Posted by smeddum on September 23, 2008
U.S. Stocks Fall in Market’s Worst Two-Day Drop Since 2002
By Elizabeth Stanton
Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) — U.S. stocks fell in the market’s worst two-day slump in six years on concern Congress will hold up a $700 billion bank bailout that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said is critical to preventing a recession.
General Motors Corp., Dillard’s Inc. and Regions Financial Corp. tumbled more than 7 percent after members of the Senate Banking Committee expressed skepticism about Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s plan. General Electric Co., the world’s third- biggest company, retreated 4.6 percent as Merrill Lynch & Co. downgraded the stock on “growing fundamental pressures.” ConocoPhillips and Newmont Mining Co. lost more than 3 percent as oil retreated following a record advance and gold and copper prices decreased. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: failing banks, financial collapse | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 23, 2008
Let’s Stop the Greatest Theft in the History of Humankind
By Otto Spengler, Asia Times
Posted on September 23, 2008, Printed on September 23, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/99895/
Why should American taxpayers give US Treasury Secretary “Hank” Paulson a blank check to bail out the shareholders of busted banks? Why should the Treasury turn itself into a toxic waste dump for their bad loans? Why not let other banks join the unlamented Brothers Lehman in bankruptcy court, and start a new bank with taxpayers’ money? Or have the Treasury pay interest on delinquent mortgages, and make them whole? Even better, why not let the Chinese, or the Saudis or other foreign investors take control of failed American banks? They’ve got the money, and they gladly would pay a premium for an inside seat at the American table. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: failing banks, financial fraud, Paulson | Leave a Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 23, 2008
London Protesters Demand an End to US Coups
September 23rd, 2008
By Paul Haste Charley Allan UKwatch.net
Venezuela Analysis
Scores of solidarity campaigners picketed the US embassy in London on Wednesday night before a huge rally at the National Union of Journalists head office to demand an end to US interference in Latin America.
Responding to ongoing coup attempts in Bolivia and Venezuela, NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said that it was ironic that he was protesting outside the US embassy when its government had nationalised more of its economy in the last few days than Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had in the last decade. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Multipolar world | Tagged: Bolivarian Revolution, Venezuela | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 23, 2008
Thierry Meyssan
Voltairenet
22nd September, 2008
Translation at foot of each paragraph
Le slogan comparant l’attentat d’Islamabad et le 11-Septembre est plus réaliste qu’il n’y paraît. Ce carnage non-revendiqué sert en effet exclusivement les intérêts de l’OTAN : l’Alliance atlantique doit prendre le contrôle de toute urgence de la passe pakistanaise de Khybar pour approvisionner ses troupes en Afghanistan. Dans le cas où l’Alliance ne parviendrait qu’à rétablir partiellement sa logistique, Washington envisage de sacrifier les troupes alliées.
[The slogan comparing the Islamabad bombing to the September 11th attacks is more realistic than might appear. This unclaimed attack serves exclusively the interests of NATO: the Atlantic allinace must, as a matter of urgency, take control of thre Khyber Pass in order to supply their troops. If the Alliance can’t solve its logistical problems, Washington plans to sacrifice allied troops]
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: "War on Terror", bombing of Pakistan, Marriot Hotel, Pakistan, Pakistan NATO Russia | 1 Comment »
Posted by smeddum on September 23, 2008
Paulson Plan May Push National Debt to Post-World War II Levels
By Matthew Benjamin
“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” Hmmm! What is wrong with this picture?
Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) — Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion proposal to stabilize the banking system may push the national debt to the highest level since 1954, threatening an erosion of foreign appetite for U.S. bonds.
The plan, which asks Congress for funds to buy devalued securities from financial institutions, would drive the debt above 70 percent of gross domestic product and the annual budget gap to an all-time high, possibly exceeding $1 trillion next year, economists estimated.
“This is sobering, absolutely sobering, even to someone who doesn’t drink,” said Stan Collender, a former analyst for the House and Senate budget committees, now at Qorvis Communications in Washington. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: failing banks, Paulson, US debt | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 23, 2008
What was perhaps even more worrying for investors was an item in the small print of Hank Paulson’s rescue plan. It said that, separate to the $700bn markets rescue package, the US Treasury would plunder the Exchange Stabilisation Fund – the US currency reserves, established in the 1930s – in order to pay for an insurance scheme for the money markets.
“The Treasury has committed the nation’s FX reserves to supporting the money market industry,” said Chris Turner, head of foreign exchange strategy at ING. “That suggests to us that the dollar has fallen down the list of the administration’s priorities – a worrying development for foreign investors in the US.”
Edmund Conway
Telegraph
22nd September, 2008
Whether or not tomorrow’s accounts of today’s turmoil prove David Owen of Dresdner Kleinwort right; whether or not this is the beginning of the end of the dollar’s pre-eminence in the world’s central banks and foreign exchanges, the economic landscape has undoubtedly changed forever.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: exchange stabilisation fund, financial collapse | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 23, 2008
There are votes to be won in talking down this monstruous bit of legislation, but actually turning up to vote against it is a different matter. Can McCain win by adopting a radical posture against a piece of Republican legislation which will anyway be enacted.
Victoria McGrane
Politico
22nd September
Congress is poised to vote on the biggest government intervention in the financial markets since the Great Depression, but it’s unlikely that any of the three senators vying for the White House will be there – even though all three have talked of little else for over a week.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: fianacial collapse, McCain | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 23, 2008
Bail pout the American People, Not Wall Street!
An Economic Recovery Strategy for Protectionists, Dirigists, Mercantilists and Populists.
Webster G. Tarpley
Rense.com
WASHINGTON DC — The grand theft bailout now being rammed through Congress by Treasury Secretary Paulson, Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke, and other officials of the Bush regime with the help of accomplices Pelosi, Majority Leader Harry Reid, and other parliamentarians is a monstrosity for the ages, combining every hideous feature of monetarism, elitism, oligarchism, and sheer feckless incompetence. It is to all intents and purposes a national suicide note of the United States of America, a contract with the devil that absolutely guarantees irrevocable national decline. For any person of goodwill there can be only one impulse at the present moment, and that is to stop this bailout — to block it, to sabotage it, to bottle it up, to load it with killer amendments, and to do everything legally possible to stop this insane design from
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Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: financial collapse | 1 Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 22, 2008
Ansar Abbasi
The News
21st September, 2008
SLAMABAD: Was there a top secret and mysterious operation of the US Marines going on inside the Marriott when it was attacked on Saturday evening? No one will confirm it but circumstantial evidence is in abundance.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: bombing of Pakistan, Marriot Hotel | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 22, 2008
Brown’s latest big idea has lasted less than 24 hours.
David Lawder and James Mackenzie
Yahoo
22nd September
WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) – Group of Seven nations welcomed the $700 billion U.S. markets bailout plan on Monday and said they were prepared to step up international cooperation to protect the world’s financial and banking system.
But a day after Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said he was “aggressively” encouraging other countries to put in place bailout packages of their own, there was little sign other G7 governments were prepared to follow Washington’s lead.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: financial collapse | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on September 22, 2008
Times
23rd September, 2008
The Pakistani President, Prime Minister and military chief of staff were due to attend a banquet at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, where bombers killed at least 53 people, but a last-minute change of venue saved them.
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Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: "War on Terror", bombing of Pakistan, Marriot Hotel | 1 Comment »
