Thursday, October 30, 2008

US ecomomy shrunk by 3%

It is now found out that the US economy shrunk by 3% during the months of July to September, this is the biggest decline since 2001, by the 9/11 disaster.

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Billions in Bank Rescue Funds are Fueling Buyout Deals

Money Morning is the leading source of investment research on the global markets. Our free daily service provides news, research, investment opportunities and insights on international investing - most of it well before it appears in the mainstream financial media.

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Banks to pay dividends to shareholders, but not loan money

So these banks get all this money, but they don't use it to help those who need help most.

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More economic issues

Stocks Jump/Slump After GDP Report Better Than Estimated... IT SHRINKS!

Congress leaders urge bailout parachute limits

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Leaders from both parties in the U.S. Congress on Wednesday urged the Treasury Department to crack down on distressed banks' use of taxpayer money to hand out fat paychecks to departing executives under the Bush administration's $700-billion financial bailout program.

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Biggest one day fall in 23 years for US Dollar

The US dollar posted its biggest one-day fall in 23 years on Wednesday, with the Federal Reserve delivering an interest-rate cut, easing investor concern about the world economy and reducing the need to repatriate dollars from riskier markets.

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A Rate of Zero Percent From the Fed? Some Analysts Say It Co

A growing number of analysts now predict that the economy is so weak that the Fed will have to reduce its official target to zero if it wants to jumpstart the stalled economy.

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US Dollar Posts Biggest One-Day Fall in 23 Years

The U.S. dollar posted its biggest one-day fall in 23 years on Wednesday, with the Federal Reserve delivering an interest-rate cut, easing investor concern about the world economy and reducing the need to repatriate dollars from riskier markets.

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Fed handing out money to Foreign Banks

"The Federal Reserve agreed to provide $30 billion each to the central banks of Brazil, Mexico, South Korea and Singapore..." And you thought money didn't grow on trees. Please tell me this is all a bad dream.

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Treasury, FDIC Crafting Plan to Rework Millions of Mortgages

Officials with the Treasury and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. are crafting a plan under which the government would guarantee the mortgages of as many as 3 million homeowners now struggling to avoid foreclosure, according to three sources familiar with the discussions.

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Bush Undermines Democracy with Attack on 200,000 Ohio Voters

As the 2008 presidential election heads into its final week, the current president threw a political wild card on table late Friday, when he asked Attorney General Michael Mukasey to investigate the status of 200,000 Ohio voters.

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Fed Cuts Rate by Half Point to 1 Percent

The Federal Reserve cut a key short-term interest rate by a half-percentage point Wednesday and expressed continued worries about the damage being done to the economy by the ongoing crisis in the financial and credit markets.

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Putin Suggests Russia & China Ditch US Dollar

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed on Tuesday that Russia and China gradually switch over to national currency payments in bilateral trade.

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Steve Forbes calls for massive downsizing of Federal Reserve

excerpt: "The Fed is politically unaccountable. Yes, its chairman makes periodic appearances before Congress, but the Fed is not dependent on congressional appropriations. It literally prints its own budget. It pays for its operations out of the interest it receives on all the securities it holds and then remits the rest to Uncle Sam."

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more economic troubles.

Asian stock markets surge after Fed rate cut...

FED CUTS INTEREST RATE TO 1%.... Cuomo warns nine banks about bonus payments...

The “Dirty Little Secret” Of the US Bank Bailout

By Barry Grey

In an unusually frank article published in Saturday's New York Times, the newspaper's economic columnist, Joe Nocera, reveals what he calls "the dirty little secret of the banking industry"--namely, that "it has no intention of using the [government bailout] money to make new loans." Continue

The Rothschilds and their 200 years of political influence: John McCain's campaign team is under investigation for allegedly accepting a benefit in kind from two mega-rich British citizens, namely Nat Rothschild and his father, Jacob, the Fourth Baron Rothschild.

Putin rules out nationalization of Russian economy: "I would like to stress that imposing state controls on Russia's economy is not, cannot be, and will not be our task. Increasing the state's presence in the economy is a forced measure and is temporary," Vladimir Putin told an economic conference.

U.S. pulls the plug on the world: The U.S. administration has prompted a huge surge in the U.S. dollar, which may help refinance its financial sector. The cost is a currency whirlwind that threatens the collapse not just of banks and companies but entire countries.

Banks to Use Bailout Bucks for Mergers: The Treasury Department’s capital injection program is well underway, with more than $150 billion total now promised to around 30 banks. So far, the evidence suggests many of those banks will use the cash to buy up weaker banks.

