Gollum Still Wants To Get That $700 Billion

September 30, 2008

Elaine Meinel Supkis

75% of the US public didn't support the Bank Bail Out TARP coup. Yet the vote was somewhat close in Congress. This shows the yawning disconnect between our representatives and the public. The terrible collapse predicted for Monday was merely a fall in stocks and banking gnomes refusing to trust each other...HAHAHA. No trust amongst thieves! Anyway, stocks fell across the world since everyone was hoping that the US public would foot the bill for the entire planet's market systems. Time to examine this and predict what will happen next.

Paulson to Work Quickly With Congress to Revive Plan

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he will work with Congress to salvage a $700 billion rescue plan after the House of Representatives rejected his initial proposal.

``We need to work as quickly as possible; we need to get something done,'' Paulson told reporters at the White House after meeting with President George W. Bush. ``We believe that our plan, and the plan that we developed with congressional leaders and worked so hard, is a plan that works. And we need a plan that works.''

Damn right, 'We need a plan that WORKS.' But Gollum's plan won't work. Or rather, the work it will do will work for Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan but NOT for the people who are going to be on the hook for paying for this wretched plan. And this is what the plan is: making a bunch of life rafts for the ruling elites so they can paddle away while the Titanic sinks!

I can see why poor Paulson is peeing in his panties over all this! His phone is probably ringing off the hook as all his super-rich buddies call him, fangs dripping with blood. 'There will be BLOOD IN THE STREETS,' they shriek. Well, what they think as 'blood' isn't blood at all. The bloody streets come later when angry workers go hunting for them. They are talking red ink here. And their solution is simple: more red ink so they can use this to discharge their own red ink. They want a red ink transfer. So they get wealth and we get the bad debts.

World markets fell because the expectation of goodies collapsed. Let us not forget what happened the week before: stocks were certainly NOT falling at all! Goodness gracious. In anticipation of this tsunami of goodies that would be showered on them, all the gnomes and trolls and hell hounds celebrated. They were absolutely certain, Gollum would get the Ring of Power and then would use this to command the US public to buy garbage and hold it indefinitely or sell it at a loss to the US public, not to these creatures of the Night.

Instead, this silly coup belly flopped. The leadership of both parties supported this coup, of course. They are all trolls, gnomes and traitors, after all! Every single one of the negotiators of this dreadful TARP bank bail bill are multi-millionaires. Their sob story that passing this bill would protect the little people was fake.

Protecting us involves not dumping massive mountains of future debts on our children! I hope my beloved children can afford to protect myself and my husbands from the ill winds of being old as well as not being in debt when I am old so that there isn't an excess burden but that my home has full value equity! So if the gnomes dump trillions of debts on top of my children's future incomes, this destroys not only me but them! So I can't let this happen. I am FURIOUS that Congress merrily OKed huge spending bills that bust the budget to the tune of nearly a trillion dollars.

Congress can't pass this bill. Period. If they are so damn interested in fixing this ugly debt mess they created, they can start passing balanced budgets and impose tariffs and barriers so the flood of imports either slows down dramatically or we get enough money from an import tax so that THAT balances our budget! Got that?

It is utterly, stupidly simple. We won't shut out imports, we TAX the damn stuff and this INCLUDES OIL. Then, we see our government coffers bulge big. Right now, the US taxpayers are subsidizing imports by not taxing them. We, in turn, are passing all this along to our children by refusing to fund things fully. This cannot go on. By definition, it is unsustainable and it is destroying America.

Even if we EXPORT a trillion dollars of goods, if we import TWO trillion, we are a trillion in the hole! The rise in exports isn't stopping the flood of imports. GADS. This is the easiest thing on earth to understand and our government and media steadfastly refuses to understand this. Remember when emailing or phoning your Representatives, use stories like this one to read off the talking points. Tariffs and taxes on imports are GOOD. They will save our nation. If this starts a trade war....SO FUCKING WHAT!!!! WE ARE IN THE MIDDLE OF A TRADE WAR AND ARE LOSING, BIG TIME, ANYWAY!

Sigh. Isn't that easy? We can see why I am so unpopular in DC. Congressmen are not happy to see me. I irritate them and turn their world views upside down. Well, we all must turn them upside down! Or we all suffer the fate of being sucked down that toilet Ross Perot talked about so many years ago.

The Bailout and the Economy

The US trade deficit has grown to $US700 billion, which of course is money not spent on US goods and services. This has killed off well paying jobs, has slowed the economy and created unemployment.

HAHAHA! There it is again! That $700 billion is all over the place! This is the amount of our budget deficit. It is the amount of our trade deficit. It is the amount of the Pentagon's budget. It is a very interesting number that was echoed yesterday in the stock markets. This pesky $700 billion is obviously a MAGIC NUMBER. And therefore, a herald of sorts. Like a trumpet blowing in our ears. And I hope it has woken up the American people.

