Yesterday, the Senate of the United States…joined hands by a score of 74 to 25 to do away with the American Dollar! Oh sure, they insisted that saving bogus banking investments was the only way to restore “Credit Liquidity” to the Economic engine that runs the United States. It is interesting to note that the 25 Senators that did not vote for this “Wall Street/Main Street Rescue Relief Package of 2008” are all basically up for re-election. They were hardly ready to go face angry voters just a short month before they entered the Voting Booth!
The confab of self-congratulatory back slapping was pathetic! Senator Reid of Nevada thanking Chris Dodd for making it all happen…….the two Presidential candidates dutifully casting their fates with the majority! Sad, that only Senator Shelby and a few others were willing to make mention in passing that they doubted this package was going to work at all. They did suggest that they would be back soon… after infusing enough cash for Auto Dealers and Home Developers to lend at the same sub-prime rates…that orchestrated the entire collapse in the first place!
Does anyone remember the infamous SIV? Structured Investment Vehicles, that even the County of Orange here in California became a part of…..and found that they may have a problem! Well, those wonderful guys at Sigma….that brought us the “shadow banking system”…in the first place. They invested in borrowing from short term debt..then investing in long term assets. This of course is lovely as long as whatever you invest in….is going up in value.
Sigma Finance, with investments of just $27 Billion dollars was just part of a bigger $400 Billion dollar London based: Gordian Knot – an arm of JP Morgan and at least one other unnamed bank.. These SIV’s ceased to become likeable after the Commercial Paper Market dried up and Assets prices peaked. Sigma closed it doors yesterday. They still owe $6 billion dollars and they only have $2 billion to share with their investors. Someone just took a 66% hit on their investment. We might want to ask around to various Treasurers at the State and County level around America.
Are we finally starting to see what they mean by “Frozen Credit Markets”? Let’s see now….no one wants to invest in “Short Term Debt Paper” and everyone is absolutely paralyzed when the word “Long Term Debt” comes up. One of the great men in finance: famed economist R. Glenn Hubbard…came out today with his fix it plan: “Call in all outstanding APR and Sub-Prime Housing and Commercial loans and renegotiate them to 5 ¼ Percent as 30 year fixed instruments.”
Meanwhile, the paid off Senators that bought this “pig in a poke bail-out” want stabilized Real Estate Values and opened up Credit Markets……with 530 pages of pork and rind that they voted for….could they have the common courtesy to add a just a couple of sentences that actually help our country and not just their cronies?
Secretary Hank Paulson should recuse himself from any dealings with Goldman-Sachs…..(since he was a prior President of that group!). Goldman-Sachs should get no direct or indirect benefit from the Federal Bail-Out program! Just for appearances Hank…what say you?
The nightmare continues as they move the Hank Paulson plan of three pages to the House of Representatives for 150 pages, to the United States Senate of 531 pages…back to the House of Representatives………and still not two lines in the legislation to fix the problem! Congress has an approval rating of 10%……The President has a 25% approval rating and Wall Street has a ZERO percentage chance of ever recapturing their validity ever.
Enabled within this bill is still the Bail-Outs for companies like Sigma and other that are leaving their note holders with empty wallets. The principals have or will move on to other liar-investment vehicles. They should be doing the time they deserve. All of their profits should be appropriated for those who are left holding the bag. In the words of Glenn Beck last night: “I tell my kids this……we need to tell Congress:
“What does NO mean to you?” People like Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Rush all better get their heads straight if they want to remain the “Pinnacles of Conservatism” and Main Stream thinking! The sale pitch people are out there big time: “This is not going to reward Wall Street or bigtime Investor-Brokers!” “This is going to help Main Street…” Not really. If we understand that we are already down over $4 Trillion dollars in the National Debt tally….which undoubtedly will rise to at least double that before they can get a handle on their Country Club memberships!
Let us not be surprised when the price of gasoline and heating oil doubles! Let us not be surprised that only the very very rich will be able to travel around the world…..due to prices! And certainly, let us not be surprised when the buying power of the so-called saved Pensions and 401K’s will only be able to sustain half the buying power of before the Bail-Out.
As they say in the trade: “This is NOT Space Science!” Two grammar school kids could figure out how to save the American Dollar, keep energy prices stable and figure out how to buy a car or house…..if they wanted to! R. Glenn Hubbard has told them, the people of the United States has told them….and they still want to ramrod their dried out pork rinds through.
All should recognize that October 1st, 2008 was truly “A day of Infamy” which was designed to help cronies, lobbyists and some greed driven, unaccountable investors! No token tax write-off included for the underclass…..will balance those books…ever! We will remember every October 1st…..that America was had by the “ruling class”…just one time too often! We will celebrate October 1st…forever! Let that “tinkle down” at election time!
PALIN WINS DEBATE – BIDEN CRUMBLES !!
I just thought that I would get a jump on things – a “scoop.”
junior
*”Palin wins!! Hockey mom of the year!”