Car dealers hit by sales decline, weak economy: Sonic Automotive, which operates only in the United States, posted a loss of $25.3 million, or 57 cents per share during the quarter, compared with a profit of $26.1 million, or 58 cents, a year ago.

House Of Credit Cards About To Crash

Next Bailout Battle Rages In DC

US Consumers Stop Spending

Banking Misery Engulfs Japan

China Cuts Interest Rates Again

Iceland Complains UK Has Devastated Its Economy

Brown Looks To China To Strengthen IMF

IMF Agrees To $25B Rescue For Hungary

Hungarian Currency Collapses

Interest Rate Hopes Lead Market Surge

Fed May Drop Rate To 1%

How Intl Bankers Gained Control Of America - Vid

Hedge Funds Lose £24B As VW Shares Take Off

Porsche Pulls Off $20B Share-Killing 'Sting'

Ukraine On Brink Of Financial Collapse

Bailouts Continue - China Takes Aggressive Action

Credit Losses Far Exceed Bailout Injections

WH To Banks - Quit Hoarding, Start Lending

Putin Suggests Russia, China Ditch Dollar

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Federal Reserve Drops Interest Rate to 1%

"The funds rate has not been lower since 1958, when Dwight Eisenhower was president."

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Cut???

The Fed, led by Ben Bernanke, will announce its rate-cut decision this afternoon. (Getty Images/File)

Hopes of a federal rate cut lift global shares

Stocks in Europe and Asia extended a global rally today as rate-cut hopes bolstered investors. The Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut rates to 1 percent at the conclusion of its two-day meeting today, according to CNNMoney.com. The policy decision is due to be announced at 2:15 p.m. ET. full story

CNNMoney: Wall Street waits for the Fed
CNNMoney: Can this man save Wall Street?
CNNMoney: Dow's second-best day ever

Financial crisis cost moves toward $20 trillion

No one with an abacus, a calculator or a mainframe will ever know what the global credit crisis has cost in real money. Lost jobs means lost tax revenue. Lost bank capital means a drop in share values. Government aid must be near $1.5 trillion when the taxpayers' $700 billion is added to what all other nations have put in to shore up banks.

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Banks still underestimating scope of crisis

Certain American banks, it appears, didn't get a very important memo: Losses tend to rise, not fall, during a recession.The Wall Street Journal reports some large banks, contrary to what seems logical in an economic slowdown caused by massive amounts of bad debt, aren't raising loan-loss reserves as fast as their loans are souring.

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Wall Street Firms Using $700B Bailout to Pay Exec´s Bonuses

The hot-button issues of CEO pay and the Wall Street bailout may soon collide with the real world of Wall Street bonuses, taxpayer and shareholder anger over the financial crisis, and a Treasury secretary with deep roots on Wall Street. And that collision could be loud and ugly. the goverment sucks, tell them to go fuck themselves!!

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Mounting Evidence of Voter Suppression for Election Day 2008

States have purged some 13 million voters from the voter rolls since 2004, Joe Rothstein reports for U.S. Politics Today. According to him, 17% of registered voters in the vital swing state of CO have been dropped from the rolls, and 10% of voters have been dropped in MO. CNN reports that 50,000 people have had their voter registrations “flagged,”

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GOP Trying To Undermine Election With Voter Fraud Claims

So, what's new? Republicans should be INVESTIGATED, prosecuted, CONVICTED and sent to Prison. Like: January, 2011: Cheney, Bush and Rove, their final appeals exhausted, entered prison today for TREASON against the Constitution of the United States of America. They are expected to die of old age before release.

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Loose Lips Sink Stocks: Crazy Rumors That Have Moved Markets

Here are a few of the strangest and most notorious rumors that have misled investors, and we look forward to your comments and links to some of the many others that have been heard and acted upon over the years.

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Dow Jumps Nearly 900 as Investors Seek Bargains

Wall Street had another astounding advance Tuesday, with the Dow Jones industrials soaring nearly 900 points in their second-largest point gain ever as late-day bargain hunters stormed into the market. The Dow and the Standard & Poor's 500 index were each up nearly 11 percent.

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Voter rolls stuffed with dead and absent registrants

Mississippi's voter situation is hard to believe. Places like Madison County have over 123% more registered voters than people over the age of 18. Combined with the fact that they don't have voter ID in Mississippi, anybody that happens to know the people who have left town or died can show up at any poll -- and go vote for them.