Here is an excellent read from the Mises Austrian Economist people:

Will Central Bankers Become Central Planners? by Robert Blumen

As if fighting inflation, smoothing out the business cycle, and saving the world from economic crises were not enough, central banks are being advised to include another objective in their mission: the purchase and management of stock portfolios.

The Washington Post reports that former Treasury Secretary (and soon-to-be-former president of Harvard University) Lawrence Summers "is advising some of the world's biggest holders of US Treasury bonds that they ought to find much better ways to invest their money." Summers says that by holding large portfolios of US Treasuries, central banks are passing up more lucrative investments in the stock market.

To make sense of this proposal (if indeed it makes any sense), it is first necessary to understand how central banks came to hold so many reserves, and why the majority of their reserves are currently held in the form of US government debt. From there, Summers's proposal is a small and apparently logical step.

I often argue with them. But this posting is quite right and should be passed around. There are so many fine minds out there! Virtually none of them are noticed by the top millionaires who run America. But if more of us read all of this, the more we form an alternative consensus. And this is certainly happening! If 75% of the US public can be so much at odds with the faux leaders of Congress and the White House including both Tweedle dumb and Tweedle don't candidates, then this is a GOOD THING.

The media will bend all its might to thwart this awakening. The media will twist and turn like a snake. The NYT and Washington Post both support this stupid TARP business. The Wall Street Journal is foaming at the mouth with rage over being thwarted. But we have the internet.

In Congress, at the party, the Congressmen there began to talk about the internet. They want to control it, of course. This began a heated debate between myself and them. Censoring us is a tool used by the rulers to prevent information from passing around. Lies can be passed around. But so can TRUTHS! And the truth is covered up by the mainstream media and is exposed online even as some online use this power to lie and tell stupid stories that have no real foundation or make up stuff out of thin air.

We get to pick and choose which reality we want! Not be forced into a faux reality by the media and by corrupt political leaders who gain power by eliminating choices.

Repos Show Credit Freeze Approaching March Level

(Bloomberg) -- Rates in the $7 trillion-a-day market for borrowing and lending securities show that the logjam in credit markets is approaching the level seen after the March collapse of Bear Stearns Cos.

Securities that can be borrowed at interest rates close to the Federal Reserve's target rate for overnight loans between banks are called general collateral. Notes and bonds that are in the highest demand in the repurchase, or repo, agreement market are called ``special'' by traders because rates on loans secured by these securities are lower than the general collateral rate.

The CHART OF THE DAY shows the spread of the general collateral repo rate below the Fed's target rate of 2 percent. The gap, which averaged 0.06 percentage point in the 10 years prior to August 2007, when subprime mortgage losses spread, is now 1.25 percentage points. A wider spread indicates a greater scarcity of Treasuries. The spread reached 2.05 percentage points on March 19 after the central bank engineered the takeover of Bear Stearns by JPMorgan Chase & Co.

When central banks have faux interest rates so they can encourage excess lending, we get this sort of mess. All the 'fixes' do is make things worse since all fixes are aimed at increasing lending when lending can't increase because all systems that want lending are too deep in debt! AH! Isn't that queer?

So reality is imposed despite this. Putting the US government an extra trillion in debt so that banks can churn out more debts is...INSANITY. It is IMPOSSIBLE. It is...EVIL. The extremely ancient story about the magic mill built by the gnomes that then kidnap the Frost Giant's daughters and enslaves them to force them to grind out gold, comes to mind. So the girls were hustled aboard the gnome's ship. There, the poor girls ground and ground. The gnomes wanted more and more. Finally, the girls protested and began to sing a dire dirge. This magic song suddenly caused the mill's internal magic to switch in an eye blink as fast as lightning from grinding gold to grinding salt. The heavy salt sank the ship.

But it continues to grind to this day which is why the oceans are salty.

The system is reversing. And this can't be stopped by doing the very things that caused the system to reverse. The good American people are being lied to. They are told, if we double our national debt, we can continue to over consume like in the past. But this can't go on. We are nearing the end. That is all there is. The more we try to continue in the teeth of all this, the worse it will become later. If we stop now, we will be OK in the long run. If we continue, we will be destroyed.

Money-Market Rates Climb After U.S. Congress Rejects Bailout

(Bloomberg) -- Money-market rates in Europe jumped to records after the U.S. Congress rejected a $700 billion rescue plan for financial companies, heightening concern more banks will fail, and as lenders hoarded cash as the third quarter ends.

The euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, that banks charge each other for one-month loans climbed to a record 5.05 percent today, the European Banking Federation said. Rates on three-month loans in dollars were as high as 10 percent as of 10:50 a.m. in London, said Ronald Tharun, a money-market trader in Stuttgart at Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany's biggest state-owned lender. The dollar Libor-OIS spread, a gauge of the scarcity of cash, advanced to a record. Rates in Asia also rose.

``The money markets have completely broken down, with no trading taking place at all,'' said Christoph Rieger, a fixed- income strategist at Dresdner Kleinwort in Frankfurt. ``There is no market any more. Central banks are the only providers of cash to the market, no-one else is lending.''

