(polemica personale con una frangia minoritaria di lettori....gli altri ignorino tranquillamente)
Toh!
ecco qua in merito al programma Build American Bonds sui Muni-Bonds
leggetevelo, traducetevelo, contestualizzatelo ed interpretatevelo voi
vi ho già risparmiato la fatica di cercarvelo da soli (fin troppo....)
e ve l'ho postato quasi in tempo reale
Magari vi era sfuggito...nella vostra onniscienza di utenti che hanno tempo e competenza di sfogliarsi&interpretarsi la rete full-time from U.S. e resto del mondo....
e che considerano il mio Blog solo un cut&paste e poco più
ma che allo stesso tempo (chissà perchè essendo onniscienti....) scartabellano l'umile blogosfera aggratis....con spirito però assai critico e supponente (e ipocrita...).
Lockyer Pulls The MAD Card: California Treasurer Says Taxpayers Would Be Harmed Unless BAB Program Is Extended
Per Bloomberg" “Allowing the BABs program to die would undermine the economic recovery and harm taxpayers and working families across the country,” Tom Dresslar, spokesman for California Treasurer Bill Lockyer, said yesterday by telephone. And the justification: taxpayer cocaine is the best damn cocaine money can buy: “I know that stimulus has become a dirty word but you’d be hard-pressed to find an economic recovery program that has worked better.” And that is all that is needed to convince the masses of corrupt politicians: after all as Neel Kashkari made it all too clear both 2 years ago, the world will end unless bankers or their administratively placed cronies get anything they need to maintain the ponzi on their behalf. And lastly let's not forget that the biggest beneficiary of the BAB program is none other than PIMCO...which is incidentally where Kashkari gets his paycheck currently.
More from Bloomberg:
The U.S. Senate kept a continuation of the Build America Bond program out of a bill to extend income-tax cuts made in 2001 and 2003, according to a draft of the legislation.
The federal subsidy for debt to finance bridges, roads and other infrastructure wasn’t among changes made to win support for the measure, the text released last night shows. The subsidy pays 35 percent of the interest on qualified state and local government bonds. At least nine Democrats sought to attach an extension of the program, which ends Dec. 31, to the tax bill.
The failure is the latest in efforts to keep the Build America program going for at least another year. The prospect of its end has weighed on the $2.86 trillion municipal bond market as public officials have rushed to borrow money at subsidized rates and as investors expressed concern that traditional tax- exempt debt issuance may surge next year.
Of course, at some point, someone, somewhere will need to take the first austerity pill. And we are firmly convinced it will not be California whose massive insolvency will come to a prompt head the second it becomes clear a brand new multi-billion taxpayer gift is not in the cards for 2011.
Bernanke's Revised Data On Build America Bonds Is A Desperate Ploy
The BABs story has gone political. And now the Fed is tossing information into the hopper that just does not pass the smell test. The question is; “Why is the Fed doing this?”
The real story on BABs is that Republicans want to nix the program as it provides a very clear benefit to the three biggest blue states, CA, NY and Il. The opposition does not want to really show their hand as being purely political so they are attacking the extension on the merits. The strongest reason to appose the extension is that it is a federal subsidy that costs the taxpayers money and adds to the deficit. But the problem all along is that no one in D.C. really has a clue how much this is actually costing.
BABs was first sold as being revenue neutral at the federal level. The talk was that the 35% interest subsidy paid by D.C. would be offset by tax dollars created when the bondholders pay federal income on their interest income. It never worked like that at all. The BABs bonds went to tax exempt holders. 401k/501c accounts, foreign banks and other tax-exempts bought the BABs bonds. In my opinion the Treasury is lucky if it gets back 15% of the 35% they are paying out as a result of the tax arbitrage that has been created.
I have consistently heard that some big takers of the BABs were foreign banks. That makes perfect sense. Prior to BABs they had no ability to build up state assets as they had no tax base to offset. But with BABs that issue went away and an attractive asset class with a desirable fixed coupon and long duration was created. The NYT had this to say about foreign bank participation in BABs:
“The reason I know foreign holdings are going up is that I am selling more and more muni bonds to foreigner investors”, said one municipal bond banker in New York.
So what does the Fed do? It muddies up the waters with a new report. The timing of the release is curious. But even worse, the numbers put out by the Fed are very suspect. Previously they had reported that foreign bank ownership of Muni bonds was rising quickly. Yesterday they threw out all the old numbers and revised the estimates to show (surprise surprise) that foreign ownership was in fact steady.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Reserve said the explanation for the drastic revision is that the Fed “reviewed and revised the methodology it had been using to estimate those numbers,” and applied the new methodology retroactively to mid-2009.
Unbelievable. The Fed has skewed the data to make a case that the tax subsidy for BABs is not leaking out of the country. You can bet that the Democratic supporters pushing for a BABs extension will be waving this “timely” Fed report to make their case.
The Fed wants BABs because it facilitates debt creation by munis. The Fed wants as much new debt as possible as we all know that Debt=Growth and the Fed is desperate for some growth. So they spin a report to support their objectives. What a way to run a country.
There is still uncertainty on BABs. Possibly the new Fed report will shift some votes. But one outcome is certain. The Republican leaders are not blind. They will see that the Fed attempted to manipulate the outcome. I doubt that those folks want the Fed playing in their sandbox. I would imagine they are a bit miffed at the timing of the report. So look for some payback on this. Ben is going to get raked over some Congressional coals as a result of his meddling. I can’t wait.
fatemi poi sapere le vostre considerazioni e la vostra sintesi in merito
scritte però in modo chiaro e comprensibile per tutti
in modo corretto e comunicativo al massimo
con un certo stile, ironia e magari con un'immagine accattivante
o con un paio di etichette, neologismi e slogans che poi vengano copiati da tutta la rete...
tanto che cazzo ci vuole?
Io ho scritto quasi 1000 post in 20 mesi: almeno 1 scrivetelo voi...
Grazie