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Ron Paul talks about sound economic policy on FOX News

FOX News' Neil Cavuto and former Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul talk about what the right decisions would be to correct the economic crisis.

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Treasury Clears Way for $700B Bailout

The government has cleared the way to ship out $125 billion this week to the country's largest banks, beginning the biggest government bailout in history

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more economic troubles.

DOW WOW: Average Climbs 889 Points...

Let Us Speculate

By William Bowles

There’s an awful lot of speculation going on right now, from both the left and right about where the latest crisis of capital is headed, chief amongst them is the notion that this signals the end of the US Empire, that the so-called uni-polar world is over, that a new multi-polar world, headed by China, Russia, India and Brazil is emerging. Continue

U.S. Should Enact $400 Billion Stimulus, Roubini Says

By John Brinsley

Roubini, who predicted the current financial crisis in 2006, said the economy risks falling into “a self-fulfilling animal spirit recession that is more severe than otherwise” because of the collapse of credit markets and weak consumer and corporate spending. Continue

Our Choice

By Nouriel Roubini

If the private sector does not spend and/or cannot spend, old-fashioned traditional Keynesian spending by the government is necessary. It is true that we already have large and growing budget deficits; but $300 billion of public works is more effective and productive than spending $700 billion to buy toxic assets. Continue

What Will YOU Do About The Worst Capitalist Crisis Since The 1930s?

Uniting & fighting back is no longer a choice; it’s a matter of survival

By Larry Holmes

Working and poor people, devastated by the depression, entered the 1930s destitute, broken and hopeless. Yet by the time the decade was over, the working class had won great battles, first by organizing itself into Unemployment Councils and tenants unions and later into giant labor unions. Continue

Latin American’s ‘New Left’ In Crises
As the ‘Free Market’ Collapses

By James Petras

The uniformity of the collapse of Latin American economies raises important questions about the changes and claims of independence, decoupling and post-liberal models, which many regime leaders, ideologues and progressive US-European Latin American writers made over the past several years. Continue

PM Putin Suggests Russia, China Ditch Dollar in Trade Deals

By RIA Novosti

"We should consider improving the payment system for bilateral trade, including by gradually adopting a broader use of national currencies," Putin told a bilateral economic forum. He admitted the task would be tough, but said it was necessary amid the current problems with the dollar-based global economy. Continue

The Financial Woes Signal The Death Of The Dollar?

By Rev. Richard Skaff

Once the middle class is slowly and fully assassinated in the US, then, the globalization process becomes easier to implement and the Security and Prosperity Partnership (North America Union) will rush toward us like a knight in shining armor riding on a beautiful white horse to rescue us from our financial disasters that were deliberately created by our treasonous leaders. Continue

PM Putin suggests Russia, China ditch dollar in trade deals: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed on Tuesday that Russia and China gradually switch over to national currency payments in bilateral trade, expected to total $50 billion in 2008.

Mass protests in Italy to stop cuts: Cries of “Berlusconi, now you know what people think of you!” rang through the streets of Rome last Friday as half a million people demonstrated against the right wing government. Milan and Turin each saw marches of 50,000 too.

Warnings of deep recession as US layoffs spread coast-to-coast: Unemployment is set to rapidly increase. "My view is that it will be near 8 or 8.5 percent by the end of next year," Nigel Gault, chief domestic economist at Global Insight, told the New York Times.

Bailouts Continue - China Takes Aggressive Action

Credit Losses Far Exceed Bailout Injections

WH To Banks - Quit Hoarding, Start Lending

Putin Suggests Russia, China Ditch Dollar

Stocks Surge 889 Pts On Investor Bargain Hunting

Iceland Raises Interest Rates To 18%!

The Final Act

IMF May 'Print Money' As Crisis Spreads

BP Profits Skyrocket - Up 148%

London And Asian Markets Rebound

World Has 'Six Days To Save Pakistan'

BoE - Cost Of Crash $2.8T So Far

Pound In Free Fall - No Way To Stop It

UK Repos Jump 71% As Arrears Grow

UK Economy Now Smaller Than France

UK - 1.2 Million Face Negative Eq As Property Dives

Russia/China To Strengthen Financial Ties

US Pulls Plug On The World

Wall St Renews Once In Lifetime Sucker Buying

Madness Rules! - Insurers/Pensions Pile Into Derivs

Oz Dollar Drops 40% For No Reason

Deflation Accelerating

Dow Drops Another 203 Points

Crude Oil Falls To $61 Barrel

Europe On Brink Of Currency Meltdown

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Is Libertarian Bob Barr undermining the GOP?

