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Congressional approval of the $700 billion bailout last week marks the beginning of a new debate over how to prevent a similar financial crisis from happening again. “The $700 billion rescue plan is a life-support measure. It may keep our economy from collapsing, but it won’t make it healthy again,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), after he brought to order the first of five hearings his committee will hold in the coming weeks concerning the financial crisis. “To restore our economy to health, two steps are necessary. First, we must identify what went wrong. Then we must enact real reform...

Collapsing confidence and buckling financial markets sparked talk Monday that Congress may need to resume work soon on emergency measures to shore up the economy. On the first weekday of recess, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunging more than 700 points in intra-day trading, economists and market experts questioned the benefit of the $700 billion rescue package enacted just last Friday. Some economic experts read the House’s failure to pass the bill on its first attempt as evidence that Washington lacked the leadership to restore confidence. Congress is due to return for a brief lame-duck session on Nov. 17,...

Wall Street posted a dramatic comeback Monday afternoon to avoid record losses but global credit fears still pushed the Dow below the pivotal 10,000 level for the first time since October 2004. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 328.30 points, or 3.18%, to 9990.47. The broader S&P 500 Index lost 38.24 points, or 3.50%, to 1060.76 while the Nasdaq Composite fell 84.43 points, or 4.34%. to 1862.96. The consumer-friendly FOX 50 dropped 25.65 points, or 3.12%, to 797.02. “There was a palpable sense of fear about how bad things could get,” said Michael James, senior equity trader at Wedbush Morgan...

We are being told loudly and repeatedly that the gargantuan mortgage bail-out package is necessary because illiquid mortgage-backed securities are clogging our financial arteries, threatening the economic equivalent of cardiac arrest. The idea of the plan is to transfer these supposedly valuable, but currently unmarketable, assets to the government so that private institutions can freely lend once more. The monumental flaw in this argument is that the mortgage backed securities are in fact highly liquid, just not at the prices the owners would like to receive. Mortgage bonds are just like houses. They won’t sell if the owners stubbornly refuse...

Proponents of the massive financial rescue plan are expressing optimism that the House will pass it on Friday. At least 14 members who voted no on Monday have indicated that they will approve of the package that will be voted on on the House floor early Friday afternoon, according to interviews and a review of media reports. Members who have publicly suggested that they will approve of the new compromise include Democratic Reps. Shelley Berkley (Nev.), Emanuel Cleaver (Mo.), John Lewis (Ga.) and Hilda Solis (Calif.) and Republican Reps. Gresham Barrett (S.C.), Howard Coble (N.C.), Jim Gerlach (Pa.), Tim Murphy...

Maine voters in November will consider a ballot question seeking to overturn a newly-minted state law that changes the funding method for the Dirigo Health Program.

Economy Cuts Face Lifts, Other Procedures...The economy isn't the only thing that's sagging...

President George W. Bush will meet with business owners later this morning to highlight the need for his big financial rescue plan. Attendees will include executives from medium-sized manufacturing companies that are being hit by the credit squeeze resulting from the mortgage-market meltdown. It’s the latest in the president’s almost-daily advocacy for his plan, which won approval from the Senate Wednesday night but still faces an uncertain fate in the House, where a vote is expected Friday. It’s the first event Bush has done with rank-and-file businesspeople, however. The White House is hoping to use today’s event to underscore that...

As Congress works on one of the most important pieces of economic legislation in a generation, a Washington research group has pointed out that more than 8 in 10 members of Congress don’t have a formal educational background in the business, economics, or finance fields.The research by the Center for Economic and Entrepreneurial Literacy, which aims to educate the general public about finance issues, showed that about 14% have degrees in economics-related fields and just 6.7% specifically have an economics degree. More than 30% of members have degrees in politics and government, while 18% majored in humanities. [snip]

Plus, Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) will be on at about 8:35 p.m. ET Austin Hill hosts "The Evening Show" on 630 WMAL, Washington, DC Mondays through Fridays from 8 - 10 p.m. ET. LISTEN LIVE: http://www.630wmal.com/Article.asp?id=453473 http://radiotime.com/program/p_57658/The_Evening_Show.aspx CALL AUSTIN AT 888 630 9625

America is in decline. Our standard of living is descending to reconnect with our means and more resemble Western Europe’s. We’ve been living on a borrowed standard of living ever since we started replacing organic growth with financial engineering, some 40 years ago. Although they’re becoming ubiquitous, step back and notice the warning signs of a nation losing its way; 1. unchecked illegal immigration; 2. fiat sponsored growth, 3. an impossibly unfunded social net driven mostly by a failed health care system, and 4. a financial market being reduced to little more than a battleground for hedge fund titans. 1....

