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Hate the Bailout Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance : "In the interim, I encourage you to contact your elected representatives -- whether you oppose the bailout plan or support it -- because this legislation is too important to be left to the politicians: Congress switchboard: (202) 224-3121 White House: (202) 456-1414 Blast email to senators HERE

Dollars & Sense blog | Dollars & Sense : "It's the Foreclosures, Stupid (NACA) by Dollars & Sense - Bruce Mark This is an "action alert" from the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America. The CEO of NACA, Bruce Marks, was on the radio program Here and Now this morning explaining why he opposes a bailout; there appears to be no way to listen to the segment, but they may put up a link to it sometime at the show's site. Hat-tip to John Miller. There is one reason for the financial crisis – Foreclosures. There is only one solution – Restructure mortgages to make them affordable. Who would benefit – Everyone The above sounds very basic but we are providing One Trillion dollars to bailout major financial institutions and insurers without addressing the underlying cause of the crisis which are the millions of homeowners at-risk of foreclosure. They want to say it is too complicated and throw out terms like CDO, Leverage swaps, and others to justify giv...

Bridge Loan to Nowhere! In the movie Men in Black, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones team up to save the world by resolute preventive action. By contrast, America's real-life Men in Black--Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke and New York Fed President Timothy Geithner--haven't done as well lately. Ever since that classical day of reckoning, the Ides of March 2008, when the terrifying specter of chain bankruptcy and currency collapse first loomed over lower Manhattan like an attacking spaceship because of Bear Stearns, it's been downhill. Thomas Ferguson A little over a week ago, the Men in Black made a fatal mistake. They allowed the aliens to vaporize the proud old firm of Lehman Brothers. Whole fleets of spaceships then immediately began attacking AIG, Wachovia, Washington Mutual, even Morgan Stanley and Goldman, Sachs. Now desperate, the Men in Black switched back to their old tactics and rescued AIG, but the damage had been done. The aliens...

Trouble in Banktopia: Stop the "Banksters!" : Indybay : "whole mountainous pile of horsecrap-debt is about to be stacked on the back of the maxed-out taxpayer and the ever-shriveling greenback...From Bloomberg: “The plan by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to buy troubled assets from financial institutions would put ‘one more straw on the back of the frightfully encumbered camel that is the federal government ledger,’ Fisher said today in the text of a speech in New York. ‘We are deeply submerged in a vast fiscal chasm.’…The seizures and convulsions we have experienced in the debt and equity markets have been the consequences of a sustained orgy of excess and reckless behavior, not a too-tight monetary policy,” Fisher said to the New York University Money Marketeers Club.” (Bloomberg) "

Roubini Pans the Bailout as a "Disgrace and Ripoff" and Most People Agree Sept 28: Something needs to be done because of the errors, deceptions, regulatory lapses, and mismanagement of the Bush and Clinton administrations which allowed the unbridled greed of Wall Street to bring the global economy to the brink of ruin. The priority of this plan is to preserve the status quo. This will not work. This plan will fail and more money will be urged. Building from the bottom up, protecting the savings of depositors is paramount while liquidating the prime actors in this colossal financial fraud. Balance must be returned to the economy. A simple bailout will not accomplish this. Restoring the confidence of the public after 16 years of pathological deceit will not be easy. The Democratic leadership has shown itself to be vacuous, unimaginative and mechanical; the Republicans are pigmen through and through. Any approach that maintains Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as major players i...

Will Congress Listen to Voters? 91% say NO BAILOUT! The Bush Administration proposes a $700 billion bailout to restore confidence in the economic system so banks start lending again. Without that, many other banks and businesses (and the jobs and mortgages) will fail they say. Critics say we shouldn't reward their bad decisions. Democrats say the plan needs oversight, homeowner protections and caps on executives' salaries. What do you think? Act quickly as the Administration wants a vote within days. Consider a hand delivered letter with Extra Impact. Start by picking your view in our Action Poll. (72,788 messages thus far) 9% say I Support the $700 Billion Mortgage Bailout 91% say I Oppose the $700 Billion Mortgage Bailout

Category 5 Credit Market Hurricane! Weiss Research Inc Sept 25, 2008 "... Too Much, Too Soon for the U.S. Bond Market. There should also be no illusion that the market for U.S. government securities can absorb the additional burden of funding massive government bailouts without traumatic consequences. In its Fiscal Year 2009 Mid-Session Review, Budget of the U.S. Government, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) projects the 2009 federal deficit will rise to $482 billion. At the same time, the OMB seeks to minimize this record. SIPC Annual Report 2007, http://www.sipc.org/pdf/SIPC_Annual_Report_2007_FINAL.pdf, page 8. 25 See July 1991 testimony by Martin D. Weiss before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Competitiveness and February 1992 testimony by Weiss before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs regarding the insurance industry failures. Weiss Research, Inc. Deficit by stating it will be only 3.3% of estimated GDP, which is ...

