Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
CROM CARMICHAEL:
Michael, Holman Jenkins of The Wall Street Journal wrote one of his best columns. And the title of it: Silicon Valley Bank and Joe Biden’s $19 Trillion Money. And what Mr. Jenkins points out are things that really need to be pointed out about what Biden did and what the ramifications are and then whether or not what Biden did solved the underlying first mover problem.
Which it did not. I’ll give a little advanced warning that it didn’t solve the underlying problem. And he identifies the underlying problem. He goes on to say, and I will give some quotes here from the article, “If Monday’s routes and bank stocks further spooked uninsured depositors, it was just one more way government was working against itself.”
“Shareholders had a reason for fright as the government suddenly, and unilaterally rewrote the terms of their investment. In essence, out of the blue, the risks that large sophisticated, uninsured depositors had willingly accepted were shifted to bank shareholders and US taxpayers so Biden could have a pleasanter start to his week, and otherwise would’ve been the case.”
He says it goes on. Don’t buy the claim that bank shareholders and CEOs have been taught a lesson. He says the government doesn’t actually eliminate failure. It transfers the risk to itself with enough risk transference, government’s own solvency, and ability to maintain the value of its currency are placed at risk.
We aren’t there yet, but hard to miss are the whispers that the Fed should now back off the inflation fight to support the administration’s priority to avoid more political noise in bank failures. Here’s the key paragraph. When he gets into what the underlying problem is that is causing all of the distress across our economy.
The biggest problem of all is the size, inefficiency, indebtedness, and unsustainability of government. This is why I said earlier this week, the key is the governments of incredibly high government spending and incredibly high overreach by the bureaucracies of our country. Our political class has a silent strategy here too.
Hope it blows up on somebody else’s watch. Now that’s a key one. Hope it blows up on somebody else’s watch. If the politicians like Barney Frank who passed the Dodd-Frank Bill, then retired, oversaw them, and was responsible for the 2008 and 2009 mess. Then he goes on the board of Signature Bank in New York and watches it proceed to have a whole bunch of terrible woke policies.
He collected hundreds of thousands of dollars as a bank board of directors as a bank board member. The question is whether or not he’s gonna be sued, which he ought to be because he didn’t do his job. There are fiduciary responsibilities to being a board member, especially of a bank. Already written into law are set 25 percent cuts in social security benefits.
Medicare can always balance its books. Listen to this. Medicare can always balance its books by cutting reimbursements to doctors and hospitals and letting declining service and wait lists drive patients to seek care elsewhere. That’s what’s happened in Canada, by the way.
That’s what’s happening in Great Britain as we speak. Those are exactly the things that are going on, and anyone who does not understand that our biggest problem facing this country is the vast overreach of our federal government is simply wrong. It’s just that simple.
And unfortunately, saving Silicone Valley Bank and the depositors in the method that they’ve done it, kicks the can down the road. The question is, does it kick the can down the road a couple of hundred yards, in which case it’s gonna rear its ugly head fairly soon, or does it kick the can down a mile or so, which pushes it out? Maybe two or three or four years.
We will see. But, Kevin McCarthy has a chance with the Republicans on the debt ceiling increase to force the Biden administration to do the right thing and to cut government spending by at least half a trillion dollars which shouldn’t be that difficult because Biden’s increased government spending by at least one and a half trillion dollars. So in two years, it shouldn’t be very difficult to get him to give up a third of his increases. But we’ll see.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this Crommentary:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “U.S. Capitol” by The Free Birds.
Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
CROM CARMICHAEL:
Michael, at the very end of your segment with Representative Barrett, he gave the things that for him, why he’s here. Do we need to spend this money? If we do need to spend this money, how are we going to pay for it? Why are we even doing it in the first place?
Those are all extremely valid reasons for an elected person to go through that process before deciding to spend money. But that’s not how it’s done in Washington now. In fact, in Washington, it’s pretty much the opposite of that. And the train wreck in Ohio, for me, is kind of a metaphor for the Biden administration.
The whole thing. Myorkas apparently was on with Chris Wallace and couldn’t even define a secure border as what it is that’s secure. He just says what it’s not, but then he calls the border secure. But you look at how the Biden administration has handled this train wreck, and the answer is they ignored it for two weeks.
Now they’re trying to figure out what to do about it. All of the damage that could have been done has now already been done, apparently by decisions from the Biden administration officials who were on the scene. And Buttigieg is completely absent from the scene. He’s absent from the discussion.
And his answer is, there are three derailments a day. I can’t be responsible for every derailment. Well, there are derailments that don’t matter, and they’re derailments that are catastrophes. A catastrophe is a catastrophe, not just merely a derailment.