Many observers blame the current financial crisis on a breakdown of private markets. A more careful look shows that government policy, step by step, led to the current crisis. First, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created to help provide mortgages for people who didn’t qualify for conventional mortgages. As government-sponsored enterprises (GSE), they rapidly grew to where their debt was nearly half the size of the federal government’s debt.

As of this writing, it is unclear what shape the credit bailout bill will take, or even if there will be a bill at all. But as this vital debate takes place, here are some principles that I feel must be hewed to in crafting a solution. And if they are not, then it would be better to pass nothing at all. If we are to fork over some $700 billion, this situation cannot repeat itself. It's bad enough to be made to pay for other people's irresponsible excesses. Causing them to not learn their lesson by papering over the...

Lawmakers finished writing the bill late Sunday, after which Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declared it "frozen," meaning no changes would be made. The bill leaves many mechanics of the operation up to the Treasury. Among these are the crucial issues of how the U.S. government would decide which assets it will buy and how it would decide what to pay for them. The legislation leaves the Treasury 45 days to issue guidelines on those procedures. The bill awaits votes in Congress starting on Monday. From big Wall Street houses to small community banks, executives have expressed an interest...

OK folks, the first curtain goes up globally.9:00 a.m. local here Monday. 8:00 p.m. Sunday Eastern.Your mileage may vary.

With a deal struck on how to address the financial crisis, Democratic and GOP leaders face a two-tiered challenge: selling the compromise to rank-and-file members and, more importantly, a skeptical public. For most of the past week, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s plan to fix the nation’s financial crisis had been referred to as a “bailout” for Wall Street. That label was a major reason why constituents flooded Capitol Hill offices with phone calls and e-mails, overwhelmingly urging lawmakers to reject it. Facets of the Paulson proposal are still intact, evidenced by his endorsement of the revised plan. Now, members have...

..... It is a disgrace that no professional economist was consulted by Congress or invited to present his/her views at the Congressional hearings on the Treasury rescue plan. Specifically, the Treasury plan does not formally provide senior preferred shares for the government in exchange for the government purchase of the toxic/illiquid assets of the financial institutions; so this rescue plan is a huge and massive bailout of the shareholders and the unsecured creditors of the firms; with $700 billion of taxpayer money the pockets of reckless bankers and investors have been made fatter under the fake argument that bailing out...

Swedish clothing retailer Hennes & Mauritz has been given the all clear to open an outlet on the swish shopping street Champs-Élysées. H & M beat off the vociferous objections of Paris city council. France's top administrative court, the State Council, rejected an appeal by Paris city council which moved in January to block a store licence granted to the retailer, according to deputy Paris mayor Lyne Cohen-Solal. "We are completely powerless" to stop the spread of big chain stores on what is touted as the most beautiful avenue in the world, she said. The city has now exhausted all...

Arun Gupta was enraged as he learned the details of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan to fix the U.S. banking system with $700 billion in taxpayer funds. The 43-year-old copy editor and freelance journalist, who publishes his own alternative newspaper, The Indypendent, needed to channel his angst but couldn't find a live protest to attend. So on Sept. 22, he sent an e-mail to some politically active friends in New York. Within days, they'd planned a protest against the bailout in New York and at 80 other locations in the U.S. on Sept. 25.   "I couldn't sit back while...

Blame the economy, and some proposed regs that would limit hikes going forward When John Dykstra got his September credit card bill from Advanta, a small-business card issuer, he was shocked: Dykstra says he has a good credit score and has never missed a payment, but his interest rate had jumped from 7.99% to 26%. He was even more shocked by the explanation: A brochure in the mail told him he needed to be aware of the "continually changing business environment." He's not alone. Card issuers from Bank of America to Capital One are using the economic crisis as a...

Although Wachovia Corp. has been mentioned as one of the more troubled big U.S. banks, at least some analysts believe it is not at risk and is unlikely to suffer the same fate of Washington Mutual Inc. They also believe that Wachovia will be able to survive on its own, without merging with another big financial institution. Still, shares of the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank plunged Friday as investors, the day after WaMu's failure, shifted their focus to other financial institutions that also suffer under the weight of mounting losses tied to toxic assets. Shares plummeted $4.90, or 35.8 percent, to...

