. Cameron said the IT systems inherited from Labour were “poor value for money”, with the £12bn centralised records system for 50 million patients in England taking four years longer than planned to implement. He told the Commons: “Since coming into government we have reviewed the projects with the intention of making the best of what we have inherited. “In part, as a result of our work, the government has cut £1.3bn from the cost of the National Programme for IT in the NHS, including planned savings of at least £500m from Computer Sciences Corporation.” He added: “There are no plans to sign any new contract with Computer Sciences Corporation until the National Audit Office report has been reviewed and until the public accounts committee meetings and the Major Projects Authority reviews have taken place. “The Department of Health and Cabinet Office will examine all the available options under the current contract, including the option of terminating some or all of the contracts.” NHS Health PMQs House of Commons David Cameron Ed Miliband Health policy Public services policy Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media It’s incredible. Unbelievable. That Trump presidential bid is going big, baby — as in the biggest, fastest collapse of a candidacy in history. Oh yeah. From Public Policy Polling : Donald Trump has had one of the quickest rises and falls in the history of Presidential politics. Last month we found him leading the Republican field with 26%. In the space of just four weeks he’s dropped all the way down to 8%, putting him in a tie for fifth place with Ron Paul. Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are at the top of the GOP race with 19% and 18% respectively. Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin are further back at 13% and 12%, followed by Trump and Paul at 8%, Michele Bachmann at 7%, and Tim Pawlenty at 5%. As Trump got more and more exposure over the last month Republicans didn’t just decide they weren’t interested in having him as their nominee- they also decided they flat don’t like him. Only 34% of GOP voters now have a favorable opinion of Trump to 53% who view him in a negative light. Maybe this is why Trump was on Fox last night with Martha MacCallum and complained bitterly about how he’s being treated in the press. Apparently, it’s bad for the country to criticize great leaders like Donald Trump, even when they make utter buffoons of themselves by trumpeting easily disproven conspiracy theories: MACCALLUM: …You know, when you go home at night and you talk to your wife and you think about all this, how does get — this hammering, in your words, how does that get factored into the decision? TRUMP: Well, I think it’s very bad for the country. And it doesn’t affect my decision because I think I have a pretty thick skin. But I think it’s very bad for the country because the kind of people — and I’m not talking about myself, I’m talking about generally speaking. The kind of person you need to run this country has to be somebody that really has accomplished a lot because he’s got to accomplish — he or she has to accomplish a lot for the country. The guy is so completely out to lunch that his Republican fans are fleeing him in droves. Ah, Donald, we hardly knew ye. Because there was so little to know. Makes you wonder why the hell Trump got trotted out for public consumption in the first place. And then I remembered: He was always a stalking horse who’d make the rest of the Republican presidential field look sane and intelligent by comparison . That, and he had one other good use. Eric Boehlert caught this one a couple of weeks ago, when Andrea Tantaros told some accidental truth on O’Reilly’s show: Click here to view this media Let the man speak. He’s got a bigger megaphone than Romney, Pawlenty, Gingrich, than all of them combined. And you know what; he can drive up Obama’s negatives more than any of the other of those GOP candidates. Sure. He can self-immolate like the flaming gasbag he is on his own good time. But what he may have done instead is accidentally drive up Obama’s positives: They got one look at a real comparison between the two men last week, and it wasn’t even a contest.
