Everyone Is Going Bankrupt

October 7, 2008

Elaine Meinel Supkis

US will again, drop interest rates to below 1% and hope this won't create hyperinflation. AIG executives get grilled by Congress now that they are no longer paying Congressmen to do their bidding. Seems they were typical gnomes and used the taxpayer rescue fund to party, have sex with prostitutes and give themselves golden parachutes. Who would have guessed. And Iceland runs to RUSSIA because it is going bankrupt! Russia gains a huge influence there...strategical power up the yin yang! Three South American countries have treaty for doing business without dollars. The dollar is rapidly fading as the global power fiat currency.

Grim Bernanke makes rate cut seem inevitable

Reuters) - A sobering economic assessment from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Tuesday was widely seen as laying the groundwork for a deep cut in U.S. interest rates, possibly before the Fed's end-of-month meeting.

Given a mix of recent weak economic data and a worsening outlook for growth, the Fed "will need to consider whether the current stance of policy remains appropriate," Bernanke told the National Association for Business Economics.

The comments electrified short-term interest rate futures markets, where dealers piled on new bets that the Fed will cut its benchmark lending rate to 1.25 percent this month from the current 2 percent.

Aw, why bother with the baby steps? Make it zero and thus, butcher the Japanese carry trade, once and forever? Of course, this won't even slightly help us fix our trade deficit with Japan! Japan still won't buy much of anything from us even if our interest rate is -5%. They just lock the doors and tell us to go hang. This, of course, is our dear ally in Asia. Who we protect virtually for free. What a great exchange this is...if we do more of these, we will end up bankrupt.

One would imagine, the threat of being forced to pay reparations for WWII by the Chinese would motivate the LDP in Japan to be more cooperative. But they see no need for this thanks to some of the stupidest trade negotiators on earth: the US team is riddled with treasonous people who work for aliens, not the US.

The dying DOW should provide some minor motivation for the guys doing the trade deals. But then, nothing seems to prick them into action when it comes to balancing our trade relations.

The fall of the DOW is now nearing 1930's territory. I saw mention of how this is now as bad as in 1937. Ouch. If it falls below 7,000, then we will be talking about 1933 levels. I see stories all over the media explaining how this isn't the Great Depression. All these media props explain that after 4 years of depression, X, Y and Z was happening. Then, like second graders, they point to Year One of this depression and shout, 'You see, it is NOT the same at all!'

Being jerks, they don't mention the difference in time frames. Comparing 4 or 6 years of depression with one year, barely one year, depression is very dishonest. But then, this is why this army of pundits were hired: to lie. They are shameless hussies. But stupid! 60% of Americans now think we are rolling into a depression. Just like over 60% didn't want to bail out all those greedy gnomes, too.

A day after questioning the compensation and spending at the bankrupt Lehman Brothers, lawmakers exploring the causes of the credit crisis were treated on Tuesday to examples of the spending habits at another troubled financial firm.

A week after the insurance giant, the American International Group, received an $85 billion federal bailout, its life insurance subsidiary, AIG General, held a weeklong retreat for its top sales agents at the exclusive St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif. Expenses for the week, lawmakers were told, totaled $442,000, including $200,000 for hotel rooms, $150,000 for food and $23,000 in spa charges.

In addition, the former A.I.G. executive who led the London-based division whose implosion is largely blamed for the insurance giant’s downfall, Joseph J. Cassano, continues to receive $1 million a month from the company, on top of the $280 million he received in the last eight years.

And even after A.I.G. reported $5 billion in losses in the final quarter of 2007, its chief executive at the time, Martin J. Sullivan, argued before a compensation committee that executives should receive performance bonuses. He received $5 million.

