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Rush Limbaugh

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RUSH: Boy, I tell you what, folks, the markets love it when Obama leaves the country. Have you seen the Dow Jones Industrial Average today? It’s up 252 points, and Obama is out of the country! If there’s just a way to keep him over there for a while, the market might come back sufficiently to start the rest of the economy coming back. We’ll just have to see. Greetings, great to have you with us, Rush Limbaugh, the EIB Network and the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies. Great to be with you, folks, telephone number today if you want to be on the program, 800-282-2882. And the e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.

Gordon Brown, the prime minister of the UK, says that leaders at the G20 summit have agreed to give $1 trillion to the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, and to the World Bank to help struggling nations around the world. Brown also says that the 20 countries at the summit will enact common policies to crack down on tax havens, regulate hedge funds, and rebuild trust in the financial system to prevent a crisis such as this from happening again. So there you have it, folks, another trillion dollars to the World Bank and the IMF, ostensibly to wipe out US and worldwide poverty. I’ll tell you what’s happening over there, and it’s real simple. Obama at the G20 is a slow surrender of the United States and its national interests. We haven’t talked about this on this program, we’ve joked about it, but the North Koreans are going to launch this missile. There’s nothing we can do to stop it, or there’s nothing we will do to stop it. The defense secretary, Bob Gates, says there’s nothing we can do. The Japanese are gearing up some interceptor thing. You’ve got the Iranians nuking up. You’ve got Hamas getting bolder and bolder and bolder. You’ve got the Russians helping the Iranians.

And what is our policy? Our policy is exactly what you would expect a left-wing president’s policy to be, and he’s doing what he said he was going to do during the campaign. He’s meeting with these people and he’s telling them we’re no threat. He is telling them, don’t worry about us, we are no threat. He’s hoping that telling them there’s a new day here in the United States will make them nicer. It’s first grade conflict resolution. So what Obama’s doing is surrendering US national interests over there in an effort to get the EU to spend more stimulus. He’s surrendered the US as responsible for the global financial crisis, he did that yesterday. Will he surrender to a global financial regulator like Sarkozy wants? Hillary slowly surrendering to the Taliban, and Richard Holbrooke will no doubt surrender support for new democracies in Europe and the missile defense shield that protects the EU as well as the US and Israel. We are surrendering US national interests for the sake of demonstrating that Obama is not the hated George W. Bush.

We have new employment numbers out. The weekly claims have jumped to 669,000 unemployed. Continuing unemployment claims hit a record 5.7 million. So that’s how many people remain unemployed that continue to ask for benefits, and 669,000 new unemployed. Meanwhile, the stock market’s up now 267 points. So the market’s up, but jobs are down. And after being down, how many more months, jobs are going to start coming back slowly, very slowly. Not as many people are going to be hired back and certainly for as much money as when they left. The reason for that is the effect of government running the private sector. That’s the result of higher taxes, that’s the result of more regulation. This is what a jobless recovery looks like. Slow job growth coming out of recession, thanks to Obama making himself the CEO-in-chief. Now, you put Fiat’s managerial expertise in place at Chrysler with a mandate to make cars that consumers don’t want, you don’t get a lean, mean profit machine. This is not going to lead to job growth. Porkulus won’t lead to job growth. Cap and trade won’t lead to job growth, ditto nationalizing the health care industry. But that’s not what Obama wants. He wants power, not jobs. He wants an ever larger government at the expense of individual liberty and freedom on the part of the American citizens.

Now, the AP is reporting the market surge this way. ‘World stock markets soared Thursday, with Hong Kong’s benchmark vaulting more than 7 percent, as stronger-than-expected US economic figures boosted confidence the world’s largest economy is on the mend.’ The headline to this story: ‘World Markets Surge as US Data Boost Recovery Hope.’ It’s false hope, ladies and gentlemen, I’m afraid, like the whole Obama campaign and administration. If you want to know what’s really behind this market surge today, it’s very simple. The board that sets United States accounting standards is giving companies more leeway when valuing assets, this a potential lift to battered banks’ balance sheets. We’re talking mark-to-market. They have relaxed the market to market standards which people have been suggesting since last fall be done. One of the reasons assets that banks hold are toxic is because they’re valued at zero. In the past, banks have always been able to, on their P&L sheets, the balance sheet, at any business, has been able to reasonably guess years out into the future what the value of their assets that they hold will be. There’s a statistical analysis that most responsible companies use to value these assets in the future.

