Bailout plan fails as stocks plummet - 09/29/08 03:06 PM
Dow loses more than 600 points as investors monitor House vote Posted: September 29, 20082:40 pm EasternWorldNetDaily  
Stocks plummeted as the House of Representatives rejected a $700 billion plan to revive nearly stalled credit markets by buying up toxic debt.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average bounced wildly between 400 and more than 600 points as investors watched the congressional vote. The final tally was 228-205 against the bill.
President Bush pressed lawmakers to pass the plan despite vociferous criticism from the public.
Rep. Barney Frank, the Financial Services Committee chairman, said, however, "Many of us feel that the national interest requires us to … (1 comments)

House votes against $700 billion rescue package - 09/29/08 03:00 PM
Ruth Mantell & Steve Gelsi MarketWatchSeptember 29, 2008
WASHINGTON — House lawmakers voted 205 to 228 Monday against approving the historic $700 billion financial rescue plan, a sharp blow to the administration and bipartisan rallying efforts from leaders in Congress who warn that the country is on the brink of an economic precipice.
With elections approaching, some lawmakers — both Democrats and Republicans — may feel nervous about voting for a plan that risks so much taxpayer money and can’t promise success. But the president has lobbied hard to approve the plan, and U.S. officials also have stressed the dire consequences … (2 comments)

Dow drops as bailout defeated - 09/29/08 02:59 PM
Raw Story September 29, 2008
The House failed to pass a $700 billion economic bailout package Monday, sending lawmakers back to the drawing table to try to stave off an economic collapse, and the stock market plummeted on the news.
The package failed on a 228-205 vote after Congressional leaders held the vote open for a half-hour after time had expired as they tried to persuade lawmakers to change their votes. CNN reported that lawmakers wouldn’t hold another vote on the bailout Monday as Congress prepared to adjourn for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown.
The failure … (1 comments)

Critical Research of ‘New World’ literature - 09/29/08 11:00 AM
- Complete and Chronologically Ordered list of all important NWO documents
This is a list of books and works that had greatly contributed in creating the ideology of New World Order - The One World Government!
 
This list is also the proof, that New World Order has been planed for many years by elite group of philosophers, politicians, front scientist, economists, writers and media tycoons. “It is an Ancient Hope” - (J.W.Bush Jr.), that a small group of people through the ages is trying to fulfill.
 
This List also gives the reader a full and complex chronological understanding of … (0 comments)

European Stocks Decline - 09/29/08 10:36 AM
Adria Cimino BloombergSeptember 29, 2008
European stocks tumbled to the lowest since January 2005 after bank bailouts accelerated and the $700 billion plan to rescue American financial institutions failed to unlock money markets.
Fortis lost 19 percent and Dexia SA sank 27 percent as the governments of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were forced to rescue Fortis and the U.K. seized Bradford & Bingley Plc. Hypo Real Estate Holding AG slid 73 percent after the German government and a group of private banks provided a 35 billion- euro ($50 billion) guarantee for the commercial-property lender.
The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index … (0 comments)

Giuliani’s Law Firm Seeking to Profit from Banker Bailout - 09/29/08 10:35 AM
Associated Press September 29, 2008
In the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has begun drumming up business, positioning his law firm to advise corporate clients on how to profit from the government’s $700 billion bailout.
Bracewell & Giuliani LLP announced it has formed a corporate task force to advise “financial institutions, private investment funds, institutional investors and other market participants” on the costly package.
“Our team of former government officials and experienced attorneys in the fields of legislation, enforcement and finance are equipped to guide institutions in this quickly evolving and complex … (2 comments)

Treasury Would Emerge With Vast New Power - 09/29/08 10:34 AM
FLOYD NORRIS The New York TimesSeptember 28, 2008
During its weeklong deliberations, Congress made many changes to the Bush administration’s original proposal to bail out the financial industry, but one overarching aspect of the initial plan that remains is the vast discretion it gives to the Treasury secretary.
The draft legislation, which will be put to a House vote on Monday, gives Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. and his successor extraordinary power to decide how the $700 billion bailout fund is spent. For example, if he thinks it wise, he may buy not only mortgages and mortgage-backed securities, but any … (0 comments)

165 economists rip bailout plan - 09/29/08 10:15 AM

Contend administration proposal has 3 pitfalls Posted: September 25, 20087:08 pm EasternWorldNetDaily
At least 165 economists have signed a letter to Congress members warning of three pitfalls in the Bush administration's $700 billion proposal to deal with the Wall Street crisis.  
The economists say they are well aware of the current financial situation and agree there's a need for bold action but ask Congress "not to rush."
They urge lawmakers to hold appropriate hearings and "to carefully consider the right course of action."
The three problems with the plan proposed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, the economists say, are its fairness, … (3 comments)

Financial Bailout: Thanks but No Thanks - 09/29/08 09:27 AM
Dr. Ellen Brown
Global ResearchSeptember 28, 2008
What Lincoln would have said to Paulson’s $700 Billion Ransom
“These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people, and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle the quarrel.” – Abraham Lincoln, speech to Illinois legislature, January 1837
In July, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said of his massive underwriting scheme for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, “If you have a bazooka in your pocket and people know it, you probably won’t have to use it.”  On September 7, … (0 comments)

Chalmers Johnson, The Pentagon Bailout Fraud - 09/29/08 09:23 AM
Chalmers Johnson and Tom Engelhardt TomDispatchSeptember 29, 2008
Let’s start with the money the Bush administration has already thrown at the war in Iraq. According to the June congressional testimony of William Beach, director of the Center for Data Analysis, the war has cost $646 billion so far. The new defense budget for 2009 tacks on another $68.6 billion for Iraq and Afghanistan in the coming year. However, military expert Bill Hartung of the New America Foundation puts a conservative estimate of the costs of a single week of the Iraq War at approximately $3.5 billion (or about $180 billion a year).
In other words, the war … (2 comments)