The natural interest rate must rise! It is woefully low. Far too low compared to global inflation. Even as commodity prices fall, this isn't a sign that the world needs more debt. The world needs more CAPITAL and this is earned via LABOR. Labor, unlike mere commodities, involves levels of VALUE-ADDING which, coupled with union organizing raising wages, allows the workers to intercept profits and turn it into COMMERCE. Namely, buying things.

Depressions happen when the WORKERS can't get the profits! Japan has a queer depression going whereby the workers get nearly no rewards and can't buy hardly anything while the industrialists are swimming literally in golden bathtubs and making record profits, the greatest profits on earth! This is destroying Japan, of course.

Most Americans think Japan is like it was post-WWII with the bosses living sober, cheap lives and workers get life-time employment with good wages. That was destroyed after 1994 and been replaced with a repressive society that is seeing a huge gap between the top and bottom. This is why the prime ministers are falling like leaves in Fall every year, it seems. Eventually, the workers might waken and overthrow the LDP.

Wall St. Mess Stems Flow Of Petrodollars Into U.S.

(Nikkei)--The recent Wall Street crisis appears to have prompted Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds to rethink their strategy of placing large portions of their petrodollars in U.S. stocks.

Bader Al-Sa'ad, managing director of the Kuwait Investment authority, said Tuesday it is the responsibility of each country's central bank to rescue financial institutions, stressing that the KIA has no intention of helping U.S. banks.

He also said he thinks the crisis in the U.S., Europe and Asia will create investment opportunities in various areas, such as the real estate and financial sectors, indicating that the KIA will review its portfolio.

One of the largest SWFs in the world, the KIA has more than 200 billion dollars in assets and invested a total of more than 5 billion dollars earlier this year in Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. But those equities lost their value sharply due to the renewed financial turmoil. Al-Sa'ad said the KIA suffered a loss of 270 million dollars on its investment in Citigroup.

This is ass-backwards. The fall in the markets are BECAUSE of the OPEC people departing! They are not buying, ergo, the markets fall. And they are not buying because they are not stupid. They tried to prop up the global system and got burned. Now, they will buy other things of interest. This terrifies the Jewish financiers. They know what these things are.

Subprime, Alt-A Delinquencies Rise in August: Clayton.

Performance in recent vintages of both subprime and Alt-A mortgages continued to deteriorate during August… 60+ day delinquencies for both Alt-A and subprime mortgages had increased, while cure rates had decreased; interestingly, however, roll rates — which measure the percentage of loans that worsened in delinquency status — decreased in most areas. For 2006 subprime first liens, the 60+ day delinquency percentage reached 40.24%, a jump of 5.49% from the prior month; for 2007 vintage loans, 30.82% were 60 or more days delinquent, up 6.05%.”

The housing bust will be done once these stupid, useless subprime, Alt-A debts are totally wiped out. There will be a 100% failure rate in these things. And I said years ago, 'These should be ILLEGAL.' I used 'bridge loans' in the past to make money. This is necessary if one is developing housing. But these loans are never held more than three years! Usually, two at the most. Builders who got these bridge loans had to have good property to hold it against. Namely, I had this mansion and would use it as collateral since it had no mortgage on it. This was all before I had to sell everything when my husband got injured at work.

The geniuses in the gnome community thought they could take builder's loans and rename them and hand them out like candy to home buyers. Who then used this to play 'flip the properties'. This is a total failure and people should go to prison. Both flippers and the bankers. There was no collateral property backing these loans. As I pointed out, when I had to close down my own affairs, I had zero debt but zero profits. But I didn't destroy the banking system! This is important to remember: there has to be some basis for the system. It can't be built on cloud coo-coo land.

Now for one more book to read:

SECRETS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE By Eustace Mullins

R.G. Hawtrey, the English economist, said, in the March, 1926 American Economic Review:

"When external investment outstrips the supply of general savings the investment market must carry the excess with money borrowed from the banks. A remedy is control of credit by a rise in bank rate."

The Federal Reserve Board applied this control of credit, but not in 1926, nor as a remedial measure. It was not applied until 1929, and then the rate was raised as a punitive measure, to freeze out everybody but the big trusts.

Professor Cassel, in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, August 1928, wrote that:

"The fact that a central bank fails to raise its bank rate in accordance with the actual situation of the capital market very much increases the strength of the cyclical movement of trade, with all its pernicious effects on social economy. A rational regulation of the bank rate lies in our hands, and may be accomplished only if we perceive its importance and decide to go in for such a policy. With a bank rate regulated on these lines the conditions for the development of trade cycles would be radically altered, and indeed, our familiar trade cycles would be a thing of the past."

This is the most authoritative premise yet made relating that our business depressions are artificially precipitated. The occurrence of the Panic of 1907, the Agricultural Depression of 1920, and the Great Depression of 1929, all three in good crop years and in periods of national prosperity, suggests that premise is not guesswork. Lord Maynard Keynes pointed out that most theories of the business cycle failed to relate their analysis adequately to the money mechanism. Any survey or study of a depression which failed to list such factors as gold movements and pressures on foreign exchange would be worthless, yet American economists have always dodged this issue.

