NightBlogger

Stephen Lendman
… and here’s what we’ve got. A global asset bubble. A predictable crisis allowed to build and mushroom. Begun after Chicago School economics took hold under Ronald Reagan. Continued under GHW Bush. Became religion under Bill Clinton, and ultimately fundamentalism under GW Bush.

The result - a “slow motion train wreck” gaining speed. Banks and other financial institutions failing globally. On September 25, the largest bank failure in US history with Washington Mutual’s collapse. Earlier it was giant insurer AIG. Before that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and Merrill Lynch a forced liquidation to Bank of America.

Others are now teetering on the edge. Strapped by toxic debt. The result of out-of-control greed for easy profits. Massive fraud to get them. Thinking they’re the best and brightest, and only mere mortals mess up. Knowing Fed moral hazard will cushion them if they do. True for some. Not for others, and learning that the Federal Reserve (the world’s key central bank) failed in its primary job. To protect the country’s financial system from insolvency. By contributing to a financial crisis and one of confidence. By creating near-limitless amounts of capital. Fueling a housing bubble. Outsized consumer debt, and irresponsible investments free from government oversight. Fraudulent ones involving multi-trillions of dollars.

Partnering with government to make it easy. Risking a global economic meltdown as a result. Scrambling to find solutions. Unsure if there are any. The present crisis is unparalled. Maybe it can be fixed, and maybe not. The problem is multi-fold. A perfect storm involving:

– residential housing;

– commercial real estate;

– consumer over-indebtedness;

– unknown amounts of toxic debt (in the multi-trillions);

– affecting world finance and economies;

– causing bankruptcies;

– many more will follow;

– selected ones bailed out;

– the entire system endangered;

– consumer money market, bank accounts and private pension funds as well; government backing is needed to protect them; there’s not enough money to do it; and

– the contagion is spreading; threatening world economies and people everywhere.

This time is really different. A $700 billion bailout (called the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 - EESA) is just a down payment. Trillions will be needed in the end. Other nations contributing to help. The problems are deeper and more intractable than anyone expected. Before this ends, unimaginable amounts of capital will be written off. Too much to even contemplate. Bad investments contaminating good ones. Threatening world financial structures with paralysis. Severe economic damage to their economies as a result. Eroding industrial capitalism as we know it. At best managing a short-term fix and delaying a final denouement for a later time. Under new management with the current and past ones claiming no responsibility. And unmindful of millions of homeowners facing foreclosure and bankruptcy. One in ten currently behind in their payments. Others losing their jobs and way of life. They’re the most vulnerable. Least able to cope, and for some their ability to survive.

According to The New York Times, here’s how the Paulson scheme helps them: “it requires the government to use its new role as owner of distressed mortgage-backed securities to make ‘more aggressive’ efforts to prevent home foreclosures.” Weasel words. No specifics. No assurances, and nothing apparently for homeowners already in foreclosure.

On September 22, ahead of the announced agreement, American Research Group (ASG) published its latest public sentiment poll results, and they were stunning. At 19%, George Bush scored lowest ever for a US president, surpassing Harry Truman at the depth of the Korean War and Richard Nixon during Watergate. It came at a time ASG’s results showed 82% of Americans believe the economy is getting worse, and only 17% approve of how Bush is handling it. Among registered voters, the number is 18% at a time no one surveyed (zero percent) said the economy is improving and 68% say it’s in recession. True or false, it’s how they feel. How the crisis affects them, and that’s what counts most.

Yet on September 24, the president addressed the nation audaciously. Callously dismissing public pain and anger. Deceitfully stating outright lies. A typical performance. Demanded that Congress give the treasury secretary carte blanche authority over $700 billion to address “a serious financial crisis.” Asked taxpayers to pay for corporate fraud. Reward criminals and ignore their crimes. Said nothing about the root cause. The effect on ordinary people, or how Paulson’s scheme will help them. Ignored growing public opposition. Large numbers of credible observers believing the proposed solution is worse than the problem. The most honest of them saying it will enrich fraudsters and offer no help for homeowners.

Yet Bush concluded that “democratic capitalism (is the) best system the world has ever devised” in spite of clear evidence that it’s broken and corrupted. Exploits people for profit. Enriches the few at the expense of the many. Rewards criminals for their crimes. Protects the rich from beneficial social change.

Ahead of the president’s address on September 24, The New York Times showed a rare display of candor in a critical Timothy Egan opinion piece. About “nearly nationalizing the banking system and giving the treasury secretary more power than a king….whose decisions may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.” He asked readers to remember “where the biggest heist took place, and how Wall Street dragged down the rest of the country once before,” referring to the Great Depression but leaving out everything in between.

He stressed, however, “how Wall Street brought down main street,” and things have now come full circle. Deregulation unleashed casino capitalism, and bankers made a killing. Now they’re in trouble and Bush demands “the biggest bailout in American history….or the world will crumble. He said the a similar thing in the run-up to war” so who can believe him now. Egan quotes a dirt farmer asking why not the same “concerns (for) average Americans.” Because “we the people” Bush speaks for are them, not us.

As for Paulson’s plan, here’s what the Financial Times writer Martin Wolf said on September 23. He called it “not a true solution to the crisis.” It doesn’t address the “fundamental problem.” It’s “neither a necessary nor an efficient solution. It is not necessary because the (Fed can) manage illiquidity through its many lender-of-last resort operations. It is not efficient because it can only deal with insolvency by buying bad assets (overpriced junk) at far above their true value, thereby guaranteeing big losses for taxpayers and providing an open-ended bail-out to the most irresponsible investors.”

Wolf also objects to Paulson getting unchecked powers. Providing little or no help to the poor and “ill-informed” (read duped) borrowers, and lists other operational suggestions “essential for the long-run health of any financial system” without needing “a penny of public money.” Among them, forcing creditors to take losses and not taxpayers.

Unmentioned in his article is the underlying fraud behind the crisis and a lack of regulatory oversight that made it easy. Also, omitted was what’s covered in the section below.

The 1937 Housing Act’s Empowering Section 8 Authority

One Section 8 sentence provided the basis for the treasury secretary’s empowerment. It reads:

“Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administration agency.”

In other words, unchallengeable czarist powers. In contrast to the 1930s Reconstruction Finance Corporation’s (RFC) closely supervised operations. That era’s Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC) that refinanced homes to prevent foreclosures. And the 1980s Resolution Trust Corporation (RTC) mandate to liquidate assets from failed S & Ls. Not dispense free money for bad investments unchecked. The above authorities subject to judicial review. Not governed by a financial boss to run as he pleased.

The Announced “Bailout” Deal - The Emergency Stabilization Act of 2008 (ESA)

According to The New York Times, EESA calls for “strict oversight of the program by a Congressional panel and conflict-of-interest rules for firms hired by the Treasury to help run the program.” Also “a change in the bankruptcy laws sought by some Democrats to give judges the authority to modify the terms of first mortgages.”

Given the bipartisan blame for today’s crisis. The post-9/11 willingness to give the administration near-carte blanche authority across the board. Eight years of indifference to social needs and public welfare. Who now believes that policy going forward will change and that the agreed-on scheme will protect people or curb the secretary’s authority. On his own initiative, George Bush usurped supreme power post-9/11 while few in Congress blanched. None in leadership positions. Little today has changed.

