Wall Street's 'Disaster Capitalism for Dummies'

PAUL B. FARRELL
Wall Street's 'Disaster Capitalism for Dummies'
14 reasons Main Street loses big while Wall Street sabotages democracy

ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- Yes, we're dummies. You. Me. All 300 million of us. Clueless. We should be ashamed. We're obsessed about the slogans and rituals of "democracy," distracted by the campaign, polls, debates, rhetoric, half-truths and outright lies. McCain? Obama? Sorry to pop your bubble folks, but it no longer matters who's president.
Why? The real "game changer" already happened. Democracy has been replaced by Wall Street's new "disaster capitalism." That's the big game-changer historians will remember about 2008, masterminded by Wall Street's ultimate "Trojan Horse," Hank Paulson. Imagine: Greed, arrogance and incompetence create a massive bubble, cost trillions, and still Wall Street comes out smelling like roses, richer and more powerful!

Forget Nuclear

By Amory B. Lovins, Imran Sheikh, and Alex Markevich
Correction Appended
Nuclear power, we’re told, is a vibrant industry that’s dramatically reviving because it’s proven, necessary, competitive, reliable, safe, secure, widely used, increasingly popular, and carbon-free—a perfect replacement for carbon-spewing coal power. New nuclear plants thus sound vital for climate protection, energy security, and powering a growing economy.
There’s a catch, though: the private capitalmarket isn’t investing in new nuclear plants, and without financing, capitalist utilities aren’t buying. The few purchases, nearly all in Asia, are all made by central planners with a draw on the public purse. In the United States, even government subsidies approaching or exceeding new nuclear power’s total cost have failed to entice Wall Street.

Treasury Only Money Mkt Funds-Making sure your money is safe and available

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courtesy of Martin Weiss of www.moneyandmarkets.com

There will be no new refineries

Crude Oil Price Forecast: "There will be no new refineries by Giuseppe Marconi - 2008/07/23

Oil companies won't be building more refineries, because there won't be enough oil left to refine by the time new refineries could pay for themselves.
There hasn't been a new refinery built in the US since 1976. In 1982, there were 301 operable refineries in the U.S and they produced about 17.9 million barrels of oil per day. Today there are only 149 refineries, and they're producing 17.4 million barrels. This increase in efficiency is impressive but not a miracle. As with everything these outputs are carefully calculated to optimize profitability. Let me explain.
Truth be told, new refineries require tremendous financial commitments which take anywhere from 15 to 25 years to amortize. With record oil prices it would make perfect sense to invest in a few refineries today, except... for the lack of oil to be refined 20 years from now.
Trends have predicted that peak oil production, where the production of oil starts to decline, will be reached around 2007-2010. After that, there will be less and less oil to refine no matter where drillers look. In this context, building expensive new refineries does not make a lot of sense as existing ones will be sufficient to process whatever little oil is left. So forget about new refineries, except for a few in the northern midwest to process the heavy oil from Canada."

How This Bear Market Compares - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

How This Bear Market Compares - Interactive Graphic - NYTimes.com

The Becker-Posner Blog: The Financial Crisis: Why Were Warnings Ignored?--Posner

A Solvency crisis requires Capital NOT buying of JUNK INVESTMENTS AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE!

The Becker-Posner Blog: The Financial Crisis: Why Were Warnings Ignored?--Posner: "The crisis appears to be one of solvency rather than (or perhaps along with) one of liquidity; banks, along with insurers of bonds and other securities, are undercapitalized and so, as I suggested last week, require a capital infusion rather than just a purchase of frozen assets.
All of which merely underscores the enormous cloud of uncertainty that has enveloped the crisis and left economists struggling to understand the causes, magnitude, future course, and cures of what is shaping up as the biggest economic bust since the Great Depression of 1929 to 1933. Last week's stock market crash may also reflect doubts about the government's competence to deal effectively with the crisis. There is a sense that its reluctance to take an equity stake in the banks reflects a doctrinaire hostility to public ownership."

The derivatives in your portfolio.