STOP AND FILIBUSTER – NO DEAL Don Knotts Key essential elements for a good plan by Norton West Sept. 25, 2008 1. TRANSPARENCY, FULL DISCLOSURE, PUBLIC AIRING to culminate in a public referendum, especially if any funding comes from taxpayers. 2. START WITH A COMPREHENSIVE CRISIS ANALYSIS IN ADVANCE: Create a comprehensive list of all default-financial market perils including commitments already made to Fannie Mae, Bear Stearns…..add CDS market exposure (about $ 50 trillion dollars), credit card exposure, commercial mortgage loan exposure, HE loan exposure, auto loan exposure and any other off-balance sheet contingent liabilities. We this total in hand begin to work on a Bailout Plan. No future surprises. Those who design and execute this plan will be fully accountable and liable under the law as trustees in the Public interest. Plan must have a funding and cash flow project plan for over a 5 – 10 year period. This is the starting point of analysis for a viable plan. This sounds much...

STOP! THINK, LISTEN TO THE PUBLIC Here are my thoughts that I am sending to my Maine representatives. Their should be no rush when a full public airing has not been done for the huge structural changes to the financial, fiscal, monetary and executive brnach of government that does NOT support the balance of powers amongst the three branches of government in accordance with our Contsitution. A Two phase Plan: One for action now and one for a thoughtful public airing of a long term solutions ending in a voter referendum required to enter the bill into law. Paulsen plan is throwing out too much structure, further concentrating extraordinary power in the executive branch, and perpetuating the “power without consequences” that got us to this point of collapse. Key Elements: Not this: • Treasury printing new treasury bonds to pay for $ 700 billion plus money to buy junk collateralized securities that do not have an market value. Why: because this borrowing will push every private enterpr...

Let’s hear it for the acronyms, especially now that we’ve graduated to four letters; Forget CDS, CDO and SIV - it’s time to talk TARP. Yes folks, it’s the Troubled Asset Relief Program , or as we like to say here on FT Alphaville, the Mother of All Bail-outs. WHO IS REALLY GETTING THE HELP HERE? Here’s a quick crib to the MOAB: What?: According to Bank of America, the goal of the program “is to preclude or at least postpone systematic failures in financial institutions.” The Treasury’s description is slightly more long-winded: “This program is intended to fundamentally and comprehensively address the root cause of our financial system’s stresses by removing distressed assets from the financial system” Come again?: The US Treasury, through this MOAB, will buy up to $700bn in assets, financed by an equivalent issuance of government bonds and defined as “residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages...

Let’s hear it for the acronyms, especially now that we’ve graduated to four letters; Forget CDS, CDO and SIV - it’s time to talk TARP. Yes folks, it’s the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or as we like to say here on FT Alphaville, the Mother of All Bail-outs. Here’s a quick crib to the MOAB: What?: According to Bank of America, the goal of the program “is to preclude or at least postpone systematic failures in financial institutions.” The Treasury’s description is slightly more long-winded: “This program is intended to fundamentally and comprehensively address the root cause of our financial system’s stresses by removing distressed assets from the financial system” Come again?: The US Treasury, through this MOAB, will buy up to $700bn in assets, financed by an equivalent issuance of government bonds and defined as “residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages”. Hank P also reserves th...

Columbia Ventures Corporation - News : "An Essay Against A Government Bailout September 23, 2008 By: Kenneth D. Peterson, Jr. I will not go softly! There is a terrible, horrible crisis looming we are now told. But the Government will save us if only we will allow the most extravagant intervention into private affairs that this country has ever contemplated. The politicians and the media blare breathless sound bites about fear of collapse, fear of the future, fear of real estate, fear of failure. Have we forgotten that FDR said the only thing we need to fear is fear itself? Have we forgotten that six years ago when there was a similar full court press by the political and media elite to exploit our fears the reality in Iraq did not live up to the hype?...."

