cpafrank's Blog

Osama Bin Laden holed up in a cave someplace is laughing his BLEEP off because he seems to have done it again.  We are becoming his second Russia.

He struck on 911 as a prelude to rocking our financial system by going after the WTC.

We began a war against terror as a result.  It has now carried through a full presidency and into a second one.  We keep printing money to finance it.

The value of the dollar became a world joke.  The Euro was 1.60 to 1.00 and Canada dropped from 1.35 to .96 per 1.00.

We ran the price of oil up to all time highs and the cost of gasoline and natural fuels with it, not to mention gold to $1000 per ounce all on market speculation.

The stock market was at all time highs and consumer and housing prices along with it.

The result is that it has all crashed at one time, just like what he did to Russia.  He set us up to crash ourselves and it's looking alot like we did it.

I may be giving him too much credit.  Anyone else have a better explanation?

Who is Henry Paulson trying to bail out, the country or all of his big business buddies on Wall Street?

When I first got wind of the bailout, my gut said don't bail out anyone, I paid my bills.  Now that the bail out money has had no effect on the financial markets and is not being used as totally intended, I again say, why are we bailing out anyone?

If you want to bail people out consider this.  Take all the mortgages in default and evaluate them at the level of the payor, not the payee.  Funnel money through the banks to bring all defaulted mortgages back down to a level that can be afforded by the public.  At that point the public will then have more free cash flow to pay bills and continue spending in the economy.  Banks will have significantly lowered their risk exposure but not been fully rewarded for bad business practices.  At that point Americans have been helped and the companies that will fail, will fail.  They should be out of business anyhow.

The consumer will drive this recovery, not the business.  If consumers have no money, no jobs and a pile of debt, it does not matter how much you help a business, there is no demand for the product.

The current tally is 3.9 million jobs lost this year.  We have 3.9 million, do I hear 5.0, give me 5.0, from the back row, I hear 5.0.  Sold for 5.0 million jobs.

Big business has spent the last decade growing companies and being very greedy.  Wall street has spent post 911, growing companies and being very greedy.

Look at Enron, WorldCom, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Global Crossings.  Look at the price of oil.  The market speculators ran the price of oil up to record highs and when the market crashed, it crashed.  We have no new wars, no weather problems shutting down wells, no oil wells went dry, and we are talking about tapping into our own energy for a change, yet gas has fallen from $4 a gallon to $1.90 in just months.  By the way, I think it was Exxon that still reported healthy profits.

It is okay for Dell Computer to ship its call center to India.  It is okay that when I call TimeWarner to see why the Ohio State game is not on the Big Ten Network, I have to talk to someone who does not even know what football is.

This is an open request to president elect Obama.  If you want to enact CHANGE as your slogan claims.  Start right here at home.  Do not increase entitlements, do not put up with current business practices, do not screw the Joe the Plumber's of the world, DO SOME GOOD!  Show US, why you thought you were a better candidate than John McCain.  We are far beyond Democrat or Republican in this country.

I noticed in the Plain Dealer (Cleveland Rag) and other papers this weekend, Pat O'Brian Chevy had full page ads asking us to buy American.  He does not care if it is Ford, Chrysler, or Chevy, just buy American.

These are good words.  The US economy has lost 1.2 million jobs this year.  A crash in the auto industry will cause millions more.  There is no way that spending will be stimulated if jobs continue to be lost.  We already have to many jobs in countries where the people making our products can not afford to buy them.  If they are shipped back here, we can no longer afford to buy them either.

If Mr. Obama wants a cause to focus on, bringing jobs home should be #1.  I am sick of calling customer service for Dell Computer, my credit card company, my cable company and many others and getting a phone representative from India, Mexico or any other country.  It took 45 minutes to execute a warranty claim on a Dell Computer monitor because the person in India could not understand the letters in the serial number.

Bring jobs home!  Give big business incentives to bring jobs home.  Stop supporting the rest of the world and start taking care of our own.

Now that Issue 6 has been defeated lets really think about this one.  The out of town casino spent $27 million to make sure this did not pass.  It exposed all of the so called loop poles in the bill.

If you can spend that much money on advertising to stop a casino, how much money are they really making?  More money than we could ever spend.

It is time for the leaders of Ohio to write a bill that will actually work and time for the citizens to vote for a well written bill.

Casino gambling will provide jobs.  It will not create any more problems, those problems already exist and are well within driving distance.  What it will produce is revenue for the state of Ohio.

$27 million to advertise against it.  If the state granted just 4 casino licenses and placed them in say Cleveland, Toledo, Cincinnati and Columbus and auctioned them off.  How much would a casino pay to get into this state?  We already know what they spent to keep gambling out of Ohio.

All of you Obama supporters who were lied to about a tax cut will get yours in 2010.  The current tax laws are set to expire in 2010.  With that will be the removal of the the $1,000 per child tax credit.  With that will be an increase in the capital gains tax rate and the qualified dividend tax rate.  These are things that America has come to need, especially during the current financial crisis.

So Obama and the Democratic party did not lie when he said he will not raise taxes.  What he did not tell you is that he will let current law expire in 2010 and with a more Democratic congress, they will red stamp everything.

When there is a large sell off in the stock market in late 2009 and when you no longer get $1,000 per child in 2010, I hope all the foreward thinkers out there remember what party they voted for.

I came across an alarming statistic the other day.  For every $100 we spend on a prescription the breakdown is approximately $30 for what it costs to make the drug and $70 for marketing.  This is staggering and we wonder why healthcare costs so much.