The derivatives in your portfolio. If some of your savings are in a mutual fund, you’re probably an investor in derivatives. Many bond funds, including the nine most widely held funds, use derivatives both to protect against losses and to increase returns, because these swaps can appreciate in value when the prospects for a company and the overall economy improve. Funds aren’t required to disclose derivatives holdings, although those that make them a major part of their strategy typically do so. To see if your fund holds derivatives, check its prospectus and the listing of holdings contained in Securities and Exchange Commission form NQ. Those forms can be accessed at Sec.gov. If you’re still unsure about your fund’s holdings and don’t want to take the chance, financial advisors say, don’t hesitate to switch to an ultra-safe government bond fund. “Don’t be complacent,” says financial advisor Lawrence Glazer. “If you are uncomfortable with something, don’t be afraid to make a change.”

Robbing taxpayers to the tune of $700 billion does not change the equation

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Cancerous Activity of the Fed and Treasury: "Instead of attacking the cancer (the Fed itself), Bernanke is Pushing on a String In Academic Wonderland.

The problem is not a failure to lend, the main problem is there simply is no pool of real savings to lend. Furthermore, given rampant overcapacity and rising unemployment, there is no reason to lend even if the funding was available.

Robbing taxpayers to the tune of $700 billion does not change the equation."

Dear Wall Street: We're Watching You

Dear Wall Street: We're Watching You: "we're not at all pleased that you nearly managed to ruin capitalism for the rest of us.
And we have folks in our midst who are capable of reading financial statements. Remember those big fat bonuses you got last year for turning toxic paper into AAA-rated inverse IO Strips which you dumped on some benighted bank somewhere (who really ought to have known better)? If your bonuses come within an order of magnitude of where they were last year, I'm pretty sure there will, in fact, be bloodthirsty mobs.
By the time they're done, Wall Street will look like it has been hit with a wholly unlikely combination of calamities including hurricanes, staph infections, choking, golf ball-sized hail, dropsy, carpal tunnel syndrome, homeowners' association meetings, and Mongol invasion. It's the kind of violent force of nature you're pretty sure you'd rather have pointing away from you.
Congress knows it, too. They would like nothing more than an excuse to frogmarch a few of you down to Washington for any perceived inability on your part to get That Which We Are Coming From.
The gigantic paydays of the past aren't coming back anytime soon. Truth be told, you were never worth that kind of money anyway. Sorry, Wall Street. Your Masters of the Universe privileges have been revoked. Please stand by; your new assignments will arrive shortly...."

Norton's comment: ditto!

The $60 Trillion Nightmare of Credit Default Swaps

That’s more than the entire world’s GDP combinedThe $60 Trillion Nightmare of Credit Default Swaps - Seeking Alpha: "The 60 plus trillion dollar nightmare of the CDS (Credit Default Swaps) market is a dangerous anomaly of the tail wagging the dog, pushing risk premium higher against a downward spiral of collapsing market capitalization and lowered credit ratings for corporate debt. Imagine, 60 plus trillion dollars in total existing liabilities in the unregulated OTC (Over-The-Counter) market of Credit Default Swaps means that our government, in fact, all governments interconnected in the global economy could not possibly “bail out” that entire amount if ever forced to claim. That’s more than the entire world’s GDP combined!"

WHAT ARE CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS? MARKETPLACE.ORG > Reaction has been very positive to Paddy’s first lesson on collateralized debt obligations — “Uncorking CDOs.” If you haven’t seen it, he’ll make you an expert.

Roubini- Financial Crisis Going Global

Slow down in BRIC's leading to worldwide recession

Gmail - Financial Crisis Going Global -
The slowing in the BRICs, which account for 40% of global growth, as well as the G7 will likely have knock on effects for other emerging markets. As a group, emerging markets have suffered significant outflows from the equity and bond markets in the past quarter, with many equity markets down 40-60% this year. Emerging markets with current account deficits and exposed banks like Turkey, Iceland and Korea have been particularly hard hit amid deleveraging and flight to the dollar (and yen).

