RUSH: Remember, when was it, back in July, first of the month, CNN did a report on the economy, and I sort of had a little fun with it. Christine Romans on CNN Your Money on Saturday afternoon spoke with Black Enterprise editor Alfred Edmond and radio host Roland Martin about the stock market and the economy. And Edmond says, ‘How much worse could it get when you got down to 6500? I think it’s encouraging. it’s somewhat sustained performance by the stock market. I think you saw the news on housing starts. That’s encouraging. I think we can take a breath but not relax yet.’
MARTIN: Are we getting better? Yeah, when you’re at 6500 and you’re now at 9000, that’s better. Rush Limbaugh, it’s better whether you like it or not. So it amazes me when people act as if you cannot acknowledge when the number is better.
ROMANS: Rush took a little piece out of me, mentioned this program, also my friend Susan Lisovicz saying that by talking about the stock market rally we were somehow missing all of the terrible things that have happened. But look, you can at least open up your 401(k) statement and see that you’re getting a little bit of it back.
MARTIN: Rush, you can’t argue with those facts. And so you always want to see positive growth. You always want to see that if things are getting slightly better that’s much better than it’s getting worse. Literally it was every day people going, ‘Oh, my God, not another report of how bad it is.’
RUSH: Well, I don’t quite know what to say here. It sounds like both news networks — we’ll exclude Fox — were actually programming to me over the weekend. The point here, notice that the stock market is ticking up and so that’s their lone — well, they talk about housing starts, but my point is they’re looking for any bit of evidence of what Obama’s doing is working, and what’s happening is that the industriousness of the American people is dealing with the damage that Obama has wrought. The stock market is still down, gang. It peaked up at over 14,000. It’s down 16 points today. Look, there aren’t any new jobs being created, we’re still losing jobs, and the forecast for that is to continue. Here’s the original report that CNN aired back on July 1st.
ROMANS: The silver lining, if you will, is that May was revised — the previous month, I should say, was revised lower, and that was May. Also we have a separate report from Challenger Gray & Christmas, which shows the planned job cuts, the announcements slowed, and that is the fifth straight month, so that is encouraging. What is also high, and this is also silver lining, is the first day of July starting off on a positive note, the Dow is up 128 points, the NASDAQ is up 25. Good start. Tough act to follow, though, the second quarter rally that we saw.
RUSH: This is the same bunch of people here that tried to tell us we were in a recession during a boom. They were doing everything they could to make everybody think that economic times were disastrous during the Bush years. Now, that was one report that we had a little fun with. That’s why they’re referencing. And here’s on June 30th, the day before, on CNN’s Newsroom the anchor Betty Nguyen spoke with Christine Romans about the economy. Betty Nguyen says, ‘Christine Romans here to explain. How did we do in the first half of the year?’
ROMANS: (giddy) We’ve seen a spring stock market rally that has been quite incredible. Job losses are slowing. Consumer confidence is improving. People are feeling a little better. They’re feeling better because they’re spending less. They’re saving more money. They’re getting back to basics. There’s a new frugality that’s making them feel better. There was a hu-u-uuge rally in the stock market in the second quarter. The stock market [is] telling us that it thinks things are going to get better eventually, and you’re going to see that rally. If you are still invested in stocks — if you had faith and you were buying stocks along the way this spring, you’re buying them at cheap prices — you’re going to see that rally when you open up your 401(k) statement.
RUSH: People are still scared to death to look at their 401(k) statements, folks. I just think it’s humorous that these people will do anything, the State-Run Media will do anything to try to tell people that what they’re seeing and feeling isn’t true. By the way, I just found this news story: ‘Phone company Verizon says it will cut 8,000 jobs from among employees and contractors before the end of the year to keep costs in line as the recession saps demand from businesses for telecommunications services.’ But, boy, that stock market is going up, that 401(k), when you open it up, it’s ticking up, it’s looking a little better, and housing starts are up, and 8,000 jobs gone, Verizon, by the end of the year. Taxes are going up. Regulations are going up. Okay, there you have it. Now, let’s move forward and stay with CNN. Sound bite number ten, Susan Lisovicz today talking with the anchorette Heidi Collins about the market and the economy, and Heidi Collins says, ‘Joining us now, Susan Lisovicz from the New York Stock Exchange. Hi, Susan.’
LISOVICZ: We’ve seen the market turn around. Why is that? Well, you just mentioned new home sales. The expectation was that new home sales rose 2.3% last month. Guess what? It jumped 11%. That is —
COLLINS: What?
LISOVICZ: — the number we are seeing.
COLLINS: What?
LISOVICZ: Yes. Yes. We saw the third straight monthly increase, Heidi, a remarkable summer scorcher. The sense that corporate America is telling us things may be bottoming out or in some cases improving just a little bit, and so the market has taken off on that. The Dow’s best two-week run since the beginning of the decade; the NASDAQ rallied 12 consecutive sessions. We haven’t seen that since before the dot-com bubble way back when in 1992. And now we’re getting this information that the housing market, which I think many would argue, which is where this crisis all began, is showing signs of life.
RUSH: Now, Heidi Collins, the infobabe here, is so ecstatic that she asks for a clarification.
COLLINS: I’m sorry. I’m a little slow. I just want to make sure I have this right. We thought it was only going to go up by about two-to-three percent, but it actually went up 11?
