Home > Jay Bookman > Archives > 2008 > October > 06 > Entry

Wall Street crisis will impose new sobriety

By Jay Bookman | Monday, October 6, 2008, 06:25 AM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In the wake of the attacks of September 11, you heard a lot of musing that our days of frivolity and cynicism had ended with the collapse of the World Trade Towers. Suddenly, it was time to get serious.

“I think it’s the end of the age of irony,” Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter proclaimed, a statement that would itself looks ironic seven years later.

“To look at anything published before Tuesday at 8:45 a.m. — People magazine’s cover on Ben Affleck’s struggle with alcoholism, Time’s cover on Venus and Serena Williams, Business Week on the ‘Wine War’ — is to realize how suddenly, dramatically, unalterably the world has changed,” wrote Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz. “And that means journalism will also change, indeed is changing before our eyes.”

“The most important thing is that it will introduce a new seriousness into the world,” another writer proclaimed. “Over the past 10 years, since the defeat of communism and the collapse of the various walls, we have been told that there is no more history and it was all right to indulge in fun and frivolity. A decade of unreality has been blown away.”

It was a nice sentiment, but little of that change proved permanent.

Now, with the crisis on Wall Street and stern-faced warnings from Washington that we teeter on the edge of another Depression-like collapse, you’re once again hearing talk of a cultural sea change under way. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Wall Street on Friday, “the party is over.”

This time, it might be true.

As traumatic as Sept. 11 had been, few Americans outside of New York and Washington felt a direct impact. The blow had come out of the blue, like a sucker punch, and once we recovered our wits its impact was short-lived.

By contrast, the foreclosure crisis, the collapse of the stock market and the end of easily available credit are being felt first hand in every community and neighborhood in the country. And the effects are likely to be long-lasting.

Jobs are disappearing —- almost 160,000 in September alone —- and many may never come back. Retirement funds are evaporating. Local and state governments are facing significant revenue shortfalls and are having trouble selling bonds on Wall Street. According to Bloomberg News, “tax-exempt borrowers this week sold less than 15 percent of a typical week’s sales” because Wall Street refused to buy their bonds.

The credit squeeze is so tight that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger even warned the U.S. Treasury last week that his state may have to borrow billions from the federal government to make ends meet.

More ominously for the long term, this calamity is going to make the rest of the world look at us differently. We have financed a lot of our prosperity on the willingness of the rest of the world to loan us billions because they saw our country as all but invulnerable economically. Foreign governments and private investors happily bought our government bonds, our corporate bonds and bonds derived from millions of home mortgages.

Last week, just by coincidence, our national debt exceeded the $10 trillion mark, and a lot of that money is owed to foreigners. The tide of money that washed away any sense of proportion or ethics on Wall Street also came in part from overseas. When critics of the $700 billion bailout complain that it was passed just to keep foreign banks happy, there’s some truth to that. It’s a chilling sign of just how much national sovereignty we’ve signed away in return for overseas capital.

With recent events, however, that confidence in the economic stability of America has now been compromised, and once lost, confidence is a hard thing to recover. Unlike Sept. 11, this is a setback of systemic origins, going to the core of what we do and how we do it. We’re going to feel its consequence for years to come.

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Comments

By AJC/DNC Management

October 6, 2008 6:43 AM | Link to this

This time, it might be true. Unlike Sept. 11, this is a setback of systemic origins, going to the core of what we do and how we do it. We’re going to feel its consequence for years to come.

Yeah especially if the tax and spend liberals get control of the White House, then I agree, we are doomed.

One has to wonder how much of the declines have been a reaction to the coming threat of Oblahma?

Whatever, elect the Repugs and then we can embark on a new financial boom time, increased domestic oil production, lower trade deficits, hundreds of thousands of jobs drilling for oil and building nuclear power plants, an independent wealthy America that does not fund Middle East terrorism.

I know, I know, that was racist.

By Taxpayer

October 6, 2008 7:15 AM | Link to this

Andy, as usual your stupidity underwhelms while still fully defining you.

By AJC/DNC Management

October 6, 2008 7:24 AM | Link to this

Geez, Duhzilla starts her own blog with the second post of the day and I’ll be damned, the gods of the raging blogmasters have not descend down upon her in righteous fury and anger.

Duhzilla: Cloves of garlic and a crucifix or what?

The Committee has given consideration to Senator McCain’s actions on behalf of Lincoln. The Committee concludes that, given the personal benefits and campaign contributions he had received from Mr. Keating, Senator McCain exercised poor judgment in intervening with the regulators without first inquiring as to the Bank Board’s position in the case in a more routine manner. The Committee concludes that Senator McCain’s actions were not improper nor attended with gross negligence and did not reach the level of requiring institutional action against him.

See, now here is the big difference, McBushie has already been investigated and cleared of any wrongdoing while Oblahma is, well, innocent until proven guilty.

15 years after the fact, now the libs want to dig up the grave and drag the corpse around?

By AJC/DNC Management

October 6, 2008 7:27 AM | Link to this

Taxpayer: Roses are red, Violets are blue, first thing this morning, we have nothing but whining from you.

Boo hoo hoo.

By Bud Wiser

October 6, 2008 7:30 AM | Link to this

Dow futures posted this morning are already down 224, and Asian markets tumbled sharply overnight. This so-called “rescue” plan for Wall Street seems anything but, just another trillion dollars or so dumped into an ever increasing black hole.

John McCain will not cool down this economic storm already in full boil.

Barack Obama will not rescue it either.

But, McCain will not complete the total collapse that may loom by raising taxes; that assured eventuality only comes into place under Obama’s already announced plans for tax increases if he is elected.

