Financial Market Madness

I've been working a lot of hours as I am doing two jobs right now. I am still supporting my old role and business unit, while undertaking my new assignment. Having to deal with a move at the same time has left me with little sleep and time.

However, in the past weeks, I've been fuming about the hypocrisy and the madness of the financial markets. And don't even get me started on the ridiculous inferences that Networks like Fox News tries to put forward, that somehow the Stock Market is reacting negatively to President Obama's policies.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

The Dow Knows All

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But what continues to get me is the whiny nature of Banks. Recently, Sheila Bair of the FDIC has indicated that there needs to be an emergency fee assessed to all the banks to shore up the FDIC, otherwise, it may go insolvent.

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chairman Sheila Bair said the fund it uses to protect customer deposits at U.S. banks could dry up amid a surge in bank failures, as she responded to an industry outcry against new fees approved by the agency.

“Without these assessments, the deposit insurance fund could become insolvent this year,” Bair wrote in a March 2 letter to the industry. U.S. community banks plan to flood the FDIC with about 5,000 letters in protest of the fees, according to a trade group.

This is the insanity that goes through Banks minds these days, the ONLY THING PROTECTING THEM AGAINST RUNS AGAINST THE BANKS IS THE FDIC INSURANCE - yet these morons are planning to send letters to protest this fee increase.

I guess Banks now understand how we feel when they charge us a fee to take money out of ATMs or for maintaining checking accounts!

But the best effort to date on pointing out the sheer stupidity and craziness of "so-called" Financial reporters like Rick Santelli of CNBC, and Wall St. has been tonight's show on "The Daily Show".

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

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This was a priceless moment of "STFU" by Jon Stewart to the Rick Santelli and Larry Kudlows of the world - well worth losing out on sleep to watch!

HOUSE FAILS ECONOMIC RESCUE PLAN

Today in a stunning defeat of HR 3997 - the famous Paulson $700 Billion dollar rescue plan - we saw clear proof of loss of leadership of George Bush and John McCain.

This led to the DOW dropping 777 points !



The final vote came down as follows





The Republicans immediately put out their childish statement by resident idiot Eric Cantor (R) from Virginia:

"Right here is the reason I believe why this vote failed," Cantor said, "and this is Speaker Pelosi's speech that frankly struck the tone of partisanship that frankly was inappropriate in this discussion."

This astounds me as the most ridiculous statement that demonstrates a clear lack of accountability and responsibility!

Barney Frank (D) NY summed it up best:

"Because somebody hurt their feelings, they decided to punish the country."

"Give me those twelve people's names, and I will go talk uncharacteristically nicely to them, and tell them what wonderful people they are, and maybe they'll think about the country."

Let's be honest here, they didn't have the votes because they put their own jobs and political ideology on the line. They are cowards, because they knew that they would be voted out of office if they voted for this measure.

We are already seeing credit impacts with two European Banks failing - Belgium's Fortis and Britains B&B banks have both been nationalized.

Only time will reveal the full impact. My personal opinion is that this was a BIG mistake by the House Republicans.

Biggest Loser is John McCain, given his political gimmick of going to Washington DC last week to "rescue" the bailout plan

From the NY Times:

Senator John McCain had intended to ride back into Washington on Thursday as a leader who had put aside presidential politics to help broker a solution to the financial crisis. Instead he found himself in the midst of a remarkable partisan showdown, lacking a clear public message for how to bring it to an end.
At the bipartisan White House meeting that Mr. McCain had called for a day earlier, he sat silently for more than 40 minutes, more observer than leader, and then offered only a vague sense of where he stood, said people in the meeting.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/26/AR2008092603957_pf.html

From the Washington Post, Jonathan Weisman provides an insiders look into what happened in that meeting:

Pelosi said Obama would speak for the Democrats. Though later he would pepper Paulson with questions, according to a Republican in the room, his initial point was brief: "We've got to get something done."
Bush turned to McCain, who joked, "The longer I am around here, the more I respect seniority." McCain then turned to Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to speak first.

Boehner was blunt. The plan Paulson laid out would not win the support of the vast majority of House Republicans. It had been improved on the edges, with an oversight board and caps on the compensation of participating executives. But it had to be changed at the core. He did not mention the insurance alternative, but Democrats did. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, pressed Boehner hard, asking him if he really intended to scrap the deal and start again.

No, Boehner replied, he just wanted his members to have a voice. Obama then jumped in to turn the question on his rival: "What do you think of the [insurance] plan, John?" he asked repeatedly. McCain did not answer.

One Republican in the room said it was clear that the Democrats came into the meeting with a "game plan" aimed at forcing McCain to choose between the administration and House Republicans. "They had taken McCain's request for a meeting and trumped it," said this source.

Congressional aides from both parties were standing in the lobby of the West Wing, unaware of the discord inside the Cabinet room, when McCain emerged alone, shook the hands of the Marines at the door and left. The aides were baffled. The plan had been for a bipartisan appearance before the media, featuring McCain, Obama and at least a firm statement in favor of intervention. Now, one of the leading men was gone.

This play at leadership by John McCain was clearly not there. McCain will probably lose politically from his gamble, and as we all know, McCain loves to gamble.

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.