I use this book as reference. Do enjoy reading it, Mullins is very clear about things. Now for really muddled thinking, let's look at this very dumb commentary by Irwin Kellner:

Don't call it a bailout. Or a depression
Commentary: The nattering nabobs of negativism have it wrong. Here's why

By Irwin Kellner, MarketWatch

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying things aren't serious out there, but another Great Depression? I don't think so.

If you look at the data, you will see more differences than similarities between the 1930s and today:

In the crash of 1929 the Dow Jones industrials plunged 40% in two months; this time around it has taken a year to fall 22%.

The jobless rate jumped to 25% by 1933; it is little more than 6% today.

The gross domestic product shrank by 25% during the early 1930s; it is up over 3% during the past year.

Consumer prices fell by about 30% from 1929 to 1933; and the last time I looked they were still rising.
Home prices dropped more than 30% during the Depression vs. about 16% today.

Some 40% of all mortgages were delinquent by 1934 compared with 4% today.

In the 1930s, more than 9,000 banks failed compared with fewer than 20 over the past couple of years.

Remember also it was policy errors, not the stock market crash, that caused the Great Depression:

This man, to make his point, muddles up time badly. He compares Year One of this Great Depression cycle with the ENTIRE depression cycle of 1929-1938. Comparing the statistics of one year against a decade of years is a fraud. This man knows perfectly well that he is being cheeky here. He knows the difference between one year and a decade. He was told to write this story and did his best to mislead.

For example, as our housing falls off a cliff, he claims that it isn't so bad. Why, by 1934, it was much worse than today! But the housing bubble didn't begin to slow down until last year. And the bankruptcy mess didn't begin until the fall of 2007. After four years of this collapse, I would not be surprised if we get similar numbers!

The first year of the Great Depression, 1930, the banking system was still limping along. It didn't fail until after 1933. And obviously, if we want no Great Depressions, we should have kept all those nifty laws passed back then that would have prevented this mess today. But Congress was paid to tighten the bankruptcy laws at the same time they loosened all the banking laws of the 1930's. And so we get a double-trouble mess. Which cannot be fixed by the US falling deeper into debt to the bankers!

So let's keep up the pressure and continue fighting these bastards!

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Comments

[Simon]

Keep up the good work!

Right now I am not even sure if the bailout is their (Wall st) final goal, or its just a device to keep the stock market jittery and impossible to see.
700 points down, then 500 points up, then 700 down etc ad nausem
Why debt forgiveness and bailouts don't work: everyone is expecting his neighbour nation to blink first!

Regarding the Japanese worker's dilemma, I guess they are being rewarded in a way, that is anything Japan makes they are the first consumers, and they have some of the most advanced telecoms in the world. Can you say 1 Gps up/downstream internet?
Secretly they call the US a big "agrarian" nation because of the huge US food export industry
;)

[Buffalo Ken]

Is value not essentially "inherent"? I mean an entity either has considerable value or not much at all. It may be a bit subjective but not entirely. For example, I could have a $500 bill in one hand and a circular saw in another. If I needed to cut some wood, then the value of the circular saw certainly exceeds the value of the bill (at least at that moment in time).

I think much of what we have been having lately from "the street of walls" and "the made-up city" is "fabricated value" primarily and falsely constructed using Elaine's term "funny money".

Fabricated value does not equal inherent value. I think values are going to be balancing out and I think this is a good thing.

I also agree with Elaine. Nancy Pelosi should resign. Resign in shame is what I think, but that is just an opinion from one citizen. Doesn't it depend on what all the other citizen think. Ain't this what the House of Reps if for. Carrying out the will of the citizen. Well, lets see what happens.

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

As an aside, yesterday was such a crazy day "on the web" I basically decided to "sit it out". Instead I put up some shelves in my garage using left-over laminate pieces. You can make awesome shelves with laminate flooring or at least I have (or at least I think they are awesome). Anyhow, I used a nice Miter saw I recently purchased (the alloy used to make this saw is incrediblly shaped) along with the circular saw, a hammer, some nails, and a few bolts an "Wa-la" some additional storage area on the cheap! Plus, it was fun to build.

I still think the dust is settling, but I have no idea where this is going to go. I'm hopeful but cautious if you know what I mean.

Peace,
Ken

P.S. I hope that little interlude didn't offend anyone...

[Simon]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4848769.ece

Frank McGarahan, of Barclays Wealth dies after fight

seems to be a regular brawl, but the timing is a bit

[whine & cheese]

Hate to break it to you, Elaine, but people who run businesses are now calling their Congressmen demanding an intervention: they can't make payroll. The credit crisis is about the abort the real economy.

There will be a bailout. Hope against it if you must-pray, even-but it will happen.

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Who was 'aye' and 'noe' in yesterday's vote? And stay tuned for; BAILOUT II: THE FINAL SCREWING!

