Monica's baby, the ruin of Clinton - a TL

It's all about the money... money... money (part of the SPOA series) If borrowing and spending all this money led to more jobs than we would be at full employment already - Paul Ryan

Washington DC May 1998 Just Before the sweeps for Seinfeld and Friends

President Gramm, walked confidently, no bounded to the podium for his prime time 845pm address on the SPOA's first reported progress.

My fellow Americans, we fought a long difficult battle to reform social security and bring it into the 20th and soon 21st century. There was a lot of good honest debate mixed in with a healthy dose of fear of change, But I can here tonight report to you, the financial markets and the world that our changes ARE working. I am delighted at this time to announce that on top of paying all benefits and setting aside more than 14 billion dollars for the social security trust fund in the last three months, the SPOA has returned an additional 19 billion dollars in profits the last three months. In previous times and years both parties would call for a windfall such as this to be either returned as tax cuts or offer new social programs to be offered with that money. That is why the SPOA is so different as this will not be done; instead, that money will be used to retire some of America's outstanding bonds some of which go back in vintage to the late 1960's. There is no reason in the world that a country with an economy as dynamic and powerful as ours should be a debtor nation. I intend tomorrow to make an appearance in front of my fellow Texan Ross Perot's debt clocks tomorrow, retire the bonds and for the first time in my adult life time; and indeed the first time in the lifetime of far too many americans watch our national debt actually go backwards.

This has to be our goal as a nation; not only to produce a balanced budget which we have done this year and last, but to pay off the borrowing of the past; republican and democrat created alike. Not being saddled with that debt will allow fantastic new opportunities for our government to invest in magnificent projects of all walks from modernizing our colleges to putting a man on mars by 2010; and it will also allow for sustained, permanent, growth creating tax relief in the future

I thank you for your time this evening, and am inherently proud of the fine people who put the SPOA together, and you the american people for seizing the opportunity to build wealth in a way our parents could never have imagined. God bless you, and god bless the United States


To call Gramm's press conference game changing and shocking would have been a grave disservice. The evening news ran the story clear through 930pm screwing up sweeps as people hungered for additional information. Dunn had done her job as administration officials flocked with their chests bowed out to all the cable and conventional outlets for interviews on how successful the SPOA had been to date. As Spencer Abraham on Matt Drudge's "DRUDGE REPORT ON FOX", 2 years ago I couldn't honestly tell you my children would ever see a dime of social security; and now I am more hopeful for the country than I have even been in my life; I have to say the President worked a miracle on this

Drudge's website received a leak from gallup that night that had him pre-empt their tracking poll with pleasing results for the administration


Do you approve of President Gramm's job performance
Yes: 58 percent
No: 37 percent
unsure: 5 percent

Do you approve of the SPOA/Social Security reform
Yes: 54: percent
No: 41 percent
unsure: 5 percent

to be continued

thoughts?
 
As Spencer Abraham on Matt Drudge's "DRUDGE REPORT ON FOX", 2 years ago I couldn't honestly tell you my children would ever see a dime of social security; and now I am more hopeful for the country than I have even been in my life; I have to say the President worked a miracle on this

Thats garbage. The guy is either misinformed or a liar. Figures from the Social Security Trust Fund at the Time showed that with only moderate average annual growth rate Social Security would meet all or at least most of its obligations for the next 75 years. The program wasn't in any crisis.
 
Thats garbage. The guy is either misinformed or a liar. Figures from the Social Security Trust Fund at the Time showed that with only moderate average annual growth rate Social Security would meet all or at least most of its obligations for the next 75 years. The program wasn't in any crisis.

This is just one opinion. That doesn't make it fact
 
It's all about the money... money... money (part of the SPOA series) -The genius of the American system is that through freedom we have created extraordinary results from plain old ordinary people - Phil Gramm

Ross Perot's Time's Square Debt Clock May 1998 9am

President Phil Gramm reveled in the moment, as the Smith Barney and other well known bond traders were compelled to gather around as he historically ordered Robert Rubin and Jennifer Dunn to issue the calls on 19 billion dollars in the oldest outstanding American bonds. And with that the debt clock which had run up to 3.244 trillion dollars rolled back to 3.225 trillion dollars. Photographs were taken but Gramm made no speech as his address from the previous evening already covered what had and would happen. Besides, he had been offered and accepted the opportunity ring the opening bell at the NYSE today; and given how the futures looked, it wasn't something he would have ever missed.