Frankly, I don’t know now if The Token One is even a Democrat any more, but is instead has morphed into a full blown Socialist. Democrats like FDR at least had honor, but now we have Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, ex-Klansman Robert Byrd, etc etc, fronting that once proud party, and putting a socialist as their front man for the presidency. Sad, truly sad, and dangerous for the future of our nation.

Toss in Obama’s links to convicted criminals like Tony Resko and William Ayers, plus associations with Franklin Raines and other personal money profiteers (let us also not forget Rev Wright), makes him perhaps the worst candidate either party has ever had to run for the highest office in the land. In troubled times like this, we need a man of character, not a seedy character, to be our President.

Barack Hussein Obama is NOT OUR FUTURE!

Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid, and the absolute wrong man at the wrong time

By AJC/DNC Management

October 6, 2008 7:32 AM | Link to this

Back on the blog subject:

The only thing more predictable than European glee at American economic trouble is how quickly it fades amid Europe’s own problems. So no sooner did Der Spiegel publish its latest eulogy for American power last week (“The Price of Hubris”) than European banks had to be rescued one after another. The euro’s recent fall of about 5% against the dollar is further proof that the credit mania was a global phenomenon and its aftermath requires global responses.-Wall Street Journal

And as usual, The United States of America comes to the rescue of the Euroweenies, saving them from utter defeat so that they can whine about us once again.

Kinda like with the libs, ain’t it?

By Mrs. Godzilla

October 6, 2008 7:49 AM | Link to this

Yes, Sir DUH….

McCain can be real proud of being noted “by the Committee for exercising “poor judgment” when he met with the federal regulators on Keating’s behalf”

We’ve been talking about McCain’s bad judgement all along.

Then there’s this:

In the 1980s John McCain sat on the board of the extremist “U.S. Council for World Freedom”…which the Anti-Defamation League said “has increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and anti-semites.

Oh don’t forget Hagee and Parsley….

And the lovely Governor is married to a guy involved with the treasonous Alaska Secession Party! Not to mention her whole witchcraft problem. Oh, and 7 folks have agreed to testify in TrooperGate.

McCain sliding into the sleaze will back fire. What if the Democrats have found what it is that the Bushies had on him in 2000?

Take a peak at this from the LA Times

By Bud Wiser

October 6, 2008 7:55 AM | Link to this

Published today in the NY Times, part of the cheerleader squad for Barack Obama, by Roger Cohen:

But let’s face it, the whole Wall Street debacle, with its cost of some $700 billion to generations of Americans, was based on the fathomless human ability to disregard facts and believe in cloud-cuckoo-land.

Risk no longer existed. The penniless could afford a $200,000 house. Real estate prices could only rise. Securities full of toxic loans would prove benign. Debt was desirable, leverage lovely, greed great. Two and two made five. The moon was a balloon and streets were lined with gold.

How could it happen? That outraged question springs now to everyone’s lips. But from Dutch tulips to Californian dot.coms, great heists have happened and will again. No flight from reality is as sweet as the illusion that money grows on trees.

Cohen went on to try to use these points to try to trash Sarah Palin, but it seems he is the one that went off into “cloud-cuckoo-land”.

Throw the stones where they belong, and that is at the feet of Bill Clinton, Franklin Raines, and the Community Reinvestment Act* (CRA), allowing the penniless to be approved for loans they could not afford. Toss in a few hundred thousand sub prime marketing maneuvers and, VOILA, you have a deepening money problem.

And these are the types you people want to turn over yours and your children’s financial futures to? It is astounding, the absolute and total lack of brain power and rational reasoning the supporters of Obama have.

Obama/Biden ‘08 - making it easy to be stupid

By E

October 6, 2008 7:56 AM | Link to this

We’ve had our time in the sun.

It’s time to pass on our job of “world policeman” to another country that can afford it. Maybe China or Japan.

We could have had a longer run if the aristocracy wasn’t so greedy.

Oh, well.

Obama/Biden ‘08

By Taxpayer

October 6, 2008 7:56 AM | Link to this

Oh look, the head urinal has been taught a rhyme. Whine some more for us, oh little person that whines 24/7 and then proclaims another as a whiner. That’s just so cute. So, come on, head urinal. Open your trap and whine some more.

By ByteMe

October 6, 2008 7:59 AM | Link to this

More unattributed stupid quotes from Andy.

Ah, Morning in America!

Bud: You have only one thing right in your post: one man can’t solve this problem. However, one wrong way of thinking will keep this mess going.

Lack of regulation and enforcement of those regulations will most assuredly keep the credit markets unhinged. The problem is trust and without a common set of rules that everyone plays by, the markets will stay screwed up. No amount of money can fix trust.

So do you think McCain is more likely to get the rules right or Obama? Considering McCain never met a regulation he liked until he had to change his position on that and considering McCain’s tendency to demonize anyone who doesn’t agree with him, I’m guessing that Obama is going to do a better job putting the rules in place to calm the markets.

I’m also guessing you are guessing differently but maybe you just haven’t thought it through. Either way, it’s just an opinion that’s worth about as much as people spent to read it.

By tracher

October 6, 2008 8:08 AM | Link to this

And now with you guy McCain putting the economy aside to smear Obama, we see from the “presidential” standpoint just how important the economoy is. No, leave it to him and the pitbull in high heels to just outright lie to divert any attention for their lack of plan for this nation. Is America really so stupid to vote for them? You must be proud of your guy, Bookman, for keeping the focus.

By Taxpayer

October 6, 2008 8:09 AM | Link to this

The Republican have done enough damage to America to last us many lifetimes. The sooner we get them all out of office and out of our lives, the sooner we can start to rebuild this land. It’s time to put the war-mongering, economy destroying, greedy, hate-filled Republicans out to pasture and out of our lives.