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll674.xml

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Comment from Mike Rivero as copied from his site, 'What Really Happened'; yesterday morning:

"Update: House holds vote clock open in last-ditch effort to persuade House Members to reverse their votes!!!!

The corporate media is not even showing any shame in their desire for 11 members of the House of Representatives to be "turned" and reverse their votes!

The Representatives are SUPPOSED to represent their constituents. When the corporate media talks about "turning" 11 representatives while Pelosi holds the clock open, they are talking about subverting the most fundamental processes of our government for personal gain ... ON NATIONAL TELEVISION!

This is OBSCENE! This is like having a Presidential election and after candidate 'A' wins, hold the polls open until you CAN CLUB ENOUGH VOTERS INTO CHANGING THEIR VOTES TO MAKE CANDIDATE 'B' THE WINNER!

If this House vote is reversed (ME: which looks as though that will be the case - Thursday), this will prove that we live in a dictatorship. Congress will be forced to do what the Decider wants done.

If they pass this (ME: starting Thursday), empty your bank accounts. That is a LEGAL form of protest. They cannot arrest you or taser you for taking back your money from the banks."

Ahh. But THEY can freeze accounts to thwart that.

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Whine and Cheese said:

"Hate to break it to you, Elaine, but people who run businesses are now calling their Congressmen demanding an intervention: they can't make payroll."

That defeats capitalism, doesn't it? If you can 'make-a-go-of-it'...great. If not, suck it up and close shop. Let someone who was better prepared and had their ducks-in-row keep the broader economy flowing rather than seeking welfare which brings it all to an ebb. Hence, the environment we have today. Better known as 'socialism'.

"The credit crisis is about the abort the real economy."

The 'credit crisis' aborted the 'real economy' a long time ago when debt was being used to pay debt and everyone was buying all sorts of crap with money they didn't have.

[Ed-M]

Elaine,

As an aside now even Fortune Magazine is referring our recent economic history as scenes from a Hieronymous Bosch painting. And to the Credit Default Swaps mess as a Derivatives Beast.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/29/magazines/fortune/varchaver_derivatives.fortune/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote

"If Hieronymus Bosch were alive today to paint a triptych called "The Garden of Mortgage Delights," we'd recognize most of the characters in the bacchanalia and its hellish aftermath. Looming largest, of course, would be the Luciferian figures of Greed and Excessive Debt. Scurrying throughout would be the Wall Street bankers who turned these burgeoning debts into exotic securities with tangled structures and soporific acronyms - CDO, MBS, ABS - that concealed the dangers within. Needless to say, we'd see the smooth-tongued emissaries of the credit-rating agencies assuring people that assets of lead could indeed be transformed into investments of gold. Finally, somewhere past the feckless Fannie Mae executives and the dozing politicians, one final figure would lurk in the shadows: a hulking and barely recognizable monster known as Credit Default Swaps . . ."

[Ed-M]

OK I have to break up the link again...

http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/29/
magazines/fortune/
varchaver_derivatives.fortune/
index.htm?source=yahoo_quote

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Hey Ed-M, if you go to www.tinyurl.com, you can copy/paste those long urls into their 'shortener' and then copy/paste that shortened url here rather than trying to break them up which can be a pain in the arse.

[Simon]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/161199/page/2
I guess this is a sign the Derivative Beast is crossing over to our reality
Mainstream media is talking about it

[OC]

Blunt Force Trauma,

Your comments remind me of citizens protesting against Yeltsin in Russia and he send in the tanks...de ja vu!!!

The slide is definitely accelerating. Dmitry Orlov would be pleased with his predictions.

Better stock up folks and gather all your loved ones, if what he says is coming true, it's going to be a hard landing and harder than what the Russians received!!

[Blunt Force Trauma]

David, it is good that the mainstream is writing about it. What has to happen is an education on what derivatives actually are. One could literally ram pencils into their eyes researching and learning what they are and what it all means.

I know I have been close to that after reading about derivatives and the related acronmyns. The whole thing just sounds ridiculous and illegal. Just like naked short selling.

[Blunt Force Trauma]

OC said:

"Your comments remind me of citizens protesting against Yeltsin in Russia and he send in the tanks...de ja vu!!!"

I suppose after having stuck close by those stories, in their day, they have been lurching in my sub-conscience for this "bailout" event. Which, yes, you're right - deja vu! Send in the tanks! Hmm, I'm thinking that we may not want to joke about that....

[Buffalo Ken]

OC - I like Dmitry Orlov's site (assuming its the one I mentioned earlier here...) - compare and contrast Russia and US citizen response to "Freidman-type-goofiness". There is much to think about there, but one key difference that may not have been considered in my opinion in the "type" of infrastructure already in place in the US of A. Much of it could be so much better (can anyone say TRAINS !!!!!!), and infrastructure in general needs to be better maintained, BUT...in the US individuals have tools, there are many strucutres folks can live in, there are supplies that will still be needed that can be made locally, there are specialized supplies that could be produced centrally, we have a highly educated labor force (this could be greatly enhanced), etc. These things have value - its just a matter of trying to work together - the possibilities are endless in my opinion, but I suppose it does require a bit of humility particularly from those who have been "flying high lost in the clouds".