Bush confident bailout bill will stabilize economy - 09/29/08 09:21 AM
JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS Associated PressSeptember 29, 2008
WASHINGTON - Key supporters of a Wall Street bailout package prodded lawmakers to approve the plan hours ahead of a difficult House vote on Monday, with President Bush saying it is needed to “keep the crisis in our financial system from spreading throughout our economy.”
“Every member of Congress and every American should keep in mind that a vote for this bill is a vote to prevent economic damage to you and your community,” said Bush, fully aware that congressional passage of the $700 billion compromise legislation is far from assured.
“With this strong … (0 comments)

Stop the Bailout! Save America! - 09/29/08 09:19 AM
The Market Ticker September 29, 2008
You are being asked to pass a $700 billion “bailout” or “rescue” package and are told by your leadership that it is “necessary” to prevent a catastrophe in the financial markets and, by extension, on Main Street.
Please think carefully about the following facts before you vote:
Public opinion is running anywhere from 100:1 to 300:1 against passing this bill, according to sources on Capitol Hill. You must return home after you pass this package to ANGRY constituents with an election less than a month away. Given the massive size of this package, the fact that … (3 comments)

Speaking on conspiracies, Jim Marrs is always great. - 09/29/08 12:23 AM
Jim Marrs on Coast to Coast: Bailout… and Suspension of the Elections?  
YouTubeSeptember 28, 2008
 

… (0 comments)

Rep. Burgess: Congress “under Martial Law” to pass banker bailout bill - 09/28/08 11:17 PM
D. H. Williams
Daily NewscasterSeptember 28, 2008
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) reports from the floor of the House that the Republicans have been cut out of the process and called unpatriotic for not blindly supporting the fraudulent bailout. He says the only debate has been about what talking points to use on the American people. The most ominous revelation is when he claims the Speaker has declared martial law.
“I have been thrown out of more meetings in this capital in the last 24 hours than I ever thought possible, as a duly elected representative of 825,000 citizens of north Texas.”Said Congressman Burgess.
… (5 comments)

Marcy Kaptur warns “there are domestic enemies to the Republic” - 09/28/08 11:16 PM
D. H. Williams  Daily NewscasterSeptember 28, 2008
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) warns the American people about Constitutional enemies of the Republic and the fraudulent trillion(s) dollar bailout…
“My message to the American people don’t let Congress seal this deal. High financial crimes have been committed.”
“The normal legislative process has been shelved. Only a few insiders are doing the dealing, sounds like insider trading to me. These criminals have so much political power than can shut down the normal legislative process of the highest law making body of this land.”
“We are Constitutionally sworn to protect and defend this Republic against … (4 comments)

Orwellian thoughts? - 09/28/08 04:03 PM
How many of you have read "1984" and or "Brave new world"? How do you personaly releate these stories to the world we live in today? I talk to many people from many differnt emplyment fields, This is a good time to find out how real estate mind sets think about our troubled times? Feel free to ask questions conversate and give your thoughts.
I wanna know whats on your mind!
… (6 comments)

With All Eyes on the Bailout, House Passes Trillion-Dollar Defense Bill - 09/28/08 03:41 PM
Joshua Holland AlterNet September 28, 2008.
On Wednesday, the House passed a mammoth defense bill by a 392-39 vote. It’s expected to clear the Senate with little difficulty next week.
It was part of a trillion-dollar stop-gap measure to keep programs running through next March, allowing lawmakers to skip town without passing a final budget. The Associated Press reports, “The legislation came together in a remarkably secret process that concentrated decision-making power in the hands of a few lawmakers.”
In keeping with the tradition of recent years, Bush held a gun to his own head and threatened to pull the trigger … (1 comments)

Lawmakers Reach Tentative Bailout Deal - 09/28/08 03:39 PM
 
MICHAEL R. CRITTENDEN and SIOBHAN HUGHES The Wall Street Jounral September 28, 2008
WASHINGTON — Top U.S. policymakers emerged from hours of tense negotiations just after midnight with a tentative agreement on a deal to bail out U.S. financial markets and began working Sunday morning to commit the legislation to paper.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, (D., Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D. Nev.) were flanked by key negotiators in the Capitol as they announced that a $700 billion plan to have Treasury buy up toxic assets had been all but finalized after days of … (2 comments)

Pulled my site, Back to the drawing board... sigh - 09/28/08 03:54 AM
So I took down the website today and decided to add some new ideas to my creative table. After a few weeks of calling realtors I got enough negative feedback to develop something really great. Well on the bright side of things, I think my new ideas and strategies will really pan out this time. Im going to be bringing something new to the table this time around, something never been done before, something with no competition what so ever. I look forward to developing this product over the next few weeks. Its big, and I'm glad i failed the first time around on this voyage to develop a efficient resource tool for all … (6 comments)

Home For Failed Bankers - Campaign Obama - 09/27/08 08:36 PM
Porcupine Rim September 26, 2008
You can’t swing a cat at Obama HQ without hitting a subprime, junk mortgage failed bank executive or owner. Obama’s economic adviser Franklin Raines, was fired as CEO of FNMA after scandalously faking results to hike management bonuses. Jim Johnson, leading Obama’s VP selection committee, was also a graduate of the dismally failed FNMA CEO office. You may not have been introduced yet to another subprime failed banker haunting the Obama campaign HQ. Meet Obama’s Finance Chair and former owner of failed Superior Bank of Chicago Penny Pritzker. Her bank closed amidst harsh criticism of the … (1 comments)

Ron Paul on Your World with Neil Cavuto - 09/27/08 08:34 PM
… (0 comments)

Are the Big Banks Faking a “Liquidity Crisis”? - 09/27/08 08:32 PM
George Washington’s Blog September 27, 2008
I previously pointed out that when the Japanese government threw cash at their big banks in the 90’s, the banks just horded the money instead of using it to restore "liquidity".
Well, a professor of economics and an expert in liquidity now hints that the entire liquidity "crisis" might be a hoax.
Bloomberg quotes the good professor:
"I suspect that part of what we’re seeing in the freezing up of lending markets is strategic behavior on the part of big financial players who stand to benefit from the bailout,” said David K. Levine, an economist … (0 comments)

