May 23. 2009

President Barack Obama hugging John McCain IV upon graduating from Naval Academy this week

President Barack Obama has finally voiced something people like me have been writing about for many months - America is out of money.

The fact of the matter is the U.S. Congress should not have allowed George W. Bush to spend ALL the nation’s money in the reckless, thoughtless manner he did. History shall judge them poorly for it.

'WE'RE OUT OF MONEY'

Sat May 23 2009 10:32:18 ET - In a sobering holiday interview with C-SPAN, President Obama boldly told Americans: "We are out of money."

C-SPAN host Steve Scully broke from a meek Washington press corps with probing questions for the new president.

SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money?

OBAMA: Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we've made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we've seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades...

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashocs.htm

Obama Says GM to Revive; Collapse Might Have Led to Depression

May 23 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama said General Motors Corp. will reemerge from financial turmoil a “strong company” and that permitting it and Chrysler LLC to collapse could have triggered an economic depression.

GM got $4 billion in additional assistance to continue operations, the U.S. Treasury Department said yesterday. The assistance brings to $19.4 billion the total GM has received from the government so far, according to a Treasury Department document.

Allowing either automaker to liquidate would have been a “huge anti-stimulus on the economy as a whole and could have dragged us deeper into recession or even depression,” Obama told C-SPAN in an interview...

http://www.bloomberg.com

Unemployment Up in 44 States

May 22, 2009, 3:35PM - Layoffs may be slowing, but the recession continues to devastate the job market, and the unemployment rate is likely to hit 10% by yearend

Forty-four states lost jobs in April as the recession continued to hit hard, the Labor Dept. reported on May 22.

Michigan's April jobless rate was the highest in the country, reaching 12.9%, followed by Oregon at 12%, South Carolina at 11.5%, Rhode Island at 11.1%, and California at 11%. California led in the total number of jobs lost with 63,700, followed by 39,500 in Texas, 38,400 in Michigan, and 25,200 in Ohio. These states faced heavy layoffs in manufacturing, construction, and retail.

More than 271,000 workers were let go in April's cuts, more than double the total from April 2008. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, the U.S. has lost a net total of 5.7 million jobs. The nationwide unemployment rate as of April was 8.9%, up from 8.5% in March...

http://www.businessweek.com