House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has an impressive record with passing big votes, but according to this article on The Hill a robust public option may be too much for the Congress to handle. Pelosi is relying on a complex series of whips to keep the factional Democratic party in line. There are two votes that will be particularly hard for her to get: Rep. Frank Kratovil (Md.): Kratovil is considered one of the most endangered Democrats in this year’s freshman class. He became the poster child for incivility when protesters hanged him in effigy. So it was a surprise when Pelosi snagged his vote on climate change by making Maryland farmers eligible for as much as $1 billion in incentives for reducing emissions. But she might not get him this time; Kratovil has said he’s a no on the healthcare ...

A bill to freeze cuts to doctors’ Medicare payments – one that should have been heavily bipartisan – is now in serious danger of passing. The American Medical Association (AMA) promised Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) 27 Republican votes, but now it appears there are as few as two. Undoubtedly, 27 is an ambitious number for any bipartisan bill, but the enormous drop in support is indicative of an overwhelming feeling in Washington. It is a sentiment against any healthcare reform, one that has grown within the Republican party and continues to spread across the aisle to conservative Democrats. Though we at Election Stocks still believe something will pass reforming the healthcare system, these kind of let downs are still quite alarming.

A rise in existing home sales last month shows things are getting better in the U.S. housing market, but the still-dire unemployment situation and the looming possibility of a jobless recovery may halt the rally by the end of the year. That makes the extension of an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers imperative.

Existing home sales rose 7.2% to a 5.24 million annual rate in July, the most since August 2007 and the fourth straight month the figure increased, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said Friday. Year-over-year sales grew 5%, the increase since September 2007, just before the markets came crashing down the following month.

“The housing market has decisively turned for the better,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. “A combination of first-time buyers taking advantage of the housing stimulus tax credit and greatly improved affordability conditions are contributing to higher sales.”

Rising sales numbers

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Inflation-Proof Savings Account Could Pay 100% “Interest” this Year Euro Pacific Capital President Peter G. Schiff has identified a savings account that could yield 100% interest between now and the end of the year. It’s much safer than a regular account, and fully insured by Lloyd’s of London. Since every dollar of your savings is fully backed by gold bullion held in specialized vaults outside of Zurich, you could easily double your money as gold prices rise. And that means it’s a great way to protect your money from inflation, a falling dollar, geopolitical instability and even government stupidity! Go here for Schiff’s complete report.

By Bob Blandeburgo

Associate Editor

Money Morning

Prices for single-family and condominium homes in the second quarter fell by a record 15.6% and 19.8% year-over-year in the United States, mainly due to foreclosures.

While the data taken on a national average may be disheartening, the …

It now looks like the wildly successful "Cash for Clunkers" program will get another $2 billion of funding after the initial $1 billion was used up in about a week. While to get the $4,500 or $3,500 subsidy the improvement in gas mileage only had to be 4 mile per gallon, the actual improvement for the new cars being sold vs. the clunkers being traded in has been 9 miles per gallon. If we assume that the clunkers could have been on the road for three more years, and that they and the replacements would have been driven 12,000 miles a year, that adds up to a savings of 300 gallons of gas saved per car per year, or 900 gallons per car. With 250,000 cars sold under the first installment of the program, that works out to a cumulative savings of 225 million gallons of gas saved. Not ...

The domestic natural gas industry has fallen on hard times due to a supply glut and a sharp fall in commodity prices over the course of the last year, but with last week’s latest news things are beginning to look up again.

T. Boone Pickens, the long time crude oil bull turned alternative energy maven, has begun working on legislation that is gathering very impressive bipartisan support. The conveniently named NAT GAS Act (New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions) was introduced by Pickens along with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) in a letter to President Barack Obama on July 8th, 2009. The group’s legislation provides a real fundamental shift in the way investors should analyze natural gas companies, especially those in the natural gas transportation industry such as Energtek, Inc. (EGTK.PK).

This

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has set a target of month's end to enact health care legislation, while in the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid hopes to complete legislation by the end of the first week in August. However, progress towards clarifying the way forward remains cloudy with yet another setback in Congress on Thursday, when a key group of House Democrats demanded changes in legislation, claiming the emerging bill "lacks a number of elements essential to preserving what works and fixing what is broken." This followed concerns about a proposed new tax on generous health insurance benefits provided by some employers raised earlier in the week. On a positive note for the government, leaders from hospital industry trade groups were expected to appear with Vice President Joe Biden to announce that hospitals are ready to give up about $155 billion over 10 years in government payments, with ...

More tough news for U.S. jobs… what you need to know in today’s BLS employment report…Dow setting records left and right… two historic looks at just how lousy 2009 has been…Chris Mayer on the next megatrend… far bigger than the current crisis…Chuck Butler explores “a strange thing happening in currencies”…Plus, a reader exposes our “simple-minded,” “right-wing babbling” for what it is… at last…

Employment will make or break this depression. Today, it’s not looking so good. 12.5 million Americans are out of work, and counting. Here’s the quick and dirty on the rest of the employment numbers this morning:

The economy shed 651,000 jobs in February, right in line with Wall Street’s expectations. That’s the 14th month in a row of net job losses January and December jobs losses were revised down heavily. January was bumped down another 57,000 jobs, to a 655,000 loss. And the ...

Ghost of stimulus past warns… government spending “does not work”…Obama champions bill, nevertheless… Lew Rockwell provides voice of opposition…Geithner unveils TALF, TARP 2.0, whatever you want to call it… another $1 trillion-plus on the line…Time to go back to school, right? Maybe not…. MBA recruiting at record low….Not all market sectors in the drink, one high-end market still showing signs of life…

“We have tried spending money,” begins our mystery politician today. “We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. I say after eight years of this administration, we have just as much unemployment as when we started…

“And an enormous debt to boot!”

The mystery man? Henry Morgenthau Jr., Treasury secretary to then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Morgenthau uttered these words in May 1939 before the House Ways and

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As the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression continues to worsen, decades of deregulation and the growing independence at the state level are being reversed as a deteriorating national economy forces the federal government to increasingly take on responsibilities that no other institution has the power or resources to handle.

This dismantling of the so-called “New Federalism” will be readily apparent again this week as the federal government is once again at the forefront of the most-closely watched  crisis-fighting initiatives at hand: With Congress pushing forward on an $827 billion stimulus plan and the Treasury Department planning to unveil its new banking bailout blueprint on Tuesday, economists and other experts say the federal government is taking its biggest role in the economy in a generation.

States that once pushed away from the federal government as part of the New Federalism are now essentially begging

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