By Bud Wiser

October 6, 2008 8:10 AM | Link to this

Byte Me,

What I am saying is that tax increases promised by Obama will most certainly tear at the very fabric and backbone of our economy, and that lies in the creation of new jobs. With less businesses operating because the are taxed out of operation, less jobs. With more unemployed on the streets, less tax revenue.

The markets may adjust back to a semblance of normalcy without governmental intervention, they may not. But putting more strain on the system by a combination of higher taxes and the lessening of opportunities by increased scrutiny will in all likelihood make it collapse in on itself. Its a tough call, but a government that cannot even control its own deficit spending policies cannot be assumed to be able to effectively control private enterprise either. Hell, they haven’t even figured out yet how they are going to control money from the “rescue’ plan they just passed, they just now have a huge wad of our money to throw yet again at a totally undefined problem!

By N-GA

October 6, 2008 8:10 AM | Link to this

Jay,

I posted this link last night on your earlier blog. It’s a long read, but well worth it!

You’ve read all the ill-informed comments over the past few weeks about the cause(s) of our economic meltdown. This 60 Minutes segment really tries to nail it.

The high-risk CDO’s (Collateralized Debt Obligations) were sold with investment-grade ratings, even though the consisted of sub-prime mortgages. In order to make it easier to sell the CDO’s, buyers were offered “Credit Default Swaps”.

Now these “swaps” protected the buyers of the CDO’s from default by offering “insurance” that wasn’t really INSURANCE! They (the big investment banks) wouldn’t call it insurance because that would cause these swaps to fall under government regulation. Not only that, there would have to be reserves set aside to cover these swaps if the CDO market collapsed. BTW, they sold an estimated $50-60 TRILLION of these things!

Now all those who want to blame stupid home buyers, the CRA, Bill Clinton, Barney Frank, etc. can stop being apologists for the financial industry.

Here come the indictments!

By Taxpayer

October 6, 2008 8:21 AM | Link to this

N-GA,

We have John McCain’s economics adviser, Phil Gramm — the Republican party’s king of deregulation, to thank for starting the Enron mess and the legalized unregulated shadow banking and the promulgation of junk such as credit default swaps.

By Mrs. Godzilla

October 6, 2008 8:23 AM | Link to this

Did I mention that Jim Hensley (Cindy’s Daddy) helped to finance McCain’s entry into politics and that he was a convicted criminal with mob ties?

By tracher

October 6, 2008 8:25 AM | Link to this

Bud Wiser, why would you think Obama is lying about creating jobs? You are truly one of the angriest persons I’ve read. You need some serious therapy, man. Hit your wife, kids and dog around much??? I see that your anger is focused on the wrong people and wow, you really know how to lash it out.

By AJC/DNC Management

October 6, 2008 8:25 AM | Link to this

By N-GA October 6, 2008 8:10 AM The high-risk CDO’s (Collateralized Debt Obligations) were sold with investment-grade ratings, even though the consisted of sub-prime mortgages. In order to make it easier to sell the CDO’s, buyers were offered “Credit Default Swaps”.

N-GA: Now is your chance to prove that you know anything at all about economics, instead of just being able to regurgitate See B.S. moonbat propaganda, tell us all who the “buyer” was in the vast majority of these bundled mortgages.

By AJC/DNC Management

October 6, 2008 8:30 AM | Link to this

Like I was saying:

In the past five years, there has been a transfer of wealth from the U.S. and Europe to Asia, the Middle East and Russia of trillions of dollars for oil and raw materials as well as inexpensive manufactured goods. Whether or not that transfer has been positive or negative for the U.S. economy writ large — and there is considerable debate on that subject — the outflow of wealth is a fact.-Wall Street Journal

And who can we thank for that?

Environmental junk science terrorists.

No drilling, no refining, no nuclear, no nothing, just put a big sail on top of your Toyota and blow real hard.

Idiots.

By TN Gelding

October 6, 2008 8:32 AM | Link to this

Bud Wiser

October 6, 2008 7:30 AM

Eliminating Capital Gains Taxes for Entrepreneurs and Investors in Small Business. Barack Obama understands that small businesses are the engines of our economy, and he will eliminate all capital gains taxes on investments in small and start up firms.

By Mrs. Godzilla

October 6, 2008 8:36 AM | Link to this

The Keating 5 video is right smack dab on top of Drudges website…..

By AJC/DNC Management

October 6, 2008 8:37 AM | Link to this

Like McCain was saying:

The current debate in Washington gives no indication that this reality is understood. Both sides of the aisle are susceptible to a false sense of American economic sovereignty. Companies and countries flush with cash increasingly view U.S. laws, regulations and attitudes as undue burdens. As consumer activity accelerates outside the U.S. and Europe, and as financial centers spring up elsewhere, there is increasingly less inclination and less need for the world to go either to Wall Street or to Main Street.-Wall Street Journal

The second highest tax rate in the world on business, why would anybody come here to invest?

And which candidate is it that wants to lower this tax rate?

It ain’t Oblahma, he wants to raise it.

I know, I know, that was racist.

By @@

October 6, 2008 8:37 AM | Link to this

Well jay, you’ve got me feelin’ the conspiracy this morning.

Pres. Bush jr. broke the NWO (New World Order) rule of secretive manipulation

Soros hates Pres. Bush jr. for having broken the rule of manipulation. “Today, there is basically a oneness of purpose in promoting U.S. imperial dominance, and in the process, attempting to solve a deepening global economic crisis by controlling diminishing petroleum and energy resources. By making U.S. ambitions so clear, Bush has committed the cardinal sin of giving the game away. For years, Soros and his NGOs have gone about their work extending the boundaries of the ‘free world’ so skillfully that hardly anyone noticed. Now a Texan and his overzealous neo-cons have blown it”. Therefore, Soros has spent a lot of money fighting Bush jr.s 2. election campaign.