Foreigners Bailing Out Uncle Sam? Bailing out uncle Sam could get nasty - Money Matters - livemint.com Could this be the turn in the bond market? The relief rally following the promised $700 billion (about Rs32 trillion) clean-up of Wall Street’s toxic waste lasted barely more than a trading day. Foreign investors may finally be cottoning on that they are bailing out Uncle Sam. With bonds and shares falling—and oil shooting up—this could get nasty. Click here for breakingviews.com For most of this month, US treasury bond prices rose on the theory that, in the midst of a crisis, they were a safe haven. But, as Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke have approved a bewildering array of ever more far-reaching bailouts, investors started adding up the numbers. Depending how you account for the quasi-nationalizations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the total cost is now well over $1 trillion—and possible several trillion dollars. If Uncle Sam was rich, this might not matter too much. But the governme...

Letting the Foxes rule the Chicken Coup Gmail - Today's Daily Reckoning - Mr. Market Will Have His Say - hfnorton@gmail.com *** This, by Eric Hovde, appeared in the Washington Post , explaining why Congress leapt to suicide in order to bail out Wall Street: “The Wall Street investment banking firms, their executives, their families and their political action committees contribute more to U.S. Senate and House campaigns than any other industry in America. By sprinkling some of its massive gains into the pockets of our elected officials, Wall Street bought itself protection from any tough government enforcement. “This is no doubt the same reason why so many members of Congress were consistently blocking attempts to reform and downsize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are essentially giant, undercapitalized hedge funds. These two entities have been huge money machines for Democrats in both the House and the Senate, many of whom recently had the gall to ask why these companies hadn’t ...

HERE IT IS: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/stop-think-listen-hold-paulson-bailout   Norton West www.leedmaine.org reply to: norton@leedmaine.org 207 . 239 . 0200 Affordable support for going green

Dear Friends: Read the NY times article: The Wall Street Bailout Plan - Explained" here http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/business/21qanda.html  and The Nation: Paulson Bailout Plan a Historic Swindle By William Greider  http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/greider  . We only have the next two days to Act.  You can kiss renewable energy future goodbye if this plan goes through....any improvements in education, justice, civil liberties, economic growth, our leadership position in the World. This is it. This is our time. ACT NOW!   Please see my suggestion of a BAILOUT PLAN in lieu of the PAULSON PLAN which is due to be acted on by the Senate Banking Committee and enacted by the end of this week. This is the worst example of a rush job that avoids transparency and PUBLIC SCRUTINY and will give even more massive powers to the executive branch without any review or consequences.  This is the very kind of "power without consequences" that g...

STOP! THINK, LISTEN TO THE PUBLIC Here are my thoughts that I am sending to my Maine representatives. Their should be no rush when a full public airing has not been done for the huge structural changes to the financial, fiscal, monetary and executive brnach of government that does NOT support the balance of powers amongst the three branches of government in accordance with our Contsitution. A Two phase Plan: One for action now and one for a thoughtful public airing of a long term solutions ending in a voter referendum required to enter the bill into law. Paulsen plan is throwing out too much structure, further concentrating extraordinary power in the executive branch, and perpetuating the “power without consequences” that got us to this point of collapse. Key Elements: Not this: • Treasury printing new treasury bonds to pay for $ 700 billion plus money to buy junk collateralized securities that do not have an market value. Why: because this borrowing will push every private enterpr...

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Lies From Paulson Keep Stacking Up: What You Can Do About It : "What To Do In Bush Administration Seeks 'Dictatorial Power' I noted some actions you can take. After repeating the section, I wish to add to it. First a recap. Contact Your Senator Today! It's time to contact your senator. Here is contact information for Senators of the 110th Congress. Phone or Email your Senators today. Tell them in your own words Urge your senator to Filibuster any bailout legislation. Emphatically state you do not want a bailout of any kind for anyone. No Dictatorial power for Paulson or Bernanke Taxpayers should not have to bail out banks making bad loans Tell them that 'The Fed' and Paulson are systemic risk'. Email AND Phone Senators Shelby, Bunning, Kyle, Ensign, Hagel Whether Senator Shelby is your Senator or not, flood him with calls and emails asking for a filibuster and to stop the insanity. Senators Shelby, Bunning, Ensign,...