Latest MSNBC piece on Bob Barr

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Wall Street Rises After Shares Drop Overseas

One of Wall Street’s worst months in history reached its final week on Monday, but the impulse to sell showed some signs of abating.Shares pushed into positive territory after an encouraging report on sales of new homes, which rose more than expected.

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Global Markets Shudder Amid Concerns Over Currency

The sell-off that has erased more than 51 percent of the value of global stock markets this year showed no signs of abating, as finance officials expressed concern about the yen.

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Global Markets Shudder Amid Concerns Over Currency

Bob Barr: Big Government GOP Accuses Democrats of Socialism

Sen. John McCain accuses Sen. Barack Obama of being a “socialist,” but it is President George W. Bush, supported by Sen. McCain, who has done the most to socialize the U.S. economy. Courtesy of the Republican Party, the federal government is set to own a sizeable chunk of the housing, auto, banking and insurance industries.

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The Biggest Fraud in U.S. History

Virtually our entire financial system is based on an illusion. We spend more than we earn, we consume more than we produce, we borrow more than we save, and we cling to the fantasy that this can go on forever. The glue that holds this crumbling scheme together is a fiat currency known as the Federal Reserve Note.

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Treasury set to dish out financial rescue funds

WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department will start doling out $125 billion to nine major banks this week to get credit flowing again, giving a lift to ...

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More economic issues

COST OF THE CRASH: $2,800,000,000,000 OPEC cannot bail world out over financial crisis, says chief...Unexpected rise in new home sales; Low prices foster flurry of activity...

Russian Central Bank to prevent wild swings in ruble - Shuvalov: "The government and Central Bank consider that sharp changes in the rate of the national currency would be damaging, and this will not be allowed to happen under any circumstances," he said.

Europe on the brink of currency crisis meltdown: The financial crisis spreading like wildfire across the former Soviet bloc threatens to set off a second and more dangerous banking crisis in Western Europe, tipping the whole Continent into a fully-fledged economic slump.

Britain may need 0% interest rate to avoid a depression, leading economist warns: The extraordinary claim from Charles Goodhart, a founding member of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee, came as Gordon Brown signalled that he wants to see further, aggressive cuts in the cost of borrowing.

The Predator State by James Galbraith on Bill Moyer's Journal: Video and transcript: This is the big one. I have been working on financial crises since the New York City rescue in 1975. And this is, by far and away, the biggest threat to the system as a whole that we've seen in my lifetime and I think the biggest threat since the late 1920s.

US public pension funds face big losses: California’s Calpers, the US’s biggest pension fund, last week reported a loss of 20 per cent of its assets, or more than $40bn, between July 1 and October 20 this year.

Banks pull squeeze play on credit cards: Companies cracking down, even on those with good credit, leaving customers to face interest rate leaps, lower credit limits and even canceled cards.

Farm-Credit Squeeze May Cut Crops, Spur Food Crisis: The credit crunch is compounding a profit squeeze for farmers that may curb global harvests and worsen a food crisis for developing countries.

George Monbiot: This Is What Denial Does: . The financial crisis for which we must now pay so heavily prefigures the real collapse, when humanity bumps against its ecological limits.

Oz Dollar Drops 40% For No Reason

Deflation Accelerating

Dow Drops Another 203 Points

Crude Oil Falls To $61 Barrel

Europe On Brink Of Currency Meltdown

London Markets Plunges Again

Asian Stockmarkets Crash Again

Ukraine OKs $16.5B Rescue By IMF

Hong Kong Shares Dive 13%

World Markets Shares Down $16T Since Sept 1

Customer Panic And Bank Run In Kuwait

GM Wants Taxpayer $ To Merge w/ Chrysler

Asia Monday Off To Grim Start

JPMorgan Under Criminal Investigation

Asian Stocks, US Futures Slump

US Stocks Start Day With Further Decline

More US Banks Sell Stakes For Govt Cash

Sept New Home Sales Up - Prices Fall

Credit Squeeze May Cut Crops - Spur Food Crisis

Nikkei Dives 6% To 26 Year Low To Start Week

G7 Not Happy Over Yen's Rise Vs Dollar, Euro

US Dollar Currency Collapse Within 30 Days

Argentina And The US Dollar's Fate

WS Workers Bailing Out Of NYC For Fresh Starts

US Biggest Chicken Producer Facing Big Trouble

Gold Stocks Were Financial Saviors In 1930s

1929 & 2007 Bear Market Race To The Bottom

The World After The 2008 Presidential Election

How The PPT Killed Capitalism

Roubini - The Worst Is Yet To Come

Don't Expect China To Save West

America Joins UK On Brink Of Recession

Banks Exploit Legal Loopholes To Seize Homes

Whole System Going Down For The Count

What Bernanke And Hank Aren't telling You

Taiwan Dumps Fannie, Freddie

Monday, October 27, 2008

Federal Reserve Study Paper #666

Have We Been Stampeded into the Panic of 2008? On October 23, 2008 the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis issued an important paper. Its title is "Facts and Myths about the Financial Crisis of 2008." http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=4062