What will it take to get these FRAUDS and THIEVES arrested? The minute that information came out that these clowns, after demanding we bail them out, ran out and got drunk and fiddled around in an expensive resort: this is criminal. They should be prosecuted. I want every penny of that bail out returned! Not one red cent for any of them. But then, this is all shadow boxing. 'Bad boy, don't do it again,' scolds a very corrupt Congress. 'Now go home to your palace and have a good bottle of very expensive French wine and swim in your Olympic sized pool and wait for us to bring you back to scold you again.'

Note how these gnomes manage to get millions in pay when failing miserably. Talk about failing upwards! They are shameless. And should be thrown to the wolves, not saved. I wish I was paid millions for losing money. But then, I would have to lose money, first. Hmmm....burning it is a good plan. Or feeding it to some milk cows.

Greenberg Blames Successors for AIG Downfall in U.S. Testimony

(Bloomberg) -- Maurice ``Hank'' Greenberg, former chief executive officer of American International Group Inc., said his successors' actions led to record losses that forced the insurer into an $85 billion U.S. bailout.

Greenberg, who ran AIG for 38 years before being ousted in 2005, told congressional investigators that the company was healthy when he left and that controls he put in place were weakened or eliminated.

``When I left AIG, the company operated in 130 countries and employed approximately 92,000 people,'' Greenberg said in a written statement presented to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform in Washington. ``Today, the company we built up over almost four decades has been virtually destroyed.''

Greenberg and two successors -- Martin Sullivan, who was CEO for three years until June, and Robert Willumstad, an ex- Citigroup Inc. president who ran AIG until last month -- each said they weren't responsible for the firm's collapse. AIG, weakened by three quarterly losses of more than $18 billion tied to the housing slump and downgrades of its credit ratings, agreed Sept. 16 to a takeover that gives the U.S. a 79.9 percent stake.

He is a liar. He is also passing the buck. The real issue here is why are ALL the G7 banks failing, all at once. And why ALL the top insurers, the bigger, the more they fall, are falling like dominos. This is not 'bad management' but a HORRIBLE SYSTEM. The entire system from top to bottom, is rotten to the core. It stinks like a skunk run over by a semi. It is now due to individual failures. This is across the board collapse!

Look at how JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs both, with NO warning, with the help of the Treasury and others, suddenly and capriciously converted their investment banks into regular vanilla, plain old banking banks. All this, so they could avoid the consequence of their systematic choices that were all 100% disastrous.

Brazil, Argentina start bilateral transaction with local currencies

(Xinhua) -- Brazil and Argentina, two biggest economies in South America, Monday launched a new payment system of bilateral transaction with their local currencies, aimed at eliminating the U.S. dollar as an intermedium.

The new system was agreed by presidents of the two countries early last month to end decades of mandated trade in dollars.

Argentine Central Bank President Martin Redrado and Brazilian Central Bank President Henrique de Campos Meirelles signed the enforcement of the agreement, the Payment System on Local Currency(SML), last Thursday.

Under the system, exporters and importers from both countries will make their exchanges with Brazilian reais and Argentine pesos.

As the US empire goes bankrupt, lending to itself so it can lend to banks so they can lend to each other, this massive pass the buck and keep the money bags Ponzi scheme is doomed to collapse. Everyone can't lend to each other! Someone in the system must have CAPITAL and have reserves. I said repeatedly in the past, the US had an obligation to increase our national reserves when we saw Russia, China, Japan, Britain, the Cayman Islands and nearly everyone, even Peru and Argentina, running up bigger and bigger FOREX reserves.

Our own reserves have sat at $64 billion nearly my entire adulthood! At no point did any of our chiefs decide it was time to match the funds of other nations. The excuse I was told was simple: why, being the fiat currency, we can make our FOREX reserves any size we want by printing the money!

Well, that isn't working too hot, is it?

Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde warns nation of bankruptcy

The Icelandic banks have not escaped this banking crisis any more than other international banks and their position is now very serious. In recent years the growth and profitability of the Icelandic banks has been like something akin to a fairytale. Major opportunities arose when the access to capital on foreign money markets reached its peak, and the banks together with other Icelandic companies, exploited these opportunities to launch into new markets.

