Categories
All Money Politics Rant

A Quick Note to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke

UPDATE 9-13-2012:

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke just announced QE3
(Quantitative Easing – You can get an explanation of QE3 from Ezra Klein of the Washington Post)
.

While I’m sure that it will be better than doing nothing, especially since there’s no jobs legislation coming out of the House of Representatives (Shut up and pass the Jobs Bill, Boehner!), I have a better idea.
This is something that I’ve brought up before, so I’m revising this article with some additional info and a new suggestion for the Chairman of the Federal Reserve (or anyone capable of implementing it).

First, here’s some negative equity mortgage information about the 2nd quarter of 2012:

The housing market is finally showing signs of life, with many metropolitan areas having hit the elusive bottom and seeing home value appreciation, however negative equity remains a drag on the housing market. According to the second quarter Zillow Negative Equity Report, 30.9 percent of U.S. homeowners with a mortgage are underwater (see Figure 1) – 15.3 million people – in the second quarter of 2012. Recent home value appreciation in many markets across the US has pushed negative equity levels down from 31.4 percent last quarter. However, negative equity is still slightly elevated from the 2011 Q2 percentage of 30. In total, underwater homeowners owe $1.15 trillion more than their homes’ worth. Over 40 percent of underwater homeowners (12.5 percent of all homeowners with a mortgage), owe between 1 and 20 percent more than their home is worth. On the other end of the spectrum, about 2.2 million underwater homeowners (4.5 percent of all homeowners with mortgages) owe more than double what their home is worth (see Figure 2). On average, U.S. homeowners in negative equity owe $75,235 more than what their house is worth, or 43.9 percent more (see Table 1). While roughly one out of every three homeowners with mortgages is underwater, 90.8 percent of these homeowners are current on their mortgage and continue to make payments.
– Zillow.com

$1.15 TRILLION DOLLARS!
Yes, that’s a lot of money for your average American, but for the Federal Reserve (or the Big Banks or many SuperPACs) , it’s a DROP IN THE BUCKET.

With QE3, you’re buying up treasury bonds and mortage backed securities and other stuff like that.
This doesn’t fix the housing market and only puts a minor dent in that $1.15 Trillion.
30.9% of all U.S. homeowners are still underwater in their mortgages and banks have little to no incentive to help those homeowners.
Stop giving these jerks money if they’re not going to help us! Instead, try one of these ideas:

 
Establish a National Mortgage Bank to lend people the negative equity difference at zero percent interest so they can pay down and/or refinance their current mortgage.

 or…

Split the negative equity difference with the Banks and Wall Street and mark the mortgages to their current value
What would that do?

It gives more people the opportunity to refinance their mortgages, lower their payments, and have more money to put back into the economy.
Consider it an investment in the restoration of the housing market and the economy, which both of those entities benefit from.

Alternately, you could go with my previous suggestion:

(Content Below Originally Posted on 10/17/2011)

TO: Mr. Bernanke

SUBJECT: HOW TO FIX THE U.S. HOUSING MARKET

1) Estimate the total amount in $ of negative equity in “underwater” mortgages
(aka the amount of $ it would take to bring all of the underwater mortgages down to their current value).

2) Divide that number by 2

3) Make Congress (and their 501c4 / SuperPAC money) pay for half and make the big banks pay the other half.

I call this plan: Operation TWIST-AND-SHOUT

You’re welcome.

Please feel free to contact me for any further advice on repairing our failing economy.

Sincerely,
Me

(debt solutions provided for free)

Categories
All Beer booze Politics Recipes

The White House Beer Recipes!

vcb - white house beer recipes

Straight from the White House Blog

It’s THE WHITE HOUSE BEER RECIPES!

Start Brewing, America!

White House Honey Porter

Ingredients

  • 2 (3.3 lb) cans light unhopped malt extract
  • 3/4 lb Munich Malt (cracked)
  • 1 lb crystal 20 malt (cracked)
  • 6 oz black malt (cracked)
  • 3 oz chocolate malt (cracked)
  • 1 lb White House Honey
  • 10 HBUs bittering hops
  • 1/2 oz Hallertaur Aroma hops
  • 1 pkg Nottingham dry yeast
  • 3/4 cup corn sugar for bottling