Disclaimers notwithstanding from both sides of the aisle, Wall Street is pleased. Paulson got what he wanted. The plan’s fine print will assure it. Public money. Far more, if needed, than $700 billion. The power to dispense it freely. With weak at best oversight and judicial review, and the ability to conceal fraud and malfeasance. In short, the between-the-lines meaning of Paulson saying: “We have made great progress toward a deal, which will work and be effective in the marketplace.”

The same one that fleeced the nation and betrayed the public trust. Now empowered to take more with the full faith and blessing of the government from both sides of the aisle. Belying George Bush’s insult that “The rescue effort….is not aimed at Wall Street; it is aimed at your street.” And Nancy Pelosi’s hypocrisy that: “All of this was done in a way to insulate Main Street and everyday Americans from the crisis on Wall Street….I want to congratulate all of the negotiators for the great work they have done.” Who in banker boardrooms would disagree.

Some Relevant Facts

Clearly the present crisis is unprecedented. As stated above, maybe it can be fixed and maybe not. No one is sure because no one understands it fully. Where all the problems lie. To what degree can they be contained. How great their fallout may be. Their full effect on world economies. How bad things may get before they stabilize and improve, and the way the world will look like when they do.

Whatever’s coming, industrial capitalism is eroding. A kleptocracy replaced it. If the system is saved, it will be temporary, and an even greater one will emerge. Why this article is called Grand Theft America. A criminal class runs it, and they’re rewarded for their crimes. Backed by the full faith and credit of the government with taxpayer money. A near-limitless amount created and borrowed. Who said crime doesn’t pay!

For over 30 years, an unimaginable wealth transfer to the rich has been ongoing. To the top 1% and corporate America from most others. It proves the failure of a system that rewards the few at the expense of the many. Licenses greed and creates this kind of global financial crisis so far uncontained. It begs the questions: what caused it and what’s the fallout:

– the ruinous effects of militarization; insane amounts of spending on it; “military Keynesianism;” believing capitalism thrives on foreign wars; “Global Wars on Terrorism” currently; their costs are unsustainable and are heading the nation toward bankruptcy;

– the drain on an already weakened economy;

– maxed out consumers now debt slaves;

– so is government from unrepayable obligations in the tens of trillions; not the fictitious “official” reported numbers;

– the possibility of future default; hyperinflation; national bankruptcy, and the demise of the republic;

– human default as well: mass bankruptcies; home foreclosures; rising unemployment; increased poverty; and growing numbers of families unable to survive;

– the subprime crisis is just part of it; seven million mortgages sold to the unwary; the idea was to criminally defraud them; offer two-year teaser rates; then reset them higher semi-annually based on an interest rate benchmark; payments soared as much as 30% and became unaffordable; the scheme was to cash in at the expense of mortgage holders, and five million risk losing their homes and life savings;

– an “economic Pearl Harbor” for Warren Buffett; for Senator Chris Dodd a “50-state Katrina;” a “house of cards (built on) reckless finance” for author Kevin Phillips; Frankenstein finance; casino capitalism; for most Americans, a human catastrophe;

– the demise of our manufacturing base; letting malls replace factories as the economy’s engine;

– permitting the financialization of the economy; speculative finance writ large; replacing productive investment; totally deregulated; run by fraudsters; free from government oversight; letting investment banks game the system at up to 40 to 1 leverage; until 2004, 12 to 1 was the maximum;

– a government - business conspiracy for global dominance and the single-minded pursuit of profit; unfettered amounts of it through cleverly manipulated schemes; transferring multi-trillions of dollars from workers to the most wealthy; doing it without people even noticing;

– creative destruction to let giant businesses grow larger by removing and devouring smaller ones; even large ones;

– permitting and/or ignoring massive fraud; involving multi-trillions of dollars; the largest ever Ponzi scheme; a calculated crime with media complicity through silence; not reporting a growing problem as it emerged; waiting until it mushroomed and still not explaining it accurately and honestly; and

– wondering won if the best and brightest can fix things or if no amount of money or ingenuity can do it.

The Plan’s Architect - Henry Paulson

From a Nixon administration staff assistant to the assistant secretary of defense. To assistant to key Watergate official John Erlichman. To Goldman Sachs in 1974. To a partnership in the firm in 1982. Then Chief Operation Officer (COO) in 1994 and CEO in 1998 by a palace coup against co-chairman and now New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, according to New York Times columnist Floyd Norris.

Even before the current crisis, Goldman was the preeminent Wall Street firm. A survivor. The largest, and along with Morgan Stanley, the remaining two Street giants left standing. But no longer as investment banks after the Federal Reserve’s September 21 announcement that both companies will become bank holding companies after a mandatory five-day waiting period, now over.

In theory, they’ll be under stricter Fed oversight but will get Fed help to complete their transition and thereafter. As a well-connected financial powerhouse, whatever Goldman wants, Goldman gets. Always in the past by recycling top executives into Democrat and Republican administrations, and now more than ever given Henry Paulson’s extraordinary financial czar powers.

Before his $700 billion giveaway plan, the 2008 Housing and Economic Recovery Act gave him authority to fleece taxpayers by rescuing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as well as raise the national debt by over $5 trillion dollars. He also orchestrated the demise of Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual. The forced sale of Merrill Lynch, and arranged the government takeover of AIG.

He has near-open checkbook authority to reward close allies with loans and free money and let them acquire troubled assets on the cheap. This from a man with much responsibility for today’s crisis. A June 12, 2006 Business Week cover story titled “Mr. Risk Goes to Washington” called him “one of the key architects of a more daring Wall Street, where securities firms are taking greater and greater chances in their pursuit of profits.” Such as assuming huge amounts of debt and “placing big bets (with their own money) on all sorts of exotic derivatives and other securities.” Advising clients to do the same. Casino capitalism at up to 40 to one leverage. Hugely profitable in up markets. Disastrous in down ones.

Paulson earned millions and now has an estimated $700 million + net worth. For 2007 overall, according to Bloomberg.com, “Wall Street’s five biggest firms (paid out) a record $39 billion in bonuses (and did it in) a year when three of the companies suffered the worst quarterly losses in their history and shareholders lost more than $80 billion.”

Speculative finance pays well, even in down years, and it even raised Bloomberg’s ire in a Michael Lewis September 24 commentary titled “America Must Rescue the Bonuses at Goldman Sachs.” It reflected on a possible global financial collapse but sacrificing Goldman bonuses is another matter. If firm “employees (take) pay cut(s), it will be (tantamount to failure and) our country may never recover.” How will the company induce new talent to come aboard. Goldman is well-positioned to get maximum gain from its former CEO’s $700 billion handout.

Why else would Warren Buffett bet $5 billion on the firm! For preferred shares paying an annual 10% dividend. Warrants as well to buy $5 billion in common stock at a $115 a share strike price. Well off its $251 peak and below the latest September 26 $138 a share.

Joseph Stiglitz on the Economy

Stiglitz was formerly part of the system he now criticizes. Free market fundamentalism in its most extreme form. For many months, he warned about a worsening global economy and growing financial crisis that’s as bad or worse than the Great Depression.