US taxpayers are being enrolled in an economic chain gang - 09/27/08 08:31 PM
Jeff Randall Telegraph September 27, 2008
“To preserve their [the people's] independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our selection between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude” - Thomas Jefferson
There was a time, early in America’s history, when its leaders believed in financial discipline. No more. Perpetual debt, which Jefferson feared would enslave future generations, is clamped on Uncle Sam’s undercarriage like a ball and chain. US public borrowing is $9.8 trillion - and rising.
Jefferson, America’s third president (1801-09), is widely regarded as the White House’s most intellectually gifted occupant. … (0 comments)

Farm Aid Letter to Congress on Banker Bailout - 09/27/08 08:29 PM
Farm aid
September 25, 2008
Dear Congress,
As you consider the distribution of $700 billion to the very banks and corporations that have gotten our country into the mess we’re in now, we ask you to pause for a moment and consider what that money could do for the people who build our country from the ground up… for our schools, healthcare system, our states, cities and towns, alternative energy development, the homeowners who were the pawns of the banking and mortgage industry. As the Board of Directors of Farm Aid, we want to alert you to what a mere $1 … (0 comments)

Farm Aid’s Nelson, Mellencamp, Young and Matthews Urge Congress to Redirect Bailout to Working Men and Women, Farmers - 09/27/08 08:28 PM
PRNewswire-USNewswire September 27, 2008
In response to the $700 billion Wall Street bailout currently being considered by Congress, the Farm Aid Board of Directors Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews sent an open letter to Congressional leaders urging them to redirect funds to farm communities and working men and women, where they can be better used to address our country’s economic, environment, energy and health crises.
“The proposed $700 bailout asks taxpayers to foot the bill without giving them the opportunity to share in any gains that might result,” Willie Nelson said. “On the other hand, a $1 … (0 comments)

Trouble in Banktopia - 09/27/08 08:27 PM
Mike Whitney Infowars September 27, 2008
The financial system is blowing up. Don’t listen to the experts; just look at the numbers. Last week, according to Reuters, “U.S. banks borrowed a record amount from the Federal Reserve nearly $188 billion a day on average, showing the central bank went to extremes to keep the banking system afloat amid the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression.” The Fed opened the various “auction facilities” to create the appearance that insolvent banks were thriving businesses, but they are not. They’re dead; their liabilities exceed their assets. Now the Fed is desperate because the … (0 comments)

Dems Drop Mortgage Help for Homeowners from Banker Bailout - 09/27/08 08:24 PM
 
JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS and DAVID ESPO Associated Press September 27, 2008
House Democrats say the idea of letting judges rewrite mortgages to help bankrupt homeowners avoid foreclosure won’t be a part of the $700 billion financial industry bailout.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told Democrats at a closed-door meeting Friday evening the provision would be a deal-breaker for Republicans who she has said must deliver substantial votes for the rescue plan. That’s according to several lawmakers who attended the session.
Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama had said earlier that the measure didn’t belong in the bailout.
Read article
… (0 comments)

Ron Paul: Greenspan, Bernanke Should Be Criminally Charged - 09/26/08 04:30 PM
Paul Joseph Watson Prison PlanetFriday, September 26, 2008
Congressman Ron Paul says that the bailout bill is likely to pass, heralding a 10-year plus economic depression for America and the potential for martial law should civil unrest arise as the financial meltdown worsens.
 
Speaking on The Alex Jones Show, Paul said of the bailout, “They want dictatorship, they want to pass all the penalties and suffering on to the average person on Main Street,” adding, “We will have a depression or recession, it’s locked in place due to previous Federal Reserve actions.”
“When they say that if we don’t do … (3 comments)

WaMu Is Seized, Sold Off to J.P. Morgan, In Largest Failure in U.S. Banking History - 09/26/08 04:28 PM
ROBIN SIDEL, DAVID ENRICH and DAN FITZPATRICK The Wall Street JournalSeptember 26, 2008
In what is by far the largest bank failure in U.S. history, federal regulators seized Washington Mutual Inc. and struck a deal to sell the bulk of its operations to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co
The collapse of the Seattle thrift, which was triggered by a wave of deposit withdrawals, marks a new low point in the country’s financial crisis. But the deal, as constructed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., could hold some glimmers of hope for the beleaguered banking system because it averts any hit to … (0 comments)

Economists: No Bailout Needed - 09/26/08 04:26 PM
Kevin G. Hall McClatchy NewspapersSeptember 26, 2008
A funny thing happened in the drafting of the largest-ever U.S. government intervention in the financial system. Lawmakers of all stripes mostly fell in line, but many of the nation’s brightest economic minds are warning that the Wall Street bailout’s a dangerous rush job.
President Bush and his Treasury secretary, former Goldman Sachs chief executive Henry Paulson, have warned of imminent economic collapse and another Great Depression if their rescue plan isn’t passed immediately.
Is that true?
“It’s more hype than real risk,” said James K. Galbraith, a University of Texas economist and son … (3 comments)

Fed’s Fisher: “We are deeply submerged in a vast fiscal chasm” - 09/26/08 04:25 PM
Vivien Lou Chen BloombergSeptember 26, 2008
Dallas Federal Reserve Bank President Richard Fisher said the U.S. Treasury’s proposed $700 billion rescue of financial institutions would be “a critical first step” toward calming markets even while adding to the U.S. government’s fiscal burden.
The plan by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to buy troubled assets from financial institutions “is an incremental addition to the federal government ledger,” Fisher said today in a speech in New York. Existing federal obligations in Medicare and Social Security mean “we are deeply submerged in a vast fiscal chasm,” he said.
Fisher made the comments as the central … (0 comments)