Jesse's Café Américain : "maybe the S.E.C. is trying to cover up its own culpability in this crisis. Four years ago, the agency pushed through a rule that allowed the big investment banks to take on a great deal more debt. As a result, debt ratios rose from about 12 to 1 to more like 30 to 1. Guess what Lehman’s debt ratio was when it went bust? Yep: 30 to 1. SAVE THE MONEY MARKET FUNDS The precipitating event here was the news that the Reserve Fund, a money market fund that caters to institutions, had “broken the buck” and was paying investors 97 cents on the dollar. That is only the second time that’s ever happened, and it had to scare investors, because most of us have come to think of money market funds as being the equivalent of bank savings account — perfectly safe."

How did we get here? Will those that contributed, please stand up. Paulson, Goldman Saches, Rubin, Phil Graham... frontline: the wall street fix: mr. weill goes to washington: the long demise of glass-steagall | PBS : "A chronology tracing the life of the Glass-Steagall Act, from its passage in 1933 to its death throes in the 1990s, and how Citigroup's Sandy Weill dealt the coup de grâce." In 2002 Graham introduced legislation that allowed the merger, so could create "hybrid instructs" without any regulations of any type... FrontLine: 2003: "...After 12 attempts in 25 years, Congress finally repeals Glass-Steagall, rewarding financial companies for more than 20 years and $300 million worth of lobbying efforts. Supporters hail the change as the long-overdue demise of a Depression-era relic. On Oct. 21, with the House-Senate conference committee deadlocked after marathon negotiations, the main sticking point is partisan bickering over the bill's effect on...

Credit Derivatives Swap market dwarfs the subprime, so get ready again September 17, 2008 Goldseek On September 1st, few knew that AIG, the largest insurance company in the world with over $1 trillion in assets, was in deep trouble. By September 12th, the rumors about major trouble were everywhere. By September 15th AIG’s corporate life expectancy was being measured in days, and the question was: bankruptcy, buyer or bailout? By the evening of September 16th, the federal government had massively intervened, making an $85 billion loan to AIG in exchange for a controlling 79.9% equity share of the company. Welcome to the brave new world of credit derivatives driven collapses. A world that is far more dangerous than the world of subprime mortgage derivatives. A complex world that because of its sheer size can potentially cause more damage in a matter of days than the subprime mortgage derivatives caused in their first year in the headlines. The chart below shows the relative size ...

Here Go the Short ETFs - Seeking Alpha : "Things like this make me wonder what country I am in. I've received many emails and yes, Ultrashort Financial (SKF) is halted and it looks like we are stuck with it until October 2nd. At which time the government can decide if the peons can trade it again. If not they can push out the short ban for 30 more days. Which will take us to November 2nd. Which I believe is election day. How convenient. Update: ProShares announcement. You are now free to sell at a 35% loss. I still think they'll keep the short selling ban until the election. Update: Reports both SKF and SEF halted due to lack of counterparties."

Park your money in a bank money-market deposit account or savings account There are options to consider if your money-market account is suddenly keeping you awake at night: _Move the money into a U.S. Treasury money fund at your brokerage firm. The upside is that it removes the exposure your current fund may have to corporate debt. The downside is you'll take a bit of a hit in yield on the government instruments, which have dropped in recent days. For example, the one-year Treasury note yield is about 1.5 percent, down from 2 percent, where it was trading as recently as Friday. Top money-market funds are likely trading around 2 to 2.5 percent, McBride said. _Park your money in a bank money-market deposit account or savings account. This option carries two big advantages. The money is covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. from losses if the bank goes under. Another plus, the yield at some banks is about 3.5 percent. "If you find yourself staring at the ceiling at 3 a.m...

Fed Funds spread signals crash - iTulip.com Forums : "Fed Funds spread signals crash The last time the Fed Funds target rate got this out of line with the effective rate was in 1987, and from a base of over 6% not 2%. On a percentage basis, at three times the target rate the spread is unprecedented. It happened today. Fed funds jump to 6 pct in mkt, tripling Fed's target NEW YORK NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Federal funds traded in the U.S. interbank lending market were indicated to have jumped to 6 percent on Monday, tripling the target rate of 2 percent which the Federal Reserve sets." WHY WORLD CENTRAL BANKS ARE FLOODING MARKETS WITH FUNDS: since the evidence above is that banks do not trust to borrow from each other (thus the wide LIBOR spread), the central banks are making loan funds available to the commercial banks instead. by Norton