He sees similar problems now as then:

– outsized speculation through excessive leverage;

– pyramid schemes;

– multiple bubbles through so-called Wall Street innovations; and

– a lack of transparency and government oversight.

Combined they created a crisis “so great that no one knows exactly the magnitude of the risk they face. It is particularly bad because our financial institutions are based on trust. You put money in the bank and you trust that you can get (it) out, so trust is absolutely essential for the functioning of our financial markets and economy.”

The problem is exacerbated by those providing the news. The dominant media and frequent spokespeople. Industry representatives like Lehman Brothers CEO saying last April that “we turned the corner, and the economy is on the uptick.” Also from the president, treasury secretary and others in government as things keep worsening.

Stiglitz calls this a “top down crisis.” The “$3 trillion cost” of foreign wars a key. Creating huge deficits and consuming vital resources needed for growth. “This is the first war in American history that has been totally financed on the credit card. For the last five years….we have been a debt economy.” Not since the Revolutionary War have “we have had to turn to foreigners,” so now “40% of our national debt is financed by (them). Even as we went (to war) we had a big deficit, and yet the president called for tax cuts for upper middle class Americans.” Insane but we did it.

Another factor is other countries trusting that our economy is working well, and when the president says it is he’s believable. “This administration burned that trust….no wonder everybody around the world is losing confidence.” Even worse is that the administration isn’t dealing responsibly with these problems, mostly because they’re of our own making.

Stiglitz worries about the “real economy:” home prices dropping; owners forced into foreclosure; more financial firms in crisis; and a good many won’t survive. He sees a weakening financial system unable or unwilling “to provide credit (the lifeblood of the economy for) loans, mortgages,” and that means lower home prices, contracting businesses, rising unemployment, and a “downward vicious cycle. You have to be in fantasy land to say that everything is fine (or even) that we have turned the corner.” He sees at least another 18 months of pain. Maybe longer. Who can know or how much.

For sure, real economic stimulus is needed. Productive investment. Not the phony “bailout” kind proposed. Aiding state and local governments. Better unemployment insurance and more for infrastructure. Providing a basis for long-term growth. Not feeding markets and starving the hungry, as one writer put it. Not believing markets on their own will fix things.

Understanding that government must intervene. Responsibly. Facilitate job creation. End casino capitalism. Provide incentives for real economic growth. Let foreclosed and threatened homeowners stay in their homes. Work out an equitable way to do it. “We learned a painful lesson in the 1930s and today: The invisible hand often seems invisible because it’s not there.” It led to the kind of predicament now confronting the country. The solutions proposed will just compound it.

Ones that Can Fix It

Good ones not considered. From figures like Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Others as well with solid advice to:

– make fraudsters eat the bulk of their losses;

– use public funds only “to sustain the orderly operation of the financial system;”

– minimize speculative finance; the root of the current problem;

– “minimize moral hazard” - the Paulson (and Bernanke) “put” picking up where Greenspan left off;

– let delinquent homeowners stay in their homes and pay rent;

– curtail executive compensation for companies getting government aid;

– make a key Fed responsibility the prevention of asset bubbles; reinstitute regulations to do it; Glass-Steagall for starters that prohibited commercial and investment banks and insurance companies from combining;

– impose a modest financial transactions tax to curb excesses and raise revenue;

– trade assets, like credit default swaps, openly on exchanges to establish fair value for them;

– impose strict limits on leverage;

– keep Fannie and Freddie public institutions; their status before being privatized in 1968; and

– restructure the Fed democratically; a far better solution is abolish it and let government control its own money; use it responsibly for all Americans, not just the privileged few.

Other recommendations recognize no quick or easy solutions to problems this great. Economist James Galbraith says borrowers need collateral. A new Home Owners Loan Corporation to rewrite mortgages. Manage rental conversions, and decide what degraded properties should be demolished. Which ones to save and refurbish. Set it up in communities under federal guidelines and do it quickly. Help state and local governments strapped for cash. Reestablish federal revenue sharing. A National Infrastructure Bank making capital available for infrastructure. Put people to work building it. Protect seniors and near-retirees from wealth loss. Extra Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid revenue will help. Get money in the hands of people who’ll spend it.

Address other crucial issues like energy conservation, reconstruction and renewable power. Infrastructure overall. Tuition help for students. Another GI bill. Credit card and mortgage interest rate caps. Rescind anti-consumist laws like the misnamed 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act. A boon for credit card companies and other businesses. Unfairly burdensome to the public.

A whole range of other projects and ideas to redirect the economy away from speculative finance and militarism and toward high-return public investment. Do it before it’s too late. Recognize that the present course is unsustainable. Imagine a government working for everyone and not just the privileged few. Imagine it not tolerating fraud and malfeasance.

Instead, Congress agreed to a “bailout” and passed a record $634 billion omnibus spending bill (to run the government through March 6, 2009) to include a record Pentagon budget; $25 billion in low-interest auto industry loans; maybe with no provision for repayment; lifting a quarter-century ban on Atlantic and Pacific off-shore drilling; billions more in earmarked pork; and likely more coming later for the airlines and other endangered companies. Taxpayers for Common Sense criticized the bill at the same time it noted that government “bailout” appropriations will reach about $1.2 trillion with the $700 billion Paulson scheme. Others put the total above $1.5 trillion, and many say it’s only for starters.

Paying “hold-to-maturity” prices compounds the fraud. For securitized assets worth a fraction of full value. Much of it pennies on the dollar, if anything. Trillions of dollars of toxic ones. All sorts of them. Newly invented ones. Structured finance and insurance. Asset-backed securities. Repackaged into marketable pools. Sold to investors. It’s been done for decades but only recently so out of hand. Greed and deregulation created an alphabet soup of levered-up, high-risk securitized assets. Financial alchemy. Largely outright fraud, including:

– collateralized debt obligations (CDOs), including auto loans, credit and corporate debt;

– collateralized (asset-backed home) mortgage obligations (CMOs);

– commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS);

– mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and levered loans;

– structured investment vehicles (SIVs);

– special purpose vehicles (SPVs);

– pass-through securities;

– credit and interest rate default swaps;

– commercial paper and more;

– repackaged arcane stuff most people don’t understand; even investors who bought them; like eating a stew with no idea what’s in it; a recipe with no list of ingredients; learning too late it’s toxic and you’re in trouble;

Credit card companies as well from growing amounts of unrepayable credit card debt. The auto industry already assured of a low-interest $25 billion loan (or maybe handout) for starters. Airlines coming next. Select homebuilders and troubled companies called too big to fail. If they’re too big to fail, says one observer, they’re too big to exist.

EESA will give the treasury secretary near-carte blanche powers to conceal fraud and help the fraudsters, including his former company, Goldman Sachs, now in trouble. Pick and choose among others. Which will survive, and what less favored ones will go on the block at fire sale prices or disappear. Today there are 9000 banks in the country. In a decade, half or more of them may be gone.

Economist Michael Hudson calls EESA “cash for trash” and a “giveaway,” not a bailout. A “transfer of wealth to insiders.” A financial coup d’etat. The “largest and most inequitable (kind) since the (19th century) land giveaways to the railroad barons.”

In this case, socializing losses to let fraudsters “sell out all their bad bets.” Junk of all sorts: a stew of securitized assets, bad mortgages, car loans, credit card loans, student loans, anything for insiders stuck with too much of them.