And so Buttigieg has no sense of what should be a great concern. I look at the national economy, and that’s why the metaphor on the train wreck is so appropriate. The automobile payments are a really good indicator of how the economy is and which direction the economy is headed in.
And the quintile of lower income, more credit risk, car payment, that population, when that starts to spike, it’s not a good sign for the economy. The rate of delinquency in the worst quintile of creditworthiness is spiking at a rate that we have literally never seen.
It’s even worse than the rate of ascent. And ascent is bad when you get up to a 9, 10, 11, or 12 percent delinquency when it moves from 5 percent delinquency to 9 percent delinquency, and it does it in a period of 120 days, that’s much faster than the rate of increase in 2009 and 2010.
And so the signs for our national economy, the cracks are beginning to appear. Now, here are a few other little tidbits that are really interesting. First of all, first-time mortgage applications are at a 40 or 50-year low. So people are not applying for mortgages because they can’t afford them.
This is from a friend of mine who sends this out every Friday and would-be homebuyers. 87 percent do not have the income to afford the average home in their market. 50 percent of Americans say their finances have gotten worse, versus a year ago, versus 35 percent who say they’ve gotten better.
New car prices in 2020, a new car costs $33,500. This past December, $47,000. And then the interest rates on a car payment have doubled. And so what you have is you have these terrible trends within the economy, especially for the bottom half of income earners, and that has to do with car payments and even if they’re not delinquent in the amount, they’re having to pay home payments.
Young people are getting killed by the Biden policies. But what does Biden care about? What does he care about? Because he says, this is what he cares about, diversity and inclusion within his own administration. All he talks about is that his administration is the most inclusive, the most diverse administration ever.
It’s not about competence. It’s not about policy. It’s about what you look like or what your essence is that determines whether or not you have a chance to be beneficial within the administration. So automatically, as soon as you’re hired, automatically, the bar of low expectations is already there because you’re not hired.
Because Biden says, I’m looking for the most competent people. He says I’m looking for the most unusual people. I’m looking for people who fit all these unusual categories. Remember that fellow that really enjoyed using his spare time stealing luggage at airports?
He was in a very, very important position, but he was picked because I’m not sure exactly how you describe his essence, but he was a weird guy, but he just liked to steal bags. And as far as the Biden administration was concerned, they didn’t care whether or not he was competent.
And so if we look at what we have in store for us economically and nationally over the next six to nine months as we go into this next election season, the data and the trends are just not good.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this Crommentary:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Joe Biden” by The White House. Background Photo “East Palestine Train Wreck” by City of East Palestine, Ohio.
Live from Music Row, Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
CROM CARMICHAEL:
Michael, Biden gave his State of the Union message, which was fairly predictable. He alluded to a proposal that Rick Scott had made, and Biden decided that he would take George Santos and make him appear to be an honest saint with what Joe Biden himself said.
He completely misrepresented what Rick Scott said. But it’s indicative of where we are today and that is that for the left and their friends in the media, truth is irrelevant. Politics is everything and power and money are everything. And so we have to look at what Rick Scott actually said.
And what he actually said was in order to save Social Security and Medicare, we have to look at all the other wasteful spending that we’re doing in Washington, we have to review it and we have to eliminate it in order to save Social Security and Medicare. Now that’s what he actually said.
But the wasteful spending for the Democrats is not wasteful at all because it’s constituent spending. And so they don’t see giving money to their friends, we’re talking millions and billions, they don’t consider that to be can’t possibly be wasteful because it’s in their camp.
And so that’s where we are now as a country. And I have said that the key to our long-term economic and civil health is to get everybody on the same playing field. And then what we have is we have two Americas.
Now we have two Americas in terms of our justice system, but we also now have two Americas in our economic system. And you have members of government unions and private sector unions who, as individuals for their retirement programs, get what are called defined benefits.
And so those defined benefits are supposed to be paid whether or not the organization that they are a member of even has the money to pay them. And what Democrats simply do is when those organizations run out of money, which they do regularly, democrats go to the federal government and essentially spread the cost of fixing the pensions across the entire economy and hurt all Americans in so doing.
So if Republicans are going to actually have an impact on the long-term well being they’re going to have to start looking at leveling the playing field, which means imposing enormous taxes on the dues that are collected. Now, this is not the members’ money because it never goes to them.
But Republicans are going to have to impose enormous taxes on the dues that are collected by the unions so that that money can be used to shore up the pension plans that the union officials who run those unions are doing such an incompetent job of doing.