Over this period the Icelandic banks have grown hugely and their liabilities are now equivalent to many times Iceland’s GNP. Under all normal circumstances larger banks would be more likely to survive temporary difficulties, but the disaster which is now engulfing the world is of a different nature, and the size of the banks in comparison with the Icelandic economy is today their main weakness.

When the international economic crisis began just over a year ago with the collapse of the real estate market in the U.S. and chain reactions due to the so-called sub-prime loans, the position of Icelandic banks was considered to be strong, as they had not taken any significant part in such business. But the effects of this chain of events, have turned out to be more serious and wide ranging than anyone had expected.
*snip*
The position has today altered completely and for the worse. Major credit lines to the banks have been closed and it was decided this morning to suspend trading with the banks and with the savings funds in the Icelandic Stock Exchange.

Iceland decided to become a pirate cove like the Cayman Islands. They were identical to New Zealand: super-high interest rates attracted vast sums from across the planet. Many English savers parked their funds foolishly there. Iceland and New Zealand's games fed the Japanese carry trade as this was a global circular flow from the Bank of Japan to these two places that wanted desperately to imitate the pirate coves run by Her Majesty, the Queen of England.

But when the Japanese carry trade collapsed due to the yen strengthening, Iceland fell off the cliff. I used to read the Daily Pfenning until I got just too disgusted with Chuck's foolish predictions. Here is one of his biggest whoppers yet:

Sept. 30, 2005: Chuck Butler's

Daily Pfennig

The Icelandic Krona continues to be the 'hot currency investment' here on the desk. We are receiving a number of calls from investors both new and old who are interested in this tiny economy and its potential currency gains. But we are not the only ones who have noticed this opportunity. Neil George, editor of popular Personal Finance newsletter has written several times on the benefits of investing in this country. Here is an excerpt from his daily newsletter 'By George':

"ICY HOT

For years now, I've been pushing folks to invest in and travel to one of my favorite islands in the North Atlantic. Now, thanks to some changes and more participation in Iceland's currency, stock and bond markets, it's time for us to take a harder look and send some cash to the small island economy.

This is no puffy travel piece on Iceland. This is about a market that's made up of 286,275 people who have taken what the rock-strewn island has to offer and are making it work. And they do such an impressive job that we're devoting valuable space and your time to convince you to give this market consideration.
*snip*
Setting the stage for investment flows is the government. It's been deregulating the capital markets aggressively while reforming and tightening fiscal and monetary policies, which credit rating agencies and global investors are lauding. Iceland is a AAA credit, which the bond market is rapidly recognizing."

Anyone who followed this advice can enjoy eating raw fish, non-sushi style. Or if they get mad enough, they can chop up Chuck and feed him to the walruses and killer whales. Ireland's AAA rating is like all those AAA ratings. The alphabet must be upside down if these ZZZ bankrupt entities are all AAA. The AAA rating in 2005 was dead wrong. Why is that?

The ratings experts are supposed to know the difference between an unsustainable bubble, impossible long-range economic plan and sudden surges in 'wealth'. The AAA ratings have to have some history to them. Just like the US has an AAA rating but it certainly does not deserve this. The US is doomed to bankruptcy due to deep in-the-red spending. These ratings are important because they are used to sell 30 year or even 50 year paper that has an artificially low yield compared to future risks.

The entire floating currency system suffers from this: it is so unstable, it can't be projected into the future by even two or three years.

Savers frozen out as Icesave website collapses

A message on the Icesave website said: “We have been experiencing intermittent faults with our website over the last 12 hours. These were intermittent faults randomly affecting different groups of customers at random intervals. Our IT team has now resolved the issue.”

But Times readers said this morning that the website was allowing them to look at their accounts but not to take money out.