A doomed scheme that will raise the debt level instead of lowering it. Enrich fraudsters with taxpayer funds. Stick the public with toxic junk. Maybe buy time before more people and markets catch on, but, in the end, cripple the economy and erode industrial capitalism with it.

Hudson is justifiably angry given the amount of fraud and deceit. The government-concocted scheme to whitewash it. Reward criminals. Harm most others, and wreck the country at the same time. He says a “kleptocratic class has taken over the economy to replace industrial capitalism….’banksers’ ” for FDR and earlier condemned by Jefferson with this stinging comment:

“I sincerely believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a money aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people to whom it properly belongs.”

A half century later Lincoln said:

“I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country….corporations (including bankers) have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.”

Lincoln refused to pay bankers usurious rates to finance the Civil War and got Congress to pass the 1862 Legal Tender Act. It empowered the US Treasury to issue “greenbacks” that were interest-free because government printed its own money. When Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, the “Greenback Law” was rescinded. A new national banking act was passed, and the government once again had to pay interest to bankers.

On June 4, 1963, President Kennedy issued executive order (EO) 11110 giving the president authority to issue currency. He ordered the treasury to begin printing “United States (Treasury) Notes” to replace “Federal Reserve Notes.” He began a process to let government control its own money and no longer private bankers under the guise of the Federal Reserve. Months later, Kennedy was assassinated. Once Lyndon Johnson took office, he rescinded EO 11110 and reestablished the current system. More on that below.

The Two Greatest Ever Financial Crimes - Today’s Fraud and the 1913 Federal Reserve Act’s Privatization of Money Creation

Most people think the Federal Reserve is a government agency, subject to its control. It’s sometimes mistakenly called a quasi-governmental decentralized central bank to disguise its real identity and purpose. Its Eccles building headquarters compounds the subterfuge. Below it’s stripped away.

The Federal Reserve is a private for-profit banking cartel. Owned and run by major banks and Wall Street in each of its 12 Districts. It was created and operates in violation of Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution that states that Congress alone shall have the power to create money and regulate its value. In 1935, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress cannot constitutionally delegate this power to another authority, but, in fact it did.

On December 22, 1913, between 1:30 - 4:30 AM, the Federal Reserve Act was shepherded through a special Congressional Conference Committee. Then voted on and passed the next day. Two days before Christmas with many members gone and most others with no time to read or consider this momentous document.

By enacting this law, Congress and President Woodrow Wilson defrauded the public. Wilson later said (when it was too late to matter) he made a mistake and “unwittingly ruined my country.” This from a man who was an intellect. Trained in the law. A PhD in political science and president of Princeton University in his earlier years.

The Federal Reserve Act gives private bankers the most important of all powers. The one most of all that governments should never relinquish. The authority to print money. Control its supply. Its price through the Fed Funds rate and how it influences the whole yield curve. Loan it out for profit, and charge government interest on its own money. It’s later returned minus operating expenses and a guaranteed 6% profit. Taxpayers foot the bill. An early and continuing example of wealth transfer from the public to powerful bankers. Illegally sanctioned by Congress and the president.

The Fed literally creates money out of nothing. Expands or contracts its supply as it wishes - with no government oversight or control. Gold once backed it until Nixon closed the gold window in August 1971. Suspended dollar convertibility into the metal, and ended compliance with the Bretton Woods core provision. The US dollar became fiat currency. Mere paper. Backed by nothing except the faith of the issuing authority.

Given today’s crisis, that faith is fast eroding and is to blame for dollar weakness. Mostly because of profligate policies by private bankers running the country’s monetary policy for their own gain. The grandest of grand thefts along with today’s all-consuming fraud. Backed by the full faith and credit of the government, and up to now at least, with most people none the wiser.

A Growing Public Response to the Crisis

For how long is the question given growing public anger and people expressing it publicly. It has administration officials worried enough to order what Michel Chossudovsky wrote in his September 26 article titled “Pre-election Militarization of the North American Homeland.”

He cites an Army Times article saying that the 3rd Infantry’s 1st Brigade Combat Team is coming home (in October) from Iraq as (according to the Times) “an on-call federal response force for natural or manmade emergencies and disasters, including terrorist attacks.” Perhaps with a manufactured incident as pretext. To defend the homeland against ourselves. Be deployed against dissent. Erupting public anger. On city streets like in Denver and St. Paul. Displaying civil disobedience. Defiance against fraud, deceit, illegal foreign wars, and nearly eight intolerable years under George Bush and a complicit Congress. Capped by the current financial crisis touching everyone while government rewards crime and hangs its victims out to dry.

Chossudovsky is blunt about the possibilities. The 3rd Infantry’s 1st Brigade is for combat. It’s not the National Guard or local police. It’s trained for war. “Equipped to kill people” with potent weapons, and a last hurrah scheme may be planned to divert public attention from the financial crisis. A “terrorist” attack with “chemical, biological” or other dangerous weapons. A possible pretext for martial law at a time the administration and Congress are vulnerable. When people are angry about Washington protecting the privileged. Partnering with them in crime. Defrauding the public and stifling dissent. Moving one step closer to tyranny and away from silly notions about democracy. Proving crime indeed does pay and awfully well on Wall Street. “It’s the economy, stupid.” Theirs, not ours. More

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As Congress debated the financial bailout bill over the past week, public support for government action has declined. A new Pew Research Center survey conducted Sept. 27-29 finds a narrow 45%-38% plurality of the public saying that a government plan to invest or commit billions of dollars to secure financial institutions is the right thing to do. This represents considerably less support than the plan engendered immediately after it was first proposed. A Pew survey conducted Sept. 19-22 had found a wide majority of the public favoring government action (57% right thing, 30% wrong thing).

The public is expressing both fear and loathing about the idea of the government committing billions of dollars to solve the problem. Six-in-ten Americans (61%) say that they feel angry about the government’s plan, and half (50%) also admit they are scared. Many report being confused (43%), but relatively few (29%) describe themselves as optimistic.

Anger about the rescue plan crosses party lines, and Republicans, Democrats and independents all offer less support for the idea now than they did at the outset. Among Republicans there has been a 15-point decline – from 64% to 49% – in the share saying the bailout is the right thing to do. Support among Democrats has fallen 10 points from 56% to 46%. As a consequence, while Republicans were slightly more supportive initially, support for the plan is now about the same among Republicans, Democrats and independents. More

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(Reuters) - Prices of U.S. single-family homes plunged a record 16.3 percent in July from a year earlier, extending declines that have plagued the housing market for two years, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Indexes. The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas fell 0.9 percent in July from June, S&P said in a statement on Tuesday. Since the peak of the housing boom in July 2006, the index has dropped 19.5 percent, it said. S&P said its composite index of 10 metropolitan areas declined 1.1 percent in July for a 17.5 percent year-over-year drop. From two years ago, the index is down 21.1 percent. More

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(Fortune Magazine)
The financial crisis has put a spotlight on the obscure world of credit default swaps - which trade in a vast, unregulated market that most people haven’t heard of and even fewer understand. Will this be the next disaster?