Roubini Interview: Steps to Halt the Slide - Council on Foreign Relations

More work to do

Steps to Halt the Slide - Council on Foreign Relations: "Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley branches on the corner anytime soon. And even acquiring other banks over time, as a way to acquire deposits, is going to take a lot of time. Ninety percent of their borrowing is still overnight; they're leveraged thirty times, and they lend in ways that are illiquid and longer term"

naked capitalism: Roubini: Fed Fiddles While Rome Burns

Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now, this week by Cramer

naked capitalism: Roubini: Fed Fiddles While Rome Burns:
..One spur for the depth of the move was normally relentless bull Jim Cramer's advice pre-opening, on the Today Show, that, “Whatever money you may need for the next five years, please take it out of the stock market right now, this week." The yen has rallied nearly 4% in a mere week, another sign of an accelerated retreat from risk. Brent crude is below $85 and gold has rise $36 per ounce so far today. (Update: reader Dwight pinged that the stock market staged a monster recovery immediately before the close, from a low of just over 9500 to 10,000. What gives? The trigger may have been the request by France for an emergency G8 meeting, but no one has even agreed!]

Nouriel Roubini has weighed in even more forcefully on these issues in "The Fed keeps on wasting time while the mother of all bank runs is underway" (hat tip reader Dwight).

Last Friday I pointed out in my “Financial and Corporate System is in Cardiac Arrest: The Risk of the Mother of All Bank Runs” that we were at the point of a risk of a systemic financial meltdown with the beginning of the mother of all bank runs: stock markets gave a vote of no confidence to the Senate passage of the TARP legislation (equities down 4% on Thursday) and to the House passage of the legislation on Friday (equities down 3% after the passage of the bill in the House). At the same time last week money markets, interbank markets, credit markets were all imploding with all interbank spread at new all time highs, credit spreads going up through the roof and the roll-off of the financing – via commercial paper – of the corporate system. As I put it last week we were facing:

- a silent run on the huge mass of uninsured deposits of the banking system and even a run on some insured deposits are small depositors are scared;

"meltdown driven by a liquidity run on their short term liabilities. So it is time for the Fed to stop wasting time and start the actions that will make a difference. We are now at risk of a systemic financial meltdown of the financial system and the corporate sector too."

Waves of Credit Default Swaps Incoming

Jesse's Café Américain:
Have you wondered why the Treasury asked for a $700 Bn emergency package with the full force of the Fed behind them, and gave the Congress less than a week to deliver it?
Either these fellows have lost their nerve or the markets are riding to a fall, and it could be terrific.
We've been looking for some event, something that would have created such an extraordinary set of actions as we have seen in the past few days.

This just might be it. Special thanks to Yves Smith for flagging it.
Time to start settling those Credit Default Swaps for Fannie and Freddie (Oct. 6), Lehman Brothers (Oct. 10) and Lehman Brothers (Oct 23).

LIBOR is eight standard deviations from the norm, because the banks don't know who is holding what in their cards, but there might be some Aces and Eights in there. The TED spread is at an all time record high.

An insurance company is said to be heavily exposed.
Do you need to buy a vowel? Let's hope we get lucky.

Brace for impact.

Postscript 4 October - Given that the Congress has now passed the 'Economic Stabilization Act' and Hank and Ben have a fresh roll of walking around money, we'd like to think that a crisis can be averted on Monday. Obviously they have seen this coming and have not only a plan, the willing cooperation of the holders of the swaps, but also now sufficient taxpayer money to persuade certain institutions to accept settlements that are 'reasonable.'

Let's watch carefully how the Treasury acts this week, as best we can, for it will speak volumes."

STATUS: BAILOUT & FINANCIAL MARKETS

THE BILL STATUS:
Bill# has changed to HR1424: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/110-h1424/show Senate used an old renewable energy tax credits bill from last December and added the new Bailout bill to it. Who would guess.
Senate vote breakdown on Wednesday night: http://www.opencongress.org/roll_call/show/5093
Last Monday vote breakdown: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/09/metrofax-compatible-fax-list-for-all.html
The 12 key House Nah votes last Monday; up for re-election: http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2008/09/congressional-most-endangered-list.html

Live on CSPAN – Friday House vote http://www.c-span.org/Watch/C-SPAN_wm.aspx starting at 9 am Friday October 03, 2008

THE MARKET SITUATION:
Nouriel Roubini Oct 3, 2008
Financial and Corporate System is in Cardiac Arrest: The Risk of the Mother of All Bank Runs
It is now clear that the US financial system - and now even the system of financing of the corporate sector - is now in cardiac arrest and at a risk of a systemic financial meltdown. I don’t use these words lightly but at this point we have reached the final 12th step of my February paper on “The Risk of a Systemic Financial Meltdown: 12 Steps to a Financial Disaster” (Step 9 or the collapse of the major broker dealers has already widely occurred).
Yesterday: Thursday a senior market practitioner in a major financial institution wrote to me the following:
Situation Report: So far as I can tell by working the telephones this morning:
· LIBOR bid only, no offer.
· Commercial paper market shut down, little trading and no issuance.
· Corporations have no access to long or short term credit markets -- hence they face massive rollover problems.
· Brokers are increasingly not dealing with each other.
· Even the inter-bank market is ceasing up.
This cannot continue for more than a few days. This is the economic equivalent to cardiac arrest. Then we debated what is necessary to restart the system.

