The beat goes on!

Gaaa, I can never catch up (I have so many saved up that I haven't had time to send yet). WaMu just got seized by the FDIC - largest bank failure in history. JPM buying the deposits (probably getting yet another sweet deal at our expense) to avoid completely bankrupting the FDIC. This is such a mess.

McCain causing problems for the 700B bailout too. Republicans actually showing some backbone here? Crazy stuff going on at the moment.

Call your senators, call your congressmen, tell them to stop the fleecing, it's being heard!! Calls have been 300 to 1 against the bailout.

Denninger and co have been on NBC news, the front page of the LA Times, the Financial Times and many other places, people are hearing us and at least asking questions of Paulson's joke of a plan.

Nobody even seemed to notice that the auto industry got their $25B bailout yesterday. More money for EACH of the automakers than Chrysler got in their major bailout (1.5B) back in the 80's.

The stuff I just mentioned (WaMu, auto) etc. is HUGE, and being dwarfed/snuck by everyone under the bailouts shadow.

Wish I could attach the hammer/sickle flag Trav sent me.


Tomorrow could be insane, if the talks don't go well tonight, Ben/Hank might just allow the markets to fail tomorrow to prove a point. Or they could come to agreement and "save the day" and the market rallies huge. Truly a time to play it safe on the sidelines or play VERY close attention.


**************

Don't even know where to start. Last Thursday the FED unleashed another $180 BILLLION onto the system. It disappeared. Literally. Gone. That forced Friday's actions of banning shorting (really?), announcing the bailout, and doing it all on options expiration. Nice job manipulators.

And they think the 700B will do anything other than be a complete waste of our money to bail out a bunch of jack-a$$es? Until the process starts again in a couple months.

Other great stuff on this site - but the two links on the left listing Paulson and Bernanke's lies is an eye-opener - and proof of what we've been discussing for over a year. This site was an off-shoot created by many hard-working individuals on the TickerForum - visit it!
http://www.fedupusa.org/



Paulson, reportedly to congress on his piece of sh$t bill:
"If it doesn't pass, then heaven help us all,"

F him and the F'ing bullshit he has spewed for the past year+. In case you still don't believe me, HE runs the planet. Do you think it's a coincidence that AIG, Bear etc get to live, and Lehman is let die? Be a friend of Paulson and you will live like a king. Unfortunately the other 99.99999999% of us are f'd.

He told us how strong everything was until he needs a bailout for his buddies, not it's heaven help us?!



Mish’s open letter to Congress
http://tinyurl.com/4275jc

Actually, Mish had a ton of good stuff the last couple days, scan them over if you have time.


Well guess what? Goldman and Morgan turned into banks last night. Not how I envisioned their end, but the investment bank model is now dead. I'm sure they will rally on the news, but they are now limited to be leveraged like 12 to 1 (oh, the humanity) instead of 30 or 40 to 1. Slash their future profits massively.

Taiwan, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Dubai etc. all also banned short selling in some form. IT IS NOT THE SHORTS.

Ask Pakistan. Great charts in this one:
http://tinyurl.com/4orw6c


One of those fantastic Mish's I just mentioned. Includes "what you can do". Do it.
http://tinyurl.com/4thvvy


Finally, the video that explains it ALL. 47 minutes. Cartoon. Save it for later, but don't forget about it. It's the reason this country is on the verge of...
http://tinyurl.com/27jppm

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Sent to every congressman, but worth a read because it tells the story:

=========================

Enabling Act of 2008

Dear Member of Congress:

You are being asked to assign unprecedented powers to an unelected, and unaccountable former Wall Street banker, under the guise of bringing stability to the markets and solvency to our banking system. With one hastily thrown together vote, you are going to create the most powerful human being in world history – Henry Paulson.

This is being done for the purposes of fixing a “crisis” that has suddenly, in the last hour, been presented to Congressional leaders. This act would remove the constitutionally mandated powers of regulation of the money supply, and the value thereof, from Congress and give it to an unelected member of the President’s cabinet. According to the act, this person would be above judicial review, and be allowed a $700,000,000,000 revolving line of credit to print money on behalf of the United States government. That is more power than anyone has ever had – anyone. Caesar did not have this power.

This should sound eerily familiar.