Big gains=big risks. The lies about risks is a con game. And Iceland played it just like AIG or Lehman or Goldman Sachs. They all lied about this because they thought the Derivatives Beast killed RISK, not BANKERS! Well, they were utterly wrong and totally stupid. Iceland is doing what all the hedge fund off shore pirate hell hounds are doing: you can look at your money but NO TOUCH. No, it stays firmly in their hands.

I once got in a tussle over a $20 bill someone tried to snitch from me as I passed it to a clerk in a store. They just reached out and grabbed it. I wouldn't let go. It got mean. I had to use major force and raise my voice to 'You are under ARREST!' levels before the guy let go! See? If one wants to keep one's wealth, a certain amount of force is sometimes necessary.

Russia Lends Iceland 4 Billion Euros to Save Banks

(Bloomberg) -- Iceland got a 4 billion-euro ($5.43 billion) loan from Russia, pegged the krona to a trade-weighted index and nationalized the nation's second-biggest bank after the currency's slump and bad debts crippled the financial system.

The fixing of the krona, at a rate corresponding to 131 per euro, applies for today, according to the Icelandic central bank's Web site. Further moves to boost the currency will be announced in coming days, it said.

WOW. Iceland was a very important part of the anti-Russian defenses for the US and NATO! Now, Iceland is beholden to Russia. Neither the US nor Europe came to the rescue. This is a MAJOR strategic victory for the Russkies. Congratulations for playing international politics so astutely. Right on the heels of the US and Europe screwing Russia in Georgia! Match, point, set for the Russians. Maybe we can borrow more money from China so we can rescue Iceland!

Click here to see how banks have plummeted in value in England:

Feeling the Pain As Irish Property Values Plummet

In countries such as Ireland, the punch has been twice as hard, because the faraway problems combined with homegrown ones that were just as severe. In Ireland, an overheated property market crashed and left banks saddled with massive amounts of bad debt.

This summer, as the Wall Street crisis came to a head, Ireland's did, too. The government announced that the economy was in recession for the first time in 25 years.

Last week, as the Irish stock market dived and some of its banks appeared on the brink of collapse, the government stepped in with a $550 billion guarantee of all deposits in six major Irish banks.
*snip*
The Irish government's response to its financial crisis has surprised European leaders. It guaranteed all bank deposits, no matter how large, for two years -- a promise potentially worth more than twice the country's gross domestic product. On Sunday, German officials, in emergency meetings over their troubled banks, announced that their government would also guarantee private bank accounts.

Ireland was the poster child for booming economy due to playing banking games just like Iceland. And is following the exact same trajectory downwards. And this is due to the collapse of the Japanese carry trade. This is, as I keep saying, the core issue. The US hopes to replace Japan in this role. I don't know if that is possible.

US Mint halts some American Eagle coin production

(Reuters) - Unprecedented demand for precious metals and volatile markets forced the U.S. Mint to cease production for the half-ounce and quarter-ounce popular American Eagle gold coins for the rest of this year and to supply other bullion coins on an allocation basis.

"Due to the extreme fluctuating market conditions for 2008, as well as current market conditions, gold and silver demand is unprecedented and the demand for platinum is unusually high," the U.S. Mint said in a Monday memorandum to its authorized coin dealers.

"The U.S. Mint has worked diligently to attempt to meet demand, however, blank supplies are very limited and it is necessary for the U.S. Mint to focus remaining bullion production primarily on American Eagle Gold One Ounce and Silver One Ounce Coins," the Mint said.

The Mint said it would continue to supply one-ounce American Eagle gold coins and one-ounce American Eagle silver coins on an allocation basis to coin dealers.

For half-ounce and quarter-ounce American Eagles, the Mint said that inventory was depleted last week and no more coins would be produced for 2008.

The true value of gold is much higher than the 'markets' show. Obviously, if the US can't make gold coins anymore, it makes us wonder.

ARE WE OUT OF GOLD? GOOD GRIEF! Last week, the Federal Reserve and Treasury did this mysterious 'swap' to keep the US dollar going as the global fiat currency. And what did they swap?