CDS are no mere artist’s fancy. In just over a decade these privately traded derivatives contracts ballooned from nothing into a $54.6 trillion market. CDS are the fastest-growing major type of financial derivatives. More important, they’ve played a critical role in the unfolding financial crisis. First, by ostensibly providing “insurance” on risky mortgage bonds, they encouraged and enabled reckless behavior during the housing bubble. “If CDS had been taken out of play, companies would’ve said, ‘I can’t get this [risk] off my books,’” says Michael Greenberger, a University of Maryland law professor and former director of trading and markets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. “If they couldn’t keep passing the risk down the line, those guys would’ve been stopped in their tracks. The ultimate assurance for issuing all this stuff was, ‘It’s insured.’” Second, terror at the potential for a financial Ebola virus radiating out from a failing institution and infecting dozens or hundreds of other companies - all linked to one another by CDS and other instruments - was a major reason that regulators stepped in to bail out Bear Stearns and buy out AIG (AIG, Fortune 500), whose calamitous descent itself was triggered by losses on its CDS contracts (see “Hank’s Last Stand”).

And the fear of a CDS catastrophe still haunts the markets. For starters, nobody knows how federal intervention might ripple through this chain of contracts. And meanwhile, as we’ll see, two fundamental aspects of the CDS market - that it is unregulated, and that almost nothing is disclosed publicly - may be about to change. That adds even more uncertainty to the equation. “The big problem is that here are all these public companies - banks and corporations - and no one really knows what exposure they’ve got from the CDS contracts,” says Frank Partnoy, a law professor at the University of San Diego and former Morgan Stanley derivatives salesman who has been writing about the dangers of CDS and their ilk for a decade. More

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Nouriel Roubini
It is obvious that the current financial crisis is becoming more severe in spite of the Treasury rescue plan (or maybe because of it as this plan it totally flawed). The severe strains in financial markets (money markets, credit markets, stock markets, CDS and derivative markets) are becoming more severe rather than less severe in spite of the nuclear option (after the Fannie and Freddie $200 billion bazooka bailout failed to restore confidence) of a $700 billion package: interbank spreads are widening (TED spread, swap spreads, Libo-OIS spread) and are at level never seen before; credit spreads (such as junk bond yield spreads relative to Treasuries are widening to new peaks; short-term Treasury yields are going back to near zero levels as there is flight to safety; CDS spread for financial institutions are rising to extreme levels (Morgan Stanley ones at 1200 last week) as the ban on shorting of financial stock has moved the pressures on financial firms to the CDS market; and stock markets around the world have reacted very negatively to this rescue package (US market are down about 3% this morning at their opening).

Let me explain now in more detail why we are now back to the risk of a total systemic financial meltdown…

It is no surprise as financial institutions in the US and around advanced economies are going bust: in the US the latest victims were WaMu (the largest US S&L) and today Wachovia (the sixth largest US bank); in the UK after Northern Rock and the acquisition of HBOS by Lloyds TSB you now have the bust and rescue of B&B; in Belgium you had Fortis going bust and being rescued over the weekend; in German HRE, a major financial institution is also near bust and in need of a government rescue. So this is not just a US financial crisis; it is a global financial crisis hitting institutions in the US, UK, Eurozone and other advanced economies (Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada etc.).

And the strains in financial markets – especially short term interbank markets - are becoming more severe in spite of the Fed and other central banks having literally injected about $300 billion of liquidity in the financial system last week alone including massive liquidity lending to Morgan and Goldman. In a solvency crisis and credit crisis that goes well beyond illiquidity no one is lending to counterparties as no one trusts any counterparty (even the safest ones) and everyone is hoarding the liquidity that is injected by central banks. And since this liquidity goes only to banks and major broker dealers the rest of the shadow banking system has not access to this liquidity as the credit transmission mechanisms is blocked.

After the bust of Bear and Lehman and the merger of Merrill with BofA I suggested that Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs should also merge with a large financial institution that has a large base of insured deposits so as to avoid a run on their overnite liabilities. Instead Morgan and Goldman went for the cosmetic approach of converting into bank holding companies as a way to get further liquidity support – and regulation as banks – of the Fed and as a way to acquire safe deposits. But neither institution can create in a short time a franchise of branches and neither one has the time and resources to acquire smaller banks. And the injection of $8 b of Japanese capital into Morgan and $5 b of capital from Buffett into Goldman is a drop in the ocean as both institutions need much more capital. Thus, the gambit of converting into bank while not being banks yet has not worked and the run against them has accelerated in the last week: Morgan’s CDS spread went through the roof on Friday to over 1200 and the firm has already lost over a third of its hedge funds clients together with their highly profitable prime brokering business (this is really a kiss of death for Morgan); and the coming roll-off of the interbank lines to Morgan would seal its collapse. Even Goldman Sachs is under severe stress losing business, losing money, experiencing a severe widening of its CDS spreads and at risk of losing most of its values most of its lines of business (including trading) are now losing money.

Both institutions are highly recommended to stop dithering and playing for time as delay will be destructive: they should merge now with a large foreign financial institution as no US institution is sound enough and large enough to be a sound merger partner. If Mack and Blankfein don’t want to end up like Fuld they should do today a Thain and merge as fast as they can with another large commercial banks. Maybe Mitsubishi and a bunch of Japanese life insurers can take over Morgan; in Europe Barclays has its share of capital trouble and has just swallowed part of Lehman; while most other UK banks are too weak to take over Goldman. The only institution sound enough to swallow Goldman may be HSBC. Or maybe Nomura in Japan should make a bid for Goldman. Either way Mack and Blankfein should sell at a major discount of current price their firm before they end up like Bear and be offered in a few weeks a couple of bucks a share for their faltering operation. And the Fed and Treasury should tell them to hurry up as they are both much bigger than Bear or Lehman and their collapse would have severe systemic effects.

When investors don’t trust any more even venerable institutions such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs you know that the financial crisis is as severe as ever and the fear of collapse of counterparties does not spare anyone. When a nuclear option of a monster $700 billion rescue plan is not even able to rally stock markets (as they are all in free fall today) you know this is a global crisis of confidence in the financial system. We were literally close to a total meltdown of the system on Wednesday (and Thursday morning) two weeks ago when the $85 b bailout of AIG led to a 5% fall in US stock markets (instead of a rally). Then the US authorities went for the nuclear option of the $700 billion plan as a way to avoid the meltdown together with bans on short sales, a guarantee of money market funds and an injection of over $300 billion in the financial system. Now the prospect of this plan passing (but there is some lingering deal risk the votes in the House are not certain) -as well as the other massive policy actions taken to stop short selling “speculation” and support interbank markets and money market funds - is not sufficient to make the markets rally as there is a generalized loss of confidence in financial markets and in financial institutions that no policy action seem to be able to control.

The next step of this panic could become the mother of all bank runs, i.e. a run on the trillion dollar plus of the cross border short-term interbank liabilities of the US banking and financial system as foreign banks as starting to worry about the safety of their liquid exposures to US financial institutions; such a silent cross border bank run has already started as foreign banks are worried about the solvency of US banks and are starting to reduce their exposure. And if this run accelerates - as it may now - a total meltdown of the US financial system could occur. We are thus now in a generalized panic mode and back to the risk of a systemic meltdown of the entire financial system. And US and foreign policy authorities seem to be clueless about what needs to be done next. Maybe they should today start with a coordinated 100 bps reduction in policy rates in all the major economies in the world to show that they are starting to seriously recognize and address this rapidly worsening financial crisis.

