Ben Bernanke: Corporate Welfare Czar?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for having a strong economy and the United States maintaining a global economic advantage. However, one thing that I am opposed to more than anything is the government stepping in and using tax-payer funds to help support companies that seem to be going under. Furthermore, I don’t think that any arm of the government, especially the Federal Reserve, should step in and give advantages to certain companies based on their positioning or weight in the market.

From AOL News:

News that the government plans to free up billions of dollars at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac , a move that could help struggling homeowners, for a time helped quell some of the market’s fears. But it couldn’t stave off selling late in the session by investors who have seen big advances evaporate many times during the course of the credit markets crisis and decided to preserve some of their gains.

Some would argue that because both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSE’s) that the government should step in make sure they remain strong, without any risk to those who borrow money. However, despite the fact that it is a GSE, Fannie Mae is also a publicly traded company.

Furthermore, GSE’s are simply suppose to be companies that can make loans. These companies are not meant to be backed by the government, nor are they meant to receive any special treatment, or welfare from the United States Government, regardless of the condition of the economy.

Definition of Government Sponsored Enterprise from the Investopedia:

Privately held corporations with public purposes created by the U.S. Congress to reduce the cost of capital for certain borrowing sectors of the economy. Members of these sectors include students, farmers and homeowners.

GSEs carry the implicit backing of the U.S. Government, but they are not direct obligations of the U.S. Government. For this reason, these securities will offer a yield premium over Treasuries. Some consider GSEs to be stealth recipients of corporate welfare.

Examples of GSEs include: Federal Home Loan Bank, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), Federal Farm Credit Bank and the Resolution Funding Corporation.

While Ben Bernanke might think that he is helping the economy by freeing up these dollars from lenders and slashing rates, I personally think that the troubles of the economy can work themselves out. The more we interfere with the market, the more investor fears are going to increase. Increased investor fears could eventually lead to a sell-off once more people come to realize that we are headed into a recession, if not there already.

Obama Plays the Subliminal Race Card

One day after Barack Obama’s awesome speech regarding race in America, it appears that he is now starting to bring the race card into the issue.

From CNN:

(CNN) — Barack Obama told CNN Wednesday the recent uproar over his former pastor’s sermons has reminded him of the odds he faces in winning the White House.

“In some ways this, this controversy has actually shaken me up a little bit and gotten me back into remembering that the odds of me getting elected have always been lower than than some of the other conventional candidates,” the Illinois senator told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an exclusive one-on-one interview.

Obama declined to speculate on whether the controversy surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah’s Wright’s sermons may damage him politically, but said his campaign does best when it doesn’t follow the “textbook.”

“If I was just running the textbook campaign– doing the conventional thing, I probably wasn’t going to win because Senator Clinton was going to be much more capable of doing that than I would be,” he said. “We had tremendous success– and I think we were starting to get a little comfortable and conventional right before Texas and Ohio.”

Who is this conventional candidate he is referring to? I’m pretty sure its a creative way of saying “old White guy.”

Another thing that I found interesting about this article is Obama’s tone. It seems that a lot of these quotes are spoken in the past tense, almost as if he thinks that there is going to be some major backlash from this latest ordeal.

While I don’t think that this is going to help his campaign, I think that he can still remain strong if he just continues to do what he was doing before the video of his pastor surfaced, and leave the race card on the table, but don’t address it.

However, I do believe that the race for the Democrats has gotten so dirty and polarizing, that I finally am convinced that the GOP actually has a viable chance of keeping the White House. So far, McCain is running an extremely strong campaign, raising a good amount of money and using his tenure in the Senate to make all the right moves to position him for victory, while still doing his day job and staying true to his constituents.

With that being said, the left is going to do all that they can to try and bring McCain down at any cost. With the war becoming more of a non-issue and more Americans understanding the dynamics of the economy, the liberal big-government agenda simply isn’t going to resonate with as many voters as the left once hoped.

Ashley Dupre Girls Gone Wild Tape?

This girl is really making a name for herself. From spring break to legislative break, Ashley Dupre (Eliot Spitzer’s prized escort) is making all the right moves to ensure that in the end, she is the only winner.

Not only is Ashley Dupre a star for her encounters with Spitzer, but it turns out that she actually spent a week on the Girls Gone Wild Bus shortly after her 18th Birthday.

Story from CNN:

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — Stop that $1 million check: It turns out the call girl linked to Eliot Spitzer had already shed her clothes for “Girls Gone Wild” as an 18-year-old while partying in Miami, Florida, the video company’s founder said Tuesday.

Joe Francis reached out to Ashley Alexandra Dupre, now 22, with an offer of $1 million to appear in a non-nude spread for his company’s new magazine, plus a chance to join the “Girls Gone Wild” tour bus, his company announced Tuesday.

But Francis said someone had a revelation at the Tuesday morning staff meeting: Did anyone think to check the archives?

They did, he said — and there she was.

“It’ll save me a million bucks,” Francis said Tuesday. “It’s kind of like finding a winning lottery ticket in the cushions of your couch.”

I don’t really think that Ashley Dupre is losing out here. Sure, she might not get the $1million that Joe Francis was offering, but she will probably make more pursuing other endeavors.

From the same CNN article:

Hustler publisher Larry Flynt told AP Friday that he e-mailed Dupre offering her $1 million to appear nude in his magazine, but didn’t sound optimistic that she would settle for that amount. Flynt suggested that by the time Dupre starts talking, she may be too big a media phenomenon for a simple magazine spread.

“She is no doubt going to do a book. There will probably be a movie,” he said. “I think she is going to have so many offers coming in that it will probably be wishful thinking just to get in the door.”

To be honest, I didn’t even know that Larry Flynt was still alive. Even so, I’m sure that she can get much more money and attention by doing something in a more credible magazine.

As for the book and/or movie deal, I’m sure she’ll make a great deal of money telling her story to the masses. What I’m more curious about, is who else she has been with? If Spitzer in number 9, who are number 1 through 8?

Either way, good for Ashley Dupre. Doing Girls Gone Wild and then the Governor of New York has definitely created a new path for the “fast track to celebrity.”

I’m curious to see what her next move (or movie) is.

Update: Turns out she wasn’t even 18 during the filming of this video, though I don’t think that anyone is really surprised.

From CNN.com:

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — A $1 million offer to the call girl linked to former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer was rescinded because she’d already shot footage for “Girls Gone Wild.” Now it might be the video maker who will lose out.

A lawyer for Ashley Alexandra Dupre, now 22, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Dupre was 17 when the footage was filmed. After hearing from her attorney, the company said the video’s Internet release will be delayed.

Even so, Joe Francis can still take credit for setting her on the path to stardom. And who knows, maybe that $1million offer will be brought back to the table?