AIG to Be Renamed "NOSLAUP II, LLC"? Hint: "Paulson" Spelled Backwards A nice off-balance sheet play by the Feds. by thecorporatecounsel.net blog Some members wonder why the Federal Reserve only purchased 79.9% of AIG - was there any magic to it not going over 80%? As noted in this DealBook blog by Prof. Davidoff, the government can't purchase more than 80% of a company "because if it goes over the magical number of 80 percent, the company’s debts are then required to be consolidated onto the federal government’s balance sheet. Keeping it at 79.9 percent allows the government to maintain the fiction that it is still not responsible for the company’s solvency." Thanks to Tom Conaghan of McDermott Will for tracking this down. A nice off-balance sheet play by the Feds . I guess they are trying to be like Enron. Maybe they should rename Fannie Mae "Raptor 6" and AIG "NOSLAUP II, LLC" (ie. "Paulson" spelled backwards). Anyways,...

Events neatly summarised by the FT’s John Authers: Lewis Carroll’s White Queen “believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast”. Traders could use that skill. Here are six things we have been asked to believe since markets closed on Tuesday. First, the US Federal Reserve is lending $85bn to American International Group to stop it from going bust. AIG is an insurer, not covered by the Fed. The action is without precedent. Does it damage the decisive move against moral hazard when Lehman was allowed to fail? Arguably not. AIG was of greater systemic importance. And Wednesday’s market response suggests that it in no way dampened aversion to risk. Second, a US money market fund has “broken the buck”, or dropped below a nominal value of $1. For decades US savers had thought this impossible. Third, the yield on the world’s safest investment, three-month Treasury bills, dropped to 0.15 per cent, its lowest since Pearl Harbor. Safety has not been so expensive since the war. Four...

Arms Trade—a major cause of suffering — Global Issues : "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children… This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. — Former U.S. President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in a speech on April 16, 1953" CHART DETAILS - ARMS POVERTY

Op-Ed Columnist - Making America Stupid - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com :by Thomas Friedman "America that is focused first and foremost on drilling for oil is an America more focused on feeding its oil habit than kicking it. Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy? As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. “Typewriters, baby, typewriters.”"

Is this how we prop up our EXPORT trade balance? Is this the political RIGHT speaking? Who is Bush working for anyway? With White House Push, U.S. Arms Sales Jump - NYTimes.com : "With White House Push, U.S. Arms Sales Jump By ERIC LIPTON Published: September 13, 2008 WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is pushing through a broad array of foreign weapons deals as it seeks to rearm Iraq and Afghanistan, contain North Korea and Iran, and solidify ties with onetime Russian allies. Petty Officer First Class Scott Cohen/United States Navy President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, right, at a ceremony on Feb. 2, 2007, for the United States’ transfer to the Afghan Army of 213 Humvees and more than 12,000 light weapons. U.S. Weapons Abroad From tanks, helicopters and fighter jets to missiles, remotely piloted aircraft and even warships, the Department of Defense has agreed so far this fiscal year to sell or transfer more than $32 billion in weapons and other military equipment to foreign go...

More on Arms Sales The Cavalry: Bush comes through - Advanced JDAM sale approved DOD leaving me stunned, if only I could be wrong like this every day. The only thing as good as a strike on Iran to jolt them into changing their ways, is the threat of an even worse strike. I’ve been following the Israeli procurement requests with avid interest. It has been clear that the United States has been intent on limiting sales to defensive systems, the denial of advanced JDAMS, possibly the F-22, mixed in with limiting refuelling tanker purchases has all but made it clear what the US position on the use of Israeli force is.. A big Ixnay. The advanced penetrating satellite guided munitions were the biggest blow in the denial column, despite the plethora of assistance for missile defense that has been offered in support, these bombs provide a decisive advantage for any long range strike should it one day become necessary. Bush is a champ DOD has been adamant, but it appears the US is not prepared...

We're Number 1! Frida Berrigan May 21, 2007 Frida Berrigan is a Senior Research Associate at the World Policy Institute's Arms Trade Resource Center. This article appeared first in TomDispatch.com . They don't call us the sole superpower for nothing. Paul Wolfowitz might be looking for a new job right now, but the term he used to describe the pervasiveness of U.S. might back when he was a mere deputy secretary of defense—hyperpower—still fits the bill. Face it, the United States is a proud nation of firsts. Among them: First in Oil Consumption: The United States burns up 20.7 million barrels per day, the equivalent of the oil consumption of China, Japan, Germany, Russia, and India combined. First in Carbon Dioxide Emissions: Each year, world polluters pump 24,126,416,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the environment. The United States and its territories are responsible for 5.8 billion metric tons of this, more than China (3.3 billion), Russia (1.4 billion) and...