Keeping in mind that it was Rockefeller that gave Syria a heads up before our invasion of Iraq, I leave you to ponder.

Soros has been pushing OBlahMa onto the American public since 2004.

There are democrats who solicited Soros’ advice on the bailout.

My work day begins, but before I go………

Welcome to George Soros’ New World Order.

By tracher

October 6, 2008 8:42 AM | Link to this

By the way, Bud Wiser, I was just picking on you because of your name. Reminds me of the “Joe 6-pack” McCain-Palin are talking up. Just pointing out how ugly it is to smear someone with lies like Palin’s comment about “hanging out with terrorists”. Not to stand up for Ayers, but if this is America, give the guy another chance. He served his time and seems to be trying to contribute to America so dragging his name through the mud again is pretty bad, but more importantly, IT IS AN OUTRIGHT VICIOUS LIE! It is truly politics at its dirtiest and I HATE TO SEE IT. But it assures me that my vote for Obama is well-grounded. McCain doesn’t have a plan, or we would hear that instead.

By N-GA

October 6, 2008 8:42 AM | Link to this

Andy, Queen of all Regurgitators:

Your assignment is: figure it out for yourself, then explain why that makes any difference since they bought swaps to cover themselves.

Hint: Many of those buyers are the ones that you and the rest of the idiot wing-nuts want to give tax breaks.

Your motto must be “Don’t regulate, regurgitate!

By ByteMe

October 6, 2008 8:50 AM | Link to this

Bud, I do not have your faith that any tax increase will rip apart the economy. In fact, those who make more than $250K can indeed afford it. 70% of economic activity in this country is driven by consumer purchases. Increasing taxes on those who make more than $250K per year and decreasing it or holding it steady on those who make less will not disrupt consumer-driven spending.

But it also won’t change the basic problem with the credit markets: trust. Until the trust problem is addressed, we’re screwed. A new president and a new Congress is required to address this issue. Doing nothing will make things worse. Even the banks want this now.

And for those who think that because the bailout was signed on Friday and the market is dropping this morning that the bailout is a failure: Are you a complete f* moron?? The bailout is to buy the bad assets of banks that need help; the asset buying hasn’t started yet and will likely take place over the course of several months. Here’s a hot tip: the SPX will drop below 1000 before it stabilizes again. That’s another 10% or more from current levels. The bailout doesn’t change that.

Enjoy the day. I’m off to stimulate my economy :)

By T

October 6, 2008 8:51 AM | Link to this

Ok, to all the financial geniuses out there, how do we fix it? Without the blame game. I see a enough blame for everyone.

N-GA

I read about CDO’s and CDS’s last week. I had no idea what they were. Creepy sh@#!

I do not think the 700 Billion dollar sponge bob band aide is going to work. (I hope it does)

Globalization is great. Look what it’s doing to the world market.

Does anyone think that with the world market crumbling, that some of our creditors are going to what to collect?

It really irritates me that niether candidate has changed their economic policies in light of the current situation. I could be wrong, but I haven’t read anything to suggest other wise.

By Eric

October 6, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this

DON’T WORRY EVERYONE…THE MESSIAH TAKES OVER ON 1/20/2009!!!

And in an economic downturn the obvious answer is to raise taxes on productive people, right Bookman?!?!?! That should fix everything!

By Taxpayer

October 6, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this

When are the Republicans going to jump on the Spill Baby Spill bandwagon. After all, 500,000 gallons of crude oil were spilled in the Gulf as a result of Ike. It seems as though it was just “yesterday” that the Republican nut-cases were clamoring about how environmentally friendly oil drilling is these days. Of course, we know that a right wing nut case in need of votes will tell any lie as many times as needed in order to secure a vote, any vote.

By E

October 6, 2008 8:59 AM | Link to this

When top executives of the country’s five largest oil companies were asked at a House hearing in April 2008 whether they wanted to build a new refinery, each said NO.

Obama/Biden ‘08

By AJC/DNC Management

October 6, 2008 9:02 AM | Link to this

N-GA: You flunked, again:

The final proof that American social policies have made mortgage lending an unviable industry rests with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If sensible business people don’t get into the mortgage industry because it is fundamentally a bad business, the American way has been to send in a couple of quasi-government agencies to fill the gap. Fannie and Freddie dominated the mortgage industry because ultimately government was prepared to fund activities that prudent lenders would not. When their implicit government guarantee became explicit, America’s system of government-directed lending on socially desirable, but commercially imprudent, lending stood exposed.-Wall Street Journal

And-

The toxin in the system was inserted by Washington. For over a decade, the government mandated mortgages to unqualified home buyers through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and through laws telling banks to make their own bad mortgage loans. Even after financial services firms are stable and investors return to the market, consumer confidence depends on Washington accepting its responsibility and backing off. Markets are complex enough, we are now reminded, without the poison of government-mandated bad loans.-Wall Street Journal

By hillbilly ragger

October 6, 2008 9:03 AM | Link to this

Have the resident righties seen this and bawled their eyes out yet?

seems the “uppity” folks are making Georgia mighty, mighty close for Obama after all. How funny would it be if your pathetic southern strategy had completely crashed and burned, and you couldn’t even hold GEORGIA?

A little taste from the linked piece: *Now suppose that black and nonblack voters each turn out at the same rates as they did in 2004, but that we account for the increase in black registration. According to our math, John McCain’s 7.0-point lead is now cut to 4.9 points.

But that is probably too conservative an assumption. Newly-registered voters — and nearly half of Georgia’s newly-registered voters are black — turn out at higher rates than previously registered voters. In addition, one would assume that the opportunity to vote for the first African-American nominee might be just a little bit of a motivating factor for black voters. Suppose that African-Americans represent 29.0 percent of Georgia’s turnout, matching their share of active registrations. Using the splits we described above, McCain’s lead is now cut to 2.3 points.