GOLD! Of course! And now, they can't use it to make coins to sell for paper dollars of dubious value! This is troublesome indeed. And barely makes the news outside of the realm of the online gold bugs. Who suspect, rightfully, they are being manipulated by the authorities. Who would have guessed...har.

Forget tin foil hats, we all need to put on our gold foil bonnets. We are not stupid if we are paranoid.

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Comments

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

The NIKKEI is now collapsing. And tomorrow isn't even Thursday, the day of Doom!

Toyota sales are definitely now collapsing due to their SUV sales falling through the floor.

[RobG]

"Iceland decided to become a pirate cove"

Wow - excellent analysis.

[Anthony]

Hey, that's from 2005, instead of 2008 daily pfennig. (which was correct that iceland was climbing fast. He is a currency trader afteral)

ELAINE: THANKS FOR THE CORRECTION. I made a mistake based on the time tag at the top of the story that was not correct. I looked at it and saw the other time tag.

Back then, in 2005, I warned people about places like Iceland because they were playing a really dangerous currency game which led to the Asian Currency Crisis of the late 1990's. Back then, I tracked that mess daily and wrote about it on the NYT forums.

It seems that no one learned any lessons from that mess.

[RobG]

Good assessment of the state of affairs over at Market Ticker:

"More liquidity" will not solve the problem no matter the form. This has now been proven correct through more than a year's "grand experiment" by Bernanke and friends.

The credit markets, along with consumers and banks, are literally choking on all the liquidity being shoved down their throats. It has done exactly nothing to address the problem and won't because:

* Banks and other financial institutions have been repeatedly proven liars in terms of their financial strength and balance sheets. Pick a financial institution and you will find that almost without exception they have claimed "exposure" to bad debt that is a tiny fraction of what is later shown to be accurate. Nobody can fairly evaluate a firm's financial strength so long as this continues; ergo, nobody can have a reasonable degree of trust to lend to such an institution. In addition even settled black-letter law in some regards has been shown to be wantonly (and perhaps feloniously) ignored; Lehman, as an example, is alleged to have transferred segregated customer funds and securities to a Cayman Islands subsidiary shortly before it went under, effectively locking up funds and securities that are supposed to be safe from a bankruptcy proceeding.
* Consumers are tapped out. The House-cum-ATM machine is empty and cannot be refilled. Consumers will retrench severely, even though they have had to be dragged kicking and screaming into that mode. Nearly 18 months ago I detected the trend in the consumer credit data. This recession cannot resolve until the over-leveraged state of the consumer is rectified. That requires that the bad debt be defaulted and thus cleared. Consumers are more than 2/3rds of the economy.
* It is not possible to reflate the credit bubble. We must deal with the reality that the bad debt in the economy - no matter who holds it - must be defaulted.
* There is no "liquidity trap" into which to fall; we are already in the hole as there is no more capacity to borrow; we have exceeded the maximum safe amount of lending that can be accommodated in the economy. When one is in a hole, the first rule is to stop digging.

Personally, I see "Pump it Up!" as policy going forward.

[RobG]

Pump it up (by the other Elvis):

She's (insert 'credit') been a bad girl.
She's like a chemical.
Though you try to stop it,
she's like a narcotic.
You wanna torture her.
You wanna talk to her.
All the things you bought for her,
putting up your temp'rature.

[RobG]

One more post: I started reading 'A Bubble that Broke the World' (Garet Garret) that you recomment - would make them (Paulson and Bernacke) crap their drawers. First words of the book:

Mass delusions are not rare. They salt the human story. The hallucinatory types are well know; so also is the sudden variation called mania, generally localized, like the tulip mania in Holland man years ago or the common stock mania of a recent time in Wall Street. But a delusion affecting the mentality of the entire world at one time was hitherto unknown. All our experience with it original. This is a delusion about credit.

