By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com   

We just finished 2009 with a record federal deficit of $1.4 trillion.  Let’s think about that for a minute.  The U.S. government says it is $1,400 billion in the red at the end of 2009.  But is that the “real” deficit number?  The reason why I ask is the government uses accounting gimmicks to make just about every number it puts out look better than what it really is.  For example, the most recent Consumer Price Index for inflation was officially 2.7%; but if you compute inflation the way Bureau of Labor Statistics did it in 1980, the inflation rate would be 9.7%.  The same goes for unemployment.  Officially, it stands at 10%; but if computed the way BLS did it prior to 1994, it would come out to 21.9%. (source: shadowstats.com) (more…)

 By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  

Since the State of the Union Address, the White House has turned its attention to jobs. President Obama said last week, “…jobs must be our focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill.”  A $100 billion jobs bill has already passed the House of Representatives.  The Obama Administration is now pressing the Senate to get a bill on his desk in short order.  It will likely end up being a combination of spending and some tax incentives.  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

This was a huge week folks.  The two big stories I wrote about were the AIG bailout and cover-up and the U.S. deficit.  I have a couple of really good stories to pass along that will give you some more perspective on both.

First, there is a lot more to the AIG story that will come out in the future.  The Huffington Post ran a story called “Is Bernanke Hiding a Smoking Gun?”  It’s about how the Fed Chief was behind the bailout of AIG even though his staff recommended not to rescue the insurance giant.  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com   

U.S. lawmakers in the House of Representative skewered Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in a hearing over the $180 billion bailout of insurance giant AIG.  Geithner’s credibility was repeatedly questioned by both Democrats and Republicans over the Treasury Secretary’s claim of complete ignorance of the Federal Reserve’s efforts to cover-up details of the bailout.  (more…)

 By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

The Obama Administration is planning to seek a spending freeze for 3 years on domestic discretionary non-security spending.  Officials say the freeze could save $250 billion over the next 10 years.  That may seem like a lot of money until you compare it to the most recent national debt-limit raise of $290 billion last month.  It sure looks to me like we have already spent the future savings and then some.

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.comI was a featured guest on the nationwide overnight radio show “Coast to Coast AM” last week.  The show airs on more than 500 radio stations. “Coast to Coast AM” has a huge audience.  So, after my appearance, I was flooded with emails.  Many people who contacted me said they were “scared” of what is happening in the economy and wanted to know what to do with their money to keep it safe.  I want to share a couple of excerpts from the emails with you: (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

In the post “Is the Recession Over? Not a Chance!” this past Monday (1/18/10), there was a prediction made about the upcoming PPI.  Shadow Government Statistics said, “…annual PPI inflation should pick-up sharply in December.”  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com   

Scott Brown is the new Senator from Massachusetts.  When a virtually unknown Republican can take a seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy in the bluest of blue states, the word “upset” doesn’t come close to what happened last night. This is nothing short of a sea change, and any Democrat up for re-election should be scared of losing his job this fall.  The Brown win was not really a “yes” vote for Republicans but a great big “No” vote on health care.    (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

In February of last year, Fed Chief Ben Bernanke testified in a Senate hearing that he thought the recession would likely be “over in 2010.”  In September of 2009, The Fed Chief declared “…From a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point.”  In December, the Obama Administration’s top economic advisor, Larry Summers, said, “everyone agrees that the recession is over.”  Broadcast and print mainstream media are constantly proclaiming we are in a recovery, but who is the recovery for?  Not the 27 million unemployed or underemployed people in this country, that’s for sure.  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

On Christmas Eve of 2009, the Treasury decided to lift the caps on how much bailout money failed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would receive to stay in business.  The caps represented a maximum taxpayer exposure of $400 billion for both companies.  Now, taxpayers will be on the hook for an “unlimited” amount for, at least, the next three years.  How much is “unlimited?”  Well, for starters, Fannie and Freddie guarantee about $4.67 trillion in mortgage backed securities.  Add that to the combined debt of nearly $1.59 trillion for both companies, and you get more than $6.2 trillion of taxpayer liability.  (The Fed has bought at least $1.25 trillion of Fannie and Freddie MBS) (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

The Fed is currently fighting tooth and nail in a federal appeals court to keep its bailout of big banks secret.   In August of last year, the Fed lost a lawsuit in federal court that would force the 97 year old Central Bank to say who it bailed out during the financial crisis in 2008.  The Fed gave a half trillion dollar bailout to foreign banks alone during the financial meltdown.

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By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com  

Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest unemployment numbers.  The BLS said, “Nonfarm payroll employment edged down (-85,000) in December, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 10.0 percent.”  Shadow Government Statistics founder, John Williams, looked at the same data the government did and said, “…payrolls likely declined by about 500,000.”  (more…)

 By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

There has been some positive financial news to start 2010.  Some auto makers reported good sales in December to end the year.  Retail sales also perked up in December, and even home sales in some areas showed a small rebound.  Does this good news mean the recession is over?  I say, not a chance.  In a large part, we saw a bounce in economic activity because of all the bailouts and spending.  Even Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman is worried about a double-dip recession.  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Monday, I did a post called “Bank Ratings Keep Slipping Away.” My colleague across the pond, Max Keiser, sent me an email with his thoughts on the post.  Max is a former Wall Street broker turned financial journalist.  He does a couple of different financial TV and radio shows in Europe.  (more…)

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com 

I was checking the financial health of my local bank and discovered that it had slipped to a (C-) rating.  Not more that three years ago, this bank carried a solid (A) rating.  The ratings I am talking about come from TheStreet.com.  The top rating is (A) or “Excellent” next (B) or “Good” followed by (C) for “Fair” then (D) meaning “Weak” and finally (E) for “Very Weak.” Checking your bank is a free service provided by TheStreet.com and other sites.  I have been checking banks for friends and family for years.  This free service will allow you to quickly track the trend of your bank.  (more…)