Mark-to-market requires that those assets be valued at today’s value, and of course those toxic assets are worth zip, zero, nada. This is the independent Financial Accounting Standards Board. They voted to adopt guidelines under the so-called mark-to-market accounting rules, which require companies to value assets at prices reflecting current market conditions. Now, the changes could reduce the losses that banks have been forced to report as the values of their mortgage-backed securities have crumbled. Now, we don’t need to get into the minutia and the details here, but the bottom line is that relaxing mark-to-market is a large part of why the market’s up today. It has nothing to do with Obama; it has nothing to do with the G20. If it has anything to do with Obama, it is that he’s outta town. But I’m going to tell you something, folks. Tim Geithner is up there slicing the cheese each and every day. Tim Geithner let it be known that it’s perfectly within his purview and it will probably happen that more CEOs are going to be canned, and Geithner doesn’t know what he’s doing.

All he has to do is slice the cheese the wrong way and this 265 that we’re up now will be a minus 265. Everybody’s hoping that we’ve bottomed out, that this is coming back and you’ve always heard, ‘Wait, Rush, the stock market, it’s not the same as Main Street, Rush, it’s just the stock market.’ The left has always said this, the libs have always said you can’t look at what’s going on in the stock market, on Wall Street and assume that it means the same thing is happening on Main Street or in the general economy. And in this case, that’s correct. The market’s up, NASDAQ’s up 61, Dow Jones Industrial Average, 268. And yet 669,000 more people lost their jobs in March, with no end in sight to this. All the experts are saying 8.8 to 9% unemployment by the end of the year. All right, Gordon Brown, in London today, spoke to the G20 summit. Here’s a portion of his remarks.

BROWN: We will act also to make our global recovery fair and more sustainable. This time of financial crisis is no time to walk away from our commitment to the world’s poorest. The New World Order is emerging, and with it the foundations of a new and progressive era of international cooperation. We have resolved that from today, we will together manage the process of globalization, to secure responsibility from all and fairness to all.

RUSH: So there you have it. Gordon Brown believes there’s a New World Order built on fairness at the G20. By the way, when you hear the word ‘fairness’ in the concept of economics, you have to understand that this is central planners deciding what’s fair. Neil Cavuto had Alan Grayson on his show yesterday and he just ripped him a new one. Alan Grayson is a Florida congressman, a Democrat, very inarticulate, but he’s leading the way on Barney Frank’s idea for Congress to set themselves up as the final arbiters over who can make what at any firm that receives bailout money from the US government. Neil Cavuto tried for eight minutes to get Alan Grayson to give him some numbers, and the guy wouldn’t give him any numbers. ‘Well, the Treasury’s going to decide that.’ Cavuto said, ‘I don’t care what the Treasury’s going to do. You guys write the laws. Will you tell me what the — is a million too much? What’s excessive?’ And this guy would not give him a number. Cavuto was just frustrated, ‘I’m tired of talking,’ Grayson ended up saying, ‘You’re very rude to me today, Neil.’ Cavuto wasn’t rude. He was just frustrated as he can be.

These guys are just carrying the water for higher-ups and Grayson is carrying the water, writing legislation for Barney Frank. We have the audio but it’s eight minutes long, and you have to listen to the whole eight minutes to get the flavor for it, and we don’t have eight minutes of time to spend on audio. But of course, this is all being done under the rubric of fairness, you see. And when leftists start talking about fairness, they are the slave masters. They are going to decide what’s fair, and their definition of fairness is everybody being the same, equalization of outcomes, which means, as I love to constantly say, spreading misery equally. Neil Cavuto made mincemeat out of Alan Grayson yesterday. Anybody watching this should have quickly come to the conclusion that the wrong people are in charge of at the wrong time who don’t have the honesty to tell us what they’re really going to do. They don’t have the guts to tell us what they’re really going to do. I’m not sure watching this Grayson guy, I’m not sure that he actually understands what’s going to happen. He’s just the front man writing the legislation.