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Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
The Dutch-Belgian bank Fortis, Britain’s Bradford and Bingley, and Iceland’s Glitnir, were all partially or fully nationalized after failing to roll-over debts in the short-term money markets, while the French state pledged support for the Franco-Belgian lender Dexia after the share price collapsed on reports of a capital shortage. “The European financial sector is on trial: we have to support our banks.” said French President Nicolas Sarkozy. He has reportedly ordered the state investment arm Caisse Des Depots to shore up Dexia, even though the bank is based in Belgium.

Germany’s Hypo Real Estate, a commercial property lender, was rescued with a €35bn lifeline from a consortium of local banks. The lender has $560bn in liabilities, almost as much as Lehman Brothers. Hypo Real’s share price crashed 74pc, setting off a masse exodus from financial stocks in Frankfurt. Commerzbank fell 23pc and Aareal Bank was off 43pc. Anglo Irish Bank was down 44pc in Dublin on wholesale funding fears. Europe’s credit markets have come close to seizing up as three-month Euribor jumped to a record 5.22pc and OIS spreads rocketed to 113 basis points.

“The interbank market has collapsed,” said Hans Redeker, currency chief at BNP Paribas. “We’re now seeing a domino effect as the credit multiplier goes into reverse and forces banks to cut back lending to clients,” he said. Mr Redeker said the latest alarming twist is a move by banks to deposit €28bn in funds at the European Central Bank in a panic flight to safety. This has jammed the mechanism used by the authorities to shore up the financial system in a crisis. “The ECB is no longer able to inject liquidity because the money is just coming back to them again. This is extremely serious. If monetary policy is no longer working, there is a risk that the whole system will blow up in days,” he said.

The euro plunged on Monday as the wave of bank failures hit the newswires, dropping 2pc to $1.43 against the dollar. It recovered slightly as the US Federal Reserve flooded the markets with $630bn of dollar funding with fellow central banks in the biggest liquidity blitz in history. Analysts say German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck may have spoken too soon when he crowed last week that the US would lose its status as a superpower as a result of this crisis. He told Der Spiegel yesterday that we are “all staring into the abyss”. Germany - over-leveraged to Asian demand for machine tools, and Mid-East and Russian demand for luxury cars - is perhaps in equally deep trouble, though of a different kind.

The combined crises at both Fortis and Dexia have sent tremors through Belgium, which is already traumatized by political civil war between the Flemings and Walloons. Fortis is Belgium’s the biggest private employer. It is unclear whether the country has the resources to bail out two banks with liabilities that dwarf the economy if the crisis deepens, although a joint intervention by The Netherlands and Luxembourg to rescue Fortis has helped Belgium share the risk. Together the three states put €11.2bn to buy Fortis stock.

This tripartite model is unlikely to work so well in others parts of Europe, since Benelux already operates as a closely linked team. The EU lacks a single treasury to take charge in a fast-moving crisis, leaving a patchwork of regulators and conflicting agendas. Carsten Brzenski, chief economist at ING in Brussels, said the global crisis was now engulfing Europe with devastating speed. “We are at imminent risk of a credit crunch. Key markets are not functioning properly. The Europeans thought the sub-prime crisis was just American rubbish that the US should clean up itself, but now they are finding out that it is their rubbish too,” he said.

Data from the IMF shows that European banks hold 75pc as much exposure to toxic US housing debt as US banks themselves. Moreover they have mounting bad debts from the British, Spanish, French, Dutch, Scandinavian, and East European housing markets, where property bubbles reached even more extreme levels that in the US. More

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The Market Ticker
Karl Denninger
The real news is here:

“Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) — The Federal Reserve will pump an additional $630 billion into the global financial system, flooding banks with cash to alleviate the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression.

The Fed increased its existing currency swaps with foreign central banks by $330 billion to $620 billion to make more dollars available worldwide. The Term Auction Facility, the Fed’s emergency loan program, will expand by $300 billion to $450 billion. The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are among the participating authorities.

The Fed’s expansion of liquidity, the biggest since credit markets seized up last year, came hours before the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a $700 billion bailout for the financial industry. The crisis is reverberating through the global economy, causing stocks to plunge and forcing European governments to rescue four banks over the past two days alone.”

Now let’s think about this folks. The Fed threw $630 billion into the market before the vote, and yet the S&P 500 was down 40 handles anyway, and in fact tanked after the vote. Note carefully - Paulson’s plan was $700 billion, and Bernanke spent $630 billion - almost the entire amount proposed - but failed to fix the problem. We were about to piss $700 billion into a tornado and lose it forever.

Fortunately sane people prevailed in The House of Representatives and voted NO. If they hadn’t, we’d have had our proof but the money would be on its way into the vortex and you the taxpayer would have been utterly screwed. IF we are truly facing an economic catastrophe you have just seen proof that Paulson’s $700 billion will do nothing. It is my contention that to actually arrest this mess we’d need up to $5-7 trillion, and taking on that sort of debt would essentially destroy the value of our currency, cutting it in half (which means your cost of living doubles); that is, “fixing” this mess will be worse than doing nothing at all! More

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Bradford & Bingley, the UK’s biggest buy-to-let mortgage lender, has become the latest victim of the deepening financial crisis, with the Government nationalising its mortgage book and Spanish bank Santander buying its branches. In a statement today, Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said: “The Government, on the advice of the Financial Services Authority and the Bank of England, acted immediately to maintain financial stability and protect depositors, while minimising th exposure to taxpayers.” More

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BBC News
The Icelandic government has taken control of the country’s third-largest bank, Glitnir, after the company faced short-term funding problems. The government has bought a 75% stake in the bank for 600m euros ($860m; £478m) to ensure stability of the bank during the current financial turmoil. Glitner is expected to operate as normal and the government said it did not intend to hold the stake for long. It is the first Icelandic banking nationalisation of the current crisis. More

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The governments of Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg last night unveiled a €11.2 billion (£8.9 billion) joint nationalisation of Fortis as the Benelux banking giant became the first major continental European victim of the global credit crunch. Yves Leterme, the Prime Minister of Belgium, announced that his Government would invest €4.7 billion to buy 49 per cent of the group’s equity. Luxembourg and the Netherlands are to spend €2.5 billion and €4 billion, respectively, buying 49 per cent stakes in the bank’s units in those countries. Fortis is also set to sell its stake in ABN Amro — the source of its current troubles — while its chairman, Count Maurice Lippens, is to resign. Details of the Fortis rescue emerged after talks in Brussels led by Jean-Claude Trichet, the President of the European Central Bank, and involving Dutch and Belgian ministers and the bank company’s board. More

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Mish
Global Economic Analysis
This is unprecedented. The treasury secretary, the president, the speaker, and the chairman of the senate finance committee all supported the bill. This bill went down only because of a popular uprising.

Stand up and take a bow.

If Your Legislative Representative Voted No…

Please phone and fax your congressional representative thanking them for their courageous vote.

