He might be on the Forbes list of billionaires with a net worth of $1.3 billion and he may appear frequently in the financial media, but Pimco's Bill Gross doesn't have a grasp of how much "trillions" are. Gross recently called for a massive government intervention or face certain catastrophe.
"This economy requires support from the government, a check from the government in some form or fashion in the trillions as opposed to the hundreds of billions," Gross said to Bloomberg TV on February 5. "And I think President Obama was right - there is a potential catastrophe if Washington continues to focus on $100 or $200 billion. We need something in the trillions."
Gross' proposed amount includes a bailout for the banks, in addition to the stimulus to jumpstart the overall economy.
Although Gross is one of the most successful bond traders and fund managers in the private sector, this isn't the first time he's appeared in the financial news and produced a sensationalized headlines. Other than his current call for "trillions," now up on the Drudge Report - the media have trotted this guy out - without giving readers and viewers a true sense of the history of Gross. On Aug. 23, 2007, Gross called for a full fledged housing bailout.
"Write some checks, bail ‘em out, prevent a destructive housing deflation that Ben Bernanke is unable to do," wrote Gross on his blog, which appeared in an Associated Press story on Aug. 23. "This rescue, which admittedly might bail out speculators who deserve much worse, would support millions of hard working Americans whose recent hours have become ones of frantic desperation."
Gross said that would be politically expedient for then-President George W. Bush and his Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
"And if you're a Republican office holder, you'd win a new constituency of voters - ‘almost homeless homeowners' - for generations to come," Gross continued. "Get with it Mr. President and Mr. Treasury Secretary. This is your moment to one-up Barney Frank and the Democrats."
Gross heads the $132 billion Total Return Fund (MUTF:PTTRX), the world's biggest bond fund. The fund gained 4.8 percent last year and has outperformed 99 percent of its peers over the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The average government and corporate bond fund lost 8 percent in 2008, Bloomberg data show.
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One trillion doesn't seem
February 6, 2009 - 14:26 ET by SpaceManSpiffOne trillion doesn't seem like that much to most people. Hey, it's just One, right?
A trillion dollars is a million millionaires! They'd be better off picking a million citizens at random, and giving them each a million dollars. I'd venture to guess those million ordinary people would make better decisions regarding spending than the Government.
PORK-U-LUS LIST!
February 6, 2009 - 14:42 ET by reelman46LIST OF VOTE-BUYING PROJECTS!
$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
$380 million in the Senate bill for the Women, Infants and Children program
$300 million for grants to combat violence against women
$2 billion for federal child-care block grants
$6 billion for university building projects
$15 billion for boosting Pell Grant college scholarships
$4 billion for job-training programs, including $1.2 billion for “youths” up to age 24
$1 billion for community-development block grants
$4.2 billion for “neighborhood stabilization activities”
$650 million for digital-TV coupons; $90 million to educate “vulnerable populations”
$150 million for the Smithsonian
$34 million to renovate the Department of Commerce headquarters
$500 million for improvement projects for National Institutes of Health facilities
$44 million for repairs to Department of Agriculture headquarters
$350 million for Agriculture Department computers
$88 million to help move the Public Health Service into a new building
$448 million for constructing a new Homeland Security Department headquarters
$600 million to convert the federal auto fleet to hybrids
$450 million for NASA (carve-out for “climate-research missions”)
$600 million for NOAA (carve-out for “climate modeling”)
$1 billion for the Census Bureau
$89 billion for Medicaid
$30 billion for COBRA insurance extension
$36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
$20 billion for food stamps
$4.5 billion for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
$850 million for Amtrak
$87 million for a polar icebreaking ship
$1.7 billion for the National Park System
$55 million for Historic Preservation Fund
$7.6 billion for “rural community advancement programs”
$150 million for agricultural-commodity purchases
$150 million for “producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish”
$2 billion for renewable-energy research ($400 million for global-warming research)
$2 billion for a “clean coal” power plant in Illinois
$6.2 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program
$3.5 billion for energy-efficiency and conservation block grants
$3.4 billion for the State Energy Program
$200 million for state and local electric-transport projects
$300 million for energy-efficient-appliance rebate programs
$400 million for hybrid cars for state and local governments
$1 billion for the manufacturing of advanced batteries
$1.5 billion for green-technology loan guarantees
$8 billion for innovative-technology loan-guarantee program
$2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects
$4.5 billion for electricity grid
$79 billion for State Fiscal Stabilization Fund
CRAWFISH NOTE: It just galls the modern liberal to cut
our taxes so we can spend…noooo, only the govt can spend…so votes can
be bought and favors re-paid. Radical do what radicals do…the “no pork
President is really the ‘no truth” President…suckers.
http://conservablogs...
Doug Schexnayder, Ph.D. (theconservativecrawfish)
He throws around trillions,
February 6, 2009 - 14:32 ET by bigtimerHe throws around trillions, Matthews last night said billion.
These people act like all of this is just paper play money, like Monopoly.
No sweat off their backs...they have no real conception of reality in the real world of how we live out here...nada.
HE MAKES MONEY FROM DEBT - DUH!
February 6, 2009 - 14:33 ET by SgthulkaBill Gross is the world's foremeost debt trader. There is nothing more that he would love to see but a world buried in government and private debt.
And, drum-roll please, HE SUPPORTS DEMOCRATS!
Prediciton - No media outlet will point out this conflict of interest.
Gross is wrong and just a
February 6, 2009 - 14:45 ET by EdhenryGross is wrong and just a shill for O, whom he supported, just like Krugman and Reich. Gross is worse becasue he isnt just co-dependent like the other 2, he has an interst in issued debt.