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

oh yeah and maybe most importantly:

SCALE MATTERS

So if you are Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton, or T. Boone Pickens or Bush or Cheney or any one of these many folks making their "big-time day-to-day decisions" --- your actions affect millions upon millions. That is large-scale. If these folks are in the clouds, then it affects many People. If these folks have lost touch with humanity, then desperately need to get it back in my humble opinion.

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

But meanwhile, I sure as heck am going to focuse my efforts on tring to prepare for the worst that I hope doesn't happen because I know that it could be so much better...I can sense it.

Sorry for all these posts. Later.

Ken

[Simon]

I wonder what is the hurry to pass the rescue bill soon.
http://tinyurl.com/47vml4
Btw why is the house allowed to observe a foreign holiday while the workers..eh work?

[Bear of Little Brain]

Schiller house price index: -0.9% m-o-m Down
Chicago PMI, September: Previous: 57.9%
Actual: 56.7% Down (but above 50%)
Consumer confidence Sept: Previous: 56.9
Survey: 55.0
Actual: 59.8 Up
Houses going down, Chicago industrial survey going down, Consumer confidence going UP? Go figure.
Main ISM national survey due tomorrow, expected to be below 50%, i.e. contraction.

[Bear of Little Brain]

Saw Bush a while ago, via Bloomberg. Sounds like he's getting agitated about this rip-off stalling. Emergency powers coming soon?

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Hey Bear, if you look back about a week ago, I think I shared the same thoughts about 'Decider Guy' and that he may have a tantrum if he doesn't get his way.

Will he?

It's probable.

[don]

The Bank of Japan just released
19.2 billion into its financial
system, I was wondering if that deposit
was made from the 600 Billion fund?

[Bear of Little Brain]

BFT:
Yes, I remember something like that. Motion seconded then! George Ure has this thing about October 7 as some kind of emotional release date, or something, and has had for months. Who can tell?

BTW, did anyone bring this up?

In fact, some of the most basic details, including the $700 billion figure Treasury would use to buy up bad debt, are fuzzy.

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

http://tinyurl.com/5ygr2m

[Shoshona]

It confounds me in all of this why our US Dollar is gaining value?? Seems to me that as bad off as Europe is, they're not as bad off as us because they don't run such huge budget deficits.
How does this fit into the picture you painted Elaine?

[Paul S]

Executive powers? I Doubt it. I think "Dubaya" has had his wings clipped. He is after all a lame duck President. I think FINALLY enough reality has penetrated this spoiled rotten rich kids brain that even "Dubaya" knows what kind of mess he has created. "Dubaya" is going to slither back to his bunker in Crawford and give big money speeches to his pals at Exxon-Mobil, Haliburton and the Carlyle Group--like daddy Bush does.

[PJSV]

Elaine,

ECB is about to cut interest rates to help the USD. After this measure, what can be done for the USD ?

[Buffalo Ken]

Paul S - maybe so.

What I wonder is --- will anyone be held accountable? Anyone at all? Have there been no mistakes made such that admittance of error just ain't going to happen? I haven't heard anyone trying to accept some responsibility. Crap - that's half the damn problem. If you think you can't make a mistake then you become "a mistake" cause you just ain't learning no more.

I want some accountability. Impeach, Try, Convict (or not), Put in Jail (or do whatever is appropriate). I think it has something to do with this concept called "Law".

I hope more citizens are clamoring for accountability. I also would like to make a call to folks who care about the land they live in plus their neighbors and friends.

Peace,
Ken

[Bear of Little Brain]

Gleaned the bit below from a recent article by Ty Andros:
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article6530.html
Note: Fortis went "Bang!" yesterday. The ratios are terrifying.

• The dozen largest European banks now have an average overall leverage ratio (shareholders equity to total assets) of 35, compared to less than 20 for the American banks. European banks report regulatory leverage ratios of close to 10 .

• Deutsche Bank leverage ratio 50x, total liabilities 2 trillion Euros, equivalent to 80% of German GDP

• Barclays 60x, 1.3 trillion pounds, equivalent to 100% of UK GDP

• Fortis 30x, equivalent to 300% Belgium GDP

[Elaine Meinel Supkis]

When I went barreling into Congress, I said, 'Who made up that number???' and I knew it was a magical number.

Wall Street, according to an email I got from a broker-type ended on 777.7 yesterday and today is Rosh Hashanah. Super-religious/magical so I am guessing the reporters were told to hex it by making the news 'AROUND 777.69' instead. HAHAHA.

We have to remember this is all fantasy which is why things seem to be adhering to this strange looking story line. Or maybe a movie.

Isn't reality fun?

