The past two weeks have shown shocking stock market moves of 500 points or more, both directions.
Panic selling, panic buying, who knows just how much was lost in the volatility, changing of the rules daily and turmoil.
So, while all of the focus is about propping up a semi-insolvent financial system, what about the actual people?
Murder, Suicides and desperate acts are on the rise. (please people, it's only money).
After falling 3 1/2 years behind in payments, the Taunton, Mass., housewife had been intercepting letters from the mortgage company and shredding them before her husband saw them. She tried to refinance but was declined.
I personally would not want to see anything that would result in a consolidation. That would mean the elimination of additional jobs," Gettelfinger said on a political webcast run by WWJ-AM in Detroit
From a local Indiana station, they interviewed workers and one can see the main issue as to why people are not buying cars:
We haven't committed to buying a car yet because we don't know where the economy is going to be and we don't know if the finances are going to hold out to buy a new car
Remember the old adage where Henry Ford knew he had to pay his workers enough to afford the products they were making?
New York Times is reporting $250 billion for investing in large and small banks.
The FDIC will give unlimited insurance on non-interest bearing bank deposits.
Now check out the New York Times graph of who gets the most, already decided. That is $125 billion already doled out to our fab 8 which means there is only half left for anyone else.
At least they are getting preferred stock for the deal.
Supposedly the program was not voluntary and supposedly they will have reduced executive compensation so far ill defined.
Hank getting tough with his buddies? Not too sure since he just handed over billions.
EU Nations Commit 1.3 Trillion Euros to Bank Bailouts
France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Austria committed 1.3 trillion euros ($1.8 trillion) to guarantee bank loans and take stakes in lenders, racing to prevent the collapse of the financial system
The Federal Reserve led an unprecedented push by central banks to flood the financial system with as many dollars as banks want, backing up government efforts to revive confidence and helping to reduce money-market rates.
The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank will offer European banks unlimited dollar funds with maturities of seven, 28 and 84 days at fixed interest rates against ``appropriate collateral,'' the Washington-based Fed said today. The Fed had capped at $380 billion the currency it would swap with the three central banks.
"Once a run gets started it is rational for other people to join in.”
- Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, commenting on bank runs
Probably about now the people who actually wanted the massive bailout of the Wall Street crooks are asking themselves, "What exactly did we buy with the $700 Billion in taxpayer money?"
It's a little late to ask that question You don't purchase a car without kicking the tires, you don't purchase a home without having the foundation inspected, and you don't bail out Wall Street unless you made certain that the money isn't going to be wasted.
With the DOW dropping nearly 2,300 points in just the 7 days since the bailout was announced, the sheeple are realizing that they've been mugged by the crooks yet again. Except this time the taxpayer wasn't held up. We gave them our wallets willingly.
Obama is releasing new plans on the economy and one is to have a foreclosure freeze.
He also wants to give a $3000 dollar tax credit to every job created in the United States and of course that question begs to ask are those jobs required to go to US citizens and Green Card holders or can corporations import their foreign cheaper labor?
Democrat Barack Obama is proposing lifting penalties for withdrawals of up to $10,000 from retirement accounts and imposing a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures on some homeowners as part of a plan to boost the economy and aid middle-income taxpayers.
Obama also wants the Federal Reserve and Treasury to lend money to state and municipal governments that are have having trouble raising money and for federal lawmakers to ``keep all options open'' to help struggling automakers.
The Barrage of news is pouring in and I am trying to get my business taxes done before the deadline.
So forgive me if this post is a little weak.
It's being reported now we will have the worse recession in 25 years, if we are lucky.
''It's certainly going to be the worst since the 1980s,'' says Bradford DeLong, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley who worked at the U.S. Treasury Department from 1993 to 1995. ``The hope is that it won't become the worst unemployment business cycle since the Great Depression
The minute I hear the word Protectionism being denounced, odds are policy for the American people is being fought against by Corporate lobbyists.
Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is now pronouncing the evils of any international regulation or anything geared to reduce the United States trade deficit:
Although we in the United States are taking many extraordinary measures to ease the crisis, we are not pursuing policies that would limit the flow of goods, services or capital, as such measures would only intensify the risks of a prolonged crisis
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