Directions

  1. In a 6 qt pot, add grains to 2.25 qts of 168˚ water. Mix well to bring temp down to 155˚. Steep on stovetop at 155˚ for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, bring 2 gallons of water to 165˚ in a 12 qt pot. Place strainer over, then pour and spoon all the grains and liquid in. Rinse with 2 gallons of 165˚ water. Let liquid drain through. Discard the grains and bring the liquid to a boil. Set aside.
  2. Add the 2 cans of malt extract and honey into the pot. Stir well.
  3. Boil for an hour. Add half of the bittering hops at the 15 minute mark, the other half at 30 minute mark, then the aroma hops at the 60 minute mark.
  4. Set aside and let stand for 15 minutes.
  5. Place 2 gallons of chilled water into the primary fermenter and add the hot wort into it. Top with more water to total 5 gallons if necessary. Place into an ice bath to cool down to 70-80˚.
  6. Activate dry yeast in 1 cup of sterilized water at 75-90˚ for fifteen minutes. Pitch yeast into the fermenter. Fill airlock halfway with water. Ferment at room temp (64-68˚) for 3-4 days.
  7. Siphon over to a secondary glass fermenter for another 4-7 days.
  8. To bottle, make a priming syrup on the stove with 1 cup sterile water and 3/4 cup priming sugar, bring to a boil for five minutes. Pour the mixture into an empty bottling bucket. Siphon the beer from the fermenter over it. Distribute priming sugar evenly. Siphon into bottles and cap. Let sit for 1-2 weeks at 75˚.

White House Honey Ale

Ingredients

  • 2 (3.3 lb) cans light malt extract
  • 1 lb light dried malt extract
  • 12 oz crushed amber crystal malt
  • 8 oz Bisquit Malt
  • 1 lb White House Honey
  • 1 1/2 oz Kent Goldings Hop Pellets
  • 1 1/2 oz Fuggles Hop pellets
  • 2 tsp gypsum
  • 1 pkg Windsor dry ale yeast
  • 3/4 cup corn sugar for priming

Directions

  1. In an 12 qt pot, steep the grains in a hop bag in 1 1/2 gallons of sterile water at 155 degrees for half an hour. Remove the grains.
  2. Add the 2 cans of the malt extract and the dried extract and bring to a boil.
  3. For the first flavoring, add the 1 1/2 oz Kent Goldings and 2 tsp of gypsum. Boil for 45 minutes.
  4. For the second flavoring, add the 1/2 oz Fuggles hop pellets at the last minute of the boil.
  5. Add the honey and boil for 5 more minutes.
  6. Add 2 gallons chilled sterile water into the primary fermenter and add the hot wort into it. Top with more water to total 5 gallons. There is no need to strain.
  7. Pitch yeast when wort temperature is between 70-80˚. Fill airlock halfway with water.
  8. Ferment at 68-72˚ for about seven days.
  9. Rack to a secondary fermenter after five days and ferment for 14 more days.
  10. To bottle, dissolve the corn sugar into 2 pints of boiling water for 15 minutes. Pour the mixture into an empty bottling bucket. Siphon the beer from the fermenter over it. Distribute priming sugar evenly. Siphon into bottles and cap. Let sit for 2 to 3 weeks at 75˚.

Categories
All Desserts Food Ice Cream Politics Recipes

Vanilla Ice Cream Day – Jefferson Made A Mean French Vanilla!

Today is Vanilla Ice Cream Day.
 
Though we may never know the exact day when ice cream was invented, many believe that today is the day, in 1904, that one of several vendors at the St. Louis World Fair was the first person to put ice cream onto a cone.

I’ll let other people fight over when the cone was invented, who put ice cream in it first, and whether they were able to finish eating it before it all melted in this super hot July weather. 
Instead, I’m gonna give you :

Thomas Jefferson’s Vanilla Ice Cream recipe:

You can also find this recipe at the Library of Congress website.
Just click on the image above to see the original.

As you are likely to not have an 18th century Ice Cream Maker lying around, It’s quite OK if you want to ignore Thomas’ instructions and use the instructions that came with your ice cream maker.  You’ll notice that there’s quite a few egg yolks in this recipe, so by today’s standards, it might be closer to a frozen custard, but certainly it is a French Vanilla.
It’s all ice cream to me! Enjoy!


Ingredients
2 bottles of good cream (I think he means 2 quarts)
6 yolks of eggs.
1/2 lb sugar. (about 1 cup)

