<div>These figures regarding the US Federal budget are small potatoes, as we say in Idaho, compared to the speculative indulgence in derivatives during the Bush administration, which the Wall Street Casinos utilized to gild the wealth of insiders, as the Bush administration treated them as royalty, with no need of sensible financial regulation, while they spun their roulette wheels to the point of creating a recession, taking their loot and laughing all the way to... The Cayman Islands, etc.:</div>

<div> </div>
<div><a href="http://www.iii.org/financial2/securities/derivatives/">http://www.iii.org/financial2/securities/derivatives/</a><br> </div>
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<td><a name="ppart_652000"><img height="1" src="http://www.iii.org/img/pxl.gif" width="10"></a></td>
<td class="iii-std" align="middle" width="100%" colspan="2"><font face="arial,geneva"><span class="iii-big"><span><font color="#990000"><b>GLOBAL DERIVATIVES MARKET, 1998-2007 (1)</b></font></span><br><img height="6" src="http://www.iii.org/img/pxl.gif" width="1"><br>
<font size="2"><span class="iii-small"><b>($ billions)</b></span><br><img height="4" src="http://www.iii.org/img/pxl.gif" width="1"><br></font>
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<td class="iii-fb-th" align="left" width="50"><font size="2"><img height="0" src="http://www.iii.org/img/pxl.gif" width="44"><br></font><a class="iii-fb-th" style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.iii.org/financial2/securities/derivatives/?table_sort_652020=2"><strong>Year</strong></a></td>

<td class="iii-fb-th" align="middle" width="100"><img height="0" src="http://www.iii.org/img/pxl.gif" width="94"><br><a class="iii-fb-th" style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.iii.org/financial2/securities/derivatives/?table_sort_652020=3"><strong>Exchange-traded</strong></a></td>

<td class="iii-fb-th" align="middle" width="150"><img height="0" src="http://www.iii.org/img/pxl.gif" width="144"><br><a class="iii-fb-th" style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.iii.org/financial2/securities/derivatives/?table_sort_652020=4"><strong>Over-the-counter</strong></a></td>

<td class="iii-fb-th" align="middle" width="75"><img height="0" src="http://www.iii.org/img/pxl.gif" width="69"><br><a class="iii-fb-th" style="TEXT-DECORATION: none" href="http://www.iii.org/financial2/securities/derivatives/?table_sort_652020=5"><strong>Total</strong></a></td>
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<td class="iii-fb-td2">1998</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">$13,932</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">$80,318</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">$94,250</td></tr>
<tr valign="bottom">
<td class="iii-fb-td1">1999</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">13,553</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">88,202</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">101,755</td></tr>
<tr valign="bottom">
<td class="iii-fb-td2">2000</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">14,278</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">95,199</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">109,477</td></tr>
<tr valign="bottom">
<td class="iii-fb-td1">2001</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">23,764</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">111,178</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">134,942</td></tr>
<tr valign="bottom">
<td class="iii-fb-td2">2002</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">23,816</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">141,665</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">165,481</td></tr>
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<td class="iii-fb-td1">2003</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">36,740</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">197,167</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">233,907</td></tr>
<tr valign="bottom">
<td class="iii-fb-td2">2004</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">46,592</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">257,894</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">304,486</td></tr>
<tr valign="bottom">
<td class="iii-fb-td1">2005</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">57,789</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">297,666</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">355,455</td></tr>
<tr valign="bottom">
<td class="iii-fb-td2">2006</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">70,444</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">414,845</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td2" align="right">485,289</td></tr>
<tr valign="bottom">
<td class="iii-fb-td1">2007</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">80,581</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">596,004</td>
<td class="iii-fb-td1" align="right">676,585</td></tr>
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<td class="iii-fb-td2" colspan="4">
<p class="MsoPlainText">(1) <span>Notional principal value outstanding</span>. Notional value is the underlying (face) value.</p>
<p class="MsoPlainText"><br><span>Source: Bank for International Settlements</span>.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></span></font></td></tr></tbody></table></div>
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<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">
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<h2><font face="Arial" size="2">Obama’s Spending vs Obama’s Spending Cuts in Pictures</font></h2>
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">According to </font><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/19/AR2009041902009.html" target="_blank"><font face="Arial" size="2">reports</font></a><font face="Arial" size="2">, President Obama plans to convene his Cabinet for the first time today, where he will order members to identify a combined $100 million in budget cuts over the next 90 days. Just how laughable is President Barack Obama’s latest stunt to try an maintain his fiscal responsibility credentials?</font></p>

<p><font face="Arial" size="2">—</font><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="http://blog.heritage.org/2009/04/20/obamas-spending-vs-obamas-spending-cuts-in-pictures/" target="_blank"><font face="Arial" size="2">Heritage Foundation</font></a></p>
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<p><font face="Arial" size="2">More Democrat form over substance (hey, look! I cut the budget!). </font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2">See if you can find the dot…</font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="2"><img alt="20090419obamacuts" src="http://media.right-mind.us/right-mind/20090419obamacuts.jpg" border="0"></font></p>
<div><font face="Arial"><font size="2"><span>Published</span> Monday, April 20, 2009 8:41 AM by Right-Mind</font></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div></div></div></div></blockquote>
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<div>------------------------------------------</div>
<div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</div><br> </div>