Rick Santelli Looks at What the Latest Debt Ceiling Increase Will Cost Each Person Living in the US

CNBC ‘s Rick Santelli has been credited with delivering the February 2009 rant heard ‘Round the World’ that many have said was the spark that led to the Tea Party movement. Following a somewhat unnoticed vote to allow the President to raise the debt ceiling last week, Santelli is at it again.

To largely less outcry than the ‘debt crisis’ that broke out within the beltway this past summer, the Senate on Thursday voted to allow President Barack Obama to increase the debt ceiling by $1.2 trillion to ensure that the federal government can pay its bills through the November elections. With the political discussion of late largely focusing on the GOP primary and income inequality chastised by “the ninety-nine percent,” many media commentators have seemed to forget the mounting US debt that will weigh heavy on the backs of each and every American.

Rick Santelli hasn’t forgotten, and he’s quantified just how much each person will be on the hook for with the latest rise in the debt ceiling.

Santelli hashed out the population and debt numbers on CNBC Friday, where he determined that the additional increase from Thursday alone places “$3, 834 for every man, woman and child,” and if you take into account the August increase $10, 545 each. To look at the total picture, the new debt ceiling is now at $16.4 trillion for the 312 million people in the US, which equals $52, 409 per American.

“I can’t even think of a clever way to close this other than a gulp,” said Santelli said on CNBC Friday. “I don’t know that my mike is that good. How much have we heard about this last debt ceiling increase? zero.”

Watch the fiery Chicagoan go off HERE at the Blaze.

Video:  The National Debt Roadtrip – A Must See Video!

Obama takes on Fox News… Loses

When is Barack Obama going to learn that presidents shouldn't play press critic? It didn't work for Richard Nixon. It didn't work for Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. It didn't help John McCain win the White House, and it won't help Obama, who vented his frustration with Fox News during an interview on CNBC yesterday.

"I've got one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration," Obama told John Harwood, who had asked him how he felt about coverage of his administration. "That's a pretty big megaphone. You'd be hard-pressed if you watched the entire day to find a positive story about me on that front."

Fox News (which Obama pettishly declined to name) is indeed a big megaphone -- big and getting bigger. And that's no accident. As I've written before, Fox is big because it speaks to an audience that doesn't feel its concerns represented elsewhere on TV (and, yes, because Roger Ailes is a pro at producing slick, loud, button-pressing programming in general). For Obama to turn his back on that audience because he doesn't feel like he gets a fair shake from Fox would be a mistake. He all but acknowledged that himself during the campaign, when he finally granted an interview to Bill O'Reilly after being hounded for months.

That's not to say Obama has no grounds for complaint. Anyone who watches Fox for a few minutes can tell that its default attitude towards him is skepticism. And that perception of Fox is backed up by research. The Center for Media and Public Affairs, which analyzed evening newscasts earlier this year, determined that Fox was alone in offering more negative than positive comments on Obama. The Project for Excellence in Journalism found much the same when it looked at coverage of Obama's first 100 days in office.

But just because you're right doesn't mean you're well-advised to go around saying so. Obama, who lectured Ailes in person at a secret meeting last summer, may think he can browbeat Fox into being nicer to him. He can't. Fox made its bones on the notion that it, alone among TV networks, is not part of the Liberal Media Conspiracy. For Obama to single out Fox for censure only confirms that impression. Not to mention that Obama's complaining about Fox's darts while gratefully basking in MSNBC's equal-but-opposite tilt sounds suspiciously like whining. (David Zurawik called Obama's diss of Fox News "a childish, silly bit of gamemanship by a president.")

Above all, it's futile. For whatever reason, Fox's ratings have climbed in recent months as the network's stridency towards him has escalated. As long as that trend keeps up, no amount of finger-wagging from the Oval Office is going to make a difference.

Jeff Bercovici – Daily Finance
Jun 18th 2009 at 2:00PM

Source: Knowledge Creates Power

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Posted: Daily Thought Pad

Warren Buffett Sees Much Higher Unemployment Ahead

Billionaire Warren Buffett says the economy has "fallen off a cliff" over the past six months and consumers have changed their habits in remarkable ways.

Buffett said Monday during a live appearance on CNBC that current economic turmoil has basically followed the worst-case scenario he envisioned.

"It's fallen off a cliff," Buffett said. "Not only has the economy slowed down a lot, but people have really changed their habits like I haven't seen."