MY THOUGHTS:
I am so much against the HR1424 in its current form; however, after reading Roubini comments today, it is not clear that we have a few more weeks to reconstruct this bill. If it does pass, we will need to work ceaselessly to shift the burden back onto Wall St via insisting on a Preferred Share deal for the value of rescue funds; I fail to see how purchasing junk assets that have no established value will not lead to more corruption since these transactions will NOT be transparent to all parties until well after the criminals have disappeared from the scene of the crime.

STOP THE $700 BILLION SWINDLE!

Charles Goyette - America's Most Independent Talk Show Host!: "STOP THE $700 BILLION SWINDLE!


NOTE FROM CHARLES:
Grab a pitchfork now, or we'll all end up living in government housing!

The Paulson wealth tranfser scheme has met with more than a cold shoulder from the public. It has been generating outright hostility. And it should. This in an act of theft so brazen as to leave one breathless!


The losses in the real estate mortgage meltdown are real. They have already taken place. Another Fed bubble has popped, and under the guise of reflating it, this act seeks to transfer the losses from the institutions that willingly undertook the risk of loss, to you.



Both wings of the Washington Party are enabling this massive fraud. But it can be stopped!"

So is this Investor confidence in the coming Bailout?

Does this show our confidence in the Bailout Plan or disgust with the spineless Congress that is NOT LISTENING to their constituents or the list of over 200 economists that oppose this bailout plan (HR3997)? Or both?

The question is not whether to act. It is to act prudently with a hearing and with the best forethought and advise from someone besides those who created this crisis or have coprorate lobby interests involved.

Yes, the crisis is spreading, but NO it will not go away because we act now and it may not be minimized by the rushed up Bailout either! STOP, LISTEN AND START OVER with a new bill.

I want it all reviewed and designed by people I can trust, not the greedy and crucks who have been lying to us all along. by Norton

Where is the outrage?

Salon.com | Where is the outrage?:by Garrison Keillor, author:

"Poor Larry Craig got a truckload of moral condemnation for tapping his wingtips in the men's john, but his party proposes to spend 5 percent of the GDP to buy up bad loans made by men who walk away with their fortunes intact while retirees see their 401K go pffffffff like a defunct air mattress, and it's business as usual....
(Garrison Keillor is the author of a new Lake Wobegon novel, "Liberty," published by Viking.) "

Roubini - on HR 3997 Bailout

Bloomberg.com: News: "Roubini Sees `Silent' Run on Banks, Urges `Triage': Audio
Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Nouriel Roubini, chairman of Roubini Global Economics and an economics professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, talks with Bloomberg's Ken Prewitt and Tom Keene about the government's $700 billion plan to revive the credit markets, the state of the banking system and the outlook for the economy and financial markets. (Source: Bloomberg)"

This country needs a TOTAL re-think.

commentarty at Market Watch Oct. 1, 2008
This country needs a TOTAL re-think. Not a tweak here and there. A TOTAL re-think if we are going to survive in this new world of global trade. European governments spend their money on a government run health service. We spend our money on the military and weapons and if we haven't got enough money to pay for all that expensive, up to date military hardware, we print more. Yet an illiterate guy with a rag on his head can stop our military in it's tracks with an explosive device made out of an obsolete bomb, costing less than $10.

Government is waaaaay too big..."