Even this, however, may be too conservative. For one thing, the registration window in Georgia is not yet over … it concludes today. The statistics I cited above only reflected registrations through September 30. There is typically a surge of registrations in the final few days before the deadline. In 2004, Georgia’s active voter rolls increased by about 150,000 persons in the first four days of October, before the registration deadline closed. That was more than they’d increased in the entire month of September.

So suppose that by tonight, black voters have increased to 30 percent of Georgia’s registered voter pool. Plugging that 30 percent number in, McCain’s advantage is a mere 1 point.*

By Mrs. Godzilla

October 6, 2008 9:08 AM | Link to this

Fun Reading at The Rolling Stone

By AJC/DNC Management

October 6, 2008 9:12 AM | Link to this

By E October 6, 2008 8:59 AM When top executives of the country’s five largest oil companies were asked at a House hearing in April 2008 whether they wanted to build a new refinery, each said NO.

Building new refineries would lower the price of gasoline and thereby the oil company’s profits.

Duh.

Liberals are morons and unfortunately, in charge of Congress, and that is exactly why energy prices have doubled since the libs took control.

By tcoach

October 6, 2008 9:16 AM | Link to this

To whoever said give Ayers another chance you do know he said that he wishes they had done more in reference to his orginizations bombings of teh 70’s. Also has said he is NOT sorry for anything he did.

So why would you hang out or give this guy another chance.

By K_Chub

October 6, 2008 9:17 AM | Link to this

Jay,

I have to say that I disagree with you - Americans won’t wake up to the world we live in until they are standing in line at a soup kitchen. Even then they will be shaking their heads wondering how it all happened. I say this because by and large people still are not paying attention. I work in an office where everyone has at least a Bachelors degree and many have MBA’s and the majority of them have no clue or even a desire to know what is going on. It’s like I have an office full of Sarah Palin’s. Smart people that just don’t have any desire to know about what is going on in the world around them.

That is why we are destined to fail as a nation. People don’t care anyone and in a Democracy if the people stop caring the whole system falls apart. I have very little faith that America can get back on it’s feet and regain our status as the greatest nation in the world.

By Amazed

October 6, 2008 9:22 AM | Link to this

I am amazed at all of this. Sadly this is something we all let happen and no one from either party is going to do anything about it. BOTH parties have essentially embarked on separate paths to the same end.

As Americans we need to bind together, live within our means (even if that means you have to start cooking again and get rid of those 12 department store credit cards you have), and lastly — bring out REAL leadership that will help us to over come this challenge.

Sadly, I just love seeing people on food stamps who then put their groceries into their decked out all leather Chevy Tahoe…..or the ones who are on free and reduced lunches but can afford a Hummer, or the people who make less than $50K trying to pay for a house that is 300K because somehow they feel they deserve it. Once we change our behaviors, meet our neighbors again, actually raise outr children and stop electing crap to our local and federal offices - America will be on the right track.

DOWN WITH POLITICAL CORRECTNESS - IT IS KILLING THE COUNTRY ECONOMICALLY.

By hillbilly ragger

October 6, 2008 9:26 AM | Link to this

Jay, I’m sorry I didn’t think to post on-topic prior to straying with a post about the election. I wanted to thank you for one specific line in the piece that really hit home when I read it in the dead-tree edition earlier this morning:

“It’s a chilling sign of just how much national sovereignty we’ve signed away in return for overseas capital.”

That term—national sovereignty—was one the wingnuts were trying mightily to use against Obama some months back, remember? They had this meme that Obama was going to surrender “national sovereignty to the UN” by imposing a “global tax.”

It’s as crystal clear example of flagrant conservative hypocrisy as I can imagine.

By zeke

October 6, 2008 9:28 AM | Link to this

I CANNOT WAIT UNTIL SOMEONE HAS THE GONADS TO STEP UP AND TELL THE REAL REASON(S) THAT THIS SO CALLED CREDIT CRUNCH HAPPENED!! The ridiculous socialist in Congress and the previous one in the white house backed by anarchist groups like acorn, naacp and others forced banks, mortgage companies and other to make loans to people who would not have qualified under the accepted standards of credit! They had no reasonable expectation of paying back these loans! And, they were in effect funded by $5 trillion of taxpayer money as mandated by Congress! Now there is a wave of support ot put into the white house the most socialist President since FDR! Worse than LBJ, JEC or WJC! If this occurs and the Congress has a liberal majority in both houses, including a super majority of 60 in the Senate, THE COUNTRY IS LOST! Possibly 3 more ultra liberal Supreme Court Justices like Ginsburg, YUK! More and more taxpayer confiscated money spent on welfare and socialist entitlements! More and more taxpayer money confiscated and spent on such things as the so called arts and entertainment, grants to groups with no benefit to the taxpayers and a diasterous drain on our economy and private wealth!!!

By Bosch

October 6, 2008 9:30 AM | Link to this

Good morning bloggers!

Didn’t hear much news this weekend, except that OJ is finally going to jail. Well, that’s good news.

Palin and McCain are stepping up their attack ads. Yawn.

Nice piece Jay, I would add one thing: on September 12, 2001, the world was behind us, now they are not. Those who claim that it doesn’t matter what the rest of the world thinks of us are truly naive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amazed,

“I just love seeing people on food stamps who then put their groceries into their decked out all leather Chevy Tahoe…..or the ones who are on free and reduced lunches but can afford a Hummer”

That is ridiculous and I do not for one minute believe that you have ever seen that. Enough with the hyperbole. The other stuff in your post, um, yeah, I agree with that.