Buffett said he's seen the changes showing up in the results of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.'s subsidiaries. He said Berkshire's jewelry companies have suffered, but more people have been willing to switch to Geico to save money on car insurance.

Buffett predicted that unemployment will likely climb a lot higher before the recession is done, but he also reiterated his optimistic long-term view.

"Everything will be alright. We do have the greatest economic machine that's ever been created," Buffett said.

Buffett said the nation needs a clear message from the government about what the problem is in the economy and what will be done. He said all 535 members of Congress should set aside partisan bickering to deal with what Buffett has called an economic Pearl Harbor.

"What is required is a commander in chief that's looked at like a commander in chief in a time of war," Buffett said.

Fear and confusion has been driving much of consumer and investor behavior in recent months, Buffett said. The nation's leaders need to clear up the confusion about the economy before anyone will become more confident, he said.

A little over a week ago, Buffett released his annual letter to shareholders describing the worst of his 44 years at the helm of Berkshire. The Omaha, Neb.-based company reported sharply lower profit because of its largely unrealized $7.5 billion investment and derivative losses.

Overall, Berkshire's 2008 profit of $4.99 billion, or $3,224 per Class A share, was down 62 percent from $13.21 billion, or $8,548 per share, in 2007.

Berkshire's fourth-quarter numbers were even worse. Buffett's company reported net income of $117 million, or $76 per share, down 96 percent from $2.95 billion, or $1,904 per share, a year earlier.

Berkshire owns a diverse mix of more than 60 companies, including insurance, furniture, carpet, jewelry, restaurants and utility businesses. And it has major investments in such companies as Wells Fargo & Co. and Coca-Cola Co.

Source:  MoneyNews.com

Don't Blame Me, I Voted for McCain

by Rich Gale I generally watch CNBC every morning while I'm getting ready because I don't know much about their subject matter so it is more interesting to me than watching Fox & Friends or CNN' American Morning. I already know a lot about what they cover. As we got closer and closer to election day and it became more and more obvious Sen. Obama was going to win, the question that the CNBC studio people asked each other and every guest was: "Is an Obama Presidency already 'baked into' the market?" Well, guess what. The Dow lost 486 points on Wednesday (the day after) and an additional 450 points yesterday for an average loss of 468 points per day. Follow me here. There are 74 days left until President-elect Obama is sworn in as the 44th President. The Dow closed yesterday at about 8,695. At an average daily loss of 468 points, by the time Obama is inaugurated the Dow will stand at MINUS 25,937. That's WAY worse than October, 1929. Obviously this is not solely a reaction to the election of Barack Obama, but neither is it a Grant Park/MSNBC/Katie Couric coming of the Brave New World. Welcome, Mr. Obama, to the Enn Eff Ell. Next Topic I am extremely tired of McCain staffers dumping their personal buckets over the head of Sarah Palin. Governor Palin didn't show up at the McCain HQ in Chrystal City, Virginia and demand she be put on the ticket. Someone called her. And, as someone who was on the convention floor during her speech in St. Paul, I can tell you she lifted the roof off the building. McCain was going to lose this race whether Sarah Palin was the VP nominee or … St. Paul was the nominee. The fact that the McCain staff is doing its best to try and destroy her only diminishes them. Here's a good idea: Shut. Up. Take a vacation. Go away. You lost. Happens. Last Topic... Representatives of what we still laughingly call the "big three automakers" met with senior Congressional Democrats in a closed door meeting to decide how much of our money they are going to throw down that rat hole. According to the NY Times: Of the three Detroit companies, G.M. appears to be in the most perilous condition. G.M. had been burning through an estimated $1 billion a month this year, and analysts say that figure probably increased significantly in the third quarter. As a result, the company could run out of the necessary cash to pay its bills and finance operations by next year. Let me understand this. General Motors is going to go bankrupt next year because it insists on building cars no one wants to buy and, to forestall that, it wants to buy Chrysler which builds cars homeless people don't even want to sleep in. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler sold - collectively - seven cars in October and none of them have any reason to remain in business. Except in the current People's Republic of the United States where, If you have made really bad choices, and Have lost lots and lots of money, and Have no business plan which exhibits any new thinking whatsoever, then You can come to Washington, plead your case, and have Congress give you tens or hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars so you can keep doing what you had been doing which, according to modern economic models, will fix everything. This is why I watch CNBC.