Ron Paul and the Bailout Plan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-v6SGLKH1kc

KEYS TO A WORKABLE BAILOUT - MY PLAN

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 bigger than $ 700 Billion and should all be considered up front. There must be legal limits to this foray.
3. A TWO PHASE PLAN: First Phase for immediate Action and second Phase for the bulk of provisions to be initiated and implemented over a five to ten year period that is well defined and visible for the benefit of market stability.
4. ALL ELEMENTS TO BENEFIT THE TAXPAYER. THAT IS IT. If there is any leverage to be gains it should be secured for the taxpayer: job training, longer unemployment insurance, new job corp. for new directions for our future, personal debt counseling, reductions and stabilization. Middle class financial stability is the ONLY THING THAT WILL GROW THE ECONOMY! No CASH for TRASH!
5. PAY-GO PLAN as we did during Clinton Administration when we had a balanced budget; the planning process must have full public disclosure and transparency. No back room deals for the good old boys.
6. PRESIDENT’S BOGUS ARGUEMENTS. We do not need to offer consumers anymore credit! We need incentives for savings and energy use reductions, not more spending above and beyond our means. We need to help consumers manage their debt in order to reduce it, keep their homes and train for new jobs of the future. Any further debt burden on the taxpayer will only drive down spending, cause more bankruptcies and exacerbate the economic slowdown we are already in.
7. USE EXISTING NEW BANK AND INVESTMENT CO FED LOAN PROVISIONS: Why are the banks and investment houses not using the new funding mechanisms the FED already setup in the Spring which were designed to create the capital to make loans available to the public? How is the Bailout any better and why will it be anymore successful? Aren’t we already providing them with favorable rates? If they need liquidity, the FED has already offered that.
8. CUT OVERSEAS MILITARY EXPENSES in one-half now and shift those funds for bailout plan implementation. We need to see our “national security” as much broader than just the Homeland Security and Defense Budget. Our democracy is hanging in the balance here. Issues here are also part of national security and should be considered in that light of high priority: health care and child care for kids, head start program, renewable energy infrastructure development, spending more on educating kids per year than with do on prisoners, health care for everyone at a reasonable price, exercising congressional and executive branch oversight of financial institutions, funding existing programs for our social network. (see details under item 13)
9. ISSUE PREFERRED STOCK DISCOUNT CERTIFICATES to all taxpayers much as we distributed tax rebate checks this spring. These would be numbered and authorize taxpayers to purchase with your own money Preferred Stock shares in a list of financial institutions the Treasury is trying to save. Investor gets 10% off market price and no brokerage fee. The investment choice needs to be in the taxpayer’s hands. This would be our choice to invest just as Warren Buffett did in Goldman Sach this week. The choices good enough for Warren Buffett are good enough for Joe six pack or any taxpayer. Otherwise, funding would come for Pay-go basis.
10. STOP PREDITORY LENDING PRACTICES by credit card companies that was passed previously by the Congress under pressure from the industry lobbyists. Borrower negotiates for a rate and it cannot be bounced up without real personal contact and proper notice to the client and cannot be bounced up more the 20% above the standard rate. No more tricks like moving the payment date back with notice in the fine print that result in one day late payment causing automated doubling or tripling of rates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Assign a personal banker / counselor to each borrower with direct phone line contact and real interest in managing clients debt.
11. ESTABLISH AN ACCOUNTING RULES COMMITTEE to create new accounting rules on transferring and valuing off-balance sheet collateralized asset onto the balance sheet that will subsequently be written down over a five year period. If this is done with full transparency so that the world markets will gain confidence in our practices and no one institution will be at a disadvantage except as they have created by their own behavior.
12. DIRECT PROVISIONS FOR HANDLING CDS instruments; that is, Collateralized Derivative Swaps that are insurance on CDO’s, CMO’s etc.
13. START A 1930 STYLE WORK CORP to build our infrastructure for renewable energies. Job training, support with incentive and incentives for collaboration between collegiate and industry research and educational institutions in support of renewable energies.
14. REDEFINITION OF WHAT NATIONAL SECURITY IS in the context of spending priorities, national budget and national deficit?
15. FINAL PLAN GOES OUT TO VOTER REFERENDUM IN NOVEMBER ON ELECTION DAY.
16. When budgeting for this, National Security must have a much broader meaning. When our democracy is facing collapse financially and philosophically, many issues are part of “National Security”. For Example,
• funding a building of renewable energy infrastructure
• Millions of children without health care
• Spending three times as much annual to maintain a prisoner as we do to educate our children. This is a national security issue.
• Being first in the World in spending on health care but a third world country in terms of health care performance.
• Being first in the World in arms sales to the rest of the World ferments more war not World stability and peace.
• Proclaiming to support a strong dollar while watching the floating exchange rates decimate the dollar value is a national security issue.
• Not providing first rate mental health and medical health necessities for veterans is a national security issue.
• Not providing adequate child care for working mothers and single parents.
• Using executive orders by the President to get around laws is a national security issue.
• Providing Medicaid programs that are so poorly designed (such low reimbursements) that most doctors in Maine have signs in their office that they do not accept Maine Care……..this is a ethical, moral and national security issue.
• Creating unfunded mandates
• Creating essential social programs and support mechanisms and subsequently providing such low funding that they are effectively unusable by the people who need them most.
• Proclaiming you are fiscal conservative and then creating the largest budget deficits in history. This is dishonest and creates a financial crisis such as today. This is a national security issue.
• Conducting international trade with such deficit spending that the country is being financed at the will of dictators, communists, and countries that are not friendly towards us. This is downright stupidity and creates a national security issue.
• Letting corporate special interest group and lobbyists finance and influence our elected and appointed representative such that the Public is losing control of their free speech voice. This is a direct threat to the continuance of our Democracy and the operation of our Constitution..it is a national security issue.
• Supporting tax and job incentive for the middle class.

