Ross Perot will be the guest of Rita Cosby who is hosting the Steve Malzberg Show today on WOR 710 in New York. It promises to be an hour of lively and entertaining discussion. The segment will air on WOR August 8, 2008 at 4:00 PM EDT. The radio show is syndicated in several metropolitan markets. Check the schedule below for times and stations in your area. The show will also be available via Podcast at www.wor710.com a few hours later (click on Listen to Past Shows to find the link). You can also stream the show live over the internet by clicking this link.

Click here for a schedule of stations and times.

The WhiteHouse Office of Management and Budget stated that the budget deficit projected for fiscal year 2009 will rise to a record $482 billion in its mid-session review delivered to Congress on July 28, 2008.

The estimate of $482 billion is approximately 50% deeper in the red than the worst case estimate prepared by the Congressional Budget Office in January, 2008 which is displayed in this chart. The estimate is $74 billion higher than the Office of Management and Budget predicted just six months ago.

The budget deficit is the highest ever recorded, exceeding the record of $413 billion in 2004.

According to the N. Y. Times, the actual budget deficit may be worse than this estimate because it “does not reflect the full cost of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the potential $50 billion cost of another economic stimulus package, or the possibility of steeper losses in tax revenues if individual income or corporate profits decline. “

In addition, the new budget deficit projection does not include any estimate of spending that may occur due to the recently passed housing rescue bill. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the rescue bill could add up to $25 billion in new spending over the next two years, but but that there was a better than even chance that this spending authority would not be used.

DALLAS, TEXAS – JUNE 16, 2008 /PRNewswire/—Ross Perot, business leader and former presidential candidate, announced today the launch of “PerotCharts.com,” a public information website that contains objective, factual information about the current economic crisis in America. The site is being launched as an alert and appeal for American citizens to inform themselves about federal government spending. Perot said, “The U.S. national debt reached $9.4 TRILLION on April 30, and it is increasing by more than $1 billion every day. We are leaving our children and grandchildren with debt they cannot possibly pay.”

PerotCharts.com consists of three major components: a video featuring Ross Perot discussing the purpose of the website, a blog where new charts and other information are posted daily for study and comment, and a narrated chart presentation explaining the economic problems our country faces.

The website is not affiliated with any political party or candidate. Most of the data and research for the charts is gathered from official government sources.

“The economic crisis facing America today is far greater than anything since the Great Depression,” said Perot. “Our federal government continues to spend us deeper into debt. The American people must get directly involved and demand an end to deficit spending. This website will provide information for citizens to do just that.”

Like the economic charts Perot employed in his 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, which served as snapshots of complex economic issues presented in simple terms, PerotCharts.com features the latest official government figures about the real conditions of our economy for everyone to see and consider. The site is designed to be a reservoir of information about the economy, and provides an accurate look at where the money comes from and where it goes.

David Walker, former U.S. Comptroller General and current president and CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation said, “Ross Perot is the father of fiscal charts, and PerotCharts.com will help Americans understand the serious fiscal challenges facing our nation. These updated economic charts will also serve to hold elected officials accountable while accelerating needed actions to help ensure that our collective future will be better than our past. What we need now is leadership from our elected officials.”

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives said, “Ross Perot is exactly right to echo Winston Churchill’s famous cry for ‘action this day’ to rally the nation to reform our entitlement programs, end deficit spending, and balance the federal budget. PerotCharts.com contains information every citizen needs to know so we can demand real change to get the nation on the right track.

David L. Boren, former U.S. Senator and governor of Oklahoma and current president of the University of Oklahoma said, “The facts speak for themselves in Ross Perot’s powerful website for all Americans. Runaway spending and a rising national debt will destroy America’s future as a great nation. As more of our debt is held by those in other countries, our political independence is put at risk by our economic dependency. We must act now!

“We simply cannot wait any longer to do something about runaway deficit spending,” Perot said. “This website addresses a number of issues, and we will add more in the coming weeks and months. But there is a common thread running through all of them. We cannot solve these problems unless we have the ability to pay for the solutions. Getting spending under control is the first step in that process.”

For more information, visit PerotCharts.com.

The following column (excerpted), written by syndicated political columnist David Broder, appeared in the Sunday, June 15, 2008 edition of The Washington Post:

Perot, Back On the Charts

Sixteen years after he shook up American politics by launching an impromptu campaign for president, Ross Perot is about to dip a toe back into the public debates. And, yes, he’s bringing his charts with him to make his point.

Beginning today, people who go to http://www.perotcharts.com will find the Dallas billionaire waiting to challenge them on one of his favorite subjects — the “ruin” he says America is courting with its spendthrift ways.

“We are right at the edge of the cliff,” the voice with the unmistakable Texas twang informed me when I called him the other day to find out about this latest venture. “We can’t go on spending money we don’t have.”

That is not a new theme for Perot. It was his core message when he did his on-again, off-again, then back-on-again race against George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton in 1992. He led the field in the early months and, even after the confusing signals sent by his dropping out and coming back, he won more than 19.7 million votes — almost 20 percent of the total.

His real triumph, however, was a policy victory. With simple charts that he designed and displayed on prime-time television “infomercials,” he managed to convey to millions of voters the stark reality of what the record deficits of the 1980s really meant….

Read the full article in the Washington Post Op-Ed Page.

Storms on the Horizon
Remarks before the Commonwealth Club of California

by Richard W. Fisher
San Francisco, California
May 28, 2008

Richard W. Fisher is the President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, one of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks of the Federal Reserve System. Mr. Fisher currently serves as a member of the Federal Open Market Committee, which is the most important monetary policymaking body of the Federal Reserve System. It is responsible for formulation of a policy designed to promote economic growth, full employment, stable prices, and a sustainable pattern of international trade and payments. In this presentation, Mr. Fisher steps outside his role as a central banker to focus on fiscal policy.

An excerpt of the speech is set forth below. For the complete speech, click here.

I see a frightful storm brewing in the form of untethered government debt. I choose the words—“frightful storm”—deliberately to avoid hyperbole. Unless we take steps to deal with it, the long-term fiscal situation of the federal government will be unimaginably more devastating to our economic prosperity than the subprime debacle and the recent debauching of credit markets that we are now working so hard to correct.

You might wonder why a central banker would be concerned with fiscal matters. Fiscal policy is, after all, the responsibility of the Congress, not the Federal Reserve. Congress, and Congress alone, has the power to tax and spend. From this monetary policymaker’s point of view, though, deficits matter for what we do at the Fed. There are many reasons why. Economists have found that structural deficits raise long-run interest rates, complicating the Fed’s dual mandate to develop a monetary policy that promotes sustainable, noninflationary growth. The even more disturbing dark and dirty secret about deficits—especially when they careen out of control—is that they create political pressure on central bankers to adopt looser monetary policy down the road.