I was not impressed with this guy. He was not impressive in evading the answer. He had one stock talking point for eight minutes, and his stock talking point was that it is outrageous that people got bonuses, the same people who wrecked this economy. That’s what he said for eight minutes, essentially. And Cavuto said, ‘Look, I agree with you, people who destroy the economy ought not get bonuses, but you’re not talking about that anymore. You’re talking about everybody who works at a — are you talking the secretaries? Are you talking the janitors? Are you guys going to determine what’s excessive and what somebody makes?’ ‘Yes, we are.’ ‘What is excessive?’ He wouldn’t give a figure. He would not supply the answer.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: By the way, my firm belief the stock market, what is it up now? I’m waiting for the number. Ah, it’s hovering around 260, 265, 270, whatever it is, and I maintain this is because President Obama is out of the country. The market loves it when Obama leaves. Oh! It’s up 306! There must be news that he’s extending his stay overseas. There must be news he’s not coming back as soon as they thought he might be coming back. I mean, the market is going nuts and the only thing here that’s different is that Obama’s gone. He’s out of the country. If Obama said that he would stay out of the country for a month, the markets would hit 8500 today. They’d jump another three or 400. In fact, all he would have to say is he’s extending his stay for maybe a couple of weeks.

Have you seen the picture? By the way, there have been massive protocol blunders on the part of Obama and his wife in the UK. They’re being reported, but they’re not being highlighted as they would be if it were a Republican president. But one of the big gaffes is he actually bowed to the king of Saudi Arabia. Only subjects of the king of Saudi Arabia bow! You don’t bow. It makes you subservient. It tells the king that you indeed agree that you are subservient to him. This is King… I think it’s Abdullah. Yes, it’s also Abdullah in Jordan. Regardless — and there’s a big picture of it, and it looks like there’s a ChiCom guy standing there. He’s the only one bowing in all the people, the group of people here meeting the King of Saudi Arabia. So as I say it’s a slow surrender on the part of President Obama at the world summit, the G20. And he’s got four other stops on his itinerary after he wraps up today at the G20. So the more he’s out of the country… By the way, as long as Geithner doesn’t screw up — he’s slicing the cheese up there. As long as Geithner doesn’t mess up and the longer Obama is out of the country, mark my words: the higher the market might indeed go.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I was just watching the TV monitors here in my fancy broadcast complex studio and Fox News is talking about the G20. I didn’t hear what they said, and didn’t even read the closed-captioning. I just looked at their headline at the bottom of the page: ‘Market Jumps on Good News from G20.’ This is not why the market is up today. In fact, the markets were as high as 305, and it’s now up 275. I’m going to track this because they just announced something from the G20 that the markets are not going to like. And, by the way, when it comes to the G20, folks, it has been a near disaster for the United States. Obama is engaged in a slow surrender of United States best interests, our national interests. But as I told you, this is being reported as a slam-dunk grand slam. He’s the star of the show. The leaders there can’t get enough of him and Michelle, they are American royalty, tingles are up everybody’s legs, it’s just sickening.

But the truth of the matter is the socialists at the G20 have prevailed, and Obama is, for all intents and purposes, one of them. It’s not just the $1 trillion they have pledged, the G20 nations, to the IMF and the World Bank to ostensibly wipe out Third World poverty, worldwide poverty and stabilize the world economy, these clowns wouldn’t have the first idea about stabilizing anything. They’re about destabilization. But, you know, Sarkozy — and this just happened, I haven’t had enough time to check this. I just had another television network headline to go off of here. Sarkozy, the president of France, was threatening to walk out of there unless he got one thing, and that was a global regulator for the world economy. And if I read it right, there was a headline on one of the news channels that said that the G20 guys did indeed set up a global regulatory body. That is huge, and that certainly is not in the best interests of the United States. Now, if that happened, if what I read is pretty much what Sarkozy wanted, then this market, when they figure this out, is going to plunge because the reason the market is up today is that mark-to-market rules have been relaxed so that the valuing of these toxic assets that the banks hold can be placed at something other than their current market values of today, which is zero, and the markets are up because of that, and the fact that Obama’s out of the country.