Former Kissinger Policy Planner, CFR Member Calls For New Global Monetary Authority - 09/26/08 04:24 PM
Steve Watson Infowars.netFriday, Sept 26, 2008
A Council on Foreign Relations member and former policy planner under prominent Bilderberger Henry Kissinger has penned a piece in the Financial Times of London calling for a “new global monetary authority” that would have the power to monitor all national financial authorities and all large global financial companies.
“Even if the US’s massive financial rescue operation succeeds, it should be followed by something even more far-reaching – the establishment of a Global Monetary Authority to oversee markets that have become borderless.” writes Jeffrey Garten, also a former managing director of Lehman Brothers.
Garten, now a … (0 comments)

Joseph Stiglitz: Bailout Scam “Monstrous” - 09/26/08 04:22 PM
Zogby International September 26, 2008
Economy Nobel Prize Joseph Stiglitz last weekend said that the current bail out plan for the U.S. financial sector would be “monstrous” for US taxpayers.
“This plan is nothing else but a short term solution,” said Stiglitz in a Sunday interview with Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS). “We’re turning risk investment funds into the hands of taxpayers,” pointing out that since no private investor wants to take responsibility for “risk investments, we’re simply wall papering them on to the taxpayer, and this is monstrous”.
According to Stiglitz the current crisis marks the end of a “disastrous … (2 comments)

Big bailout is unlikely to work - 09/26/08 04:21 PM
James Saft ReutersSeptember 26, 2008
The U.S. “hold-to-maturity” bailout plan is really just the new “mark-to-myth,” and even its heroic proportions are not likely to paper over solvency problems in the banking system.
Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, told lawmakers that the plan to spend $700 billion to buy up bad assets would allow banks to avoid unloading loans at fire-sale prices.
“Auctions and other mechanisms could be devised that will give the market good information on what the hold-to-maturity price is for a large class of mortgage-related assets,” he said, trying to persuade a skeptical Congress … (1 comments)

Congressman Ron Paul Schools Bernanke on the Bailout Plan - 09/25/08 05:18 PM
Infowars September 25, 2008
Congressman Ron Paul lectures Bernanke on the flaws of the bailout plan and the hazard of the attempt to fix prices versus letting them correct naturally in the free market at the Congressional Hearing today (9/24/08). Ron also questions Bernanke’s authority and constitutionality of using the printing press to generate all this extra money needed for the bailout. … (1 comments)

CBO’s Orszag: Bailout Could Deepen Crisis - 09/25/08 05:16 PM
Frank Ahrens Washington Post September 25, 2008
The director of the Congressional Budget Office said yesterday that the proposed Wall Street bailout could actually worsen the current financial crisis.
During testimony before the House Budget Committee, Peter R. Orszag — Congress’s top bookkeeper — said the bailout could expose the way companies are stowing toxic assets on their books, leading to greater problems.
“Ironically, the intervention could even trigger additional failures of large institutions, because some institutions may be carrying troubled assets on their books at inflated values,” Orszag said in his testimony. “Establishing clearer prices might reveal those institutions to … (0 comments)

Citizens Dumping Personal Junk on Wall Street to Protest Bailout - 09/25/08 05:14 PM
Sarah Lai Stirland AlterNet September 25, 2008
An e-mail that began as a rallying cry from a lone journalist to an influential circle of friends to protest the U.S. government bailout of Wall Street has ignited a national day of street protests. Some demonstrators plan to dump their rubbish in front of the bronze bull sculpture near Wall Street in downtown Manhattan Thursday.
"People are going to bring their own personal junk that they think is worth as much as the junk financial instruments that the government is proposing to buy from the Wall Street banks," says Andrew Boyd, an activist … (2 comments)

What If US Collapses? Soviet Collapse Lessons Every American Needs To Know - 09/25/08 05:12 PM
 
Dmitri Davydov MadConomist September 25, 2008
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am not an expert or a scholar or an activist. I am more of an eye-witness. I watched the Soviet Union collapse, and I have tried to put my observations into a concise message. I will leave it up to you to decide just how urgent a message it is.
My talk tonight is about the lack of collapse-preparedness here in the United States. I will compare it with the situation in the Soviet Union, prior to its collapse. The rhetorical device I am going to use is … (0 comments)

Now that Banker Bailout is Almost a Done Deal, Other Bailouts Loom - 09/25/08 05:10 PM
 
Ilya Somin The Volokh Conspiracy September 25, 2008
Recently, I warned that if Congress passes the Bush Administration’s massive bailout plan for investment banks, we are likely to get more bailouts for other industries. It turns out that at least one industry - the Big Three Detroit auto manufacturers - have already gotten a bigger bailout than they would have otherwise. And that’s just a result of the mere consideration of the administration plan (combined with the earlier Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac bailout); things will be far worse if the plan passes:
With Congress preoccupied with the massive, $700 billion bailout … (2 comments)

The shadow banking system is unravelling - 09/24/08 03:08 PM
Nouriel Roubini Financial TimesSeptember 24, 2008
Last week saw the demise of the shadow banking system that has been created over the past 20 years. Because of a greater regulation of banks, most financial intermediation in the past two decades has grown within this shadow system whose members are broker-dealers, hedge funds, private equity groups, structured investment vehicles and conduits, money market funds and non-bank mortgage lenders.
Like banks, most members of this system borrow very short-term and in liquid ways, are more highly leveraged than banks (the exception being money market funds) and lend and invest into more illiquid and … (0 comments)

Rice Echoes McCain: ‘The Fundamentals Of The U.S. Economy Are Strong’ - 09/24/08 03:07 PM
Think Progress September 24, 2008
Last week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was widely ridiculed for his claim that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong” on the very day that two of Wall Street’s major banking institutions collapsed. In an interview with CNBC yesterday, however, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice echoed McCain, stating that the “fundamentals of the U.S. economy are strong”:
QUESTION: How does a United States in the middle of a global financial crisis affect diplomatic efforts around the world and your efforts? […]
RICE: Everybody understands that this is a very specific, indeed once-in-a-lifetime – well, we certainly hope – … (0 comments)