Asian markets were open when Gramm hit the airwaves and their shares began trading sharply higher. The bond pits and the commodities markets were already open today for business and the story they told was amazing. Yields on the benchmark ten year treasury imploded; breaking through 5 and then 4 percent in the first hour of trading before finding support at 3.25 percent. Oil similarly was roughly handled dropping through 15, then 14 then 13, then 12 dollars a barrel before finding support as the dollar gained heavily against all other currencies.

But the actual equity futures were THE big story. Particularly after Jennifer Dunn had made a 925 appearance on CNBC's squwak box program with the administration friendly Larry Kudlow and Mark Haines where she announced that the SPOA was flooded with calls from citizens looking to enroll and that her office expected 4 million new applications in the coming quarter. The futures surged almost out of control; The dow's implied open would see her burst through 10,000 points and 11,000 points within minutes of the open. The Nasdaq's implied open would see her gain 450 points nearly hitting the sky high 3000 point level. The S&P 500's implied open would see it break 1100 and 1200 within minutes.

Gramm rang the bell to the thunderous applause of the furiously bidding trading pits. Volume was astronomical as retail and corporate investor alike joined in the feeding frenzy creating a tremendous backlog of orders which created slowdown in the NYSE and NASDAQ's computer networks. The SEC was forced to call a 30 minute halt to trading at 1047 AM to allow the network to catch up and to hopefully circuit break what had become a nearly out of control rally. At the halt the Dow stood at 11,273.58 with literally thousands of "market" buy orders stacked on her. To the SEC's consternation, this merely gave people more time to stack orders and when trading resumed it quickly shot up another 200 points. Michael Dell's former firm went from 18.70 dollars a share (despite a recent stock split dilution) to over 26 dollars a share in the first two hours of trading. Short sellers entered a complete panic adding to the frantic buying activity

It would not be until 2pm that the volume would finally begin to slow down to a more manageable pace as everyone who was going to put in an order that day, had done so or been scared off by the rapid price gains. The Dow gave back 150 points in the last 15 minutes of trading as longer term investors locked in their once in a generation gift and the close was pegged at 11,309.94. The stock market had gained more than 2 trillion dollars in total value in a single day. The SPOA raked in more than 35 billion dollars beyond required benefits and reserves for the quarter in a single day

Phil Gramm omitted all the restaurants New York had to offer instead preferring to sit in the presidential suite at the 4 seasons with his wife and his staff attentively glued to the returns coming in on CNBC and the round the clock cable coverage of the market's explosion to the upside. His grin was near permanent as guest after guest both business based and employed by the administration came on praising this as America's most glorious economic day in her history. Joe Scarboroughs "this is why we elected an economist to be our president" had the president slamming his fists on the table in sheer joy as to his triumph

Gramm and his wife ordered room service for themselves and the staff as the evening cable shows came on. Matt Drudge's "Drudge Report on Fox" at 10pm once again secured leaks at gallup and the wall street journal with new polling data

Do you approve of President Gramm's job performance
Approve 62 percent
Disapprove 31 percent
Unsure 7 percent

Do you approve of the SPOA/Social Security Reform
Approve 60 percent
Disapprove 34 percent
Unsure 6 percent

Do you think President Gramm deserves reelection
Yes 58 percent
No 35 percent
Unsure 7 percent

Who would you vote for in the following hypothetical presidential election match up in 2000

Gramm 57
Gore 35
Unsure 7

Gramm 60
Daschle 33
Unsure 7

Gramm 56
Nelson 39
Unsure 5

Gramm 60
Gephardt 33
Unsure 7


to be continued...

thoughts?
 
Great to see another update :D

It seems as if business-friendly candidates will do very well in the midterms, seeing as the economy is roaring (I'm not sure that's even a good enough word). Perhaps a certain Mormon businessman might even make his debut as Massachusetts' governor four years early ;)

I'm not sure about figures at the time, but this will either usher in a massive, sustained economic boom or bust the market with the economy unable to sustain itself. Hopefully the former ;)
 
I could see the market crashing shortly. Great to see another update though.

that is certainly a ponderable... IMO something like SPOA especially one that publicly pays back debt would certainly cause a significant spike; especially piled on to the enthusiasm of the .com boom. the question is does the market implode as bad as otl; worse? or does the SPOA put in a floor of constant new money that stops a correction before it reaches bear market level
 

FDW

Banned
that is certainly a ponderable... IMO something like SPOA especially one that publicly pays back debt would certainly cause a significant spike; especially piled on to the enthusiasm of the .com boom. the question is does the market implode as bad as otl; worse? or does the SPOA put in a floor of constant new money that stops a correction before it reaches bear market level

I'm inclined to say worse, in part because of my belief in the human capability to fuck shit up.
 
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