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THE COLLAPSE OF A 300 YEAR PONZI SCHEME:

The web of debt.

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- Uh Oh, The Fed Is Going To Try To Help The Market Again

By Rick PendergraftThe Federal Reserve Board will meet again tomorrow with a decision on rates coming out Wednesday afternoon. As is it is with every Fed meeting, I went to look at the probability chart at the Cleveland Fed’s website.

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Middle Finger Monday!!!

Global stocks plummet, hit record lows

Stocks around the world took another heavy beating today, with shares in Japan falling to their lowest level in 26 years, as fears of a global recession continued to sweep the region. U.S. futures, which offer an indication of how Wall Street may open when trading begins in New York, were sharply lower. full story

CNNMoney: Wall Street braces for new drop
CNNMoney: Three regional banks get $9.5B
CNNMoney: A look at the so-called 'rich'
Gas prices drop record amount

10 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26

http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx

http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm

http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm

Your Bailout Money Will Boost Wallstreet Bonuses by 30%

Your money will help companies dish out six- and seven-figure bonuses to rank and file investment bankers. While legislation limits the bonuses of executives, it said nothing about all the other rank and file investment bankers.

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Central banks poised to act

By Jan Dahinten and Andrew Roche SINGAPORE/LONDON (Reuters) - Central banks are likely to launch new coordinated emergency action this week to calm panic in financial markets, which could be rocked further by data pointing to global recession. The...

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Financial Meltdown Worsens Food Crisis

SHANGHAI -- As shock waves from the credit crisis began to spread around the world last month, China scrambled to protect itself. Among the most extreme measures it took was to impose new export taxes to keep critical supplies such as grains and fertilizer from leaving the country.

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Red China to the World: Banish the American dollar

China has basically declared "WAR" on the United States through economic means. “The grim reality has led people, amidst the panic, to realize that the United States has used the U.S. dollar’s hegemony to plunder the world’s wealth,” said the commentator, Shi Jianxun, a professor at Shanghai’s Tongji University.

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Foreign Currency Debt Troubles Mount

Foreign-denominated debt is squeezing countries from Romania to South Korea as their local currencies falter.

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Red China to the World: Banish the American dollar

Banks Using Bailout Money To Buy Other Banks, Not Make Loans

Washington told taxpayers a major rationale for us to fork over $700 billion to banks was to save the American economy by making loans more accessible, but it looks like at least at Chase they rather use it to buy other banks

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More economic issues

ECONOMICS GURU: WORST IS YET TO COME; MARKETS WILL CLOSE FOR UP TO WEEK FROM PANIC...

COMPANIES START COMPETING FOR BAILOUT CASH... 'Out of Control' CEOs Spurned Davos Warnings on Risk... Wall Street workers leaving NYC for fresh start...

Oil falls to $63 as investors eye falling demand...

Down For The Count

"The whole system is contracting"

By Mike Whitney

The US Treasury and Federal Reserve are now underwriting the entire financial system. The free market has been abandoned altogether. Everything from commercial paper to money markets is now backed by the "full faith and credit of the United States". Continue

Meet the World's New Reserve Currency

The Chinese Yuan

By Mike Whitney

Things are getting worse. On Friday morning, futures trading was halted for the first time ever after futures plunged more than 5 percent. The sell-off came after another 500-plus down day on the Dow followed by steep declines in equities markets across Europe and Asia. Continue

The Grand Merger!