In March of 1933, after the “crisis” of the Reichstag Fire, newly named Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler, petitioned the German Reichstag to give him plenary powers over the affairs of German government. The Reichstag transferred its power, on an emergency basis, to the Cabinet of Germany for a period of four years, and this was called “The Enabling Act”. This was to deal with the perceived “crisis” of Communists within the German government, when the “crisis” was never fully substantiated. It is believed by most historians that the Reichstag Fire was a deliberate act to coax the Reichstag into giving up its power.

That history did not end well.

You are being goaded into giving Henry Paulson plenary powers over the economy and government spending, money supply, and value of that money. Those powers belong to you, held in trust for the citizens of the United States. Our Founders gave you those powers TO PREVENT THE VERY SCENARIO THAT SECRETARY PAULSON HAS PRESENTED TO YOU.

You are being manipulated.

For the past 13 months, Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chairman, Bernanke have repeatedly given public statements through the various media, and have testified to Congress on the soundess of our banking system. As that time has worn on, they have repeatedly come to Congress for various bailouts (Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie/Freddie), as well as acted to install confidence through the manipulation of the Federal Reserve Monatary Policy, and announcing various liquidity programs to keep money in the banking system (TAF, TSLF). While they have been taking extraordinary measures to shore-up the banking system, they have always maintained that the system is sound and just needs a little time to get through a “soft spot,” or a “contained” problem (Subprime).

You now know that they were lying the entire time. There is no way to sugar coat this. They have been lying to you since March of 2007. They are lying now. This was plainly known to many in the professional and amateur investment communities, recently smeared as “short sellers.” It turns out that the cynics were right all along. This is why we have a free press.

Ask yourself, why didn’t they come to you for this unprecedented bailout last October, when Paulson attempted the same thing with various Wall Street banks? Surely, the problem was known last fall when Paulson attempted to create his “super SIV.”

Had he come to you at that time, there would have been at least 11 months to debate the issue, open it for public review, and deal with it while the stock market was trading at an all-time high. Why did he wait until the weekend before the Congressional recess for the bi-annual election cycle, and present the plan over a weekend where the public could not comment? Why did he have to wait until the stock market teetered on collapse, and the credit markets were frozen solid?

He needs a “crisis” so you will not oppose him.

Ask yourself, why did the Senate Majority Leader and Speaker of the House, as late as September 16, attempt to leave the issue in Washington and head back to their districts, leaving the Administration to clean up the mess, then suddenly have a change of heart less than 36 hours later? What was said? Why are the details of the briefing given to Congressional leaders not available for public review? Why are you being asked to vote for something so hastily and without proper briefing or public review? Does Democracy flourish in the dark, or does tyranny and fraud?

We know the following:

Paulson and Bernanke have lied for the duration of the credit crisis.
Every bailout has been bigger, more frequent, and has resulted in a much bigger “crisis.”

Now, Paulson and Bernanke are telling you that they really are telling you the truth and this bailout will work.

You are being played.

They are framing the issue in terms of Congress voting to rescue the banks and the markets. Let me be clear on this point: YOU ARE NOT VOTING ON THE HEALTH OF THE BANKS OR THE MARKETS. YOU ARE DECIDING WHO GETS WHAT MONEY IS LEFT OVER AFTER THEY FAIL. The markets (equity and credit) are going to experience a large dislocation, or in the common lexicon, “a crash.” That is an absolute certainty. You are merely deciding if the US citizens are going to keep their money, or give it to Wall Street bankers. You are deciding if the US government is going to survive or collapse. Giving Paulson unlimited spending powers will ensure that the government collapses. That is a certainty.

Paulson and Bernanke need to be removed from office for malfeasance. For 18 months, the health of the banking system has been very suspect. They have known all along what is happening and have failed to act. Their actions have been limited to lying to Congress and the American people and manipulating the accounting to cover the insolvency of the US banking system.

You are being asked to abdicate. The American people want their Constitution and their government to survive. We will rebuild what Wall Street has destroyed, but we need to keep our money in order to do it.

Vote against this unprecedented power grab. History shows the folly of such endeavors.

Very truly yours,

***************************





Sen Dodd: If we are paying $1 TRILLION (If that is the estimate, multiply it by 5 = America is gone, but that's a different story), don't you think we deserve to hear what was said?