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EU agencies warn synthetic psychoactive substances are spreading at an unprecedented rate, with 41 new ones in 2010 New “legal highs” are being made widely available online and in specialised shops at an unprecedented pace, outstripping attempts to control them, the European Union’s drugs agency has warned. In a report published jointly with the law enforcement agency Europol , the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) says in 2010 the two agencies officially noted 41 new psychoactive substances, many of them imitating the effects of ecstasy. Fourteen of them were first identified in Britain. The Lisbon-based monitoring centre says the new substances are appearing at an “unprecedented pace”, with the 41 new ones the largest number reported in any single year. The figure compares with 24 identified in 2009 and 13 in 2008. The agencies say roughly a quarter of the substances identified last year – 11 of the 41 – were variants on synthetic cannabis drugs such as Spice , which 16 European countries, including Britain, have decided to ban or control amid health concerns. A further 15 are synthetic cathinone derivatives, including mephedrone – also known as meow meow – which imitate the effects of ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine. These were banned across Europe last December. The European drugs experts also identified for the first time derivatives of two other established drugs, ketamine and PCP. The report says many of the newly identified substances were picked up by national police agencies through test purchases either online or from specialised “smart” or “head” shops. Many are marketed as legal highs or as plant food, and labelled “not for human consumption”. The descriptions are specifically designed to circumvent drug controls. It says their accelerating proliferation demonstrates the speed and sophistication at which the market is reacting to attempts to ban or control them, and the growing challenges presented by globalisation and innovation. Many are being developed by chemists in illegal laboratories in south-east Asia. Wolfgang Götz, the EMCDDA’s director, said: “Given the speed at which new developments occur in this area, it is important to anticipate future challenges. While our early-warning system has recently upped its operational capacity to react rapidly to new substances and products identified, it currently lacks the ability to anticipate emerging threats.” He suggested the EU should give the agency the power to buy the new compounds so it could synthesise and study them. Rob Wainwright, Europol’s director, said the emergence of the substances was now a major feature of Europe’s drugs problem: “Organised crime groups are increasingly active in producing and distributing drugs which can be associated with ecstasy,” he said. “We are determined to combat this phenomenon.” Drugs trade Drugs Health European Union Drugs Drugs policy Police Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
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• UK economic growth likely to be just 1.7% in 2011 • Inflation likely to hit 5% in the coming months • Mervyn King admits outlook has darkened since last report The Bank of England has cut its growth forecasts for the UK economy and admitted that inflation will probably remain above the government’s target both this year and next. Governor Mervyn King said the short-term outlook for the UK had deteriorated since the Bank issued its quarterly inflation report in February. Inflation is now likely to hit 5% in the coming months, in a further blow to households. He insisted, though, that the medium-term “big picture” had not changed significantly. The Bank estimated that Britain will grow by around 1.7% during 2011, down from February’s forecast of 2% growth and in line with the latest forecasts from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility. In 2012, GDP is expected to be around 2.2%, down from an earlier estimate of close to 3%. This is weaker than the OBR forecast of 2.5% growth. On inflation, King said that higher commodity and import prices, and the increase in the standard rate of VAT, was pushing up the cost of living more rapidly than expected in February. He said that higher utility bills were likely to drive the consumer prices index (CPI) up to 5% this year. CPI, which fell back to 4% last month , was likely to remain above the 2% target until the end of 2012, the Bank predicted. Three months ago it had forecast that CPI would drop back to 2% next year . “There is a good chance that inflation will reach 5% later this year and it is more likely than not to remain above the 2% target throughout 2012, boosted by the increase in VAT, higher energy and import prices, and some rebuilding of companies’ margins,” said the Bank. King added that such forecasts contained “a great deal of uncertainty”, given the volatility of commodity prices. After the forecasts were drawn up, the Bank watched the oil price plunge by 10% last Friday, suggesting an easing of inflationary pressures, only for it to rally at the start of this week. The Report, published on the first anniversary of the formation of the UK coalition government, warned that its fiscal consolidation will continue to hinder economic growth over the next two years. Angela Eagle, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, argued that the new forecasts showed that George Osborne’s economic plan needed reworking. “This latest downgrade of the growth forecast from the Bank of England follows three downgrades by the Office for Budget Responsibility. A year ago the OBR