By Rev. Richard Skaff

Lawlessness in government has become the rule of the land. Loyalty to the party superseded the loyalty to the country, which is a déjà vu phenomenon in the archives of fascism. The stench of our political sewage system has contaminated our nation and the world. Mendacity became truth, and manipulation became intelligence and virtue. Continue

Signs of slowdown spiral around the world: $16.3 trillion in stock value lost since Sept. 1; some brokers fear more drops

Wall Street's 'Disaster Capitalism for Dummies'

14 reasons Main Street loses big while Wall Street sabotages democracy

By Paul B. Farrell

Yes, we're dummies. You. Me. All 300 million of us. Clueless. We should be ashamed. We're obsessed about the slogans and rituals of "democracy," distracted by the campaign, polls, debates, rhetoric, half-truths and outright lies. McCain? Obama? Sorry to pop your bubble folks, but it no longer matters who's president. Continue

Maybe U.S. Needs Yard Sale

By Eric Margolis

Russia could buy back Alaska or perhaps Canada could pick up sunny Florida. Continue

Nikkei Dives 6% To 26 Year Low To Start Week

G7 Not Happy Over Yen's Rise Vs Dollar, Euro

US Dollar Currency Collapse Within 30 Days

Argentina And The US Dollar's Fate

WS Workers Bailing Out Of NYC For Fresh Starts

US Biggest Chicken Producer Facing Big Trouble

Gold Stocks Were Financial Saviors In 1930s

1929 & 2007 Bear Market Race To The Bottom

The World After The 2008 Presidential Election

How The PPT Killed Capitalism

Roubini - The Worst Is Yet To Come

Don't Expect China To Save West

America Joins UK On Brink Of Recession

Banks Exploit Legal Loopholes To Seize Homes

Whole System Going Down For The Count

What Bernanke And Hank Aren't telling You

Taiwan Dumps Fannie, Freddie

May Fall to $40s...

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Steve Forbes to CNN: Fed created global economic crisis

According to Steve Forbes, editor-in-chief of business magazine Forbes and former Republican Presidential candidate (1996 & 2000), the Federal Reserve created the conditions that lead to the worldwide economic crisis that we are in.

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Ron Paul on Federal Reserve/Greenspan Messed up US Economy

AIG Has Used 3/4 of Its $123 Billion Bailout Loan Already

The troubled insurance giant American International Group already has consumed three-quarters of a federal $123 billion rescue loan, a little more than a month after the government stepped in to save the company from bankruptcy.

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Friday, October 24, 2008

A.I.G. Exceeds Loan

A.I.G. has used $90.3 billion of a government credit line since it was bailed out last month, an amount that exceeds the size of the original loan meant to save the company.

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Bob Barr: Another bailout to come after election?

Several of the most senior members of Congress are in tough re-election contests this fall. That’s because they voted for the Bush/Obama/McCain Bailout (BOMB). Incumbents are being (rightfully so) clobbered for giving away our tax dollars. The BOMB is exploding in districts across America. McCain can't win, so why waste your vote on him?

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Ron Paul: Bailouts Herald New Era of Tax Payer Slavery

many justifications have been given about why Washington feels the need to act. Some claim that capitalism and the free market are to blame, but we have not had capitalism. If you compare our financial capital to our aggregate debt, this would be obvious. In the same way, we have not had a truly free market. The monetary manipulations of the Fed

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Next in the Financial Crisis: Possible Criminal Charges

Investors and taxpayers angry about the government bailout of seemingly mismanaged financial firms can probably count on a wave of criminal indictments in the coming months, say white- collar crime experts.

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Greenspan shocked at credit system breakdown

Despite concerns he had in 2005 that risks were being underestimated by investors, "this crisis, however, has turned out to be much broader than anything I could have imagined," Greenspan said in remarks prepared for delivery to the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

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Upcoming depression was engineered on purpose!

The Uber Rich plan and execute financial depressions to capture even more riches. What happens if Americans stand up and fight it? Martial law.

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Ron Paul on CNN American Morning 10/24/2008

Discusses Greenspan saying we were in a "once in a century credit tsunami". Paul cuts Greenspan off at the knees for helping create this mess.

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More economic issues

HALT: NASDAQ, S&P 500, DOW FUTURES DOWN BY DAILY LIMIT; DROPPING MORE THAN 6%... EUROPE INDICES... THE FEARV O L A T I L I T Y 'I made a mistake,' admits Greenspan... 'Found a Flaw'...Banks borrow record amount from Fed...

Maybe U.S. Needs Yard Sale

By Eric Margolis

Russia could buy back Alaska or perhaps Canada could pick up sunny Florida. Continue

Arms For The Poor

By Jeff Huber

Those poor kids at the Pentagon. They receive more funding than the rest of the world's military establishments combined, but it's just not enough. Pentagon officials have prepared a new defense spending estimate—one they plan to spring on us just before young Mr. Bush exits stage right—that projects a requirement for $450 billion more over the next five years than previously announced. Continue

Wachovia reports $23.9 billion loss: Wachovia Corp reported a third-quarter loss of $23.9 billion on Wednesday, a record quarterly deficit for a banking company in the global credit crisis, underscoring the challenges Wells Fargo & Co faces when it acquires the big lender.