By N-GA

October 6, 2008 9:33 AM | Link to this

T,

The interesting thing about the 60 Minutes segment is the comment that the financial system would have withstood the collapse of the CDO market. They placed the blame for the economic meltdown directly on the CDS’s.

Personally I don’t see the $700 Billion loan as the solution. You can see that the world markets aren’t all that confident, either.

Somebody somewhere is going to have to eat the losses (and/or “bloating”) that have built up over the years. This includes not only CDO’s and their ilk, but also deficit spending, trade imbalances, and the spend, spend, spend mentality that has existed since the 1970’s.

It took Japan years to recover from their meltdown, and I expect the same will be true for us.

By hillbilly ragger

October 6, 2008 9:34 AM | Link to this

The Luckotroooool gave us:

“Liberals are morons and unfortunately, in charge of Congress, and that is exactly why energy prices have doubled since the libs took control.”

Anyone here think the Luckotroooool actually believes this?

Anyone?

By AJC/DNC Management

October 6, 2008 9:42 AM | Link to this

Aahhh, yes, the Washington Post:

If that doesn’t convince you that deregulation is the wrong scapegoat, consider this: The appetite for toxic mortgages was fueled by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the super-regulated housing finance companies. Calomiris calculates that Fannie and Freddie bought more than a third of the $3 trillion in junk mortgages created during the bubble and that they did so because heavy government oversight obliged them to push money toward marginal home purchasers. There’s a vigorous argument about whether Calomiris’s number is too high. But everyone concedes that Fannie and Freddie poured fuel on the fire to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars.

bwa.

By TN Gelding

October 6, 2008 9:45 AM | Link to this

From e-mail archives:

Thursday, February 21, 2008 11:47 AM

One of the reasons the market has done so well over the last 28 years is the introduction of the 401(k) which started in 1982. Then the TSP kicked in in 1986. It took 22 years to recover from the crash that started in ‘29 and ended in ‘32. From ‘65 to ‘83 the market was flat. Look at the growth from ‘83 to 2000, especially from ‘95 to 2000! It’s only up 25% in the last 8 years and only 40% before the recent sell-off, not exactly earth shattering. I look for it to be around 10,000 when Bush leaves office. Of course, it could be at 20,000, but if it is it will be because of foreign investors. It should hold up fairly well because the companies that make up the Dow are getting half of their profits from overseas. Not so for the overall market, tho. We’re definitely in uncharted waters. Why risk losing everything overnight when you’ve been the beneficiary of phenomenal gains? This subprime scandal has really had a sobering effect on me. The times they are a’changing. Our days in the sun are rapidly coming to an end. It’s going to take years to work off the excessive housing inventory. With so many jobs going to Mexico and being outsourced to Asia the middle class is shrinking. The top 10%, and especially the top 1/10 of one percent are doing quite well and unless the tax code is radically changed are going to have to bail out the federal government or see us become subservient to China. The rest of us are going to have to return to a more simple life with one of the parents staying home and minding the kids. Maybe the government should just give every family 40 acres and a mule!

By N-GA

October 6, 2008 9:47 AM | Link to this

Andy, Queen of the Regurgitators,

What is all this nonsense you spew? I know that you certainly don’t understand it.

When this economic meltdown first crashed the stock market, you boasted that you were going into the market to pick up some bargains. With your investment expertise, you could teach the people who bought those CDO’s something!

LOL!!!!

By E

October 6, 2008 9:52 AM | Link to this

non-management,

you were the one b*** at 8:30 about no refining.

Schmo.

Obama/Biden ‘08

By Mrs. Godzilla

October 6, 2008 9:52 AM | Link to this

John McCain’s Domestic Terrorism Problem (new video)

By hillbilly ragger

October 6, 2008 9:53 AM | Link to this

Luckotroool, which of the two candidates has a Fannie-Freddie lobbiest at the helm of his campaign? Which of the two candidates’ managers received nearly 2 million dollars in direct compensation from those organizations?

Go on bleating, Luckotroool. When I’m in the mood I’ll field-dress you and grille you up real good, like I did just now.

By getalife

October 6, 2008 9:56 AM | Link to this

Economy?

It’s about Ayers and Keating don’t ya know.

You betcha gosh darn it. Wink.

The world is scrambling to try to stop it but there is no solution to greed except prison.

By Mrs. Godzilla

October 6, 2008 9:56 AM | Link to this

“I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.” - Joe Vogler, founder of the Alaskan Independence Party

The First Dude’s Pal.

Hanging around with terrorists indeed!

By TN Gelding

October 6, 2008 10:03 AM | Link to this

getalife

October 6, 2008 9:56 AM

Great stuff! Keep it up.

She’s still drawing big crowds of dittoheads, tho.

By AJC/DNC Management

October 6, 2008 10:05 AM | Link to this

By N-GA October 6, 2008 9:47 AM When this economic meltdown first crashed the stock market, you boasted that you were going into the market to pick up some bargains. With your investment expertise, you could teach the people who bought those CDO’s something!

N-GA: Invest? When did I say invest? Do you even know the difference between investing and turning a profit?

I bought your 401K on it’s way down and sold it when it came back up.

