Mainstream Media
S&P Downgrades Illinois Credit Rating To Worst In Nation
When I heard a major credit rating agency had downgraded Illinois Friday, the term “death spiral state” quickly came to mind.
And then my thoughts turned to the tens of millions of dollars Illinois taxpayers might be on the hook for down the road.
Ray Long and Monique Garcia reported on the Chicago Tribune website Friday:
Illinois fell to the bottom of all 50 states in the rankings of a major credit ratings agency Friday following the failure of Gov. Pat Quinn and lawmakers to fix the state’s hemorrhaging pension system during this month’s lame-duck session.
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service downgraded Illinois in what is the latest fallout over the $96.8 billion debt to five state pension systems. The New York rating firm’s ranking signaled taxpayers may pay tens of millions of dollars more in interest when the state borrows money for roads and other projects.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
Illinois now has an “A-” rating with a negative outlook from S&P. Among other major credit rating agencies, Moody’s ranks Illinois last among the 50 states and Fitch ranks it 49th but on watch for a possible downgrade.
Regarding the state’s huge pension funding gap, Mark Peters wrote on the Wall Street Journal website Friday:
S&P estimates the pension system in the coming year will see assets fall to 39% of future obligations.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
Hardly any talk about the crisis in the local mainstream media outlets this weekend. Amazing. I can’t understand why more Illinois residents aren’t up in arms over this humongous financial mess the state is in.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Sources:
Garcia, Monique and Long, Ray. “Illinois credit rating sinks to worst in nation.” Chicago Tribune. 25 Jan. 2013. (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-01-25/news/chi-illinois-credit-rating-sinks-to-worst-in-nation-20130125_1_action-on-pension-reform-robin-prunty-illinois-credit). 27 Jan. 2013.
Peters, Mark. “S&P Cuts Illinois Credit Rating.” Wall Street Journal. 25 Jan. 2013. (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324539304578264293106044944.html). 27 Jan. 2013.
Winter Wilding In Chicago
It should be all too clear by now to those intelligent Chicagoans still left in the city that demands for more gun “control” and action on a number of unimportant issues by the politicians down at City Hall are simply attempts to distract residents from more pressing matters, such as growing financial threats facing the City of Chicago. Or shaking off our title of “Deadliest Global City.” Or the continued wilding/flash mobbery/flash mobs/mob actions/mob attacks/what have you.
Winter wilding in Chicago? Yep.
And, once again, such criminal activity is taking place in nicer parts of Chicago. North Center and Roscoe Village in the latest incidents.
Roscoe Village. Plenty of younger liberal families there. With money. And probably without guns in many cases.
And the bad guys know it.
From the Chicago News Report website early Sunday morning:
Late Saturday night, there were multiple reports of a roving band of hooligans attacking citizens on Chicago’s North Side.
At approximately 11:25 p.m., authorities received a 911 call that 20 to 25 black and Hispanic teenagers attacked a man and his friend near the intersection of West Addison Street and North Hamilton Avenue.
Citing police dispatch reports, the teens robbed the victims and punched them several times.
After the robbery, the gang of thieves fled eastbound on Addison Street.
At 11:27 p.m., police received another emergency call indicating the mob was now at Addison and Hoyne.
According to the second 911 caller, the group was grabbing at random pedestrians and trying to rob them…
I watched a lot of local TV news while I was sick last week. And I didn’t hear/see anything about this winter wilding.
Go figure.
Thanks Chicago News Report. You can read the entire article on their website here.
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)
CNN Grills Jesse Jackson About Expanding Chicago-Style Gun ‘Control’ To Rest Of Nation
The repeated demand by high-ranking Democrats for more “common-sense” gun “control” should allow for common-sense questions to be asked. CNN had one of Chicago’s more well-known “reverends” on this morning- the Reverend Jesse Jackson- and the host proceeded to ask him about why Chicago-style (strict) gun “control” should be implemented on a larger scale across the country considering the high-level of gun-related violence there (as I type this, Chicago is “officially” at 499 murders for the year, with 87 percent of those homicides firearm-related).