And only in so attacking all of the unions until all of the unions’ pension plans are where they need to be. Only by doing that can you get the attention of the people who then would join Rick Scott in other wasteful spending. We’re not talking about Social Security. We’re not talking about Medicare.
We’re talking about wasteful spending in Washington. But until they see the light and are personally affected by their own policies, then I’m afraid that all we’re going to have is a bunch of name-callings and we won’t have progress.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Joe Biden” by The White House.
Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed Metro Nashville’s City Council Member-at-Large Steve Glover to weigh in on Mayor John Cooper’s State of the Metro Address and recent Wall Street Journal article which highlighted the fiscal issues facing the city of Nashville.
Leahy: We are joined in studio with Metro Council member Steve Glover. Good morning, Steve.
Glover: Good morning, sir. How are you?
Leahy: Before we get to the two hours of Steve Glover’s view of the world, (Glover laughs) which I can’t wait to hear, we’re going to be joined. We want to get a weather update from Scooter. What’s going on weatherwise Scooter?
Scooter: We’re watching these storms right now that it’s kind of a light show in the borough at this moment. No warnings with any of this. This was the earlier cell that did prompt a tornado warning for Maury and Marshall County, but that is no longer in effect. And that is good news. But there is still a little kind of broad circulation with the storm.
So the winds are going to pick up, but there are no warnings with it. It’s a little bit like I said of a light show. And the back edge of this, at least for now, about to enter the Western half of Davidson County. It’s going to be a wet ride for this hour. But maybe as we get into the seven o’clock hour, we get a little break in the rain. The heavier rain as you get into Nashville from the West. But don’t worry, there are more storms on the way.
Leahy: All right Scooter, thanks for that weather update. Now, two things I want to get your reaction to Steve Glover, Metro Council member-at-large.
Glover: I’m getting larger over the last 12 months. Gained a little weight here buddy. (Laughter)
Leahy: Aren’t we all? So two things. Last week, The Wall Street Journal ran a detailed article on the five most fiscally irresponsible cities in America. Nashville was in that list number one. Number two, Mayor John Cooper delivered a State of Metro address last week. Give me your reaction to both of those.
Glover: Let’s go backward. Let’s do the State of Metro first and then back into The Wall Street Journal. So the State of Metro, according to what the Mayor said, he’s done a phenomenal job. If you don’t believe me, just ask him. He has told us he has gotten us back to stability, et cetera. What I will tell you is the people of Nashville, and the 34 to 37 percent property tax increase is what got us back to stability because this Mayor is not doing anything to cut expenses.
In fact, he’s adding and adding. Now there’s a couple of areas I agree with wholeheartedly he’s adding 40 firefighters, 20 EMTs, and he’s adding 40 police officers. I get kind of deep in the weeds sometimes.
Leahy: He’s adding 40 firefighters.
Glover: 20 EMTs. And 40 police officers. What he said about Southeast Nashville is we’re gonna be opening up this new precinct. So he’s gonna put in 40 new police officers over there to take care of that take 66 minimum to run a new precinct. So we’re still going to be behind in Nashville. This is what they do all the time.
They get on there because they have the microphone so often and they brag about how great they are. And by the way, when they did the video presentation of the budget on Friday versus sitting down with the Council live. I’ve never seen this before. Last year, under the COVID thing, they had that cover.
That cover is gone. That cover is now gone. And so why we didn’t do it in person I don’t know. But we’re gonna do it this coming Thursday. We’re gonna start getting really serious about it. And then they’ll want us to pass this thing.
Leahy: Immediately. Without looking at it.
Glover: Yes. So The Wall Street Journal, let’s go back to that one. The things I said are the right things. As far as I’m concerned, public safety should be that education should be your number one thing. And we’re going to talk about teachers. We’re going to top up the pay increases and all that other stuff. The other things Mayor did there was added, added, added just put on more layers of expense. And for them to say that we have fewer employees than we did. Well, that’s true.
But it’s not the whole truth. And they didn’t Paul Harvey on it. Because now we’re going to talk about the rest of the story today as we’re here. The Wall Street Journal article is exactly right. If you go back and you start looking at 11,12, I kind of warned us, but ’12, ’13, ’13, ’14, ’15. And right on down.
Leahy: We’re talking about budget years.
Glover: I started warning us many years ago, almost a decade ago, if not a decade ago, that if we did not stop spending and this massive, massive capital outlay and continuing to grow our debt level, then we were gonna be in big trouble.
Leahy: We’re in big trouble now.
Glover: I did something really crazy. I looked at the numbers.
Leahy: Yeah, well, you can’t do that. You can’t do that.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