Why would I leave my money in it to be rampaged by greedy capitalists, like my self, for instance?

~~~~~

E: Perhaps you should read back through this morning’s comments a bit more slowly and a lot less hysterically.

By tcoach

October 6, 2008 10:06 AM | Link to this

I have numerous times watched as someone used an ebt card in front of me in line. Then only to watch them get in a much nicer car than mine. I have seen ebt card users get in all types of suv’s and over the weekend watched a lady buy 7 bags of chips, 2 boxes of donuts and then go outside and got in an Escalade, glad to know she ws only getting necessities. So to those that think it does not happen it does, every day on yours and my dollar.

These are the same poor struggling people Obama wants to GIVE free money to in the costume of a tax cut, but they pay no taxes anyway, so it will be free money.

By Tell It Like It Is

October 6, 2008 10:08 AM | Link to this

We need to be very careful on this cultural/class issue. I keep reading that the wall street collaspe is predicated on loans to minorities(blacks)that were not qualified. I sense some racism beginning to raise its ugly head again. Does anyone have any numbers from credible sources varifying this?

It is quite interesting how McCann and Palin are trying to link Obama to terrorist and a lack of love and respect for America when in fact most Americans are linked to terrorist in the past. For many years, good white citizens set in their churches on Sunday mornings knowing that the KKK and other white sepremacists groups were actively murdering blacks and jews(Andrew Goodman , Michael Schwerner, Viola Liuzzo,Lemmuel Penn, James Chaney, the four little girls in a Sunday school in Birmingham and many many more.

Thanks to the liberal main stream media, these atrocities were made known to the world thus making it known that America has its own human rights issues. Thank god that we all(Blacks, Whites, Jews) overcame this and we are now in a position to elect a non-white candidate based on qualifications and character. Lets not allow the ambition to be president bring all the cultral differences and biases. We survived the Civil War but our country may not survive this especially in times of bad economic conditions. Remember, that we are linked to Europe and Asia also. Stocks are down again this morning. We should be very cautious Americans.

By N-GA

October 6, 2008 10:09 AM | Link to this

Andy,

You’re not that smart.

rotflmao!!!!

By CommunistAJC

October 6, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this

Mrs. Godzilla, So what do you say about Obama Hussein having direct ties with terrorist Bill Ayers? And, which of the 58 states will Obama Hussein be in today?

By AJC/DNC Management

October 6, 2008 10:13 AM | Link to this

By Mrs. Godzilla October 6, 2008 9:56 AM “I’m an Alaskan, not an American. I’ve got no use for America or her damned institutions.” - Joe Vogler, founder of the Alaskan Independence Party

Allow me to go on record here, you libs be sure to save this little jewel for future reference, I too have no use for Congress, the Department of “Education,” the Internal Revenue Service, or any other wasteful, greedy and corrupt damned American institution.

And just like Sarah, I want to reform them.

By E

October 6, 2008 10:15 AM | Link to this

non-management,

I and everyone reading your sh*t knows what you put out there.

You get caught, you try the spin, but you don’t get anywhere.

Obama/Biden ‘08

By CommunistAJC

October 6, 2008 10:15 AM | Link to this

Can any of you dumb a$$ libs explain this one? AGAIN, THE DEMOCRATS ARE THE REASON WE ARE IN THIS MESS.

Lawmaker Accused of Fannie Mae Conflict of Interest.

By Bill Sammon

WASHINGTON — Unqualified home buyers were not the only ones who benefitted from Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s efforts to deregulate Fannie Mae throughout the 1990s.

So did Frank’s partner, a Fannie Mae executive at the forefront of the agency’s push to relax lending restrictions.

Now that Fannie Mae is at the epicenter of a financial meltdown that threatens the U.S. economy, some are raising new questions about Frank’s relationship with Herb Moses, who was Fannie’s assistant director for product initiatives. Moses worked at the government-sponsored enterprise from 1991 to 1998, while Frank was on the House Banking Committee, which had jurisdiction over Fannie.

Both Frank and Moses assured the Wall Street Journal in 1992 that they took pains to avoid any conflicts of interest. Critics, however, remain skeptical.

“It’s absolutely a conflict,” said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Business & Media Institute. “He was voting on Fannie Mae at a time when he was involved with a Fannie Mae executive. How is that not germane?

“If this had been his ex-wife and he was Republican, I would bet every penny I have - or at least what’s not in the stock market - that this would be considered germane,” added Gainor, a T. Boone Pickens Fellow. “But everybody wants to avoid it because he’s gay. It’s the quintessential double standard.”

A top GOP House aide agreed.

“C’mon, he writes housing and banking laws and his boyfriend is a top exec at a firm that stands to gain from those laws?” the aide told FOX News. “No media ever takes note? Imagine what would happen if Frank’s political affiliation was R instead of D? Imagine what the media would say if [GOP former] Chairman [Mike] Oxley’s wife or [GOP presidential nominee John] McCain’s wife was a top exec at Fannie for a decade while they wrote the nation’s housing and banking laws.”

Frank’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Frank met Moses in 1987, the same year he became the first openly gay member of Congress.

“I am the only member of the congressional gay spouse caucus,” Moses wrote in the Washington Post in 1991. “On Capitol Hill, Barney always introduces me as his lover.”

The two lived together in a Washington home until they broke up in 1998, a few months after Moses ended his seven-year tenure at Fannie Mae, where he was the assistant director of product initiatives. According to National Mortgage News, Moses “helped develop many of Fannie Mae’s affordable housing and home improvement lending programs.”

Critics say such programs led to the mortgage meltdown that prompted last month’s government takeover of Fannie Mae and its financial cousin, Freddie Mac. The giant firms are blamed for spreading bad mortgages throughout the private financial sector.