Yahoo firing 1,500 workers; 3Q profit falls 64 pct (AP): Yahoo Inc. will fire at least 1,500 workers to cope with a crumbling economy that dented its third-quarter profit and turned up the heat on the slumping Internet company's management as investors stew over a missed opportunity to sell to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion.

Monthly job losses up across 41 states: More than 80% of states reported jobs disappearing in September, with Michigan suffering the highest losses, according to a government report.

"Under water" mortgages are growing threat to U.S.: - Long before she filed for bankruptcy, Ann Neukomm was "under water" -- she owed more on her mortgage than her house was worth -- a situation more and more Americans are finding themselves in.

Fewer prescriptions filled as economy worsens: The tumbling economy may be making Americans queasy, but they're apparently so worried about their pocketbooks that they're skipping their meds.

California Foreclosures Soar By 228%

Asian Stocks Crash - Bush Calls Summit

Regulators Admit They Made Fateful Mistakes

Greenspan - 'Shocked Over Credit Tsunami' - Vid

Greenspan In 'Shocked Disbelief' - Admits Errors

Asian Markets Drop

Dollar Roars Back As Global Debts Called

UK In Massive Sterling Sell-Off

Global Bank Lending Sinks To 30 Yr Low

US Spends Trillions On Corrupt Banking System

Demand For Gold Soars As Price Tumbles

World Markets On Edge

Credit Suisse Reports £670M Loss

Nikkei Hits 5 And 1/2 Low

Oil Sinks To 16 Month Low

Stocks Battered...Down 514 - Oil Slumps

Pakistan Applies For IMF Bailout

Truth Seeps Into Mainstream Media

Fed To Pump $540B More Liquidity

Fed Tries To Prevent 'Great Depression II'

Debt Slavery Is Real Reason Behind The 'Bailout'

When Inflation Erupts, Gold Will Take Off

Pound Tumbles As BoE Admits Recession

More Euro Banks May Fail Says IMF

Dow Drops 231 On The Day

Central Banks Scramble To Buy Dollars

No China Cash Bailout For Pak - Next Stop IMF

Kerkorian Dumps 2/3 Of Ford Stock

Putin - Russia Well Prepared To Survive Crisis

Dreamer Bush Says Economic 'Panic' Easing

The Spreading Worldwide Storm

Markets Soar As LIBOR Starts To Fall

Bernanke Wants Second 'Stimulus' Package

Thursday, October 23, 2008

WSJ.com - AIG Agrees to Freeze Executive Payouts

AIG agreed to freeze some $19 million in payments to its former CEO Martin Sullivan while New York's Cuomo reviews executive compensation and other expenditures.

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More economic issues

ASIA PLUNGE THURSDAY...

THE BLOOD CONTINUES... Dow Tumbles More Than 500 Pts... ...stocks at fresh five-year low

Brazilian stock market suspended...

Maybe U.S. Needs Yard Sale

By Eric Margolis

Russia could buy back Alaska or perhaps Canada could pick up sunny Florida. Continue

Monthly job losses up across 41 states: More than 80% of states reported jobs disappearing in September, with Michigan suffering the highest losses, according to a government report.

Fewer prescriptions filled as economy worsens: The tumbling economy may be making Americans queasy, but they're apparently so worried about their pocketbooks that they're skipping their meds.

Nikkei Hits 5 And 1/2 Low

Oil Sinks To 16 Month Low

Stocks Battered...Down 514 - Oil Slumps

Pakistan Applies For IMF Bailout

Truth Seeps Into Mainstream Media

Fed To Pump $540B More Liquidity

Fed Tries To Prevent 'Great Depression II'

Debt Slavery Is Real Reason Behind The 'Bailout'

When Inflation Erupts, Gold Will Take Off

Pound Tumbles As BoE Admits Recession

More Euro Banks May Fail Says IMF

Dow Drops 231 On The Day

Central Banks Scramble To Buy Dollars

No China Cash Bailout For Pak - Next Stop IMF

Kerkorian Dumps 2/3 Of Ford Stock

Putin - Russia Well Prepared To Survive Crisis

Dreamer Bush Says Economic 'Panic' Easing

The Spreading Worldwide Storm

Markets Soar As LIBOR Starts To Fall

Bernanke Wants Second 'Stimulus' Package

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Glenn Beck on the Economy

This post is an e-mail CNN talkshow host Glenn Beck has been e-mailing to family and friends regarding his thoughts about the economy. It covers quite a few different things, but we found the tips and stats about the economy were pretty interesting.