If Your Legislative Representative Voted Yes…

Please phone and fax them one more time stating you will organize action in their district should they attempt to revive this bill in any other form. Take the above action for 3 consecutive days. Make sure they know we appreciate [or disapprove] of what they have done. This was a tremendous victory for Democracy. Do Not Drop Your Guard Until Congress Is In Recess. They will try and revive it. Please keep faxing and phoning. More

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Barry Grey
Democrats take charge of pushing through Bush’s bailout of Wall Street
In all essentials, the bill drawn up by the Democrats in closed-door negotiations with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Republican congressional leaders, and in direct consultation with some of the most powerful figures on Wall Street, conforms to the plan first proposed by Paulson on September 19.

It gives him virtually unlimited powers to use public funds to buy mortgage-backed securities and other worthless bank assets whose value has collapsed as a result of the implosion of the housing bubble and the vast edifice of debt that was built up by Wall Street.

The Democrats’ press conference was an exercise in deceit. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, flanked by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the chairmen of the House and Senate banking committees, Barney Frank and Christopher Dodd, presented the windfall for the richest people in the country as though it were a punitive measure aimed at reigning in corporate greed.

“The party is over,” she proclaimed. “No longer will tax payers be forced to bail out reckless investors.”

Both candidates of the two major political parties, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain, signaled their support for the bailout bill on Sunday. They echoed the line of President Bush, who said in his weekly radio address on Saturday, “The rescue effort we’re negotiating is not aimed at Wall Street; it is aimed at your street.”

Obama boasted on the CBS News program “Face the Nation” that he has been in constant communication with Paulson on the progress of the bailout bill.

The myth that the Democratic Party represents a “lesser evil” to the Republicans, let alone a “party of the people,” is being shattered by its emergence as the most servile defender of the interests of the financial oligarchy.

The remaining obstacle to obtaining quick passage of the bill comes not from the Democratic Party, but rather from right-wing Republicans in the House of Representatives. They represent an ultra-right libertarian wing of the party which identifies social spending and government intervention in the capitalist “free market” with what they consider the ultimate evil—socialism.

The emergence of the Democrats as the leading protagonists of the administration’s bailout scheme has enabled the House Republicans to posture as opponents of Wall Street and appeal to popular opposition, while demanding billions of dollars in tax cuts for the banks and further deregulation as an alternative to using taxpayer funds to cover Wall Street’s bad debts.

The content of the proposed legislation agreed upon by the Bush administration and the Democrats exposes the lies that are being employed to defend it. It contains no provisions to provide relief for homeowners who have been victimized by predatory lending practices and face foreclosure.

The two token measures initially proposed by congressional Democrats—enabling bankruptcy judges to amend mortgage terms to allow distressed homeowners to avert foreclosure and allotting 20 percent of any profits accrued by the government from the resale of bank assets to a housing fund—were stricken from the final deal under pressure from Wall Street and the Republicans.

Obama personally intervened last week to oppose the inclusion of the bankruptcy court provision, which has been fiercely opposed by the banking industry.

The Democrats dropped a proposal to impose a fee on the banks that will sell their junk assets, at inflated prices, to the government, and then profit from the eventual resale of the assets.

Supposed restrictions on pay and incentives for executives of firms that offload their debts to the government are toothless. There is no cap on salaries or other basic forms of compensation, and nominal limits on severance packages for “some” executives of “some” of the companies can be easily circumvented.

The so-called “independent oversight” panel of the bailout program is a fraud. It consists of the treasury secretary himself, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the director of the Federal Home Finance Agency and the secretary of the Housing and Urban Development Department. All of these agencies are pliant tools of Wall Street and all have been instrumental in pushing the bailout plan.

The “Congressional Oversight Board” will consist of five “financial experts”—i.e., Wall Street bankers and big investors—chosen by the House and Senate majority and minority leadership. They are entrusted with overseeing the Wall Street firms that will be hired by the treasury secretary to manage the bailout program.

Much has been made by the Democrats of the fact that “only” the first $250 billion of Paulson’s $700 slush fund will be allocated with the passage of the bill. This is being presented as a major protection for taxpayers.

In fact, the next $100 billion will automatically be allocated once Bush requests it, and Congress’ ostensible power to withhold support for the final $350 billion is rendered meaningless, since it will be subject to presidential veto.

The text of the measure declares that Congress authorizes Paulson or his successor to spend the full $700 billion, and the figure of $700 billion is itself a fictional limit. A more realistic estimate of the sums to be handed over to Wall Street can be seen in the bill’s provision to increase the US public debt from $10 trillion to $11.3 trillion—a rise of $1.3 trillion.

The bill includes huge windfalls for the banks that are being concealed from the public. It authorizes the Securities and Exchange Commission to suspend accepted accounting standards in order to permit the banks to value their asset-backed securities at the price of purchase, rather than their actual market value.

And it includes tax breaks for companies that hold preferred stock in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giants that were taken over by the government earlier this month.

These two provisions alone will give the banks a freer hand to engage in accounting fraud and speculation and reward them with billions in windfall profits.

The corrupt character of the process by which this handout to Wall Street is being carried out was indicated in a report in Saturday’s New York Times. The article dealt with the lobbying campaign of the American Bankers Association, and noted: “As of Friday night, it appears the association got nearly everything it wanted.”

It gave a small glimpse of Wall Street’s bribery of congressmen, including those spearheading the bailout. “The association also hosts many fund-raising events,” it said, “like a $1,000-a-ticket fund-raising luncheon last March at Johnny’s Half Shell Blue Room on behalf of Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and a key player in the bailout package.”

What is taking place is a vastly undemocratic process. As even the US media has acknowledged, the bailout is opposed by the vast majority of the American people. They, however, have absolutely no say in the matter.

In secret discussions, behind the backs of the people and within a few weeks of a national election, an unprecedented bailout of the most powerful financial interests is being rammed through. Its content and far-reaching implications are being concealed by a barrage of banalities and lies.

This infusion of cash into the US banks will do little if anything to stave off an economic catastrophe that is enveloping the working people of the United States and the entire world. Tens of millions face the loss of their jobs, their pensions and their life savings. But their crisis is not addressed by the bailout program.

Moreover, the bailout has set into motion a further monopolization of financial resources in the hands of a few banks—JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup. What is being presented as a solution to the financial crisis is a reorganization of power within the ruling class that will lead to an even greater concentration of wealth and a further deterioration of the conditions of working people. More

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The Market Ticker
STOP THE BAILOUT! SAVE AMERICA!
CONGRESS: THINK BEFORE YOU ACT!
You are being asked to pass a $700 billion “bailout” or “rescue” package and are told by your leadership that it is “necessary” to prevent a catastrophe in the financial markets and, by extension, on Main Street.

Please think carefully about the following facts before you vote:

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Public opinion is running anywhere from 100:1 to 300:1 against passing this bill, according to sources on Capitol Hill. You must return home after you pass this package to ANGRY constituents with an election less than a month away. Given the massive size of this package, the fact that it rewards the guilty on Wall Street and does nothing to address the cause that anger is fully justified.

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Non-financial private debt is $32.4 trillion dollars1 as of 2Q 2008. Household debt is $14.0 trillion. Households lost 400 billion dollars last quarter. You wish to add $700 billion more in losses (via government obligations that taxpayers must cover) this quarter; this package is insignificant against the total bad credit outstanding. Federal capacity to “bail the system out” is insufficient.