CBO says bad long term deal for US. it is inefficient dollars spent on dem programs. Bad debt got us into this mess Bad debt can't get us out. We need to find bottom of assets and balance sheets. not too far away, and it will hurt, but we will recover faster without this bill.
Media using gross to cover for O.
If I might add.
February 6, 2009 - 15:38 ET by Par for the CourseThe only campaign contribution the FEC has for Gross:
From the Director of the CBO:
What a deal, a bill that reduces long-term growth, granted by a small amount, at the low low cost of an additional (approx.) trillion dollars worth of debt.
I saw this on Drudge
February 6, 2009 - 18:44 ET by BKeyserI saw this on Drudge yesterday- the first thing I did was look up his campaign contributions and that's what I saw on opensecrets.org- $2300 for BHO. I almost emailed the two Bloomberg reporters considering they has absolutely no dissenting viewpoint in their one-sided article.
What stupidity can they
February 6, 2009 - 14:49 ET by Clear thinkerWhat stupidity can they come up with next?
I think the amount of our money that D.C. wants to spend should be voted on by the people. This bill would be DOA!
The upside to all of this... This will be a huge mistake by Obama.
The downside to all of this... It may destroy our country in the process.
Evil California
Making Fun of AGW http://giovanniworld.wordpress.com/
Glenn Beck?
February 6, 2009 - 15:20 ET by funkdomeHey guys, you do know that Glenn Beck has been predicting a Depression for months now and that it is a regular talking point on his show.
I hate the liberal media as much as anyone, but let's try to be more intellectually honest than liberals.
More "BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. NO TIME TO DEBATE" hysteria
February 6, 2009 - 16:37 ET by krendlerMore "BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE. NO TIME TO DEBATE" hysteria from the left.
Two fronts now:
We have to act THIS WEEK and spend TRILLIONS or we'll be in a Great Depression.
And we have about 6 months left to correct global warming or it will be too late to do anything about it.
Liberalism: A world where emotion, hysteria and platitudes rule at the cost of logic, reason and common sense.
Its a power grab- the
February 6, 2009 - 18:49 ET by BKeyserIts a power grab- the immediacy has to do with the simple fact that even the ill-informed will wake up one day soon with less freedom, no financial assistance, and still no job. Once that happens, the outrage will be immense. The Dems know they've got to get everything they can now, before enough people wake up and realize the Obamination.
FDR Helped Cause the Great Depression
February 6, 2009 - 17:50 ET by PopularTechBill Gross needs to do some research...
The Mythology of Roosevelt and the New Deal (Robert Higgs, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Economics)
Why the Great Depression Lasted So Long and Why Prosperity Resumed after the War (PDF) (Robert Higgs, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Economics)
FDR's policies prolonged Depression by 7 years, UCLA economists calculate (UCLA)
Books:
FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression (Jim Powell, Historian, 2003)
New Deal or Raw Deal?: How FDR's Economic Legacy Has Damaged America (Burton W. Folsom, Ph.D. Professor of History, 2008)
Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is Not Pollution
Check this out...
February 6, 2009 - 18:27 ET by MightyMouth...talk about "Depressing"...
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
I want the names of all the RINOS...
February 6, 2009 - 18:58 ET by MightyMouth...who voted for the porkulus on my desk immediately!
"There are two types of people in this country; those who provide freedom and those who enjoy it." MM says...
Gross' real net worth-
February 6, 2009 - 20:31 ET by riff_raffBill Gross' net worth may have been $1.3 billion last year, but it's likely less than half of that now. Just another highly leveraged investor that couldn't unwind his bets, errr... I mean "investments", fast enough when the economy dumped. Both Gross and his funds stand to lose big-time when the borrowers begin to default on their bond obligations. Gross sees the writing on the wall and he wants to mortgage our country's future to save what's left of his financial net worth. Sadly he's got lots of willing accomplices in the White House and Congress.
While brave American military men and women are risking everything fighting terrorism overseas, and with the Obama administration feverishly working to cut off their funding here at home, it is truly disgusting to see selfish, greedy scumbags like Bill Gross demand multi-trillion dollar taxpayer subsidies to bail out private investors.
With my investments, the government takes a huge chunk of my capital gains but shares none of the capital risk. With Gross, he demands privatized gains and socialized losses.
I'm sure Gross supported the Obama/Biden ticket. So in the words of his VP choice, "It's time to jump in. Time to be part of the deal. Time to pay up and be patriotic."
"Don't blame me.....I voted for Palin"
Here is a terrible
February 6, 2009 - 21:15 ET by EdhenryHere is a terrible thought and the more i watch this debacle, the more this may be correct.
The economy will turn around, with definite signs in the next few months, if they banking plan monday is a good one. If so, the stimulus/disaster bill is unecessary. So if they debate and delay and the economy and markets pick up, the dems wont have any cause to pass bill. That's the reason for the rush.
So the bill hurts the US and jobs. is probably unecessary. but is the dems tack (to rush with panic in the message) to go socialist. with a huge risk to the country. HUGE risk.
All bad and the press is rooting for O cause they don't know better. Hope I am wrong, but don't think so
Fed borrowing could reach $4 trillion
February 7, 2009 - 10:31 ET by Sergeant ROCKFed borrowing could reach $4 trillion
NEW YORK – The federal government will have to issue record levels of debt in the next two years – up to $2.5 trillion in 2009 and as much as $4 trillion in 2010.
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Another contributing factor forcing the Treasury to plan for an unprecedented amount of federal borrowing this year is the unanticipated unemployment resulting from the economic downturn, with the resulting drop in employment tax revenues to the U.S. Treasury.
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So, the answer is MORE spending???
BustedBudget.com
"I ask, Sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."
George Mason
Bolton/KEYES 2012