[Richard]

The Queen of England has a son, the Prince of Wales.

Might he be the one to rise to fulfill the Bible prophecy of Sovereign ruler of the world?

[carli]

Elaine, I can't stop laughing, a perfectly executed Ippon Seoinage by Sensei Putin.

Truly the most pleasurable way of getting even with an enemy is to use his own money against him. Clearly, Putin is very much minding the store. I expect Hu will be mimicking him soon.

Btw, what with the Thursday, Day of Doom? What am I missing?

[Zulu]

On another blog I saw this post: "In an act of kindness, the U.S. should consider unleashing its own nuclear arsenal against itself... " But seriously, the Austrian school of economics foretold the tragedies that would befall us if we followed this path. Von Mises was a genius. But whose name did we hear repeated constantly during our school years? Marx. How is it that fools run the world? Why are we so powerless to stop them? I firmly believe Justice will be served. We the unwashed masses may suffer while the elite play their games, but one look at the pyramids of Egypt should tell us that wealth and power are an illusion. Here today, gone tomorrow. Perhaps God has a lesson for us to learn. Will we listen this time?

[carli]

Zulu: Perhaps God has a lesson for us to learn. Will we listen this time?

Reviewing ancient and recent human history is not encouraging, Zulu. I am a firm believer that true happiness cannot be found in duality, only fleeting happiness mixed with misery and pain. Life is a bridge, do not build your house on it. For as long one listens to mind, one will remain in this conundrum called life.

Justice is what makes the world go round, it rules the world. No one escapes it, specially not an ostrich with its head buried in the sand. Clearly, the greatest evil in the world is ignorance.

No worries. As the saying goes, 'Some people change when they see the light, others when they feel the heat.'

There's a lot of heat coming our way brother, and change is in the air; embrace it.

[Paul S]

What will it take to get these frauds/thieves arrested? One can start by throwing their protectors in Congress--and the White House--in prison, long term. That'll make 'em sweat. This won't happen so the "Bleep you , taxpayer" will go on. I suppose we should be thankful Paulson didn't name Angelo Mozilo to administer the bailout finances. Mozilo was most likely passed over because he can't be trusted sending e-mails. HaHa.

[don]

Excellent Elaine.
I watched the debates last night with
McCain and Obama and coming away from
Broad generalizations of how each one
is going to fix this economy, let alone
Medicare to Medicaid. When Tom Brokaw asked
both of them about a time table, neither one
had any specifics,resolutions,dates, on any
economic policy, so it showed me that both of them have no plans at all. I watched the other networks to see their reactions on who
really did the best and who laid the ground
work to fix America. Polls will come out today and say who won, for myself, neither one did. But I did like it when Obama talked about AIG in the beginning and said
the CEO's should be fired. Smoke screen or not, its out there.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

I have a lot to say about the floating currency, collapsing interest rates and the election. Suffice to say that everyone still wants Santa Claus and the merry reindeer/helicopter dropping money, not the Uncle Scrooge 'sound money/savings' system.

About Thursday: this is when, FINALLY, all the biggest banks, the last few that still exist, must deal with settling all those credit default debts! Since all credit seems to be defaulting rapidly, someone owes someone a LOT of loot to the tune of around $6 trillion.

[RobG]

Fed trolls Canada to rescue U.S. banks

In a desperate bid to help U.S. banks recapitalize, Washington is dropping its inhibitions and reaching out to Canadian financial institutions to gauge their willingness to participate in rescue operations.

The Federal Reserve has activated a back channel that puts the central bank in direct contact with chief executives at Canada's largest banks and insurers, according to a person familiar with the dialogue.

They are approaching "banks with major assets in the U.S. like [Toronto-Dominion Bank] and Royal [Bank of Canada], because when they have a bailout situation they want everyone who is a potential buyer to look at it," the source said.

[RobG]

Rate Cut

The Federal Reserve has cut a key interest rate by half a percentage point, striving to steady the reeling financial markets just days after President Bush signed a $700 billion bailout into law.