Jackson tried to avoid answering the common-sense question, but the CNN host stopped him with the following:
Reverend. Reverend Jackson, I’m going to make one more turn at this question, because the original question was, Chicago has some of the strictest and most tough gun laws in the country. If this level of gun laws doesn’t work in Chicago, and you still have the guns coming from outside the city in, and now you’ve got 500 homicides this year, what is the argument to extending this nationally and to other cities?
The famous civil rights activist still couldn’t come up with a good answer.
The CNN host concluded:
Chicago has tough laws. It isn’t working.
“Rev. Jesse Jackson Repeatedly-Challenged To Defend Chicago Gun Ban After 500th Homicide This Year”
The Blaze TV Video
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (http://www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Chicago Police Department Says Only 499 Murders In 2012
I can’t say I’m too surprised to hear the following. From Jeremy Gorner and Peter Nickeas on the Chicago Tribune website this afternoon:
Hours after Chicago police listed the shooting death of a West Side man as the city’s 500th homicide of the year, the department backtracked and said the city has yet to reach the grim milestone.
Superintendent Garry McCarthy had told the Tribune Thursday afternoon that the homicide count stood at 499. Hours later, Nathaniel T. Jackson, 40, was gunned down outside a store in the Austin neighborhood and the department confirmed Friday morning that his death was the 500th homicide. Mayor Rahm Emanuel released a statement noting that “Chicago has reached an unfortunate and tragic milestone.”
But then the department issued its own statement calling reports of the tally inaccurate, saying the number remained at 499. Asked for clarification, a spokeswoman for the superintendent said one of the homicide cases from earlier this week has been reclassified as a death investigation.
“Death investigation.”
Something tells me Chicago might not “officially” see 500 murders in 2012.
Early this morning, Second City Cop had a few choice words for Mayor Emanuel, Superintendent McCarthy, the local press, the reverends, and CPD leadership about seemingly reaching that milestone in homicides:
So a big congratulations to Rahm Emanuel and Garry McCompStat. You’ve proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the number of police officers has a direct correlation to the amount of blood running through the street gutters of Chicago. All your spouting off about “properly utilizing the officers we have” and “highest per capita” statistical nonsense? Bullshit. And sitting idly by while the media and reverends crucify officers and allowing years worth of incompetent “merit” promotions run amok throughout the Department? If it wasn’t part of some Grand Plan to destroy the Chicago Police Department, that was the consequence anyway.
Ouch.
I wonder if SCC has another congratulatory statement warming up in the bullpen should we get to that 500 murder mark again?
By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (http://www.survivalandprosperity.com)
Sources:
Gorner, Jeremy and Nickeas, Peter. “Chicago police backtrack after confirming 500th homicide.” Chicago Tribune. 28 Dec. 2012. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-2012-homicide-toll-20121228,0,5456581.story). 28 Dec. 2012.
SCC. “500 for Sure Now.” Second City Cop. 28 Dec. 2012. (http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2012/12/500-for-sure-now.html). 28 Dec. 2012.
China, Global Mainstream Media Urge U.S. To Enact More Gun ‘Control’
Since last week’s mass shooting in Newtown Connecticut, the global mainstream media has gone to work pushing the United States to adopt more restrictions on firearms. Reuters’ Edward Krudy and Peter Rudegeair reported Wednesday:
Around the globe, newspaper editorials from the Philippines to South Africa urged U.S. gun-control efforts and said they were long overdue.
“It takes no great deductive genius to understand the link: a violent individual with a gun will be more able to kill, and can kill more people, than a violent individual without a gun. Elsewhere in the world, tighter gun laws have been shown to save lives,” said an editorial in India’s The Hindu newspaper.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
“Elsewhere in the world, tighter gun laws have been shown to save lives.”