In conclusion, it suggest that the national budget for next year have all these issue listed under the National Security, Pentagon, Commerce and Education Dept budget so as to facilitate some creative reprioritizing of our spending priorities for the future.

by Norton West Maine

KEY ELEMENTS FOR A GOOD BAILOUT

ELEMENTS OF A GOOD TARP PLAN by Norton West
1. NO! STOP! START OVER – TARP / PAULSON PLAN is poorly conceived, has bad assumptions, rewards the culprits, punishes the victims and will not work. This is too important to yield to fear tactics and a rush job by lobbyists and the Administration. More than 200 economist oppose this plan including Marc Faber, Nouriel Roubini, Jim Rogers, past FED officials: http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/john.cochrane/research/Papers/mortgage_protest.htm
2. START WITH A COMPREHENSIVE CRISIS ANALYSIS IN ADVANCE of approval. No more piecemeal plans. There must be limits on the total exposure. Is it Paulson’s $ 700 Billion or Marc Faber’s $ 5 TRILLION? Who can we trust? Who is accountable? What are the consequences of failure? Who takes on the consequences?
3. Form this plan in light of our national budget and priorities: education, defense, security, jobs, health insurance etc., and renewable energy. We must not supersede all other national priorities for the next ten years with this effort.
4. 100% focused on home owner, consumer debt stabilization and benefits. The middle class is what drives growth in our economy. Stop interfering with the Free Market by taking on worthless assets.
5. PAY-GO PLAN – like during the Clinton Administration; expenditures must be covered by savings elsewhere.
6. Constitution: What happened to three branches of gov’t and balance of power? This is a power grab by the executive branch to be implemented by the very people who designed these derivative instruments. Where is the separation between Monetary and Fiscal Policy now? There is no confidence that they will act in the Public’s interest. The Congress shows no spine to represent the voters instead of the corporate lobbyists.
7. Primary Plan Tools: Use FED’s existing “auction facilities” provisions that started this spring. That is it for Wall Street help! Let the Free Market work.
8. If any equity purchases are offered to Wall St. by the Treasury, they must be preferred shares and purchased at the discretion of individual taxpayers much as an employee can purchases stock in his employers business.
9. Repeal the 2005 Bankruptcy Law and Predatory lending practices of credit card companies etc. This cannot stand! It is counter-productive to growing the economy.
10. Establish on-balance sheet accounting rules including a transparent method of amortizing the value of mortgage backed securities. Investors must see true value of assets now. If we must buy, then at Mark–to-market NOT mark to maturity (fantasy)! If Wall St. doesn’t like this, it is a reflection of their irresponsibility and they (not the taxpayer) should deal with it! Let the Free Market rule
11. GO to Voter Referendum on Election Day! This is too important for our future growth and our grandchildren to be rushed through without broad national voter support.

Bush Changes the Rules when he wants!

Trust Bush and Paulson? I think NOT!