Thank goodness we only have 30 days till Armegeddon!! In the meantime,
we are voting for the black guy!
rw
I’ve got your scoop, dr.
Jr., it’s a misdemeanor (check out Business and Professions Code Section 2054) to refer to yourself as a doctor if you’re not …
longboobs, 😉
Of course the Palin won the debate!!. With her experience as executive she was able to neutralize the 30 plus years of senator Biden in congress ,and he could not do any thing about it!!!!!.
VOTE FOR MAVERICK AND PALIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She’s a polished debator, so what was up with that Couric interview? Was she trying to sandbag Biden or what?
Here are the links for the actual bill passed.
Don’t worry that the first page of the full text says something you aren’t expecting, it was gutted and amended, something they do a lot of here in CA page 2 is the current title page.
Full text of Bill H.R. 1424 (451 pages)
http://media.npr.org/documents/2008/sep/bailout/senate_bill.pdf
The analysis is here only 6 pages long
http://media.npr.org/documents/2008/sep/bailout/senate_analysis.pdf
The shortest form only 1 page
http://media.npr.org/documents/2008/sep/bailout/senate_summary.pdf
If you read the analysis it’s fairly easy to understand. I have not read through the entire Bill yet, so I don’t know how well representative the analysis is to the Bill, and we all know the devil is in the details. But from what I have seen so far this sounds fairly reasonable, all things considered. I have yet to see some of the claimed pork, but I’m sure there is some somewhere in here…kind of like that can of Pork & Beans.
Longboobs Says: “Jr., it’s a misdemeanor (check out Business and Professions Code Section 2054) to refer to yourself as a doctor if you’re not …”
longboobs,
It was a joke you twit.
Longboobs was attempting to joke with you, you twit Junior! It’s too bad she lacks the comedic styling and divinely inspired whimsy of the good Doctor.
Hey, you sure woke up in a sour frame of mind. Lose a debate, much?
Junior, it would seem that you ARE a sore loser. Hope your day’s going better, dyspeptic one …
Anonyms, back at you (except my computer seems to be lacking emoticons!)
VP, thanks! I will strive to improve my comedic style so Junior understands any future levity I try to share with him.
THIS IS A JOKE. THIS IS A JOKE. THIS IS A JOKE.
And Junior, should any official call your use of that title to task, I’ll generously provide a defense. You really meant “Dense Republican,” didn’t you?
THIS WAS A JOKE. THIS WAS A JOKE. THIS WAS A JOKE.
Joe Biden said: “Ladies and gentlemen, my wife, Jill, who you’ll meet soon, is drop-dead gorgeous. My wife, Jill, who you’ll meet soon, she also has her doctorate degree, which is a problem. But all kidding aside. . . . ”
This failed attempt at humor sparked reaction in the blogosphere, including an item by Adele Stan on Huffington Post headlined: “Careful, Joe! ‘Smart Woman’ Jokes a Dicey Game.”
One can only hope this is a harbinger of even more stupendous gaffes to come.
humm … seems as if liberal humor is a rare commodity these days. Oh, btw, did you all happen to catch the Red Carpet premier of An American Carol last night? Gotta love David Zucker.
Maybe Biden was talking about an EdD. those are becoming a problem. Luckily Santa Ana either doesn’t have to worry about that flap or they have exhibit one sitting in their top chair.
One can only hope this is a harbinger of even more stupendous gaffes to come.
Yeah, so stupendous a gaffe that I’m just now hearing about it two months later.
humm … seems as if liberal humor is a rare commodity these days.
LOL. I mean LMAO. Or, what is that thing, ROTFLMAO – you know, you roll around on the floor on account of you’re laughing so hard, then suddenly your ass comes off, just like separates from your body due to all the laughter, and you’re lying there watching your ass shaking around and jiggling with laughter as well, and that makes you laugh even harder, what’s the acronym…
Anyway does anyone remember Fox’ “Half-hour News Hour” which was supposed to be the rightwing version of our “Daily Show” and “Colbert Report” (which actually do occasionally skewer the Left and Dems when they deserve it?) The Fox attempt was so pathetically unfunny it was actually hilarious, and I think only lasted one or two episodes… Let me see if I can find a couple clips (Maybe it deserves its own post if nobody remembers it… although it’s year-old news)
OK I’m back. There’s a lot there if you go to YouTube and search “Fox Half-Hour News Hour” but this will do, pig:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSogIsu2cbo
Funny stuff, righties!
Okay, V., THAT video was a precious find!
Anyone in a bad mood who doesn’t bust out laughing watching that probably needs some Prozac!
Yeah, tracked down the REALLY REALLY bad stuff I was thinking of, it’s been taken of YouTube. Again, LMAO.
“Anyway does anyone remember Fox’ “Half-hour News Hour”
You got me there Vern. The Fox half-hour was EXTREMELY lame.
Speaking of extremely lame.
Anonyms (10:57),
… huh ??? WTF are you saying here?