I’d really like to see the evidence supporting that statement.
Even the People’s Republic of China is chiming in on this. From state-run Xinhua News Agency on December 14:
Innocent blood demands no delay for U.S. gun control
Every time a tragedy occurs, there are renewed appeals for gun regulation. However, the calls disappointingly always fail…The latest heartbreaking deaths of the 20 schoolchildren aged five to 10 have made the crime especially unbearable. Many people can’t help but turn to the dim hope once again: the gunman’s cruelty and evil may provide a strong momentum and broader public support for the restart of gun control efforts. Moreover, with no re-election pressure, President Obama is currently in the best position to promote it…
Action speaks louder than words. If Obama wants to take practical measures to control guns, he has to make preparation for a protracted war and considerable political cost.
This brings to mind something China’s Chairman Mao said in Problems of War and Strategy, November 6, 1939:
All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The Communist Party must command all the guns. That way, no guns can ever be used to command the Party.
Sources:
Krudy, Edward and Rudegeair, Peter. “White House readies gun-control plan as more children laid to rest.” Reuters. 19 Dec. 2012. (http://news.yahoo.com/schools-reopen-newtown-washington-talks-gun-control-002828916.html). 21 Dec. 2012.
“Innocent blood demands no delay for U.S. gun control.” Xinhua News Agency. 14 Dec. 2012. (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/indepth/2012-12/15/c_132042820.htm). 21 Dec. 2012.
Dow Jones MarketWatch: ‘We May Already Be In A Recession’
If MarketWatch from Dow Jones is displaying the following headline in giant letters on their home page tonight, I suspect they know something most of Main Street doesn’t. From the sometimes Pollyannaish website:
Why a recession may be coming regardless of ‘cliff’
How will the fiscal-cliff talks end? Will leaders reach a last-minute deal, saving the economy from disaster, like a script of a TV drama? Spoiler alert: We may already be in a recession. Here’s why…
You mean, there’s a chance that the sustainable U.S. economic recovery Washington, the Fed, and the mainstream media have been peddling to Americans for quite some time now might just be a farce? You don’t say?
Here’s a link to the accompanying article. Following MarketWatch pretty much daily now for the last five years, a headline of this type seems rare to me. Perhaps this is their way of staking a claim to a correct recession call if the economy does indeed go south next year.
AP: Mass Shootings Not Growing In Frequency
“Why are mass shootings becoming more common?”
-Washington Post’s WONKBLOG post title, December 14, 2012
With all the talk going on of gun bans and gun “control” in the wake of those horrific school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, I didn’t expect to come across the following. From an Associated Press piece that appeared on the New York Daily News website this past weekend:
Those who study mass shootings say they are not becoming more common.
“There is no pattern, there is no increase,” says criminologist James Allen Fox of Boston’s Northeastern University, who has been studying the subject since the 1980s, spurred by a rash of mass shootings in post offices.
The random mass shootings that get the most media attention are the rarest, Fox says. Most people who die of bullet wounds knew the identity of their killer.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
I get it. The AP is saying total mass shootings (targeted plus random) aren’t becoming more common. Despite popular perception.
Continuing on:
Grant Duwe, a criminologist with the Minnesota Department of Corrections who has written a history of mass murders in America, said that while mass shootings rose between the 1960s and the 1990s, they actually dropped in the 2000s. And mass killings actually reached their peak in 1929, according to his data. He estimates that there were 32 in the 1980s, 42 in the 1990s and 26 in the first decade of the century.
Chances of being killed in a mass shooting, he says, are probably no greater than being struck by lightning.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
I don’t know about you, but something tells me you won’t be seeing/hearing much of the above in the mainstream media anytime soon.
Source:
“Mass shootings are not growing in frequency, experts say.” Associated Press. 15 Dec. 2012. (http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/rise-mass-killings-impact-huge-article-1.1221062). 18 Dec. 2012.
