Sep 30 2008
And editorial original to All Over the Board:
So bailout plan A failed. All well and good, but you know that there will be a bailout plan B, C, D, etc. until the bosses get what they want. My guess is it’ll take tomorrow’s session on the stock markets around the world and the failure of another big bank.
Sep 30 2008
And the sad truth of the matter is that they actually really and truly are doing it for my own good.
I could even die if they didn’t do this for my own good.
Which makes it all the more incomprehensible. How did we get to a point in this society where deception or outright lies are the automatic knee jerk unthinking solution to any situation that might produce resistance?
What the hell ever happened to telling the blunt honest truth.
Why couldn’t they just have said look, this is what you need to do or you will die? Why con me into it?
I’ve had what I thought was a chest cold for the past 3 weeks. Lungs are sore from all the coughing, and then this morning I woke up and coughed again, but this time with a bit of blood coming up.
Not being stupid, or a tough guy at my own expense, I got dressed and walked down the road to the clinic to ask the doctor what she thought. She hemmed and hawed and poked and prodded and sent me around the corner for an x-ray.
X-ray tech says hey, this looks like you’ve got pneumonia, but tuberculosis is a possibility, so we want you to go over to the TB Clinic at the Disease Control Centre and spit in a cup so they can analyze it.
Well, ok, makes sense I figure, so off I go to the TB Clinic where they have me spit in a cup, see a little blood too, and then say well look, just to be on the safe side we’d like to repeat this test 3 or 4 times a day for the next couple of days, so why don’t we get you a bed in the hospital across the street for those couple of days.
That way if you have TB and are contagious we can have you fixed up real quick. Just a couple of days. Or maybe three at most.
Sure I say, why not. Better to be safe than sorry.
Off to the hospital. Up the elevator to the 8th floor. Hisssss….pop. The doors open into a negative pressure lobby. No germs get out to the public that way, apparently.
Looks like a real nice place. Nice smiling friendly caring people.
Hey, two or three days in here shouldn’t be too bad, I think to myself.
Nice room too. Though it would be nicer if the windows opened. And I thought it was a little strange that the fire exit door I passed in the hallway had a lock on it.
A lock on a fire exit door? Hmmmm.
Oh well, it’s only two or three days.
Doctor knocks and comes in the room all smiley and friendly. Wonderful bedside manner. Taps on ribs, listens to lungs, nods sagely and makes sympathic noises.
Looks up and says he thinks he can have me to a non-contagious stage in about 4 to 6 weeks, and until then I’m in fucking quarantine.
Anybody feel like feeding Magic for me while I’m in jail?
Sep 30 2008
Some people are wondering what this whole fiscal crisis will mean for them:
Sep 29 2008
That was the sign that used to hang behind the building permit counter at one of our local municipalities.
I didn’t much like it then, because I thought it represented the worst of an ossified bureaucratic outlook toward public service.
But after the vote in the the House today on the bailout bill, I completely understand the sentiment.
Sep 29 2008
The NY Times reports Treasury would emerge with vast new power.
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…
Mr. Paulson can choose to buy from any financial institution that does business in the United States, or from pension funds, with wide discretion over what he will buy and how much he will pay. Under most circumstances, banks owned by foreign governments are not eligible for the money, but under some conditions, the secretary can choose to bail out foreign central banks.
Under the bill, the Treasury is to buy the securities at prices he deems appropriate. Mr. Paulson may set prices through auctions but is not required to do so.
Rarely if ever has one man had such broad authority to spend government money as he sees fit, with no rules requiring him to seek out the lowest possible price for assets being purchased.
The LA Times reports Paulson will have no peer.
Buried beneath the 100-plus pages of detail that Paulson’s financial rescue plan has picked up during its 10-day journey from a Bush administration wish list to a bipartisan congressional compromise is the striking fact that the Treasury secretary got almost everything he sought — an eventual $700 billion and the authority to spend it largely as he sees fit…
Whether that turns out to be a big problem remains to be seen, however, and for the rest, Paulson’s new powers will be almost breathtaking in their scope.
