Friday, September 19, 2008

September 19, 2008 the Day the US became Socialists

After a week of a near meltdown on Wall St., this week ended with resignation on the need to address the rootcause of the financial crisis - the billions in outstanding mortgages that were at risk.

Never have we seen anything like this - this past week is just the beginning. We thought the subprime mortgage fiasco and the housing bubble collapsing was bad, but that was just the tip of the iceberg.

Even the experience with the Savings & Loan Crisis experienced in the 1980's doesn't compare in scale to what we have experienced this past year.

Many economists are seeing the possibility of a problem of such massive proportions as bad as the Great Depression.


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/business/20fed.html?ref=business

The Bush administration, moving to prevent an economic cataclysm, urged Congress on Friday to grant it far-reaching emergency powers to buy hundreds of billions of dollars in distressed mortgages despite many unknowns about how the plan would work.

Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, made it clear that the upfront cost of the rescue proposal could easily be $500 billion, and outside experts predicted that it could reach $1 trillion.


The Treasury in preparation to support the Fed, they've apparently sold $200 Billion in Treasury Securities.

Today has marked the frustration and disgust of many Americans over the bailout of Financial Institutions at the Taxpayers' expense.

The frightening question is how far does this go? Will this be enough to ease the credit crunch?

Today clearly marked the choice for new leadership, but the reality is that the incoming President will be facing massive challenges with two wars, trillions in debt, an economy in recession, and energy crisis.

People often question how Bush 43 will be perceived over time. If anything, George W. Bush will always be infamous.
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008

The Crash of 2008: Wall St Melt Down

Well this past week has been an avalanche of shock for Wall St, Main St, and pretty much all around the world.

Monday news of Lehman Brothers going bankrupt, then Merrill Lynch being sold off to Bank of America, and then today's news of the Fed's loan to keep AIG afloat cost Dow Jones another 450 points. This week we've seen the steepest drop since 9/11, about $700 billion dollars in investments disappeared in one day.

What's interesting is the change in tune of McCain, who before was a champion of deregulation, yet is now on a mission to clean up Washington and Wall St. To take on the "good ole boys" and put an end to fat cats on Wall St.

I am in disbelief, and so should you. I don't know who McCain is fooling, and it's clear he's so desperate to be President he doesn't care that he looks like an idiot.

"Earlier this year, for example, when the economy began showing signs of trouble, McCain promised voters “specific proposals to address our economic challenges.” However, he also promised that “they will be based not on big-government intervention, and not on raising your taxes, not on increasing government regulation but unleashing the forces of the free market and capitalism.”

A decade ago McCain pushed unsuccessfully for a moratorium on all federal regulations. Asked about that by the Wall Street Journal this spring, McCain said, “I’m always for less regulation. But I am aware of the view that there is a need for government oversight.

I am fundamentally a deregulator,” he told the Wall Street Journal. “I’d like to see a lot of the unnecessary government regulations eliminated, not just a moratorium.”

That approach borrows a lot from the philosophy of McCain’s close friend and economics advisor, former Treasury Secretary Phil Gramm. As a U.S. senator, Gramm was widely considered the architect of our largely deregulated financial system that helped create this mess."
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/stories/2008/09/17/marketed_0917.html

What was Gramm's contribution to all of this? He is responsible for introducing a nifty piece of legislation - the Gramm Leach Bliley Act which essentially cancelled the Glass-Steagall Act which was put in place by FDR during the Great Depression to separate commercial and investment banking.

Deregulation of Telecommunications, Energy, and Banking industry has been increasing since the Reagan administration. You would have thought we would have learned our lesson after the disaster of Enron, MCI, and World Com, but clearly the Republicans love affair with deregulation is never ending.

Although the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999, also known as the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, was signed by Clinton, it was pushed through by a Republican Controlled Congress. This law effectively deleted the prohibition on commercial banks owning investment banks and vice versa. The problem is that the investment banks were not held to the same stringent capital requirements as set for normal banks. Oh and by the way, Gramm was the brilliant campaigner for McCain who said that we were "a nation of whiners", and that we were suffering only from a "mental recession".

This year's housing crisis with the bad subprime mortgage loans proved too much for the investment banks, and now we find ourselves in this nightmare of a situation.

Yet John McCain's answer is to put together a commission - like the 9/11 to figure out what went wrong!

If this isn't a wake up call for America, I don't know what is. McCain is clearly unable to take leadership and outline a plan for what needs to be done. Other than to spout off tough talk about knowing how to handle it.
In two new television ads Wednesday, McCain asserts that he is the right leader to keep Americans' savings safe.

"I'll meet this financial crisis head on," he says in one ad. "Reform Wall Street. New rules for fairness and honesty. I won't tolerate a system that puts you and your family at risk. Your savings, your jobs — I'll keep them safe."

Really Mr. McCain? If you know what to do, please stop bragging, and tell Bush what to do then!

Obama's speech at a rally in Golden, Colorado provides a stark contrast in leadership and vision.

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Monday, September 15, 2008

Incompetent and Racist Congressman

Many of you might have heard recently the stupid remarks (and no I am not exaggerating, they were truly stupid) coming from Congressman Lynn Westmoreland from Georgia.

Westmoreland said in Washington last week:
"Honestly, I've never paid that much attention to Michelle Obama. Just what little I've seen of her and Sen. [Barack] Obama, is that they're a member of an elitist class ... that thinks that they're uppity."
Apparently his stupidity is not limited to just this one remark. Watch his interview in the Colbert Report, where apparently he doesn't even realize he is being made fun of.

The money line comes in at 4:18 into the clip where Colbert asks him to name the 10 Commandments, and Westmoreland can only name 3! This after we find out that Westmoreland co-sponsored a bill to display the 10 Commandments in the House & Senate!



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