The Fed announced its decision Wednesday morning and said that it acted in concert with central banks overseas, including the Bank of England.

[PJSV]

Elaine,

Your comment on MISH analysis, please. He says that we will have deflation, not inflation. I think he is right.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/10/real-price-of-gold-soars.html

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
/2008/10/real-price-of-gold-soars.html

[RobG]

Some funny comments on the rate cute over at calculatedRisk:

Nemo writes:
Japan wishes us round-eyes luck with our lost decade.
--------------------------
REBear writes:
150 more to go.
--------------------------
serf alan greenspend writes:
push on that string.
--------------------------
Gainas writes:
Other than a bump at opening today, this is a waste.

We are discouraging savings and encouraging added debt.

We are discouraging foreigners buying our debt.

At some point, we go so far into the hole and the $ gets devalued and we look like a big copy of Iceland.

I hope Russia can help us out.
------------------------------------
Hanging by a thread writes:
Ben should save the last bullet for Hank. Out of control now.
------------------------------------
the_economist writes:
Paulsons actions:

Bazooka
Grenade launcher
shotgun
pistol
slingshot

Next:
throwing stone
yelling loud
running in a serpentine fashion to the parking lot

[John]

"For as long one listens to mind, one will remain in this conundrum called life."

Too true.

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

Oh, Canada! HEH. We can offer our Canadian neighbors the Stanley Cup. And they can capitalize our banks and give us oil.

The G7 concert has some very sour notes.

[Impatient Patriot]

OK wizardess, I've done my chores and have finished all of todays posts reading down through this one.
You are a attention demanding wizarde$$.
Thank you for all your depth and care of presentation.
Sometimes I think I'm doing financial research, and then I run into gnomes and caves. Then I know I'm in a different location.
But I do sleep well. No gnomes in my bat cave.

[ired skelton]

See
"its derivatives......" Brown,
Ellen, et al.

[ired skelton]

See
"its derivatives......" Brown,
Ellen, et al.

[WNC Observer]

The truth of the matter is, the US really could withdraw to North America and establish a defensive perimeter halfway out in the Atlantic and the Pacific, and do just fine. We are blessed by very convenient geography.

The thing is, though, that Iceland is one of the very few allied countries that we really would need to retain under that strategy. We really do need to base ASW units there, or the Russians have an open door to sneak up on our east coast.

We can do without NATO, and we can do without most of the other overseas commitments with which our politicians have managed to entangle us. But we can't do without Iceland.

Of all the stupid, incompetent things the Bush administration has done, this takes the cake. This is a strategic disaster of the first magnitude. Using a chessboard analogy, this is like making a move so idiotic that you open the door to your opponent to checkmate you in just one or two more moves.

Those living in Washington, New York, and other major east coast cities might actually get as much as a whole minute's warning to contemplate the enormity of this stupidity before the sub-launched nuclear cruise missiles stike and put an end to the American empire once and for all.

[Paul S]

Now AIG wants another $37.8 billion. Did these AIG guys accomplish ANYTHING on their $442,000 junket? I'm starting to doubt AIG's commitment to solving this mess. Maybe they need to spend more time with their "recreational therapists", unwind, clear out their minds. Jump on the Paulson bandwagon for the big win. The middle class needs your help Wall Street. HaHaHaHaHa.

[Dutch]

This is so ridiculous its pitiful. Congress should have followed the McHugh plan and cycled out the old money and went to a gold and silver standard. Its our fiat currency that got us here in there first place. The US really needs to declare martial law and give jimmy carter control of our nukes. We need a sergeant major from the army and a gunny from the marines and master chief from the navy to head a tribunal over the executive , legilative, and judicial branches of the government. All witness will be given immunity and stripped of their citizenship. Close the borders and declare neutrality before these dumb bastards leave mushroom clouds up and down both coasts.

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