The Bitter Fruits of Deregulation - 09/24/08 03:03 PM
Paul Craig Roberts InfowarsSeptember 24, 2008
Remember the good old days when the economic threat was mere recession? The Federal Reserve would encourage the economy with low interest rates until the economy overheated. Prices would rise, and unions would strike for higher benefits. Then the Fed would put on the brakes by raising interest rates. Money supply growth would fall. Inventories would grow, and layoffs would result. When the economy cooled down, the cycle would start over.
The nice thing about 20th century recessions was that the jobs returned when the Federal Reserve lowered interest rates and consumer demand increased. In … (0 comments)

Bailout: Not $700 Billion, More Like $5 Trillion - 09/24/08 03:01 PM
Bei Hu BloombergSeptember 24, 2008
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion plan to buy devalued assets from financial companies is “a joke” because it doesn’t go far enough to calm markets, said Kenichi Ohmae, president of Business Breakthrough Inc.
Ohmae, nicknamed “Mr. Strategy” during his 23 years as a McKinsey & Co. partner, called for a $5 trillion “international facility” to be made available to financial institutions. The system could be modeled on one used by Sweden during its banking crisis in the early 1990s, he said.
“This is a liquidity crisis,” Ohmae said at an investor forum hosted by CLSA … (0 comments)

Top 25 Censored Stories for 2008 - 09/23/08 04:56 PM
Top 25 Censored Stories for 2009 #1. Over One Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation # 2 Security and Prosperity Partnership: Militarized NAFTA # 3 InfraGard: The FBI Deputizes Business # 4 ILEA: Is the US Restarting Dirty Wars in Latin America? # 5 Seizing War Protesters’ Assets # 6 The Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act # 7 Guest Workers Inc.: Fraud and Human Trafficking # 8 Executive Orders Can Be Changed Secretly #9 Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Testify # 10 APA Complicit in CIA Torture # 11 El Salvador’s Water Privatization and the Global War on Terror # 12 Bush … (3 comments)

Financial Bailout: America’s Own Kleptocracy - 09/23/08 12:52 PM
Michael Hudson Global ResearchSeptember 23, 2008
Nobody expected industrial capitalism to end up like this. Nobody even saw it evolving in this direction. I’m afraid this failing is not unusual among futurists: The natural tendency is to think about how economies can best grow and evolve, not how it can be untracked. But an unforeseen road always seems to appear, and there goes society goes off on a tangent.
What a two weeks!
On Sunday, September 7, the Treasury took on the $5.3 trillion mortgage exposure of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose heads already had been removed for accounting fraud.
… (0 comments)

Flashback: on the Coming Economic Collapse - 09/23/08 12:51 PM
Infowars
September 22, 2008
 

Originally posted on YouTube, February 04, 2008.
… (0 comments)

Taxpayers, Congress Push Back Against Bailout - 09/23/08 12:45 PM
Matt Renner TruthoutSeptember 22, 2008
Washington, DC - Push back against the massive $700 billion Wall Street bailout proposal has come hard and fast from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle.
The bailout plan proposed by the Bush administration would give the Treasury Department and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson - a former Wall Street CEO himself - the power to buy up extremely risky mortgages and other dangerous debt using taxpayer dollars. Because the US government continues to run a deficit, under the plan, the Treasury would have to borrow money to buy this private sector debt - … (2 comments)

Bank of China buys into Rothschild bank - 09/23/08 12:44 PM
Bank of China buys into Rothschild bank
Shanghai DailySeptember 22, 2008
BANK of China said yesterday it will buy a 20 percent stake in La Compagnie Financiere Edmond de Rothschild for 236.3 million euros (US$340 million) and the two will develop private banking and asset-management services.
“This partnership forms part of Bank of China’s global development strategy,” Bank of China chairman Xiao Gang said in a statement. “We expect to further strengthen our asset management operations and product design capabilities in private banking business, and widen the product and service offerings to our clients.”
Beijing-based Bank of China said it … (0 comments)

America Versus the Financial Elite - 09/23/08 12:29 PM
George Washington’s Blog September 23, 2008
The people don’t want it (see this poll showing that only 28% support the bailout; and see this).
Most economists don’t want it (see this and this).
Many congress people don’t want it (see here and here).
So who wants the bailout?
The only people who want it are the big money boys, the ultra elite, including the Wall Street fat cats and Fed who got us into this mess, and their counterparts abroad who would also be bailed out (see this and this).
It is literally America versus the financial elite.

… (1 comments)

Bailout: It’s all part of the New International Economic Order - 09/23/08 12:27 PM
Kurt Nimmo InfowarsSeptember 23, 2008
According to a recent Rasmussen Reports survey, 28% of Americans support the banker bailout plan and another 35% are not sure what to think. “Adding weight to the large number of undecideds is the finding that 82% of Americans are following the bailout story, including 44% who say they are following it very closely. Sixty-five percent (65%) say they are at least somewhat confident they understand the reasons why the plan is being proposed.”
In fact, most people have no idea what’s behind the plan because the corporate media is not telling them the whole story. Most do … (0 comments)

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac Paid McCain Adviser Nearly $2 Million - 09/23/08 12:26 PM
DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and CHARLES DUHIGG The New York TimesSeptember 23, 2008
Senator John McCain’s campaign manager was paid more than $30,000 a month for five years as president of an advocacy group set up by the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to defend them against stricter regulations, current and former officials say.
Mr. McCain, the Republican candidate for president, has recently begun campaigning as a critic of the two companies and the lobbying army that helped them evade greater regulation as they began buying riskier mortgages with implicit federal backing. He and his Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama, … (0 comments)