The FOX is managing the Chicken Coup!
Bush Changes the Rules
The Bush administration’s Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice has been issuing classified legal opinions about surveillance for several years. As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) had access to DOJ opinions regarding presidential power and he had three declassified in order to show how the judicial branch has, in a bizarre and chilling way, assisted Bush in circumventing its own power.

According to the three memos:

1. “There is no constitutional requirement for a president to issue a new executive order whenever he wishes to depart from the terms of a previous executive order. Rather than violate an executive order, the president has instead modified or waived it;”

2. “The president, exercising his constitutional authority under Article II, can determine whether an action is a lawful exercise of the president’s authority under Article II,” and

3. “The Department of Justice is bound by the president’s legal determinations.”

Or, as Whitehouse rephrased them in a Dec. 7, 2007, Senate speech: “I don’t have to follow my own rules, and I don’t have to tell you when I’m breaking them. I get to determine what my own powers are. The Department of Justice doesn’t tell me what the law is. I tell the Department of Justice what the law is.”

The issue arose within the context of the Protect America Act, which expands government surveillance powers and gives telecom companies legal immunity for helping. Whitehouse called it, “a second-rate piece of legislation passed in a stampede in August at the behest of the Bush administration.” He pointed out that the act does not prohibit spying on Americans overseas—with the exception of an executive order that permits surveillance only of Americans the attorney general determines to be “agents of a foreign power.”

“In other words, the only thing standing between Americans traveling overseas and government wiretap is an executive order,” Whitehouse said in an April 12 speech. “An order by this president, under the first legal theory I cited, claims he has no legal obligation to obey.”

Whitehouse, a former U.S. attorney, legal counsel to Rhode Island’s governor, and Rhode Island attorney general who took Senate office in 2006, went on to point out that Marbury vs. Madison, written by Chief Justice John Marshall in 1803, established that it is “emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.”

Sources: “In FISA Speech, Whitehouse Sharply Criticizes Bush Administration’s Assertion of Executive Power,” Sheldon Whitehouse, Dec. 7, 2007; “Down the Rabbit Hole,” Marcy Wheeler, The Guardian U.K., Dec. 26, 2007.

Wall Street Pirates Wont Get Unconditional Bailout

Wall Street Pirates Wont Get Unconditional Bailout - The International Forecaster: "That way, the key nations of the world will all be on roughly the same socio-political page when the attempt to implement world government and an Orwellian world police state is finally made by the Illuminati through their propaganda front at the United Nations. All these nations, which are rabidly hostile toward the US, are used by the Illuminati to stir up the trouble pot. 'Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn, and caldron bubble,' here come conflicts to fuel the military-industrial complex and acts of terror to scare once freedom-loving people into giving up their Constitutional rights."

FED Bolsters Liquidity by Printing More Money; Inflation is Your New Permanent Houseguest « With One Breath

FED Bolsters Liquidity by Printing More Money; Inflation is Your New Permanent Houseguest « With One Breath: "In case there was any doubt that the Federal Reserve is not a federal agency and operates outside the scope of Congress and the wishes of We the People, you should be comforted by the fact that the Federal Reserve, in a move to “bolster liquidity” has pumped over $630 billion (U.S. dollars) into global central banks. The bailout plan failed, so the FED acted anyway, printing off billions of dollars of more debt. Yes, debt - for you and me to clean up."

Norton's comment: And this is over and above the potential TARP Bailout! That is $ 650 billion was just spent this week. Add the bailout of $ 700 billion or what could really be as much as $ 5 TRILLION.........and you get more than $ 6 TRILLION DOLLARS AND COUNTING.

Could the “bailout” be a very quiet restructuring of the Republican Party’s power structure? « White Noise Insanity

Could the “bailout” be a very quiet restructuring of the Republican Party’s power structure? « White Noise Insanity: "Bernanke has withdrawn $125 billion from the banking system in the last 4 days alone to create a crisis situation that will incite credit market mayhem and increase the likelihood of passing the bill. This is coercion of the worst kind. Flash:Fed speaking out both sides of mouth...."

Suspending Mark-to-Market = suspending Reality

Calculated Risk: Mark-to-Market Quotes: "'Suspending mark-to-market accounting, in essence, suspends reality.'
Beth Brooke, global vice chair at Ernst & Young LLP, WSJ, Sept 30, 2008"