Also, I have noticed more and more writers are saying 'Derivatives Beast.' I should have patented that name and then sue everyone. Get rich. Darn.

[Buffalo Ken]

Yeah I've seen words like "transition" and "with both hands" and even somewhere I saw "like a kid in a candy store".

Anyhow numbers and language go hand-n-hand. You can't have one without the other can you? Or at least humanity can't. Or at least thats sort of how I think our brains work - along with all the incredible chemistry of course. Plus the music - its everywhere, and I sure love to listen to what other artists have come up with.

If something takes a long, long time to "wind up" its going to take awhile to wind down (not just a bit of time) --- sort of like waves that slowly dissipate. Maybe this is a better analogy than "dust settling" - who needs all the damn dust anyhow (especially, dust that is man-made).

Plus, as a total aside, I think that anyone who tries to "control biology" is in for a hard lesson. Some of these pharmaceutical companies should just be shutdown for shoveling medicines for nothing but profit.

Peace,
Ken

[RobG]

This was good description (Theautomaticearth):

If you go to the racetrack and bet on a horse, you receive a piece of paper that confirms the bet you made. After the race is over, you have either won your bet or lost it. There’s nothing difficult about the process, anyone can -learn to- understand it, and everyone, except in very rare circumstances, accepts it, both the winners and the losers.

What is happening in world finance these days is that a group of very heavy betters have become very heavy losers, and they have done so with borrowed money. In the past few years, in order to hide their losses, they have turned to a very clever little trick: they want to make us believe that the race is not over, even though we can all see that it is. In fact, if they have their way, the race will never be over, unless and until their horse wins.

[Buffalo Ken]

Sorry for getting a bit off topic.

On a brighter note is a plant (or facility if you prefer) that I think should open back up. It was in Murhpy, NC and they made screwdrivers there like you wouldn't believe. Hard resin, strong metal shaft, specialized tips with ergonomic and safety considerations built in. Quality manufacturing and made in the US of A. Small-scale, but enough screwdrivers for all of North Carolina I would speculate.

But NO, there was rapid profit using "fake money" if they shut it down and moved things around. I betcha there are some folks living in Murhpy, NC who could start that plant back up. I would buy their products as long as they maintained the quality.

Peace,
Ken

[Buffalo Ken]

RobG - awesome!

[RobG]

That was a nice concise history of the Derivative Beast that Simon linked to. I just used it at lunch with someone who wondered how some mortgage defaults could collapse the financials. Here's the link again:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/161199

The Monster That Ate Wall Street

How 'credit default swaps'—an insurance against bad loans—turned from a smart bet into a killer

[Bear of Little Brain]

Maybe you should Trade Mark "Derivatives Beast". This year's Cabbage Patch Doll!

[Buffalo Ken]

So did anyone here read the article about the Tanks that were "absconded" by some wily pirates of the coast of Somalia (I think I have the facts accurate).

Anyhow, US Navy Vessels surrounded the pirates with their booty and now the pirates have nowhere to go. I thought I read elsewhere that a Russian vessel is on the way (I think they were Russian tanks).

Anyhow, sounds cool to me. I'm glad the US ships were there (rather than elsewhere and especially rather than near Iran) and maybe they are already talking with the Russian Navy so that they can come kick the ass of any pirates that are still alive when they arrive (the Russian Navy that is assuming they are Russian Tanks).

Apparently three of the pirates killed themselves in some sort of fight yesterday. Pirates do not like to be trapped and when they are they have nothing to do but be pirates with each other. I expect there will be many more dead pirates in the coming days.

Of course, I could be all wrong about this excepting that part about pirates not liking it when they are aprehended. Oh well. Live and learn.

Peace,
Ken

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Congratulations, Corporate Crime Fighters! Coup Averted for Three Days! ...from Michael Moore

'The news anchors last night screamed it out: Americans just lost 1.2 trillion dollars in the stock market!! It's a financial Pearl Harbor! The sky is falling! Bird flu! Killer Bees!

Of course, sane people know that nobody "lost" anything yesterday, that stocks go up and down and this too shall pass because the rich will now buy low, hold, then sell off, then buy low again.

Wall Street and its propaganda arm (the networks and media it owns) will continue to try and scare the bejesus out of you. It will be harder to get a loan. Some people will lose their jobs. A weak nation of wimps won't last long under this torture. Or will we? Is this our line in the sand?'

Full article:

http://tiny.cc/v4l2B

[DrKrbyLuv]

Elaine touched on what I think is the most immoral part of the proposed "rescue" bill - that is that we are transcending our generation with debt. What right do we have to burden future generations with our debt? Where is the moral outcry of those who pretend to be defenders of the rights of the unborn?

Society seems to be morally numb. Why is there no demand that Barney Frank, Obama, Paulson, Chris Dodd, et al, recuse themselves from this bill/vote because of their donors/affiliations?

And our jack-ass president talks about the end of our economy like he was an observer. Why isn't he pushing his staff to find ways to slash the federal budget - stop the war machine, stop foreign aid, etc.

