The proposed XL Pipeline was rejected by President Obama under the pretense that the proposal had not been around long enough for sufficient study. Study of what? It’s a pipeline to bring in oil from Canada through a region that already has a lot of pipelines.

Is it just me, or does it seem that every time a piece of data comes out, no matter what it is, there is huge media hype to make it appear like a positive? This morning we are greeted with the news that China’s economy grew at its slowest pace since Q2 2009. Now, a growth rate of 8.9% in the 4^th quarter of 2011 is not exactly falling into a death spiral, but it is a marked slowdown for the hottest economy on the planet. When this news was announced did the markets go into freefall? Did the markets take a turn lower? No! In fact, the Chinese stock market shot up by over 3% and other markets, especially those that supply China like Australia, moved up dramatically. The reason? Why, intervention must be near, of course!

Michael Williams announced that he is leaving FNMA. The CEO has been at the firm since 1991 and was promoted to run the place in April 2009. It would be fair to say that he has a great working knowledge of Fannie Mae. He also recieved a pay package of $900k per year and $6 million in deferred/bonus pay.

Today the WSJ reported that the Fed remitted $76.9 billion of profits to the US Treasury last year. What a load of bull! To say that the Fed earns a "proft" on what it purchases implies that the Fed could incur a "loss." This makes no sense. The Fed sends all excess funds to the US Treasury.

It is no secret that the Greek government cannot 1) collect taxes, 2) sufficiently cut their budget, or 3) develop any program that fosters economic growth. These attributes seem to play out every month, and have been the same for years. Even so, the influential members of the EU keep acting as if there are some hidden revenue streams or economic levers that have been left un-pulled in Greece and, if the EU only talks about it enough, something new and wonderful will happen. Well, part of that does occur. New things do happen, they just aren’t wonderful.

2012 is starting off a lot like 2011 finished, with really big problems and laughable solutions. The latest installment comes from the Italians.

This country is one of the largest in the euro zone, and did a reasonably good job of staying out of the mortgage mess in the mid 2000s.

We all have that relative, the one that buys you a terrible Christmas gift every year. Maybe your idea of a terrible gift is the stupid singing fish (Big Mouth Billy Bass), or maybe it is a blouse or necktie that is heinous. Perhaps you have a relative that is determined to give your family things that need to be cared for, like puppies and hamsters. But have you ever had a relative that, every Christmas, gave you debt?

Ten days ago the European Community (EC) met in an effort to hash out a deal on saving the euro. The meeting in and of itself is interesting because the euro is the currency of only 17 countries in what is called the euro zone, which is a subset of the 27 countries in the EC. One of the largest and most influential members of the EC is Great Britain, who chose not to join the common currency, instead retaining its autonomy when it comes to monetary policy.

The euro zone countries reached an agreement last week that was something of a mystery. To great fanfare, the 17 members of the euro zone announced that the group would sign a new treaty that would call for automatic sanctions against countries that broke the fiscal rules, like a budget deficit greater than 3%.

“As disclosed on the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, published weekly and audited annually by independent auditors, total credit outstanding under the liquidity programs was never more than about $1.5 trillion; that was the peak reached in December 2008.”

“As reported in the Annual Report of the Board of Governors, alongside the Board's audited financial statements, the emergency lending programs have generated an estimated $20 billion in interest income for the Treasury. Moreover, in 2009 and 2010, the Federal Reserve returned to the taxpayers over $125 billion in excess earnings on its operations, including emergency lending.”