was predicting growth of 2.6% under Labour’s plans, something which now looks like an impossible prospect,” said Eagle. “As the governor rightly noted, the UK economy is still 4% below the level it was at before the global financial crisis, while GDP in the US has now surpassed its pre-crisis peak.” UK growth looking weaker King predicted that the recovery from recession was also likely to be volatile, but his long-term view of economic growth prospects had not changed markedly. “The most likely outcome for growth in the medium term is somewhat weaker than in the February report, reflecting a delayed recovery in consumption and a less pronounced boost from net exports,” said King. “But the downside risk to that outcome is judged to be smaller than in February, so that from the two-year point of the forecast onwards, the average outcome, taking into account the balance of risks, is broadly unchanged.” The pound strengthened against the dollar after the report was published, gaining around half a cent to $1.646. Traders had expected that the Bank would cut its growth forecasts, especially after the UK economy grew by just 0.5% in the first three months of 2011 compared with the Bank’s forecast of a 0.8% expansion. Looking at inflation in the medium term, the Bank’s monetary policy committee believed that the chances of CPI being above or below target in the medium term were roughly equal. Some City economists said that there was now slightly more chance of the Bank raising borrowing costs during 2011. “The Bank of England’s inflation report suggests that in the Bank’s view, the market has perhaps gone a little too far in not expecting an interest rate rise this year. While lowering their growth forecast, the BoE have actually increased their CPI profile,” said James Knightley of ING. “As for the growth view, they remain above consensus and state that ‘business surveys and the growth in employment over recent months suggest that underlying activity may have been stronger than indicated by official output data’,” Knightley added. Andrew Goodwin, senior economic advisor to the Ernst & Young Item Club, described the Inflation Report as “relatively dovish”. “The changes to the forecasts look eminently sensible in the context of the sharp rises in energy prices since the February forecast. The forecast remains very much a story of short-term pressures from commodities, but very subdued underlying pressures dragging down inflation over the medium term,” Goodwin commented. Economic growth (GDP) Bank of England Inflation Economics Interest rates Mervyn King Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• UK economic growth likely to be just 1.7% in 2011 • Inflation likely to hit 5% in the coming months • Mervyn King admits outlook has darkened since last report The Bank of England has cut its growth forecasts for the UK economy and admitted that inflation will probably remain above the government’s target both this year and next. Governor Mervyn King said the short-term outlook for the UK had deteriorated since the Bank issued its quarterly inflation report in February. Inflation is now likely to hit 5% in the coming months, in a further blow to households. He insisted, though, that the medium-term “big picture” had not changed significantly. The Bank estimated that Britain will grow by around 1.7% during 2011, down from February’s forecast of 2% growth and in line with the latest forecasts from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility. In 2012, GDP is expected to be around 2.2%, down from an earlier estimate of close to 3%. This is weaker than the OBR forecast of 2.5% growth. On inflation, King said that higher commodity and import prices, and the increase in the standard rate of VAT, was pushing up the cost of living more rapidly than expected in February. He said that higher utility bills were likely to drive the consumer prices index (CPI) up to 5% this year. CPI, which fell back to 4% last month , was likely to remain above the 2% target until the end of 2012, the Bank predicted. Three months ago it had forecast that CPI would drop back to 2% next year . “There is a good chance that inflation will reach 5% later this year and it is more likely than not to remain above the 2% target throughout 2012, boosted by the increase in VAT, higher energy and import prices, and some rebuilding of companies’ margins,” said the Bank. King added that such forecasts contained “a great deal of uncertainty”, given the volatility of commodity prices. After the forecasts were drawn up, the Bank watched the oil price plunge by 10% last Friday, suggesting an easing of inflationary pressures, only for it to rally at the start of this week. The Report, published on the first anniversary of the formation of the UK coalition government, warned that its fiscal consolidation will continue to hinder economic growth over the next two years. Angela Eagle, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, argued that the new forecasts showed that George Osborne’s economic plan needed reworking. “This latest downgrade of the growth forecast from the Bank of England follows three downgrades by the Office for Budget Responsibility. A year ago the OBR was predicting growth of 2.6% under Labour’s plans, something which now looks like an impossible prospect,” said Eagle. “As the governor rightly noted, the UK economy is still 4% below the level it was at before the global financial crisis, while GDP in the US has now surpassed its pre-crisis peak.” UK growth looking weaker King predicted that the recovery from recession was also likely to be volatile, but his long-term view of economic growth prospects had