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The Blood Continues

THE BLOOD CONTINUES...

Bush says economic 'panic' easing: Is he joking?

He also still says that we are in an economic " slow down ", refusing to use the appropriate word: Recession. George W. Bush is still living in his own delusional bubble disconnected from reality.

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Bailout beneficiaries are also masters of dodging taxes

Some of the financial giants that are turning to US taxpayers for unprecedented assistance have used disputed practices over the years to avoid the payment of billions of dollars in taxes for themselves and their clients, according to tax specialists, court records, and a Senate investigation committee.

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Guess Where YOUR Bailout $$ Is Going? - Bank Mergers

The Wall Street Journal reports that, rather than extending credit to embattled American consumers, banks may use recently allocated taxpayer funds to gobble up competitors. Zions and BB&T are eager to go shopping for attractively priced banks, and are considering accepting government funds to do so

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Fed would grant up to $540B to money market funds

The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday that it will provide up to more than $500 billion in financing to bolster the money market mutual fund industry, its latest effort to get credit flowing more freely again.

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Libertarian Candidate Bob Barr Discusses Economic Crisis

Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, the Libertarian presidential nominee, sits down with Judy Woodruff to discuss his party's approach to the economic crisis, foreign policy agenda in Iraq and Afghanistan and his goal of offering a third choice to Americans in this election.

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OPEC Pushing to Cut Production, Drive Up Oil and Gasoline Pr

Just as Americans are finally beginning to reap the benefits of plunging gasoline prices -- including more money in their pockets -- OPEC is getting ready to squeeze them once again by cutting oil production and driving up prices to refineries.

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Bank of America CEO Explains How He Beat Wall Street

Is the new financial capital of our country located in Charlotte, NC? 60 Minutes traveled down south to talk to CEO Ken Lewis about his bank, its recent purchase of Merrill Lynch, whether or not the bank bailout is "socialism" and the economic crisis in general.

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More economic issues

YAHOO firing 1,500 workers; 3Q profit falls 64%...OPEC faces tough test as oil price tumbles...UPDATE: 30 powder-laced letters sent to banks... ...Sent from AmarilloPUMP: Fed to Provide Up to $540 Billion to Aid Money Funds...

Licensed Kleptocracy for Years to Come

The ABCs of Paulson's Bailout

By Michael Hudson

Wall Street is in control, but its policies are so shortsighted that they are eroding the underlying economy – which is passing from democracy to oligarchy, and indeed it seems to a bipartisan financial kleptocracy. Continue

What Went Wrong in the Capitalist Casino?

By Tony Benn

What we are watching is nothing less than the steady transfer of real political power from the polling station to the market and from the ballot to the wallet - reversing the democratic gains we have made over the last century when we were able, increasingly, to use our votes to shape our economic future. Continue

Naomi Wolf, The End of America: “My sense of alarm comes from the clear lessons from history that, once certain checks and balances are destroyed, and once certain institutions have been intimidated, the pressures that can turn an open society into a closed one turn into direct assaults; at that point events tend to occur very rapidly, and a point comes at which there is no easy turning back to the way it used to be.”

Islamic banking escapes fallout: ISLAMIC banking has largely escaped the fallout from the global financial crisis, thanks to rules that forbid the sort of risky business that is felling mainstream institutions.

Layoffs spreading across corporate America: Shock waves from the global financial crisis are now being felt in almost every corner of working America as companies press the eject button on increasing numbers of employees.

Homeless numbers 'alarming': More families with children are becoming homeless as they face mounting economic pressures, including mortgage foreclosures, according to a USA TODAY survey of a dozen of the largest cities in the nation.

Dow Drops 231 On The Day

Central Banks Scramble To Buy Dollars

No China Cash Bailout For Pak - Next Stop IMF

Kerkorian Dumps 2/3 Of Ford Stock

Putin - Russia Well Prepared To Survive Crisis

Dreamer Bush Says Economic 'Panic' Easing

The Spreading Worldwide Storm

Markets Soar As LIBOR Starts To Fall

Bernanke Wants Second 'Stimulus' Package

Sweden Launches Financial Rescue Package

Iceland Agrees To $6B Deal With IMF

France To Inject ¤10.5B Into Top 6 Banks