Directions
Mix the yolks & sugar.
Put the cream on a fire in a casser-
ole, first putting in a stick of Vanilla.
When near boiling take it off &
pour it gently into the mixture
of eggs & sugar.
Stir it well.
Put it on the fire again stirring
it thoroughly with a spoon to
prevent it’s sticking to the casse-
role.
When near boiling take it off and
strain it thro a towel.
Put it in the Sabottiere (a sabottiere – aka sorbetière – is the inner canister of an ice cream maker, usually metal).
Then set it in ice an hour before
it is to be served, put into the
ice a handful of salt.
Put ice all around the Sabottiere.
 i.e. a layer of ice, a layer of salt
for three layers.
Put salt on the cover lid of the
Sabotiere & cover the whole with
ice.
Leave it still half a quarter of an hour.
Then turn the Sabottiere in the ice 10 minutes.
Open it to loosen with a spatula
the ice from the inner sides of
the Sabotiere.
Shut it & replace it in the ice.
Open it from time to time to de-
tach the ice from the sides.
When well taken (prise) stir it
well with the spatula.
Put it in moulds, justling it
well down on the knee.
Then put the mould into the
same bucket of ice.
Leave it there to the moment
of serving it.
To withdraw it, immerse the
mould in warm water,
turning it well till it
will come out & turn it
into a plate.

Categories
All Bacon Food Humor Money Politics Rant

C.P. Bacon Addresses The Elephant In The Room

Yesterday, news broke that presidential candidate and crispy meat slab, C.P. Bacon of Bacon4President.com

confirmed that he had sent out a support letter in favor of newly formed Bacon SuperPAC aka Americans For More Bacon Tomorrow. After much criticism over his support of a SuperPAC after having publicly denounced the Citizens United ruling on Corporate “Personhood”, he released a followup statement on his Facebook page and simultaneously on his Twitter account, @Bacon4Pres , explaining his rationale:

WHY I SUPPORT BACON SUPERPAC

OK, let me address the elephant in the room. (No, not you, Dumbo, I’m speaking metaphorically).

Citizens United is what I’m talking about.  I’m pretty sure there’s a ton of corporate interests out there using Citizens United as a way to use tons of $$$$ to mislead the masses, and I’m not entirely sure if I agree with the Supreme Court on Corporations having the same rights to free speech as people (and half-people like me). But as a patriotic Bacon-American, I can see that the Citizens United ruling hurts the American Dream more than it helps. So I would be in favor of a constitutional amendment overturning Citizens United, but as most of us realize, passing one could take years.

In the meantime, corporate interests will continue to undermine the efforts of honest hardworking Americans just trying to #BringHomeTheBacon . So I’m doing the only thing I can to stem the tide. While the ability to make independent expenditures to promote a better food industry and a better economy for everyone is still perfectly legal under the law, I’ll do what I have to in order for you to have a better tomorrow.

This is why I support BaconSuperPAC.com and why I wrote that letter of support.
Americans For More Bacon Tomorrow shares a lot of the same hopes and dreams for a better future for America, and they want to help you have every opportunity to #BringHomeTheBacon.
So I hope you can see that this is not just any SuperPAC. It’s a BACON SuperPAC.

Thanks for reading, and Lard Bless America!

C.P. Bacon – Bacon4President.com
@Bacon4Pres on twitter

p.s. – I know you’re not supposed to start sentences with “so” and “but” , but I do not care. The message is what’s important. I’ll hire a speech-writer for next election,

Bacon SuperPAC Support Letter From C.P. Bacon:

Categories
All Bacon Food Money Politics Rant

Bacon Super PAC – Let's Make This Happen!

Hi, Bacon , Cheeseburger and Bacon Cheeseburger Fans
and followers of Bacon4President!

I’m starting up a Bacon Super PAC (www.baconsuperpac.com).
I’m not kidding. This is real.

Besides supporting an imaginary strip of Bacon wearing a suit who’s running for President (you can still write him in),
I want to use this PAC to support real solutions for economic recovery and local food-related causes and other things that we care about, such as:

helping people get jobs and training,
helping small businesses that create or support a better food industry,
giving people better access to fresh produce,
working with cities to create more reasonable food truck regulations (like preparing/cooking food on the truck, etc.),
and supporting those who support progress.

In order to get the Super PAC and 501 non-profit set up properly, I need some seed-money to set up accounts and do the initial paperwork, etc. I’m trying to do as much of this on my own as possible, but I may need legal or financial consultation to make sure I put your donations to their best use. Any amount not used for the setup will go toward funding of the SuperPAC and/or 501 non-profit.
Once Bacon Super PAC is up and running, I may soon be able to hire people to support the Super PAC and 501 non-profit organizations. I want to be a REAL job creator, so others can bring home the bacon, too!

Let’s get started!
Go to www.gofundme.com/BaconSuperPAC
and make a Pre-Funding Donation (any amount)
so we can get this thing “out of the frying pan”!


Together, we can make a future where
ALL Americans can have more bacon tomorrow!

Thanks for your support, and LARD BLESS AMERICA!

Edward Heller
Founder – Bacon SuperPAC
Americans For More Bacon Tomorrow
www.baconsuperpac.com