Fed Launches QE4
Yesterday, I took some time off from blogging to watch CNBC’s coverage of the Federal Open Market Committee meeting. Okay, truth is I really felt sick after eating like a third-grader at lunchtime and needed to lie down on my couch. But the FOMC meeting happened to be on TV, and I was curious to hear what Fed Chair Ben Bernanke would say about the highly-anticipated meeting.
Basically, QE4 has just set sail.
Funny thing was, based on the back-and-forth movements in the stock indexes, the CNBC talking heads covering the meeting suggested traders were looking to their pocket protector-armed colleagues to decipher just exactly what it was the Fed Chair said. Yes- Bernanke was laying on the Fedspeak thick and heavy Wednesday. So much so a number of mainstream media outlets today don’t seem to have figured out just what is was the Federal Reserve announced they were going to do. However, I did come across a very good explanation of what went down at the Fed meeting on the website of Chicago-based investment research company Zacks. Neena Mishra, Director of ETF Research there, reported on their Real Time Insight blog yesterday:
QE 4 is Here: Fed Announces Fresh Stimulus
As widely expected by the market, the Federal Reserve announced at the conclusion of their FOMC meeting that they will purchase longer-term treasury securities to replace “Operation Twist”. Initially the purchases will be about $45 billion per month.
Operation Twist—which involves buying longer-term bonds and selling a like amount of shorter-term treasuries—is expiring at the end of this month.
Additionally, Fed buys 40 billion of agency mortgage-backed securities each month, under QE3. In all, Fed will continue to buy about $85 billion of longer-term bonds each month under the two programs.
Per their statement “these actions should maintain downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative”.
“These actions should maintain downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help to make broader financial conditions more accommodative”.
Remember what I blogged about recently regarding suspicions the Fed is trying to inflate another housing bubble?
And to quote Monty Python, “And now for something completely different.” Mishra added:
Another important announcement in the release was the adoption of “economic targets” for unemployment and inflation. They decided to keep the target range for the fed funds rate between 0% and 0.25%– as long as the unemployment rate remains above 6.5% and medium-term inflation does not exceed 2.5%
Yep. That was pretty much what I heard Bernanke say.
QE4. Yet another dose of reality for the Pollyannas that argue a U.S. economic recovery is strong and sustainable and that rising interest rates are right around the corner because the economy is humming right along.
Source:
Mishra, Neenah. “QE 4 is Here: Fed Announces Fresh Stimulus.” Real Time Insight. 12 Dec. 2012. (http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/88466/qe-4-is-here-fed-announces-fresh-stimulus). 12 Dec. 2012.
‘Irrational Exuberance’ Back In Housing
There are two real estate reporters I like to follow on a regular basis. CNBC’s Diana Olick and the Chicago Tribune’s Mary Umberger. Why do I like them so much? Because they don’t hold back on reporting the real conditions of the U.S. and Chicago housing markets. I remember them pretty much telling it as it was as the United States went through that housing bubble and subsequent crash- while many of their colleagues assumed the role of self-appointed real estate cheerleaders even as home sales and prices plummeted.
And these days, I’m detecting ‘irrational exuberance’ again in residential real estate. It’s not just me either. Umberger wrote in last weekend’s Sunday edition of the Chicago Tribune:
If the Chicago real estate market were a patient recovering from a lingering, debilitating illness, the doctor might be obliged to set the patient’s over-expectant family straight: Yes, your loved one’s symptoms have eased up, says the MD, but, gee, it’s a little too soon to be training for a marathon.
