Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Is Paulson to be trusted the Guy Bush wants to be sole Decider of $700 Billion Now? We are in a financial war with Russia we won't win this time too!

You have to be kidding me does that look like a trio you can trust?


Remember just one year ago Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson attempted to soothe jittery investors, insisting the United States will safely get through a spreading credit crisis that has unhinged Wall Street. "We are going to work through this problem just fine," Paulson said. He urged patience as investors reassess their appetite for risk, saying there isn't a "quick solution" to the matter. "These things take a while to play out," the secretary said.

Paulson stressed in an interview on CNBC that the economy remains in fundamentally good shape and suggested that it should be should be able to weather the financial storm. Before taking over the Treasury helm Paulson was a top executive at Goldman Sachs. Paulson said he has "great confidence" in the Fed. You know there is no way in hell I share his trust in the Fed! I was doing research on the guy and opted to leave it alone because he is part of the problem. There was so much screwed up information on this guy I decided not knowing it was true or not to leave it alone. Knowing Bush?

Sunday I was sent this story! The market was 500 trades away from Armageddon on Thursday, traders inside two large custodial banks tell the Post. Had the Treasury and Fed not quickly stepped into the fray that morning with a quick $105 billion injection of liquidity, the Dow could have collapsed to the 8,300-level -- a 22 percent decline! -- while the clang of the opening bell was still echoing around the cavernous exchange floor. According to traders who spoke on the condition of anonymity, money market funds were inundated with $500 billion in sell orders prior to the opening. The total money-market capitalization was roughly $4 trillion that morning. The panicked selling was directly linked to the seizing up of the credit markets -- including a $52 billion constriction in commercial paper -- and the rumors of additional money market funds "breaking the buck," or dropping below $1 net asset value.

The Fed's dramatic $105 billion liquidity injection on Thursday (pre-market) was just enough to keep key institutional accounts from following through on the sell orders and starting a stampede of cash that could have brought large tracts of the US economy to a halt. While many depositors treat money market accounts as fancy savings accounts, they are different. Banks buy a variety of short-term debt, including commercial paper, with the assets. It is an important distinction because banks use the $1.7 trillion commercial-paper market to fund their credit-card operations and car finance companies use it to move autos. Without commercial paper, "factories would have to shut down, people would lose their jobs and there would be an effect on the real economy," Paul Schott Stevens, of the Investment Company Institute, told the Wall Street Journal. Cracks started to show in money market accounts late Tuesday when shares in one fund, the Reserve Primary Fund -- which touted itself as super-safe -- fell below the golden $1 a share level. It had purchased what it thought was safe Lehman bonds, never dreaming they could default -- which they did 24 hours earlier when the 158-year-old investment bank filed Chapter 11.

By Wednesday, banks sensed a run on their accounts. They started stockpiling cash in anticipation of withdrawals. Banks, which usually keep an average of $2 billion in excess reserves earmarked for withdrawals, pumped that up to an astounding $90 billion by Wednesday, Lou Crandall, chief economist at Wrighton ICAP, told the Journal. And for good reason. By the close of business on Wednesday, $144.5 billion -- a record -- had been withdrawn. How much money was taken out of money market funds the prior week? Roughly $7.1 billion, according to AMG Data Services. By Thursday, that level, fed by the incredible volume of sell orders pouring in from institutional investors like pension funds and sovereign funds, had grown to $100 billion. It was still not enough to stem the tidal wave. The banks knew something drastic had to be done. So did Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson.