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It will not and cannot work because the issue is trust, not money. There is lots of money (and credit) but it is being hoarded throughout the system. Consumer savings have gone from nothing to the highest rate ever in American history – in the space of a few months. Money is flying into Treasuries because of lack of trust, not lack of money. You must fix the cause of the problem, not apply band-aids.

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Commercial paper is being cited as the “lockup” that threatens an imminent financial train wreck. The truth is that commercial paper rates for “AA” rated non-financial firms is placing at a rate half that of a year ago as the Fed Funds target has been dropped from 5.25 to 2%2. With risk having increased the rate of return offered is lower? This is where the stress is coming from; at last summer’s rates this paper would roll. You are being gamed by Paulson and Bernanke; look at the table in the reference and you will see that even for “threatened sectors” rates are not materially higher than last year.

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If you pass this bill and the market implodes you will be held directly responsible. There are records of thousands of signatures across seven petitions faxed to you (at my expense) dating back to October of 2007 on this topic. Many experts, including Nouriel Roubini, “Mish” Shedlock, Dr. Faber, The Weiss Institute and over 160 economists have warned Congress that this proposed plan will not work. Are you prepared to face a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal and/or USA Today exposing these facts?

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There are alternatives that will work; they all involve restoring trust and using existing market mechanisms to resolve insolvent institutions.3 While I am not particularly partial to my view on how we resolve “failed” institutions, addressing the root of the problem – lack of trust – is paramount. Three elements are involved here, they are obvious, and they must be fixed or you will FAIL.

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We only get one more shot at this; we have spent over $1.6 trillion thus far (by some estimates; $500 billion by others) attempting the same thing over and over again and it has not worked. More

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Source: InfoWars
Rep. Michael Burgess (R-TX) reports from the floor of the House that the Republicans have been cut out of the process and called unpatriotic for not blindly supporting the fraudulent bailout. He says the only debate has been about what talking points to use on the American people. The most ominous revelation is when he claims the Speaker has declared martial law. “I have been thrown out of more meetings in this capital in the last 24 hours than I ever thought possible, as a duly elected representative of 825,000 citizens of north Texas.” Said Congressman Burgess.

Burgess asks the Speaker of the House to post the bailout bill on the internet for at least 24 hours instead of passing the largest piece of legislation in US financial history in the “dark of night.” The most frightening part of Rep. Burgess’ one-minute floor speech is when he says, “Mr. Speaker I understand we are under Martial Law as declared by the speaker last night.”

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Max Keiser on current (Laundering) $700 Bn Bailout
Max Keiser: “Remember, these congressmen all are huge stock owners in all these banks and corporations. American congress has been co-opted by the corpocracy in America; I don’t really believe that they are speaking absolutely in the best interest of the American people; they’re speaking in their own self interest. John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi, for example, have huge stock positions in the very companies that are suppose to be subjected to some kind of oversight….” Max says there will be NO election in November. See Video

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David Clerkin
thepost
A surge for demand in gold and silver has resulted in an unprecedented shortage of the metals for retail investors in recent days, according to Gold and Silver Investments, a Dublin-based firm that allows retail investors to speculate on movements in the value of precious metals. Gold and Silver Investments director Mark O’Byrne said the supply of gold and silver available for small retail investors suffered a dramatic deterioration within hours on Friday, as wholesalers reported that government mints and refiners, the primary suppliers of the metals, had stopped offering new supplies.

‘‘It’s absolutely unprecedented,” said O’Byrne, who said the shortages were likely to drive up the costs of gold and silver in the secondary market. ‘‘This did not happen even in the 1930s and the 1970s, and will result in markedly higher prices in the coming months.” According to O’Byrne, gold and silver were now only easily accessible in the primary market, which consisted of central banks and other major traders of the precious metals. However, he said that minimum transaction sizes in this market were out of reach for most retail investors - at approximately $350,000 for gold and $135,000 for silver.

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(MarketWatch) The draft legislation would authorize $250 billion immediately, with another $100 billion upon presidential certification of need and “subject to Congressional disapproval.” A further $350 billion would also be available but must be approved through the same process as the $100 billion tranche. The government would get a stake in companies receiving bailout funds so that taxpayer money could be recovered if those companies grow in the future, according to a summary of the bill. The proposed legislation also requires the president “to submit legislation that would cover any losses to taxpayers” by levying a fee on all financial institutions. More
Also See: No bailout! Fill Every Congressional Voice Mail Box In The Country

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Mish
Global Economic Analysis
We need to man the phones and start targeting EVERYONE in Congress. Phone every legislative representative in your state. If those fill up, pick another state, even a small one. Tell them it is still no deal, Leave a short message so others can leave one. Fill every in box in the country.

This is the correct message now.

“If you vote for this Bailout Bill I will vote against you. I will do more than that, I will work actively for your opponent, no matter who that person is, doing everything in my power to contribute to your defeat. I will contributing my time, energy and money to your opponent, whoever that may be. I will talk to my friends, my family and my co-workers and urge them to do the same. I have contacted my friends already and asked them to do the same.”

Do not use that exactly. Make your own variations but make it short. I want the most messages possible and I want every box in the country full. More

Click Here For Congressional Phone And Fax Numbers

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Citigroup and Wells Fargo were locked in a bidding war on Sunday over a possible emergency takeover of the Wachovia Corporation, people involved in the talks said. The intense negotiations come as concern grew about Wachovia’s stability on Friday, these people said, despite a breakthrough reached Sunday by congressional negotiators on a $700 billion bailout for the financial system. The government, led by the Federal Reserve and Treasury Department, has been involved in the talks as well, these people said. But so far, the government is resisting pressure to help bidders by guaranteeing a part of Wachovia’s assets the way it did for Bear Stearns when it was sold to JPMorgan Chase in March. The government has also opposed taking over Wachovia the way it did Washington Mutual earlier this week, these people said, unless its financial position deteriorates more rapidly. More

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The City was in shock last night after the apparent suicide of a millionaire financier haunted by the pressures of dealing with the credit crunch. Kirk Stephenson, who was married with an eight-year-old son, died in the path of a 100mph express train at Taplow railway station, Berkshire. Mr Stephenson is believed to have taken his own life after succumbing to mounting personal pressures as the world’s financial markets went into meltdown. The death of the respected 47-year-old City figure evokes memories of the 1929 Wall Street crash in America and comes as: More

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The International Forecaster
Let’s now take a look at the new financial landscape in the aftermath of the initial carnage of the derivative debacle and credit-crunch. We are left with the Fed as overseer of the Big Four. Who are The Big Four? First, there is JP Morgan Chase, which bagged and tagged Bear Stearns with help from the Fed and Treasury and which just rescued Washington Mutual, preventing the FDIC from being wiped out in by far the biggest bank failure in US history. Next is Bank of America, which went bonzai for toxic waste dumps Merrill Lynch and Countrywide in buyouts that are certain to come back to haunt them. Rounding out the pack are Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, who just became bank holding companies, abandoning their investment bank status for the stability of a commercial bank, but with far less leverage. You can rest assured that Goldie and Morgan will now dump their toxic waste on the Fed through the Term Securities Lending Facilities and will borrow from the Fed like fiends under the other plans of taxpayer largesse provided courtesy of the Fed. More

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