not changed markedly. “The most likely outcome for growth in the medium term is somewhat weaker than in the February report, reflecting a delayed recovery in consumption and a less pronounced boost from net exports,” said King. “But the downside risk to that outcome is judged to be smaller than in February, so that from the two-year point of the forecast onwards, the average outcome, taking into account the balance of risks, is broadly unchanged.” The pound strengthened against the dollar after the report was published, gaining around half a cent to $1.646. Traders had expected that the Bank would cut its growth forecasts, especially after the UK economy grew by just 0.5% in the first three months of 2011 compared with the Bank’s forecast of a 0.8% expansion. Looking at inflation in the medium term, the Bank’s monetary policy committee believed that the chances of CPI being above or below target in the medium term were roughly equal. Some City economists said that there was now slightly more chance of the Bank raising borrowing costs during 2011. “The Bank of England’s inflation report suggests that in the Bank’s view, the market has perhaps gone a little too far in not expecting an interest rate rise this year. While lowering their growth forecast, the BoE have actually increased their CPI profile,” said James Knightley of ING. “As for the growth view, they remain above consensus and state that ‘business surveys and the growth in employment over recent months suggest that underlying activity may have been stronger than indicated by official output data’,” Knightley added. Andrew Goodwin, senior economic advisor to the Ernst & Young Item Club, described the Inflation Report as “relatively dovish”. “The changes to the forecasts look eminently sensible in the context of the sharp rises in energy prices since the February forecast. The forecast remains very much a story of short-term pressures from commodities, but very subdued underlying pressures dragging down inflation over the medium term,” Goodwin commented. Economic growth (GDP) Bank of England Inflation Economics Interest rates Mervyn King Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• UK economic growth likely to be just 1.7% in 2011 • Inflation likely to hit 5% in the coming months • Mervyn King admits outlook has darkened since last report The Bank of England has cut its growth forecasts for the UK economy and admitted that inflation will probably remain above the government’s target both this year and next. Governor Mervyn King said the short-term outlook for the UK had deteriorated since the Bank issued its quarterly inflation report in February. Inflation is now likely to hit 5% in the coming months, in a further blow to households. He insisted, though, that the medium-term “big picture” had not changed significantly. The Bank estimated that Britain will grow by around 1.7% during 2011, down from February’s forecast of 2% growth and in line with the latest forecasts from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility. In 2012, GDP is expected to be around 2.2%, down from an earlier estimate of close to 3%. This is weaker than the OBR forecast of 2.5% growth. On inflation, King said that higher commodity and import prices, and the increase in the standard rate of VAT, was pushing up the cost of living more rapidly than expected in February. He said that higher utility bills were likely to drive the consumer prices index (CPI) up to 5% this year. CPI, which fell back to 4% last month , was likely to remain above the 2% target until the end of 2012, the Bank predicted. Three months ago it had forecast that CPI would drop back to 2% next year . “There is a good chance that inflation will reach 5% later this year and it is more likely than not to remain above the 2% target throughout 2012, boosted by the increase in VAT, higher energy and import prices, and some rebuilding of companies’ margins,” said the Bank. King added that such forecasts contained “a great deal of uncertainty”, given the volatility of commodity prices. After the forecasts were drawn up, the Bank watched the oil price plunge by 10% last Friday, suggesting an easing of inflationary pressures, only for it to rally at the start of this week. The Report, published on the first anniversary of the formation of the UK coalition government, warned that its fiscal consolidation will continue to hinder economic growth over the next two years. Angela Eagle, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, argued that the new forecasts showed that George Osborne’s economic plan needed reworking. “This latest downgrade of the growth forecast from the Bank of England follows three downgrades by the Office for Budget Responsibility. A year ago the OBR was predicting growth of 2.6% under Labour’s plans, something which now looks like an impossible prospect,” said Eagle. “As the governor rightly noted, the UK economy is still 4% below the level it was at before the global financial crisis, while GDP in the US has now surpassed its pre-crisis peak.” UK growth looking weaker King predicted that the recovery from recession was also likely to be volatile, but his long-term view of economic growth prospects had not changed markedly. “The most likely outcome for growth in the medium term is somewhat weaker than in the February report, reflecting a delayed recovery in consumption and a less pronounced boost from net exports,” said King. “But the downside risk to that outcome is judged to be smaller than in February, so that from the two-year point of the forecast onwards, the average outcome, taking into account the balance of risks, is broadly unchanged.” The