The injection of capital into the market was followed up by calls from Paulson to major money market players like Bank of New York Mellon and State Street in Boston informing them that federal money was in the market and they should tell their clients the Feds would be back with a plan to stem the constriction in the credit market. Paulson knew the $105 billion injection was not a real solution. A broader, more radical answer was needed. Hours after Paulson made his round of calls to calm the industry, word leaked out that an added $1 trillion bailout of banks was being readied. Investors cheered. At about 3 p.m., news of the plans was filtering up and down Wall Street, fueling a 700-point advance in the Dow Jones industrial average through 4 p.m. Friday. By that time, Paulson had announced the plan. It included insurance on money market accounts, a move that started in quiet Thursday morning, when the former Goldman Sachs executive saved the country from a paralyzing meltdown. 500 trades from Armageddon

Now Bush warns the world is watching and he demands immediate action

No way in hell do I trust the fool Bush! He wants action before those executives can be stayed or homeowners and taxpayers can be helped! Meanwhile Bush is damaging Obama: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says he probably would have to delay the spending programs he has called for during his campaign in light of the massive government bailout being proposed for the nation's financial industry. Obama: Bailout likely to delay spending programs

Things are pretty Dire but to make it worse I hear this about an Economic War with Russia: As Russia’s stock market went into free fall this week, conspiracy theories circulated that Washington was egging on American financiers to punish Moscow for its incursion into Georgia last month. The theories gained enough credence that Russia’s finance minister, Alexei Kudrin, spoke with U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson late Wednesday and sought assurances that the U.S. wasn’t playing politics with Russia in the financial crisis, the Russian Finance Ministry said. Mr. Paulson told Mr. Kudrin that the U.S. wasn’t, according to the Russian side. A U.S. account of the call wasn’t available.

… In recent weeks, Mr. Medvedev has blamed the crisis primarily on the U.S., which has been the target of Kremlin wrath on all fronts since the U.S. sharply criticized Russia’s war in Georgia. A top State Department official, meanwhile, this week cited the financial problems as the “price” Moscow was paying for the war. On Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Moscow’s moves in Georgia and elsewhere “are putting Russia on a one-way path to self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance.” The question broached by Mr. Kudrin in his phone call with Mr. Paulson reflects a view widely held in the opaque world of the Moscow elite. Russian officials have asked U.S. bankers in recent weeks if the banks have been ordered by U.S. officials not to lend to Russian companies, according to people familiar with the conversations. The banks deny any such order. “There’s a feeling of hostility,” said one person who works closely with the Russian government. “The biggest problem is that they don’t understand that the problem is home-made.” Rumors of financial war with Russia

As you know we won the last cold war while we were financially equitable. After what Bush has done to our country there is no way in hell we are going to win this one and I can only wait with anxiety to see what catastrophe Bush is going to create to mask this mess and get this war going. Economic woes favor Obama. War woes favor McCaidn. To keep the right in power I chill thinking what is going to happen next. Thoughts anyone?

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com

14 comments:

Monique said...

I got hold today of a little book about the American Depression and I was shocked. I'm such a political nincompoop. It was a great discovery. It was also a very depressing read. The rich seemed to be fine, it was the poor and the very poor who just suffered the most.

It just might go that way again here as well as where you are.

And if that's the case, with the domino effect such things have, I will be doomed.

It's like a biblical story, 7 fat years followed by 7 very meagre. And did we safe up for the 7 meagre? No, we did not.

jmsjoin said...

Wow Monique!
You surprise me! Remember who was in control then as now (Republicans) how it affected the entire world, and what it took to get us out (WW2). This is going to dwarf that!
I found videos today that are quite disturbing and I will post them in a series tomorrow. I beg every one to watch them they are short. Very bad and plus Russia gave war monger Bush 21 days to get out of the Black sea or war. This is coming to a head perfectly for executive order 51! No coincidence here.
I am rushing right now! As bad as the market is we put the house up for sale today and already have a showing tonight at 7 so we were not prepared and are rushing around going crazy.

Monique said...

:-D

Good luck

jmsjoin said...

:-D Thanks Monique!

jmsjoin said...

This is bad! I have been thinking about this for 2 days and was going to really put this in perspective. Besides guaranteeing this will change nothing and the average American does not matter and is on their own I just heard the campaigns are being suspended because of the crisis and Bush is to speak tonight. This will get much worse. Not good!

Weaseldog said...

Perestroika is coming as Wall Street tries to grow to infinity in a finite world.

Get your garden ready.

I had been thinking about building a makeshift greenhouse. Last night, out of the blue, my wife told me she wanted me to build one.

She's been paying attention to events. She buys the groceries.

jmsjoin said...