The longer he stays out of the country, the greater the chance the markets will stay up, if he would stay out for a month who knows how many points up. But now with this announcement coming out of there about this global regulatory body, this is like a world court. This is like a world court where, for example, US soldiers could be tried for war crimes if some country accuses them of such in the middle of a war. So now a global regulator of the world economy, which means that people other than Americans are going to be able to pass regulatory regulations and laws for our economy, if what I saw is what I saw. Now, you have to cut me some slack on this because it’s cable news reporting this and it was just a headline, but I saw ‘global regulator, G20 authorizes,’ so I’m assuming that’s what this is. But the markets are not up because of what’s happening today and, if anything, they’re going to level off once people get wind of that. The markets are up today because mark-to-market ostensibly has been relaxed.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: The White House is saying that they are not going to cede sovereignty to the global regulator. That’s in the New York Times today: ‘G20 Pact Has New Rules and $1.1 Trillion in Loan Pledges.’ Now, here’s an excerpt from the story from the G20. Sarkozy pushed for a global regulator to reach inside US borders because he said, ‘The crisis didn’t actually spontaneously erupt in Europe. It happened over there,’ meaning here. We need a global regulator. The White House said, well, there’s not going to be a ceding of sovereignty to a global regulator. ‘While the United States was determined to resist European efforts to create regulatory authorities with crossborder authority, officials said the two sides worked out policies on transparency and early risk warnings for banks that would placate France and Germany.

”There’s not going to be a ceding of sovereignty to a global regulator,’ said a White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations were confidential.’ But what is this? Worked out policies on transparency and early risk warnings for banks that would placate France and Germany? Wha…? Wha…? (sigh) You might also say, ‘We don’t need a global regulator.’ Hell, Obama is doing more damage than a global regulator could do to this economy. We’ve gotten to the point that I might want a global regulator to shut down some of the stuff that’s going on here! Do you think a global regulator would come in and start nationalizing businesses? Well, I don’t… Yes, it’s possible, depending on who’s on the global regulatory board. We’re so cooked! We’re so fried.

No, it’s not time to panic, because at some point, this is going to hit people square in the face, and there’s going to be a backlash to this — and when it happens, Republicans are going to win again, and we’re going to have to control of this big behemoth (Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!) and we’re not going to be able to get rid of it immediately. Democrats will fight reducing the size of the government. Hee- hee-hee-hee-hee. So, we’ll be able to use the power of the big government these clowns created in ways they used it against us. Of course that all depends on the guts and the gonads of the people that end up being elected by us.

The Group of 20 also agreed on new global rules to cap the pay and bonuses of bankers. No, this is not just a Timothy Geithner idea and a Barney Frank idea. This is global now, ‘[A]s well as a common approach to dealing with the toxic assets on the balance sheets of the world’s banks. A financial stability board with enhanced authorities would also be created to provide…’ Folks, I’m telling you, we have given away so much of our national interests at this meeting, and I’m just struck. I’m struck. There’s so much reporting about the gaffes and all these other things. I warned you no matter what happens, Obama is going to be portrayed as the savior of this thing, as the star of this thing. He and his wife are being portrayed that way.

All of this is being portrayed as simply great news for the world, great news for all of the people who are depending on Obama to save the economy and to save the world. Now, look at this. This is from the French News Agency. ”Controlled Bankruptcy’ Now Mulled for GM — The US government is considering a ‘controlled’ bankruptcy for General Motors…’ See? We don’t need a global regulator. We have thrown $25 billion down the toilet in bailouts for General Motors, and now, after all this, we’re going to have a bankruptcy, but a ‘controlled’ bankruptcy. You know what a controlled bankruptcy is? ‘Carefully monitored by the authorities, the bankruptcy would be ‘somewhere between a prepackaged bankruptcy and court chaos.” All this means is, controlled bankruptcy is just code for, ‘We’re gonna control it so the unions don’t get hurt.’ Pure and simple.

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