He and his successor will have the right to buy not just mortgage-related securities at the heart of the crisis, according to the language of the bill, but under some conditions could buy any financial instrument “the purchase of which is necessary to promote financial market stability.” …
It even gives him the politically explosive power to cut deals with foreign, not just U.S., banks in some cases.
AlterNet has lots of pictures as Bailout Protesters Send a Strong Message from Wall Street. In the first round of voting, the House defeated, by a 205-228 vote, the Economic Enabling Act of 2008. A new vote is planned, likely timed for after another stunt by McCain. Meanwhile, stocks are cratering and oil prices have dropped sharply.
Four at Four continues with Mukasey appointing a special prosecutor, high-ranking former CIA official pleads guilty to fraud, and labor unions work to counter members’ racism against Obama.
Sep 29 2008
The Wall Street bailout plan has been defeated in the House.
WASHINGTON – In a moment of historic drama in the Capitol and on Wall Street, the House of Representatives voted on Monday to reject a $700 billion rescue of the financial industry.
The vote against the measure was 228 to 205. Supporters vowed to try to bring the rescue package up for consideration again as soon as possible.
…
House leaders pushing for the package kept the voting period open for some 40 minutes past the allotted time, trying to convert “no” votes to “yes” votes by pointing to damage being done to the markets, but to no avail.
Whatever the relative merits of the economic legislation, this is still a very good day for our Republic.
It is far past time the Congressional Leadership realized that they are Representatives of the People – not of Wall Street bankers, corporate moguls, and foreign money lenders. With public opinion so dead set against this bill, Pelosi and the others had no business trying to ram it through the House without adequate discussion and debate.
Hopefully, the defeat of Paulson’s Folly today will be a harbinger of a new era of greater accountability and responsibility by our elected representatives to the wishes of those whom they purport to represent.
But whatever the future may hold, at least on this day our Constitutional Republic has shown that it still has some life left in it.
Update: More on the vote from KagroX here.
Sep 29 2008
Sure to get lost in the financial news, but pretty damn shocking all things considered!
WASHINGTON– Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey appointed a special prosecutor on Monday to investigate whether criminal charges should be brought against former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and other officials in connection with the firings of nine of United States attorneys in 2006.
The move came as the Justice Department released a report by its inspector general severely criticizing the process that led to the firings.
Snip
“The report makes plain that, at a minimum, the process by which nine U.S. attorneys were removed in 2006 was haphazard, arbitrary and unprofessional, and the way in which the Justice Department handled those removals and the resulting public controversy was profoundly lacking,” Mr. Mukasey said in a statement. The report called for further investigation to determine whether prosecutable offenses were committed either in the firings or in subsequent testimony about them.
Sep 29 2008
Our ‘elite’ is broken. Nobody really knows what the fuck they are doing. Nobody really knows the results of what they are doing. And to a certain extent is has to be said, they just don’t care either. They don’t care about us. All they care about is covering their own ass. At our expense. This is out and out Class War, they know, we know it, and the rest of The People seem to waking up to it.
Our financial elites don’t know and don’t care, they are in strict CYA mode, taking breaks only to figure out how to game and leverage the bailout so that they can transfer even more wealth from the taxpayers into their pocket. If things don’t turn out well, they open their Golden Parachutes and go live on a beach in the Caymans and sip rum drinks.
Stupid or evil? Conclusion: it doesn’t matter. We The People get screwed either way.
Our political ‘elite’ are even worse, they have NO clue as to what is going on. They are running around with their hair on fire in super-duper CYA mode, taking breaks only to figure out how this crisis can be maneuvered for political advantage and trying not to piss off their corporate masters, while keeping The People calm enough to not riot after assault piled on assault and insult piled on insult tax even the incredibly resilient somnabulance of Mr. and Mrs. America. As kos points out, they continue to think we are buying this crap. The party is over??? Gimme a fucking break Nancy. You are about to serve the fucking canapes, the party is just getting started. Just because you are buying their bullshit doesn’t mean we buy yours.