By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: September 11, 2008 Op-Ed Columnist - Blizzard of Lies - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com : "Did you hear about how Barack Obama wants to have sex education in kindergarten, and called Sarah Palin a pig? Did you hear about how Ms. Palin told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks” when it wanted to buy Alaska a Bridge to Nowhere? These stories have two things in common: they’re all claims recently made by the McCain campaign — and they’re all out-and-out lies..." These ar e lies to the American People. What do you suppose a McCain administration will project to the World? by Norton

Where are the Smartest Guys in the Room now? They should be in Stockades in the Village Square? They're walking away and GREED still rules with few consequences Fed in AIG rescue - $85B loan - Sep. 16, 2008 : "By Tami Luhby, CNNMoney.com senior writer Last Updated: September 17, 2008: 10:21 AM EDT NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- In an unprecedented move, the Federal Reserve Board is lending as much as $85 billion to rescue crumbling insurer American International Group, officials announced Tuesday evening. The Fed authorized the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to lend AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) the funds. In return, the federal government will receive a 79.9% stake in the company. Officials decided"

Institutional Risk Analytics Look on the page for Credit Crisis Monitor Non-accrual Assets Surveillance >>>>enter your banks ticker symbol

Higher rates on capital gains and dividend income More troubling is the proposal to raise taxes on the income that's most important for stock investors: dividends and capital gains. The current 15% rate could rise to 20%-25% or even higher -- and the fear of that hike may bring an avalanche of year-end selling. Say, for instance, you own some stocks with nice gains, and you expect to sell them within the next few years in a taxable account. Look what happens if you wait to sell until a higher tax rate comes into effect: Source: Yahoo Finance. As of Sept. 8. Assumes $10,000 investment in each stock and tax rate increase to 20-25%.Stock Stock 5-Year Average Annual Return Current Gain on $10,000 Investment in 2003 Tax If Sell Now Tax If Sell At Higher Tax Rate Halliburton (NYSE: HAL ) 26.7% $22,709 $3,406 $4,542-$5,677 Potash Corp. (NYSE: POT ) 67.6% $122,181 $18,327 $24,436-$30,545 Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL ) 69.8% $131,126 $19,669 $26,225-$32,782 Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN ) 11.7% $7,386 $1...

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Here's What to Do ... by by Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D. and Mike Larson 09-15-08 First, if you have shares that we have not recommended, go online or call your broker to sell HALF immediately, at the market. Then stand by for our next alert regarding the second half. Second, put all the proceeds away in the safest, most liquid investment in the world: Treasury bills or Treasury-only money market funds like Capital Preservation, the Weiss Treasury-Only Money Market Fund or any of the several we have recommended repeatedly here in Money and Markets. Third, for the stocks that you hold (including those we recommended), if you have not bought inverse ETFs or put options to help protect you against losses, get ready to do so at the very next opportunity. Fourth, for a hard-hitting, detailed forecast of the NEXT phase of this crisis, be sure to watch the recording of our 1-hour video webcast, "Plague to Pandemic," which we just posted on our Website this afternoon. Just turn up y...

Why Wall Street is Melting Down, and What to Do About It by Robert Reich: Hank Paulson didn't blink, so Lehman Brothers went down the tubes. The end of socialized capitalism? Don't bet on it. The Treasury and the Fed are scrambling to enlarge the government's authority to exchange securities of unknown value for guaranteed securities in an effort to stave off the biggest financial meltdown since the 1930s. Ironically, a free-market-loving Republican administration is presiding over the most ambitious intrusion of government into the market in almost anyone's memory.

By Christine Harper Bloomberg Sept 15, 2008 Bloomberg.com: U.S. : "``The implications of one of the `too big to fail' institutions being allowed to fail is incredibly difficult to grasp, but suffice to say that a huge number of firms and securities are going to get affected,'' said Michael Auyeung, who manages about $500 million as chief executive officer at Pacific Mutual Fund Bhd. in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. ``The reach of the carnage will be global and system-wide.'' Lehman's collapse wipes out a company that had a market value of $45.5 billion in February 2007. Merrill's sale to Bank of America for $29 a share, while about a 70 percent premium to Merrill's value on Friday, compares with the company's $86 billion market capitalization in January 2007. ``It's breathtaking that we've gone from five standalone firms to two very quickly,'' said Roy Smith, a finance professor at New York University's Stern School of Business an...

