Jan 24

GINGRICH FLUBS FACTS….AGAIN, etc.

ETCWASHINGTON (AP)Newt Gingrich called rival Mitt Romney a “terrible historian” but flubbed his own history in Congress on Monday night when he claimed the nation ran four consecutive budget surpluses during his time as House speaker. Romney attacked Gingrich’s financial links to Freddie Mac while ignoring his own.
The accusations were fast out of the gate in the latest Republican presidential debate, and reality got tromped in the process.
A look at some of claims and how they compare with the facts:
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GINGRICH: “When I was speaker, we had four consecutive balanced budgets.”
THE FACTS: Actually, two.
 
The four straight years of budget surpluses were 1998 through 2001. Gingrich left Congress in 1999, so he only had a hand in surpluses for his last two years. The budget ran deficits for his first two years as speaker.
The highest surplus of that four-year string came in budget year 2000, after Gingrich was out of office.
 
 

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Aug 19

LARGE US BANK TO FAIL IN MONTHS (want more of the same?)

The global financial crisis is set to get worse, with a large US bank likely to collapse in the next few months, a former IMF chief economist has warned.

Kenneth Rogoff’s comments came as shares in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sank on a report that the home lenders would, in effect, be nationalised.

Despite hopes that the US economy had turned the corner, Mr Rogoff claimed it was “not out of the woods”.

“I would even go further to say ‘the worst is to come’,” he said.

“We’re not just going to see mid-sized banks go under in the next few months,” said Mr Rogoff, who held the IMF role between 2001 and 2004.

“We’re going to see a whopper, we’re going to see a big one, one of the big investment banks or big banks.”

 

  We have to see more consolidation in the financial sector before this is over
Kenneth Rogoff

Speaking at a conference in Singapore, Mr Rogoff, now an economics professor at Harvard, forecast that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would “probably” not exist in their present form in a few years.

“We have to see more consolidation in the financial sector before this is over.”

On Monday, shares of Fannie Mae fell more than 22%, or $1.76, to close at $6.15. Shares of Freddie Mac fell almost 25%, or $1.46, to $4.39.

 

For the rest of the story click on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7569903.stm

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