Senator, you have got your hands full right now. Before we get into the specifics, describe the mood last night when you heard the potential dire consequences of what we're talking about now, if the federal government were just not to do anything. What were you told would happen?

SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD (D), CONNECTICUT: Well, I'm going to be reluctant to repeat exactly the words, not because I can't remember them, but, because, if you were to repeat them exactly, I'm fearful it might cause even more concern.

I can't begin to tell you. I have been here for 28 years, Wolf, been in a lot of very critical meetings involving a lot of important events over the last quarter-of-a-century. I can't recall another occasion when I was in a room where statements were made about the conditions of not only our economy, but the global economy, that caused every member in that room, the leadership of the House, the Senate, Republicans, Democrats, leaders of committees, that, when Chairman Bernanke finished his appraisal, a brief appraisal, along with Hank Paulson, there was dead silence in the room for maybe five to 10 seconds.

The oxygen went out of the room. People were stunned by what they heard. And I'm angry about this, because I think this was preventable, I will tell you, but we're not going to talk about that today, because the issue is, what do we do?

As for the rumor as to what was said:
Rumour is that Ben said the DOW would go to 8300, payrolls would fail, factories would shut, businesses would close, within 48 hours.

Just a rumour...

********************************


Exerpt from Patrick Buchanan:

What we are witnessing today is how empires end.

The Last Superpower is unable to defend its borders, protect its currency, win its wars or balance its budget. Medicare and Social Security are headed for the cliff with unfunded liabilities in the tens of trillions of dollars.

What we are witnessing today is nothing less than a Katrina-like failure of government, of our political class, and of democracy itself, casting a cloud over the viability and longevity of the system.

Notice who is managing the crisis. Not our elected leaders. Nancy Pelosi says she had nothing to do with it. Congress is paralyzed and heading home. President Bush is nowhere to be seen.

Hank Paulson of Goldman Sachs and Ben Bernanke of the Fed chose to bail out Bear Sterns but let Lehman go under. They decided to nationalize Fannie and Freddie at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of billions, putting the U.S. government behind $5 trillion in mortgages. They decided to buy AIG with $85 billion rather than see the insurance giant sink beneath the waves.

An unelected financial elite is now entrusted with the assignment of getting us out of a disaster into which an unelected financial elite plunged the nation. We are just spectators.

What the Greatest Generation handed down to us ­ the richest, most powerful, most self-sufficient republic in history, with the highest standard of living any nation had ever achieved ­ the baby boomers, oblivious and self-indulgent to the end, have frittered away.

********************

Non-req as it is quite anecdotal but very interesting - esp the 2nd part:


Every now & then i get a call from a very upscale salon near Wall St. to be a hair model. And if my hair happens to be too long like it was today i accept their invitation.

Today i happenned to be chit chatting with a stylist there from Russia and i mentioned that i had heard that the russian stock market got shut down this past fri. and i'm not even sure if they re-opened it.

She said "i dont know about the russian stock market but this one here is in REALLY big trouble!". Playing dumb i said "what do you mean"? And she went on to tell me that the Salon has lost DOZENS of regular clients over the past few months - many confided that they had been laid off and the others simply disappeared. The clients who they still have come with an extremely noticable difference in mood and many confide that they simply have no idea from day to day if they will still have a job and how they will be able to support their wife and kids and house. When she asks how bad it is they say things like "its REALLY BAD - TRUST me". And she said one guy really scared her the other day by talking about some foreign land that he owns that he would go to as a possible exit strategy. She feels that many of them are simply grabbing any money they can and sticking it away and preparing for the life they had on Wall St. to imminently end.

In another piece of news that is SURELY going to get me accused of tin - I got a call last night from my father (now a semi-retired lawyer) who told me that a friend of his called him and told him that his son made 17 MILLION Dollars going LONG on thursday afternoon and selling Friday morning. The person told my father that his son was in some sort of group that was tipped off DAYS IN ADVANCE and basically told to buy on thursday before the announcement. My father then told me that the whole thing was a plan to help re-capitalize the insolvent institutions that had to be bailed out. By timing this properly and leaking the information to the right people the FED was able to get tons of money into these institutions which means they will have to be bailed out that much less now that they made so much money from friday mornings pop.