Although Frank now blames Republicans for the failure of Fannie and Freddie, he spent years blocking GOP lawmakers from imposing tougher regulations on the mortgage giants. In 1991, the year Moses was hired by Fannie, the Boston Globe reported that Frank pushed the agency to loosen regulations on mortgages for two- and three-family homes, even though they were defaulting at twice and five times the rate of single homes, respectively.

Three years later, President Clinton’s Department of Housing and Urban Development tried to impose a new regulation on Fannie, but was thwarted by Frank. Clinton now blames such Democrats for planting the seeds of today’s economic crisis.

“I think the responsibility that the Democrats have may rest more in resisting any efforts by Republicans in the Congress or by me when I was president, to put some standards and tighten up a little on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,” Clinton said recently.

By TN Gelding

October 6, 2008 10:16 AM | Link to this

Mrs. Godzilla

October 6, 2008 9:56 AM

Keep it coming! Hopefully it will eventually sink in. But they’re still defending Bush, so I doubt it.

By CommunistAJC

October 6, 2008 10:21 AM | Link to this

And, to all of you Palin bashers out there. Including you Jay Hackman. You morons like to talk about giving to charity and helping the poor. Well get this, Palin out gave Biden in two years than Biden did in eight years COMBINED.

Palin gives more to charity than Biden.

By Sam Youngman

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made considerably less money than rival Sen. Joe Biden, but the Palin family gave more to charity in the last two years than Biden has in the last eight combined, according to Palin’s tax records released Friday afternoon.

Palin, the running mate of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), and her husband Todd reported meager earnings from 2006 and 2007, at least by presidential-politics standards.

In 2006, the Palins paid $11,944 in taxes on $127,869 in income. In 2007, they paid $24,738 on $166,080.

But in 2006, they donated $4,880 to charity, and in 2007, they donated $3,325.

By contrast, Biden (D-Del.), Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s running mate, has donated a total of $3,690 since 1998 despite his higher Senate salary, according to an analysis posted by National Review.

The timing of the release of the Palins tax records has become something of a tradition. Campaigns wait until Friday afternoon, when the news cycle slows to a grind and reporters are focused elsewhere — in this case, Congress’s passage and the president’s signing of the financial rescue package.

By hillbilly ragger

October 6, 2008 10:22 AM | Link to this

Luckotrooool, those straws just keep getting thinner and thinner all the time, don’t they? You’re reduced to crap pieces that quote Clinton way-the-f##k out of context, now?

What’s next—Michael Moore Admits Hillary Had Them Peepul Kilt?

Hey, folks, how do you like your Luckotroool—rare, medium, or well done?

By Mrs. Godzilla

October 6, 2008 10:24 AM | Link to this

Read ‘em and weep

While you’re there, click on Senate…. and peek at Georgia.

By CommunistAJC

October 6, 2008 10:26 AM | Link to this

Jay Bookman, Are you going to pledge allegiance to Master Savior Obama Hussein.

Mrs. Godzilla, I’m sure you’ll be first in line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUEQz5dltmI

By Mrs. Godzilla

October 6, 2008 10:27 AM | Link to this

Nobody sees The Palin! Not Nobody! Not No How!

By Mrs. Godzilla

October 6, 2008 10:33 AM | Link to this

NOW THAT”S FUNNY!

Duh Quoting Bill Sammon!

FOX talking head who wrote a book about Al Gore trying to steal the 2000 election!

He also wrote this: Strategery: How George W. Bush Is Defeating Terrorists, Outwitting Democrats, and Confounding the Mainstream Media.

By CommunistAJC

October 6, 2008 10:34 AM | Link to this

Mrs. Godzilla, Did you create that crappy photoshop work yourself? By the way, I’m betting you were in line with Gloria Steinham giving Bubba some good head. Right? Go sell stupid somewhere else, Pelosi.

By hillbilly ragger

October 6, 2008 10:34 AM | Link to this

How much of the Palins’ “charitable contributions” are to that nutball church of theirs?

By tcoach

October 6, 2008 10:44 AM | Link to this

Oh yeah and Obama went to a much better church for over 20 years. Good point Hillbilly, dems may want to stay away from talking about people’s choice of church.

By CommunistAJC

October 6, 2008 10:46 AM | Link to this

hillbilly ragger, How much of Husseins money goes to his nutball racist church?

Mrs. Godzilla, As opposed to what? Quoting Keith Olberqueer? The guy who called General Patreus the worst person in the world? By the way, I hate to tell you this, but OwlGore DID try to steal the election. Oh, and he lost. Sorry about that Nancy Pelosi but you really need to lay off the weed.

By hillbilly ragger

October 6, 2008 10:50 AM | Link to this

“The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government…”

that was William Ayers back in the ’60s, right? or maybe Rev. Wright, pontificating about the government’s role in 9/11?

oh, wait…

By CommunistAJC

October 6, 2008 10:51 AM | Link to this

tcoach, They, meaning idiot dems, may also want to avoid talking about experience. Being that Obama Hussien has ZERO experience running anything but a community. Whatever that means. Sarah actually organized a town and a state. Someone please tell me what Obama has accomplished other than getting in to Harvard by means of affirmative action.

By Comrade Pootin

October 6, 2008 10:53 AM | Link to this

Comrade CommunistAJC, you have not reported back to your masters in Russia in many weeks now. How many more Republicans have you signed up for the cause. You have promised thousands more converts and your masters need to see results or it’s back to Chernobyl for you.

By Mrs. Godzilla

October 6, 2008 10:53 AM | Link to this

Gee, Commie…..you really are out there on the fringe.

By CommunistAJC

October 6, 2008 10:59 AM | Link to this

Comrade Pootin, Oh wait, is that you Obama? Why yes it is.

Mrs. Godzilla, Nope not really, I just love calling you out for what you really are. A HACK! Now go iron my shirt.

By Mrs. Godzilla

October 6, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this

Hillbilly Ragger

Talk about aassociations…..

Sarah Palin has been sleeping with a supporter of that monster. For 16 years!

By hillbilly ragger

October 6, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this

Hey, guys, you go right ahead, calling Trinity UCC a “racist” church. Makes you look like the frothing sons-of-Klansmen you are.

By fearless fosdik

October 6, 2008 11:02 AM | Link to this

Senior Citizens Who Vote for McCain Should be Required to Renounce Any Claim to Social Security or Medicare!