Those are the kinds of expectations that many Chicago-area homeowners seem to harbor these days, according to Naperville appraiser Alvin “Chip” Wagner, whose recent newsletter to members of the local real estate community sought to address a form of irrational exuberance he’s seeing lately: Yes, the market is better, but that doesn’t necessarily mean your home is gaining in value — in fact, some prices might fall further.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
Umberger interviewed Wagner, who had this to say about Chicagoland homeowners being overly-optimistic. From the piece:
Well, absolutely, the market is improving, but not in the area of pricing, which is what homeowners want to know about. In the third quarter, the average sales price throughout the area was $244,203. One year ago, the average was $258,364. That’s about a 5.5 percent decline.
Yet, I go to people’s houses to do appraisals, and (the homeowners’ expectations are) driven by what they see in the media, and they say to me, the market has picked up, and they expect their house is growing in value. They expect to see a 3 to 5 percent growth. I end up having to tell them, your values aren’t appreciating, they may be flat or even declining.
(Editor’s note: Italics added for emphasis)
I don’t like hearing about the housing market being crummy as much as the next person. But what I do like are people being straight with me. Especially journalists.
“And (the homeowners’ expectations are) driven by what they see in the media.”
See what I mean about those cheerleaders? This is why I like straight-shooting reporters like Olick and Umberger. Wish more of their contemporaries could be like them, instead of barfing up a whole lot of nonsense all over my computer screen.
Source:
Umberger, Mary. “A reality check on housing market.” Chicago Tribune. 30 Nov. 2012. (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-11-30/classified/ct-mre-1202-umberger-housing-20121130_1_number-of-active-listings-naperville-appraiser-sales-price). 7 Dec. 2012.
Chicago Homicides Now Over 500 In 2012?
The weather here in Chicago was pretty nice this weekend considering the time of year it is. Even dropped by the Pickwick Restaurant in nearby Park Ridge for banana splits with the girlfriend before picking up holiday cards a couple doors down (they now have cards for mail/delivery people from the dog- too funny).
And as it’s been the case here in the Windy City for some time now, the warm weather meant some neighborhoods transformed into a shooting gallery. Last I heard, 8 people were killed in violence this weekend.
Chicago looks to be on track to reach 500 homicides this year. From the wildly-popular Chicago police blog Second City Cop early this morning:
A rough count of homicides puts it around 487. That might be subject to change, but 500 is just over the horizon. 515 is a real possibility for the year.
Now, SCC is talking about the “official” homicide count here. According to a different blog I’ve started reading, homicides in the Second City are already over 500 in 2012. Comfortably over. From the sidebar of the Chicago crime blog Crime in Chicago this morning:
NUMBER OF HOMICIDES IN CHICAGO AS OF Dec. 2, 2012
510
Second City Cop, 487. Crime in Chicago, 510. Why the discrepancy?
From a November 28 post on Crime in Chicago:
The city feeds the media and the public homicide numbers that do not include Justifiable Homicides. Example here- Police fatally shoot man who pointed gun at them We do, after all an outcome of a homicide does not change depending on who kills you.
The city will count a double homicide as 1 homicide. Example here- 2 men shot dead, woman shot in Burnside . We count 2.
The city will classify obvious homicides as “Death Investigation” and not close the case until the following year, when the city’s homicide rate is no longer front page news. Example here- Body found in burning Brighton Park garage
Finally we obtain our numbers directly form the Chicago Police Department website- http://gis.chicagopolice.org/ We stand by our numbers. Now go ask the CPD and REDEYE to explain their numbers and this…..
“The city will count a double homicide as 1 homicide.” “The city will classify obvious homicides as ‘Death Investigation’ and not close the case until the following year.” I’ve heard this before. Is that really the case?
In 2011, the “official” number of murders was 433. Crime in Chicago counted 441 homicides.
Sources:
SCC. “Up to Eight.” Second City Cop. 3 Dec. 2012. (http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/2012/12/up-to-eight.html). 3 Dec. 2012.
“Chicago Violence Scoreboard.” Crime in Chicago. 28 Nov. 2012. (http://crimeinchicago.blogspot.com/2012/11/chicago-violence-scoreboard.html). 3 Dec. 2012.
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