LISOVICZ: That’s right. (giddy) These are estimates, and —
COLLINS: Right.
LISOVICZ: — as you know sometimes they’re way off. This would be an example. And a lot of times we see revisions, and we saw a revision as well. The revision was higher. But the fact is, there’s activity.
RUSH: They’re just excited as they can be over at CNN, the stock market going up. Now, remember, when the stock market was doing great guns, that’s not good during the Bush administration, that just meant Wall Street was getting rich, but Main Street wasn’t. Remember, it may be good for Wall Street, but it’s lousy for Main Street. Well, now that it’s getting better for Wall Street, all of a sudden the State-Run Media is all excited. Main Street still in heap big doo-doo. Eight thousand jobs at Verizon gone by the end of the year, but at least their 401(k)s are going to look a little better when they open them up after they get their pink slip.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: On this housing start business, I need some clarification. I don’t have the story right in front of me. This housing, is that new homes? That’s new construction? That’s not sales of existing homes? (interruption) New construction. (interruption) Mmm-hmm. Right. So it’s up 11% but it’s down 28% from this time, but it’s going up. Oh, yeah, it’s ticking up. Right. Now can I ask you: What might be an explanation for new home starts and housing starts going up? What do you think? (interruption) Mmm-hmm. Mmm-hmm. There is a plan out there, folks. I don’t know if you know about it. First-time home buyers are being subsidized to the tune of eight grand if they buy a new house. It’s ending soon. That plan’s going to be ending very soon, and that’s one of the reasons why people are out there buying houses. There’s another reason, too. The whole housing market, everybody who owns a home knows how much value you have lost in it. A lot of people are under water.
Well, if the housing market as a whole is down, you can get a foreclosed house today on the cheap. You can get a foreclosed anything. You can go out and buy a $4 million yacht for $2 million today. I saw an ad for used jets. I saw a Gulf Stream III, a GIII, ‘We have to sell 10 million bucks.’ (interruption) No, I’m not going to buy as a second jet. I thought about getting one, keeping the GV for the long hauls and getting a GIV again for the short trips, but I… (interruption) No, not to take the jets… I was thinking about doing that just to prop up the business since Obama’s trashed that business, too. But my point here is that prices are down overall in the housing market. It’s a smart time to buy, if you have the wherewithal. So, you know, the markets work. The market is responding to the destruction of the subprime mortgage crisis. (interruption) Mmm-hmm. Well, the sellers of new homes may not be getting as crushed as the sellers of existing homes. The sellers of existing homes are certainly getting crushed.
Either that or they’re getting foreclosed on despite Obama’s foreclosure plan. That didn’t really work, thank goodness. The prices are down anyway because of the depressed nature of the market. So it’s a smart time to buy if you have the money and if you want a home. It’s a smart time to buy, but let me tell you… (laughing) I don’t want to make you guys mad in there. But property taxes where we live here in Palm Beach County, they just voted last week for a 15% increase, despite the plummeting values of people’s houses. So it’s no different. They tell you, ‘Go out and buy a car that gets 60 miles to the gallon.’ You go do it, and then all of a sudden they realize their gasoline tax revenue is coming up short. So then they raise that tax. That’s what’s happening here with property taxes. I don’t care if it’s a local government, a national government, a federal government, whatever. They will never do with less, folks. They’ll never do with less, and they will cry and whine and moan at the very thought of having to do with less. You cry and moan when they raise your taxes, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: I have this new home sales story here, and there’s very good point that needs to be — and, by the way, ABC Radio News said at the top of the hour, I’m told, that some economists are declaring the recession over today. ABC Radio News: Some economists say that the recession is over today. Okay, so new home sales are up and the recession’s over. So can we slash the stimulus money that’s not been spent yet? Can we just cancel the stimulus? If the recession is over, and if home sales are up, can we cancel the rest of the stimulus? Can we stop this spending? These people cannot get their rhetoric straight. And, look, I don’t want to be a black helicopter guy here, but we know something. We know that Obama brought the CBO guy in for a kneecapping, and this a violation of ethics. That’s an independent agency of Congress, and Obama calls a director of the CBO up to the White House after they issued a report saying Obama’s health care plan will bloat the deficit by another $250 billion.
That’s, frankly, very low. So since Obama the CBO guy up to kneecap him, I’ll believe these numbers when I see the revision in two weeks. It will be real interesting to see if these numbers are revised down a couple weeks from now. I honestly want to say I don’t much trust the numbers that come out of this administration. Anyway, here’s the thing on the home sales. ‘New home sales in June posted the fastest increase in more than eight years as buyers took advantage of bargain prices, low interest rates, and a federal tax credit for first-time home buyers.’ That’s the eight grand. ‘The Federal tax credit covers 10% of the home price, or up to $8,000 for first-time buyers. Home sales need to be completed by the end of November for buyers to take advantage.’ Well, now, what’s the teachable moment here? What is incentivizing home sales? A tax cut or a tax credit. Now, if a tax cut — or credit, however you want to look at it — can stimulate the housing market this way (we’ll stipulate to these numbers for the moment) then is there not a teachable moment here where maybe the same kind of activity over the economy at large would do the same thing for the economy at large? It’s amazing what these libs will do here and there to get good news. They know what to do. It’s just getting them to do it is another matter.