Stupid or evil? Conclusion: it doesn’t matter. We The People get screwed either way.
The only people who seem to have, well to be getting, a clue are The People, who are finally waking up from their slumber of post 9/11 fear and are looking around and seeing what has been going on and wondering why their ass hurts. It hurts because our ‘elite’ have been screwing them. And each time we get screwed, the ‘elites’ just tell us we have no choice but to trust them. Are they right? Are we at their mercy, no matter how badly they screw up? ARE we just sheep to be shorn by the ‘elite?”
Or will things be different this time?
Sep 29 2008
I’ve been sitting back, taking in as much of the facts about this economy meltdown as I could stand. I’ve also sat reading conservatives who, after voting election after election for candidates who gave Big Business whatever they wanted, now lament how it must have been some racial thing that brought our country to collapse. It would probably take a legion of psychologists decades to deduce the reasons for this denial in conservatives.
Sep 29 2008
Apologies for posting twice in short order, but I really think this needs getting around. I regret that I’ve already used my Daily Kos slot for the day. Thank heavens for Docudharma’s somewhat mellower approach.
Since Congress is scheduled to debate and probably vote on the Henry Paulson “rescue plan” for the financial markets today, I want to highlight a bit of news hot off the presses (or the servers, anyhow).
To introduce it, let me say that in my view this plan will do almost nothing to stop the ongoing economic meltdown, and a lot to save various Wall Street firms and advance the concentration of capital. I expect the worthy Ilargi at the indispensable economics blog, The Automated Earth, is right that the storm of desperation and outrage currently directed at Congress will not stop this legislation from going through, since it is all about politics and not economics.
On the one hand, $700 billion seems like a lot of money. It’s supposed to. A Treasury Department spokeswoman told the online Forbes.com last week, “It’s not based on any particular data point. We just wanted to choose a really large number.”
On the other hand, this morning brings the news that the Glitnir Bank has just been taken over by the Icelandic government to prevent its collapse. Iceland now owns 75% of Glitnir.
The price tag was $868 billion. Eight hundred and sixty eight billion dollars.
Think about it. That’s to rescue the third largest bank in freaking Iceland. (Admittedly Reykevik-based banks have become European and even global players by heavy risk-taking in derivative markets, but still…Iceland?)
If you feel like hollering at your Senators and Congresscritters this morning, you might want to ask them how much stability they think Paulson’s measly $700 billion is really going to buy?
Sep 29 2008
Where are you now?
This week the stock market is scheduled to collapse. Wachovia and National City banks are due to collapse. Over 100 banks are expected to collapse in the next few months.
Your money is probably very unsafe, your pensions, your social security and yet no one really seems to realize that it’s all about to come crumbling down…
From Paul Krugman to Kramer and Kudlow…that’s what they are saying. It’s not what I’m saying. It’s what they are saying.
There may be as few a 5 banks left. Citigroup, Bank of America, Chase are three of those. They will buy the smaller banks in league with the government. That will undoubtedly fail. They have been chosen by the government to be treated preferentially.
PUT YOUR MONEY IN THOSE BANKS…for your own good. All other banks may fail.
Yet the news, especially the “progressive” news is largely focused on an election that will become more and more meaningless as these events begin to unfold in the very immediate future.
It will be an election of symbolic value only. It’s far too late now, and it’s been far too late for several years.
That election might have to be put off.
It amazes me how so many people are focused on anything else but the giant wave of economic destruction that is about to engulf YOU.
It doesn’t matter whether you have any money or no money. The effect will be overwhelming for everybody.
5 banks have been chosen by the government to buy failing banks. JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America are three of those. The government will use the bail out money to give to these 5 banks to use to buy failing banks in the hopes that it will stop the flight of capital.
I don’t see how it could work. But what do I know? Probably a lot more than I want to admit to myself.