Wow Wease!
Wait until you see what I prepared for tomorrow. It is much, much worse than you think. Good for your wife! My next door neighbor has one.
I really have to get in touch with my aunt and Uncle in Derry, NH. They have a few and grow to sell veggies in the spring. They have always grown their own.
Wait until you see those videos. I really want your opinion. Especially the one on martial law and Russia giving us 21 days to leave the Black sea and the warnings of WW3 if we or Israel bother Iran.
I have to leave the house soon so someone can come view the house. We put it on this morning and are showing it already. I was afraid of that.

One Fly said...

Postponing the debates means squat. They will come up with some kind of bailout and for sure it will not be good for us. Maybe a couple positive things but the rest will be right out of the repug play book. The chimp will lie from start to finish tonight. The media will have their nose up this bills ass. Kiss all progressive plans goodbye.

Stave off the financial collapse of this country for awhile but it's coming just as sure as shit just like the sun rising tomorrow.

The message will be to help the economy we will have to consume more. How crazy is this shit and this does not include the scenario Jim has that I agree with.

I'm anxious to see the videos and is this 21 day thing something new?

Robert Rouse said...

Jim, you know of course by now that McCain wants to back out of the debate on Friday. He's trying to spin it, but no one is buying his excuse - I don't know about Fox since I don't check them out.

jmsjoin said...

one fly
Yes, the bailout will only serve to hasten the bankrupting of America. That ass hole McCain tried to make it out like he decided, shit!
Obama is the one that called him then the worm jumped the gun to make it sound like he is the man. That ass hole.
Obama is right the debates should go on and be about the economy. This is the time people should see what they are made of. I firmly agree!
McCain is slipping big time in the polls and he is playing friggen games!
Hey Robert yeah he wants to play this to his favor but Obama is right now is the chance for people to se what they are made of and so far they are still on and should be!

gabrielle said...

ground zero


________________________________________
September 24, 2008
Elderly Md. woman fends off burglar with reacher
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:48 p.m. ET
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- Police said an elderly woman fended off a man who broke into her Annapolis-area home using a reacher device used to grasp objects.
Police say two elderly women were in their home on Cedar Lane in the Hillsmere community about 3:20 a.m. Monday when the man kicked in the door. He demanded money, but they said they had none.
Police said after the man started going through a purse, one of the women grabbed the reacher and used it to repel him. Police said the man fled with the purse.
------
Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com






________________________________________
September 24, 2008
Thieves steal hood from ice cream delivery truck
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 9:42 p.m. ET
AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) -- Dave Tracy said he can understand thieves snatching ice cream from one of the Hershey's delivery trucks he manages. But stealing a hood off the truck? The branch manager at Hershey's Augusta warehouse said ''nothing like this has ever happened.''
Tracy said the fiberglass hood, at 7 1/2 by 6 feet and 4 feet deep, is ''not exactly small.'' He said that even if the thieves had a pickup truck, the hood wouldn't be easy to carry off.
Tracy, who's worked for Hershey's for 23 years, discovered the theft when he got to work Monday morning. Augusta police said the thieves probably needed a hood identical to the one on the ice cream truck.
Hershey's Augusta warehouse has six trucks that deliver through Maine and northern New Hampshire.
------
Information from: Kennebec Journal, http://www.kjonline.com/

jmsjoin said...

Gabrielle
Stuff like that I grew up with all dqy every day along with being ready to fight for your life as soon as you step out your door. You never know where the attack is going to come from so be prepared.
The rest of America better be prepared for this because along with work place and domestic violence along with the hurray for me and FU everywhere, it is all a normal part of the degradation of a society and it will all get much worse.

gabrielle said...

I agree. As people get more desperate it will get worse.
Like you, I know this kind of existence intimately. I grew up in the South Bronx which prepared me for just about anything.

jmsjoin said...

gabrielle
Being brought up hard today is a good thing. Really odd wanting to say great then you are prepared. Everything has been turned upside down and it pisses me off because whether people realize it or not it has all been done on purpose and will get much, much worse.