pound strengthened against the dollar after the report was published, gaining around half a cent to $1.646. Traders had expected that the Bank would cut its growth forecasts, especially after the UK economy grew by just 0.5% in the first three months of 2011 compared with the Bank’s forecast of a 0.8% expansion. Looking at inflation in the medium term, the Bank’s monetary policy committee believed that the chances of CPI being above or below target in the medium term were roughly equal. Some City economists said that there was now slightly more chance of the Bank raising borrowing costs during 2011. “The Bank of England’s inflation report suggests that in the Bank’s view, the market has perhaps gone a little too far in not expecting an interest rate rise this year. While lowering their growth forecast, the BoE have actually increased their CPI profile,” said James Knightley of ING. “As for the growth view, they remain above consensus and state that ‘business surveys and the growth in employment over recent months suggest that underlying activity may have been stronger than indicated by official output data’,” Knightley added. Andrew Goodwin, senior economic advisor to the Ernst & Young Item Club, described the Inflation Report as “relatively dovish”. “The changes to the forecasts look eminently sensible in the context of the sharp rises in energy prices since the February forecast. The forecast remains very much a story of short-term pressures from commodities, but very subdued underlying pressures dragging down inflation over the medium term,” Goodwin commented. Economic growth (GDP) Bank of England Inflation Economics Interest rates Mervyn King Graeme Wearden guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Andrew Breitbart Blames Nancy Pelosi and Congressional Black Democrats for Forcing Tea Partiers to Act Like Racists
May 11, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media In another embarrassing segment of C-SPAN’s Book TV , Andrew Breitbart is allowed by Armstrong Williams to pretend like he didn’t lose his bet that racial slurs were hurled at members of the Congressional Black Caucus and at others at the “tea party” protests outside of Capitol Hill last year. As Karoli already noted, Breitbart did lose that bet despite his claims here to the C-SPAN audience and Williams. Andrew Breitbart pretends like the “tea party” is not really made up of a bunch of racists and is a place where women and African Americans can find a home for conservatives outside of the Republican Party. What’s utterly laughable here is that Breitbat somehow doesn’t seem to know what rights women and black people had in America when this country was first founded. Maybe someone should remind him that women didn’t have the right to vote and that black people were considered three-fifths of a person back in the days he’s aggrandizing. BREITBART: What is at stake here is that blacks and women are creating the “tea party”, making it a place that unlike the Republican Party which is a toxic environment for blacks and that’s been the media’s job for years. This is a place where blacks and women and hispanics can go to recreate this country in its original Constitutional vision. Yeah, just keep telling yourself that Breitbart and maybe some day someone will believe our “original Constitutional vision” ever meant anything but freedom for anyone but rich white male landowners. If he had a host that was going to challenge him instead of kiss his rear end for this segment, maybe they’d have asked him about this and the “tea party” and their racism — Staying KKKlassy: Tea Baggers Call Congressmen “N****rs” and “F****ts” At HCR Protest. Hate Rules The Day .
Continue reading …The Heritage Foundation on Tuesday released its comprehensive budget proposal, titled ” Saving the American Dream .” The plan would reform entitlements and the tax code, and balance the federal budget in ten years. But while it is primarily an economic plan, it “has a higher moral purpose,” Heritage writes. “If entitlements are not reformed, the next generation and future ones will have to pay punitive tax rates that will end liberty as we have known it.” Check out some commentary on the plan below the break from columnist – and recent recipient of MRC's William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence – Cal Thomas. The Heritage Foundation has developed a formula, made possible by a grant from the Peterson Foundation, that could balance the budget in 10 years, reduce the debt to 30 percent of gross domestic product within 25 years, cut the size of the federal government in half by 2036 and reform the tax code. It also could restructure Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while protecting the most vulnerable and not increasing taxes, if — and it is a very big “if” — politicians prefer the solution to continued bickering… What's the difference between the Heritage Foundation plan and the one proposed by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis.? Stuart Butler, who headed the team that drew up the Heritage proposal, tells me the Ryan plan “can't balance the budget anytime soon. Ours does.” Knowing what must be done and not doing it is not just irresponsible, but deplorable. The Heritage plan offers a way out if politicians put the welfare of their country ahead of their own. Follow the link to Thomas's column, or the one to Heritage's more detailed description, for the specifics of the plan, and let us know what you think. Is this preferable to the Ryan plan (and other plans currently under consideration in Congress)? Is it politically feasible?
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