Can you trust a Wall Street veteran with a Wall Street bailout? - 09/23/08 12:25 PM
Kevin G. Hall McClatchy NewspapersSeptember 23, 2008

Making the rounds on the Sunday morning talk shows, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson repeatedly said today’s financial problems were long in the making. He should know. He was part of the Gold Rush that has brought the global financial system to the brink of collapse.
Paulson presided over one of the most profitable runs on Wall Street as chairman and chief executive officer of investment banking titan Goldman Sachs & Co. from 1999 until President Bush nominated him on May 30, 2006 to take over the Treasury Department.
Back then, Bush saw Paulson’s … (0 comments)

The Treasury Morphs Into A Hedgefund - 09/23/08 12:24 PM
Moon of Alabama September 23, 2008
The Mother of All Bailouts plan gives the Treasury not only authority to buy and sell Mortgage Backed Securities, but allows it to deal in any financial instruments including leveraged derivatives.
This evolved over the various versions.
The original Paulson proposal said:
Sec. 2. Purchases of Mortgage-Related Assets.
(a) Authority to Purchase.– The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States. …Sec. 12. Definitions.
(1) Mortgage-Related Assets.–The term “mortgage-related assets” means residential or commercial mortgages … (0 comments)

It was a good 232 year run. But it is about to be stolen in the night. - 09/22/08 05:04 PM
The end of America as you knew it  
HousingPANICSeptember 22, 2008
America is about to be legally stolen from the people, and given to a very small group of powerful men.
Yes, HP can be a bit dramatic sometimes.
This is not one of those sometimes.
The Patriot Act of Finance, otherwise known as Paulson’s $700 billion bailout bill, if passed in its present form will be the nail in the coffin for an America by, for and of the people.
Just like the Patriot Act appeared to be written before 9/11, so does this Patriot Act of Finance appear … (8 comments)

Half a Trillion Bailout For The Creators of the Market Crisis - 09/22/08 12:08 AM
Bob Chapman The International ForecasterSeptember 21, 2008
US Mortgage bailout at half a trillion, Loss of confidence means end of credibility in the markets. Phony wars, phony values in real estate will cost all of you, financial companies bought out, power consolidated in financial markets, Gold on the rise, stock markets as volatile as a drunken sailor, why are the markets rallying after the big bailout
We recoil in disgust at the way these arrogant sociopaths, the henchmen of the Illuminati at the Fed and in our Treasury Department, led by Bernanke and Paulson, respectively, are taking the toxic waste losses … (4 comments)

Popular Scams of the Rich and Famous - 09/21/08 11:59 PM
Richard Backus Information Clearing HouseSeptember 21, 2008
There are an ever-increasing number of linkages between politicians, big businesses, and rich individuals designed to promote their joint prosperity at the expense of the general public. Money flows in both directions between these “players” under various “pay for play” schemes. Because they unfairly absorb federal tax revenue or deprive the general public of legitimately earned benefits, I refer to these schemes as “scams’. Most are technically “legal’ being based upon law or statute, or founded upon government policy and practice, but have been set up in ways designed to benefit favored individuals. In … (3 comments)

Wall Street Fascism - 09/21/08 05:14 PM
 
Robert Higgs The Independent Institute September 20, 2008
After several days of violent fluctuations, the world’s stock markets registered a massive increase in share prices on Thursday afternoon and on Friday, September 18 and 19, 2008. Why? As the Associated Press put it, “investors stormed back into the market, relieved that the government plans to restore calm to the financial system by rescuing banks from billions of dollars in bad debt. The Dow Jones industrials rose about 365 points, giving them a massive gain of about 775 over two days.”
Other stock markets also rose tremendously: on Friday the S&P 500 … (1 comments)

Full-Spectrum Breakdown - 09/21/08 05:12 PM
 
Mike Whitney Counterpunch September 20, 2008
On Friday morning, Senator Christopher Dodd, the head of the Senate Banking Committee, was interviewed on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Dodd revealed that just hours earlier at an emergency meeting convened by Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, lawmakers were told that “We’re literally maybe days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system.” Dodd added somberly, that in his three decades of serving in public office, he had “never heard language like this.”
The system is at the breaking point, and despite Wall Street’s elation from … (1 comments)

Bankrupt Lehman, Get a Bonus - 09/21/08 05:10 PM
 
John Waples and Danny Fortson Times Online September 21, 2008
Staff at Lehman’s New York office who helped to cause the world’s biggest corporate bankruptcy are to share in a $2.5 billion bonanza.
The bonus, which has been described by London staff as a “scandal” has been pledged by Barclays Capital, the British-based bank that last week acquired Lehman’s American operation and took on 10,000 staff.
The $2.5 billion (£1.4 billion) pot, which has been ring-fenced as part of the acquisition, has caused huge resentment among the 5,000 staff in the firm’s European and Middle Eastern operations who are not … (1 comments)

Bush Seeks “Dictatorial Power” in Bailout Plan - 09/21/08 05:08 PM
 
Alison Fitzgerald and John Brinsley Bloomberg September 21, 2008
The Bush administration asked Congress for unchecked power to buy $700 billion in bad mortgage investments from U.S. financial companies in what would be an unprecedented government intrusion into the markets.
The plan, designed by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, is aimed at averting a credit freeze that would bring the financial system and economic growth to a standstill. The bill would bar courts from reviewing actions taken under its authority.
“It sounds like Paulson is asking to be a financial dictator, for a limited period of time,” said historian John Steele … (0 comments)

Major Stock Market Crash Ahead? Comparing 1929 to 2008 - 09/21/08 05:07 PM
 
WebPennys September 21, 2008
Reviewing the history of the great stock market crash of 1929, its hard not to see the uncanny similarity that can be drawn between present time and the lead up to the great stock market crash of 1929……..
Following the great stock market crash of 1929, the US Govt. created the Pecora Commission in 1932 to study what had caused the great crash, to learn about and then adjust financial policy to prevent a similar stock market crash in the future.
One of the main factors the Pecora Commission cited as a possible cause for the … (3 comments)

