Find Out How Much The Greek Bailout Is Costing The World

The Greek bailout has yet to be approved by the government's involved, but the costs for the citizens of each country are starting to settle.

Spoiler alert: Germans get a bargain, but a debt-ridden Ireland has to face heavy per household costs.

Households across the globe are going to have to help with the Greek bailout over the next three years, and through the IMF portion of the deal, some of those costs will be passed on to Americans as well.

United States (IMF Stake): $345.82 per U.S. household
Slovakia: $617.99 per household
Slovenia: $684.17 per household
Portugal: $707.33 per household
Germany: $745.19 per household
Malta: $769.54 per household
Spain: $776.03 per household
Finland: $776.95 per household
Cyprus: $789.92 per household
Italy: $803.16 per household
France: $877.02 per household
Belgium: $845.40 per household
Austria: $861.13 per household
Netherlands: $866.96 per household
Ireland: $1084.69 per household
Luxembourg: $1675.41 per household

http://www.businessinsider.com/greek-bailout-per-household-2010-5

Hotel Industry: Worst Decline Since the 1930's

ATLANTA, May 3 /PRNewswire/ -- According to survey results in the recently released Trends® in the Hotel Industry report issued by PKF Hospitality Research (PKF-HR), the average U.S. hotel suffered a 35.4 decline in profits in 2009. This is the greatest annual fall-off in the bottom line since PKF-HR began tracking the industry in the 1930s.

"Declines in revenues make the headlines, but the bottom line is where the rubber meets the road for owners," said R. Mark Woodworth, president of PKF-HR. "The 35.4 percent decline in profits realized in 2009 has severely stressed borrower/lender relationships throughout the country as delinquencies, defaults, foreclosures, and bankruptcies continue to escalate."

"2009 was such a singular year in terms of hotel expenses and profits," he added. "As the industry approaches a turn, all parties with a vested interest in the bottom line should be measuring their performance against that of comparable facilities to insure that optimum operational efficiency is being realized. Because of these extraordinary times, the detailed 2010 Trends®data is more valuable than ever."

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bottoms-down-hotel-profits-decline-record-354-percent-according-to-pkf-report-92662089.html

Dollar Inevitable Demise: US Government Needs 117 Trillion

Consider these figures. The current size of the American economy is roughly $14 trillion. As of this writing, the federal government's total public debt stands at nearly $13 trillion.

In its first midsession review, the White House Office of Management and Budget estimated that at the end of 2010, the national debt will breach the $14-trillion mark. This means that America's sovereign debt will be soon equal to the annual output of our economy. In other words, our national debt will shortly reach 100 percent of GDP. History and experience show that most governments that assume such levels of debt are ultimately not able to contain them. In most cases, this kind of situation eventually leads to the disintegration of the country's monetary regime and the collapse of its currency.

This outcome is not inevitable, given that -- in theory, at least -- a debt of 100 percent of GDP is still manageable. But to bring things under control would require strict fiscal discipline. Unfortunately, there no indication that our federal government can muster any. Quite the contrary. Last year the federal budget deficit reached a record $1.4 trillion. At nearly 10 percent of GDP, this was the highest peacetime deficit in history. Despite the numerous assurances that the 2009 shortfall was a one-off event brought on by the financial crisis, this year's deficit will go even higher. According to theanalysis submitted by the Congressional Budget Office last month, it will climb to $1.5 trillion. This will amount to 10.3 percent of GDP.

There is every reason to believe that the deficit will grow even faster in the years to come, as the federal government further increases its involvement in health care. The estimates by the Office of the Management and Budget which we quoted above do not factor in the costs associated with the recently passed health care reform. Even the more conservative estimates project that the legislation will cost well over one trillion during the program's first ten years. It is almost certain, however, that this figure is grossly understated, as government programs have a tendency to exceed their initial cost projections by grotesque multiples.

This, however, is not the worst of it, because the national debt represents only a relatively small portion of our government's total financial obligations. The far greater bulk is made up of long-term liabilities inherent in entitlement programs. According to the latest estimates by the Dallas Federal Reserve, the combined liabilities of Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid amount to an astounding $104 trillion.

When we add the national debt and entitlements together, we get a figure of some $117 trillion. This figure represents the amount of money the federal government will have to come up with in the years ahead in order to discharge its obligations.

ACORN & Chuck Schumer beat hipsters & firemen Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confident

I’ve written in the past about the development of the Nets (basketball) new arena in Brooklyn — a development that has involved eminent domain, subsidies, and race-baiting. This week, we get the news that the final holdout, and the loudest voice against the development, has accepted the theft of his house and his eviction, pocketed a $3 million settlement, and moved out.

The story intrigued me because it was big intramural battle on the Left. On the winning side are Chuck Schumer, developer Bruce Ratner, and ACORN. On the losing side are liberal, ill-shaven, bespectacled hipsters (including some of my friends).

The dividing line isn’t color or political affiliation. It’s people with access to government might vs. people without access to government might.

And as Ratner’s bulldozer shifts into high gear, Politico gives us this gem:

So, there Schumer was Monday morning, introducing Reid to the big-money developers of the New Jersey Nets’ new $4.9 billion facility in Brooklyn. Schumer told the developers that he and Reid had been “through war together,” and he called the Nevadan his “foxhole buddy,” according to someone who was there.

“He is beloved by our caucus, from the most conservative to the most liberal,” Schumer told the fundraisers on Monday, the source said. “He does a great job of bringing together 59 Democrats of such broad philosophical and geographic diversity. And the egos are not small. What Harry does is amazing.”

Monday’s fundraiser was headlined by Bruce Ratner, the real estate mogul who owns the Nets — and who has donated more than $127,000 to Democrats in recent years.

While Schumer’s office won’t say how much money the event raised for Reid, cash poured in from a number of developers and real estate types. The event came just hours before a procedural vote on a plan to rewrite the rules for Wall Street, but Reid’s office stressed that the donors who turned out Monday weren’t bankers or Wall Street officials — and that, in fact, many work for Ratner’s company as well as for electrical and construction companies.

This is what big government does.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/acorn--chuck-schumer-beat-hipsters--firemen-92246274.html#ixzz0mLk4ApFV

This Earth Day, Thank a Hunter

‘In 1970, a Senator from Wisconsin named Gaylord Nelson raised his voice and called on every American to take action on behalf of the environment,” reads President Obama’s Earth Day proclamation. “In the four decades since, millions of Americans have heeded that call and joined together to protect the planet we share.”

Well, I’ve got news for our President. Millions of Americans who had never heard of Gaylord Nelson “took action on behalf of the environment,” decades before the good Senator “raised his voice.” More newsworthy still, most of these belonged to those insufferable rustics who “cling to guns and bibles.” To wit:

The Pittman-Robertson Act (1937) imposed an excise tax of 10 per cent on all hunting gear. Then the Dingell-Johnson act (1950) did the same for fishing gear. The Wallop-Breaux amendment (1984) extended the tax to the fuel for boats. All of this lucre goes to “protect the environment” in the form of buying and maintaining National Wildlife Refuges, along with state programs for buying and maintaining various forms of wildlife habitat.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=36669

Ted Nugent on Border Security

Ted Nugent blasts Ted Kennedy & Hillary Clinton