Looking Ahead Stock Market Slides - Intervention Unsuccessful | Chris Martenson : "the KaPoom theory'. In brief, it calls for an inflationary blow-off to a credit cycle that then falls into a deflationary hole for a while only to resolve into a massive hyperinflationary epoch when (not if) the monetary authorities panic and begin attempting to repair all the bad credit with fresh money...." Submitted by cmartenson on Wed, 09/10/2008 - 07:22. Jeff - one of the greatest sources of confusion out there is what inflation and deflation mean. So let's put a definition in here: 1) Inflation = a rise in money stock in proportion to goods, services AND assets (that last one is conveniently ignored by our Fed which is the single greatest intellectual oversight/mistake that they make). 2) Deflation = a fall in money stock in proportion to goods, services AND assets. Since we all now know that money = credit = debt, I can define deflation thusly: 2) Deflation = a fall i...

Liberal Spending? by Charles Wheelan, Ph.D. ...So what is George W. Bush? He's certainly no liberal, either. In fact, we're left with the worst of all worlds: liberal-style spending without the stuff it usually buys. Seven years of fiscal recklessness hasn't solidified a tattered safety net, or fixed a broken health care system, or upgraded the skills base of America's working class, or improved our crumbling infrastructure, or updated our outmoded international institutions. (Does anybody really believe that France deserves a permanent veto on the U.N. Security Council while India -- the world's largest democracy -- doesn't?) We're spending like drunken sailors, but we're not even getting the hookers and booze.

RGE Monitor by Nouriel Roubini Sept 9, 2008 The now inevitable nationalization of Fannie and Freddie is the most radical regime change in global economic and financial affairs in decades. For the last twenty years after the collapse of the USSR, the fall of the Iron Curtain and the economic reforms in China and other emerging market economies the world economy has moved away from state ownership of the economy and towards privatization of previously stated owned enterprises. This trend was aggressively supported the United States that preached right and left the benefits of free markets and free private enterprise. Today instead the US has performed the greatest nationalization in the history of humanity. ...This is the biggest and most socialist government intervention in economic affairs since the formation of the Soviet Union and Communist China. So foreign investors are now welcome to the USSRA (the United Socialist State Republic of America) where they can earn fat spreads relativ...

OUR NATIONAL DEBT. AND IT WILL DOUBLE THIS YEAR AS RESULT OF THOSE WHO ARE...SUPPOSED TO BE LEADING US The Gross National Debt THINK . READ . SHARE . VOTE . THINK ABOUT YOUR GRAND CHILDREN

(Newser) –We all know John McCain wasn’t really offended by Barack Obama’s “lipstick on a pig” comment—the one he pretended to think was a reference to Sarah Palin. “The whole controversy is ginned up, a fraud, a lie,” writes Michael Kinsley in the Washington Post. So why isn’t anyone calling McCain on it? Lies ought to be self-defeating, but in American politics, they're not. Many people “even respect a well-told lie as evidence of professionalism,” Kinsley writes; complain, and you’ll be seen as a whiner, a bad sport. The press meanwhile “bends over backwards to give liars the benefit of the doubt,” to avoid an appearance of bias. But lies can corrupt our system at least as much as money. Maybe McCain should "swear off corrupt lying the way he has sworn off corrupt money." SOURCE Source Washington Post

U.S. N ATIONAL D EBT C LOCK The Outstanding Public Debt as of 11 Sep 2008 at 02:44:56 AM GMT is: The estimated population of the United States is 304,705,367 so each citizen's share of this debt is $31,818.04 . The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $1.97 billion per day since September 28, 2007! Concerned? Then tell Congress and the White House ! Do you have any questions about the National Debt or this Debt Clock? Here are some answers . The Treasury Department's Bureau of Public Debt also has their own Public Debt FAQ .

What are your priorities? OpenCongress - Issues : "Most Viewed(Past Seven Days) Abortion (494 views) Metric system (355 views) Immigration (299 views) Unemployment insurance (275 views) Iraq (253 views) Autism (227 views) Energy (129 views) Civil liberties (108 views) Technology (103 views) Veterans' disability compensation (71 views) Norton's comments: Here is my set of priorities: Civil Liberties Iraq Energy Veterans disability compensation Unemployment insurance Technology Autism Immigration Metric system