Exclusive: Foreign banks may get help - 09/21/08 02:57 PM
By MIKE ALLEN | 9/21/08 7:24 AM EDT
In a change from the original proposal sent to Capitol Hill, foreign-based banks with big U.S. operations could qualify for the Treasury Department’s mortgage bailout, according to the fine print of an administration statement Saturday night.
The theory, according to a participant in the negotiations, is that if the goal is to solve a liquidity crisis, it makes no sense to exclude banks that do a lot of lending in the United States.
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson confirmed the change on ABC's "This Week," telling George Stephanopoulos that coverage of foreign-based banks is "a distinction without a difference to the American people."
… (1 comments)

Hank Paulson Has Become Col. Kurtz - 09/21/08 02:53 PM
Hank Paulson Has Become Col. Kurtz
Press TV September 20, 2008

Paulson and the Treasury are “rogue traders” aided and abetted by Bernanke and the Fed, according to journalist and broadcaster Max Keiser.
… (0 comments)

Wall Street Leads the Socialist Revolution - 09/21/08 02:42 PM
John Kelley
OpEdNews
September 21, 2008
Sometimes being able to say, “I told you so.” doesn’t feel good at all. As long ago as three years ago I along with a few financial experts (namely economists Nouriel Roubini of New York University and Paul Krugman) were predicting this financial meltdown, based on the arcane and convoluted treatment of debt instruments as commodities. Unlike these scholars, I didn’t even get it through the esoteric study of economics; I read it day in and day out in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and a variety of internet sites. Not exactly … (0 comments)

Both Sides of the Banker Party Argue Taxes - 09/20/08 08:07 PM
<!-- .style1 { font-size: 14px } --> Kurt Nimmo Infowars September 20, 2008 Once again, Joe Biden opened his mouth and inserted a foot, this time declaring paying taxes is somehow patriotic. Joe has a caveat, of course — only the “rich” will pay these new taxes. For Joe, the rich make over $250,000.

Joe, let’s talk reality here. $250,000 is not rich. In this day and age, with government and banker imposed inflation, funny money devaluation, and all kinds of taxes already in place, $250,000 is middle class, not rich.
Joe knows this, he also knows this sort of … (1 comments)

Another Bank Failure: Ameribank Inc. - 09/20/08 07:55 PM
Catherine Clifford CNNMoneySeptember 20, 2008
Ameribank Inc. was shut down on Friday by the Office of the Thrift Supervision, making it the 12th bank this year to go under.
The Northfork, West Virginia bank had total assets of $115 million and total deposits of $102 million, according to a statement on the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Web site.
The FDIC was named receiver and announced that it entered into purchase and assumption agreements with Pioneer Community Bank, Inc., Iaeger, West Virginia, and the Citizens Savings Bank, Martins Ferry, Ohio, to take over all of Ameribank’s deposits.
Ameribank has five branches located … (2 comments)

U.S. government should bail out of bailouts - 09/20/08 01:14 PM

Posted: September 18, 20088:43 pm EasternWorldNetDaily
 
The last thing government officials should do is try to bail us out of the economic crisis they are responsible for creating in the first place.
The lack of oversight provided by Chris Dodd and Barney Frank of the Banking andFinancial Services subcommittee is unprecedented and should require the immediate dismissal of both men. Their decisions, which have in large part brought about the current market crisis, make the decisions made during Hurricane Katrina look like sheer genius.
Campaign contributions have a miraculous way of clouding any career politician's ability to make intelligent choices that … (2 comments)

Guess again who's to blame for U.S. mortgage meltdown - 09/20/08 01:07 PM
Posted: September 19, 20086:19 pm Eastern
By Drew Zahn© 2008 WorldNetDaily
While many pundits are pointing to corporate greed and a lack of government regulation as the cause for the American mortgage and financial crisis, some analysts are saying it wasn't too little government intervention that cased the mortgage meltdown, but too much, in the form of activists compelling the government to pressure Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae into unsound – though politically correct – lending practices.
"Home mortgages have been a political piñata for many decades," writes Stan J. Liebowitz, economics professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, in a chapter of his forthcoming … (0 comments)

The Party’s Over - 09/20/08 01:02 PM
Patrick Buchanan Yahoo NewsSeptember 20, 2008
The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people’s wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another.
The new era will see a more sober and much diminished America. The “Omnipower” and “Indispensable Nation” we heard about in all the hubris and braggadocio following our Cold War victory is history.
Seizing on the crisis, the left says we are witnessing the failure of market economics, a failure of conservatism.
This is nonsense. What we are witnessing is … (5 comments)

Flashback: Cheney Bet On Economic Collapse - 09/20/08 01:00 PM
Mike Whitney Information Clearing HouseSeptember 20, 2008
Editor’s note: Mike Whitney wrote this article on the 4th of July, 2006. Cheney’s portfolio is simply more evidence that the current economic crisis was manufactured in advance. Darth Cheney is either clairvoyant or somebody tipped him off.
Wouldn’t you like to know where Dick Cheney puts his money? Then you’d know whether his “deficits don’t matter” claim is just baloney or not.
Well, as it turns out, Kiplinger Magazine ran an article based on Cheney’s financial disclosure statement and, sure enough, found out that the VP is lying to the American people for … (3 comments)

I thought you would like this picture. lol - 09/20/08 12:54 PM

… (2 comments)

Video: Rep. Marcy Kaptur Takes Wall Street to Task - 09/20/08 12:44 PM
YouTubeSeptember 20, 2008
Rep. Marcy Kaptur gets it right — sort of. Wall Street and the banksters are not irresponsible, as she claims, they are criminals who methodically plotted to loot as much money as they could from the markets and then turn the corpse over to the American people, who they know will be obliged to pay for the damages.
… (0 comments)