And the worst thing is that instead of exploring real solutions, our government is preparing to try to ram the same bill again.

And they tell us we are facing the end of our jobs, 401-ks, accumulated wealth if we don't act right now. These proclamations have virtually shut-down our markets while we wait to see what the politicians will do next.

But, they have taken the day off in observance of Rosh Hashanah. We will wait while they observe a holiday not recognized as a legal holiday in the US. The zionist have such audacity.

The elitists are over-reaching and they stand to lose their greedy hands. We still have some good political statesmen and must thank and support them so that they gain in strength of conviction.

Yesterday, Thaddeus McCotter, Republican from Michigan, quoted Andrew Jackson in a great speech:

"There are no necessary evils in government. The Treasury to you, gentlemen, is closed."

http://tinyurl.com/4omngg

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Ha, ha, Ken. Good one.

You just descibed, in a roundabout sort of way, Wall Street and it playerz! Elaine would be proud.

"Pirates do not like to be trapped and when they are they have nothing to do but be pirates with each other. I expect there will be many more dead pirates in the coming days."

'Pirates' in the first sentence describes Gollum Sucks, JP Morgan, Paulson, Bernanke, Decider Guy and the banking cabal.

'Pirates' in the second sentence refers to banks themselves.

[JT]

Tax oil? In USA?
Wheeeee... i have to sit down. Come on. There´s all kinds of talk on this blog about revolutions, wars, pitchforks in the asses of rich people, honour before money, but this is blastemy!
I guess there´s red alert and all kinds of whistles going off at Echelon now.
Even the skull of Geronimo has to have some kind of ultra emergency light inside.
Tar and feathers for this sorcerer lady of the mountain, quickly please.
:D

[Buffalo Ken]

From what I have heard/read Andrew Jackson fought the banks in the interest of citizens - for that I will give him credit. However, for what he is partly responsible for associated with the "first inhabitants" is damn near unforgiveable expecially when he claimed to be a "Man of the People". Nonetheless, I suppose whats done is done.

The banks need to morph into something useful for everyone utilizing the banks; otherwise they serve no purpose besides their own gain. That ain't right. In fact, its downright troubling and this should be obvious. Concentrated power is NOT in the interst of the People. Not anymore; not anyway - because we can all talk with "each other" so rapidly today. We are connected moreso than ever I think.

"Grand Schemes" involving future indebtedness will be found out and those who keep trying to go with the Old Status Quo will become more and more evident. Seems this way to me.

Oh yeah, and the People - The People have the numbers. This is obvious because everyone in equal - doesn't it say this in several important documents?

Peace,
Ken

[Blunt Force Trauma]

Hey Dr.,

"And they tell us we are facing the end of our jobs, 401-ks, accumulated wealth if we don't act right now."

Sounds like the fear mongering by the lamestream media that Micheal Moore speaks of in the article above.

Accept this or DIE. Now!

Of course, after today's markets close, the presstitutes will write that the markets were up and all is well.

The DOW, currently, is up 261 points to 10,626.7 No where near a recovery that they may exaggerate about when the DOW is 500-odd points away from it's open yesterday at 11,142.

[Buffalo Ken]

JT - I need to get a pitchfork. I don't have one yet.

They could never catch Elaine for any punishiment - at least not in my imagination!

Peace,
Ken

[JT]

Peace, Ken.
Pitchforks are a powerful image, that might be a good thing to wave at a demonstration by the way.
I bet that would put some nightmares in sleep of the ruling elites :).
I think Elaine would love that idea. She´s the specialist on this kind of thing.

[Blunt Force Trauma]

JT said:

"Tax oil? In USA?"

You're thinking that it doesn't happen or that it can't? What is blasphemous about it saying that it exists?

The distillate product of oil is gasoline and it is taxed at the retail level:

http://tiny.cc/Fqm5i

OR is this what you mean?

Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act of 1980, United States

http://tiny.cc/gWCZo

[Blunt Force Trauma]

...or were you just being facetious, JT?

[DrKrbyLuv]

Elaine,

Earlier, you had mentioned that the federal government's fiscal year may end in September.

Is this in some way, the reason for the "bums rush" to grab $700 billion? For example, is it possible that the financial reports will formally establish that the US is insolvent?

Please give us a little insight...

[JT]

"not meant to be taken seriously or literally: a facetious remark"
I had to look that up in a dictionary ;). Yes I was trying that.

I knew oil is taxed already in US, but not too heavily.
In my country gas is now 1.49€ per litre with 0.81 eurocent total taxes ($7,90 per gallon with $4.27 total tax per gallon).

Thank you for the link.
Did I understand corretly that with federal tax there now roughly 0.40 cents tax per gallon depending on state?

[JT]

Blunt:
and "Tar and Feathers" is courtesy of Morris-Goscinny and Lucky Luke comics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Luke.
Hehee... my favorite as a kid.
Just read that it was a belgian comic and never popular over there. So my facetiousnesness effort was a total failure. Cultural differences I guess..
All the best!