The drug companies have gone through de-regulation just like every other industry.  I however, can not understand why so much money must be spend to advertise a product that we can't buy.

The average American consumer can't go to the store and buy these drugs.  You must first go to a doctor to get a prescription.  If the doctor feels you need it or agrees with your need for the drug, they will prescribe it.  Why are they spending 70% of a prescription cost on advertising to a population that needs assistance to buy the product.

What has happened to good old fashioned medicine.  Doctors have turned into pill pushers and you need a pill to counter act the side effects of the other pill.  In the mean time it is big business and the drug companies that keep getting rich.

Just another instance of the need to take back America.

If you go to dinner with three people and the bill is $30, it is split three ways and each person paid $10.

The waiter discovered that he overcharged you by $5, but being slick he said he overcharged you by $3, so he refunds everyone $1 and puts the extra $2 in his pocket.

Each person has now paid $9 or $27, the waiter has $2.  What happened to the final $1?

It went to Mr. Obama to spread the wealth!

Dennis Kucinich the leader of lost causes was no where to be seen while the government took National City Bank out from under Cleveland.  Not to mention George Voinovich and Steve Latourette (oh yea he's from Youngstown). 

National City Bank had the highest tier 1 capital of any regional bank around and while it was not exactly on solid ground, it also was not ready to fall off the cliff quite yet.  The PNC foot print is almost the same as NCB only to the east.  The consolidation can create a very strong regional bank.

What I have a problem with is the government selecting PNC without even considering the viability of NCB.  The government is operating under selective socialism.  What happened to the concept of the strongest will win.

Where were all of our great Northest Ohio politicians who seem to show up for a photo opportunity when it is available, but did not move a muscle to fight for NCB.  Dennis will go fight for the one inner city grocery store, but did not move a muscle for NCB.  Oh yeh, he was still to busy running for president, I forgot.

For a state that is always such a swing state, our elected officials sure have no power in Washington.

McCain is red,

Obama is blue,

No matter who gets elected,

Its America screw you!

I am a disgruntled and confused American and I approve this message.

The second Federal raid in Cuyahoga County was completed yesterday.  The focus was on CMHA and Metro health executives and contractors.  This is turning into a joke.  No wonder this county is the poorest in the state of Ohio and population is decreasing at a record rate.  We live in a regionalized economy.  What hurts Cuyahoga County also hurts Lorain, Medina, Summit and Lake Counties.

I urge the citizens of Cuyahoga County to thing long an hard about your elected officials.  Look at your mayor, your council, the county commissioners and your state and federal representatives and do something to clean up the county in November. 

It is time for the inmates to stop running the prison called Cuyahoga County.

Is it my imagination or are we all in trouble here?

Obama spoke very well like the good public speaker that he is, but didn't seem to say a whole lot that he hasn't already said.

McCain seemed to have plenty to say, but could not seem to get it out of his mouth correctly, so he spent most of the night with a smirk on his face.

The bottom line is that last night did not do anything to help voters decide or change anyone's mind.

By the way, who is Joe Plumber anyway? I know Bill Plumber played baseball for the Cincinnati Reds back in the 1970's.

In the mean time the market continues to slide, jobs keep getting cut, energy costs keep going up even though oil goes down, gold has dropped and the rest of the world must be saying what a bunch of idots.

What is a citizen to do?

The stock market spent most of the day down 500-700 points.  It ended the day down approximately 310, yea!  The financial markets remain in crisis and it is far worse than Enron or Worldcom.  At least they were only one company stealing from one set of shareholders.  My family net worth has dropped the equivalent of one years salary in the last 30 days because of this mess.  I am not the only one in this boat, the American public is being stolen from and I bet no one will go to jail.

The people stealing from us are the politicians who felt every American should have the American dream of home ownership.  The leaders of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae were pressured by politics to make sure everyone qualified for home ownership.  That is what caused this mess.  Just like everyone is not cut out to be a brain surgeon, not everyone should own a home.  That is why they build apartments.

Not only were they pressured to give loans, they created the liars loan based on stated income.  We all have pay stubs and file tax returns.  How in the heck can you give out a home loan on someones word.

The other place the ball was dropped was in regulations or deregulation.  No limits were put on income qualifications or the amount a person could borrow.  I am sure that they did not expect to have $300,000 houses in this program.  With no oversight, that is just what happened.  Ever walk into a 12 room house where only 6 rooms have furniture.  I have!

You can point fingers at Democrats and Republicans.  I am here to say, they are all theifs when it comes to this crisis.

The nerve of Nancy Pelosi and her pre-vote comments to the House.  I do not think her words changed enough votes at that point, however it shows what dirty politics is all about.  In the media today everyone wants to blame the Republican party because the vote failed, just as they blame the Republican party for the crisis.

She took her position as a way to speak an editorial regarding the economic crisis.  She calls herself a leader.  All you here today is Republicans this and Republicans that.  How about the number of Democrats that did not vote for the proposal.  Point fingers at your own party and go after those people who also did not support the proposal.

The original proposal was a decent proposal.  If it had not been, it would not have been such a close vote.  With some revisions it can be put up for vote a second time.  It just blows my mind that there were comments coming out about how much campaign time is left when the global financial markets are in crisis.  They can campaign us right into a depression for all I care.  How stupid can you get? 

As President Bush said, the world financial markets lost one trillion dollars on Monday.  How many zero's is that?  It is time to stop the campaign, to stop dirty politics and to fix the problem.  I am sure the Democrats were quite happy to look the other way when they were all making money right along with the rest of the country.