The Money Masters: A Primer on the Federal Reserve - 09/20/08 12:36 PM
The Money Masters DVD is a 3 1/2 hour non-fiction, historical documentary that traces the origins of the political power structure and central banking. Google it! … (1 comments)

China Blames Wall Street Meltdown On Fed Overissuance Of Currency - 09/19/08 05:19 PM
Paul Joseph Watson & Yihan Dai Prison PlanetFriday, September 19, 2008

China’s state media today reports on the real reason behind the Wall Street meltdown and a subject that the mainstream US media dare not mention - the Federal Reserve’s overissuance of currency - which the Chinese say is part of a wider agenda to justify increased control over the global economy.
The Bush administration today announced a plan to use hundreds of billions of dollars of taxpayer money to buy up up bad mortgages and other debts. The process of injecting more fiat money into an already over-inflated system had the … (0 comments)

Ron Paul On the Banker Bailout - 09/19/08 05:04 PM
Thoughts? … (5 comments)

Nobel Prize Winning Economist: Crisis As Bad As Great Depression Or Worse - 09/19/08 01:18 PM
Former chief economist for the world bank says “you have to be in fantasy land to say that everything is fine”
Steve WatsonInfowars.netWednesday, Sept 17, 2008
Two time Nobel-prize winner and former chief economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz has warned that the current financial crisis will continue for at least another eighteen months and in many ways represents a worse situation than the one faced by Americans during the great depression of the 1930s.
“You can paper things over for a while but eventually you have to face reality.” Stiglitz told the nationally syndicated Alex Jones show yesterday.
… (7 comments)

Up To 500 Bank Closures Could Absorb FDIC Funds - 09/19/08 12:51 PM
Patterson warns of 20-25 per cent chance of new great depression this year
Paul Joseph WatsonPrison PlanetThursday, September 18, 2008
Mark Patterson, chairman of private equity fund MattlinPatterson, told an audience of financial experts at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria this week that the U.S. could suffer up to 500 bank closures and that the chances of a new great depression are now as high as 25 per cent.
Financial conditions are “probably more challenging than at any time since 1929,” Patterson said, speaking at Dow Jones’ Private Equity Analyst Conference this week.
“We’re not in normal times. If you don’t accept … (2 comments)

Congressman warns middle class in danger of being wiped out, says Congress is oblivious and Fed has no clue - 09/19/08 12:47 PM

Steve WatsonInfowars.netThursday, Sept 18, 2008
Congressman Ron Paul has issued a stinging address concerning the financial crisis in which he outlines how the current economic problems, created via malinvestment and shift to a debt based economy, are now being mismanaged by private interests in secret.
What’s more he says he is not sure the Federal Reserve has any idea what to do next and that the Congress is totally oblivious to the whole sorry state of affairs - a cocktail of elements he warns puts the middle class of America in serious jeopardy.
“Today we had a lot of financial … (0 comments)

China Paper Urges New Currency Order After “Financial Tsunami” - 09/19/08 12:42 PM
Reuters September 18, 2008

Threatened by a “financial tsunami,” the world must consider building a financial order no longer dependent on the United States, a leading Chinese state newspaper said on Wednesday.
The commentary in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily said the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEH.P: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) “may augur an even larger impending global ‘financial tsunami’.”
The People’s Daily is the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, and the overseas edition is a smaller circulation offshoot of the main paper.
Its pronouncements do not necessarily directly reflect leadership views, but … (2 comments)

Dodd: The United States May Be “Days Away from a Complete Meltdown of Our Financial System” - 09/19/08 12:35 PM
Associated PressSeptember 19, 2008
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd says the United States may be “days away from a complete meltdown of our financial system” and Congress is working quickly to prevent that.
Dodd said Friday that Democrats and Republicans on the Hill are coming together to support the Bush administration’s developing plan to buy up bad debt from financial institutions and get the credit system working again. Dodd told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the nation’s credit is seizing up and people can’t get loans.
The ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, Senator Richard Shelby, predicts the new bailout … (2 comments)

Stock Raiding Clause in AIG Bailout Package - 09/19/08 12:27 PM
Kurt Nimmo, Infowars, September 18, 2008 I knew there was a good reason not to “play” the stock market. Jim Willie writes for Kitco today:
Hidden inside the AIG bailout funding package, surely hastily cobbled together, but carefully enough to include a totally corrupt clause, was a handy dandy clause that permits raids. The conglomerate financial firms are permitted at this point to use private individual brokerage account funds to relieve their own liquidity pressures. This represents unauthorized loans of your stock account assets. So next, if the conglomerate fails, your stock account is part of the bankruptcy process. Finally the corrupt USGovt and corrupt … (2 comments)

Impacts of the Financial Crisis: The U.S. Is Becoming an Impoverished Nation - 09/19/08 12:20 PM
Richard C. CookGlobal ResearchSeptember 19, 2008
Everything the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury Department are trying to do to stem the tide of the self-destructing U.S. financial system is a stopgap. They are locking the barn door after the horse—many horses—have already escaped, and they know it.
They also know the cause of the crisis is not subprime mortgage lending—that was just the trigger. Cries to re-regulate the failed financial industry are coming from Congress, the media, and investors around the world. But lax regulation is not the cause of the problem either.
For now, all the Federal Reserve can … (3 comments)

Paulson Plan Could Cost Americans $1 Trillion - 09/19/08 12:15 PM
Mike Allen, Politico, September 19, 2008 Congressional leaders said after meeting Thursday evening with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that as much as $1 trillion could be needed to avoid an imminent meltdown of the U.S. financial system. Paulson announced plans Friday morning for a “bold approach” that will cost hundreds of billions of dollars. At a news conference at Treasury headquarters, he called for a “temporary asset relief program” to take bad mortgages off the books of the nation’s financial institutions. Congressional leaders had left Washington on Friday, but Paulson planned to confer with them … (5 comments)

FDIC Failed Bank List - 09/19/08 11:58 AM
… (0 comments)

 


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