Senate Democratic leaders unveiled their $56 billion economic stimulus package on Thursday, less than an hour before leaving to meet President Bush at the White House to continue the fragile negotiations on the financial rescue bill. Calling it “an economic recovery package that will help middle-class families struggling in the weakening Bush-McCain economy,” Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) pitched the plan with the familiar mantra of “not forgetting Main Street.” The plan includes a $7.5 billion down payment on $25 billion in loans for the struggling auto industry. “Democrats believe that we must...

Local and national business groups are funding a media campaign launched Wednesday in Arizona to convince voters the United States has done enough to secure the border and now needs to legalize the 12 million or more undocumented immigrants and consider allowing more foreigners into this country. The group, Mexicans and Americans Thinking Together, is going to spend “several hundred thousand dollars” on TV advertising in four states. Jim Pignatelli, president and chief executive officer of UniSource Energy Corp., the parent of Tucson Electric Power, said the time has come to move the debate along and find ways to help...

Zippers are everywhere this fall – from brooches, gloves, and bangles to clutches, booties, and sexy heels Leather heel, Manolo Blahnik for Thakoon...Chinese Laundry Women’s Betsey Zipper Platform ($89.95)

A Mango shop in KuwaitSpanish high street brand Mango announced that it will open a store in war-torn Iraq. According to WWD, the company asked Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad to create a special collection that respects the region’s covered-up style, which may include head scarves and veils.

Deployment to the battlefield is the gravest and most important form of national service. But as the country learned during Vietnam, the most important battles are often fought on the home front. Troops who are preoccupied with whether the grass is getting cut or if the bills are being paid can’t give their focus to the task at hand. This puts their entire unit at risk and lives at stake. That doesn’t make it any less understandable. Deployed for up to 18 months at a time in strange, hostile lands, it is natural for a soldier’s thoughts to revert to...

One of the world's leading economists predicted that Washington's proposed $700 billion bailout of the banks would "open a can of worms" One of the world's leading economists predicted yesterday that Washington's proposed $700 billion (£382 billion) bailout of the banks would “open a can of worms” as other distressed American industries sought a similar rescue deal. Speaking to The Times, Kenneth Rogoff, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund and now Professor of Economics at Harvard University, also said that the United States was “certainly looking at a deeper recession than we were three months ago because the...

Why should American taxpayers give US Treasury Secretary "Hank" Paulson a blank check to bail out the shareholders of busted banks?Why should the Treasury turn itself into a toxic waste dump for their bad loans? Why not let other banks join the unlamented Brothers Lehman in bankruptcy court, and start a new bank with taxpayers' money? Or have the Treasury pay interest on delinquent mortgages, and make them whole?Even better, why not let the Chinese, or the Saudis or other foreign investors take control of failed American banks? They've got the money,and they gladly would pay a premium for an...

STAFF at Lehman’s New York office who helped to cause the world’s biggest corporate bankruptcy are to share in a $2.5 billion bonanza. The bonus, which has been described by London staff as a “scandal” has been pledged by Barclays Capital, the British-based bank that last week acquired Lehman’s American operation and took on 10,000 staff. The $2.5 billion (£1.4 billion) pot, which has been ring-fenced as part of the acquisition, has caused huge resentment among the 5,000 staff in the firm’s European and Middle Eastern operations who are not guaranteed to be paid after this month. There are, however,...

The recent economic downturn could push the European Union to adopt more modest ambitions in its fight against climate change. Although the European Commission has said it wants to cut greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020, business leaders oppose the use of fines to oblige industry to reduce its emissions -- especially in the current economic crisis. The cost to industry is estimated at some 44 billion euros per year between 2013 and 2020, with a tonne (1.1 US tons) of C02 costing 30 euros. Business leaders have denounced the policy as a "tax", threatening to take their investments...

Just when you thought that legislative, judicial, law-enforcement, media, and reproductive biases in favor of women were the epitome of double standards, there is new evidence that “life control” is increasingly shifting to the female domain: in four years, women also will rule men financially. Remember this the next time the waiter brings the check to your table, and your woman insists that YOU pay it — or worse, you acquiesce. By 2010, women will own all the power points of society. According to a new study by Allianz, a mammoth-sized financial-services firm, women in that year will control 60%...

President Bush defended the $700 billion cost of his financial bailout proposal, saying Saturday it needed to be massive so that turmoil on Wall Street did not spread to Main Street. Bush pledged to work with Congress to quickly pass legislation as part of the largest financial bailout since the Great Depression. "You get it's big because it needed to be big," Bush said, acknowledging that hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money is being put at risk. "I believe when it's all said and done, however, that the taxpayer is going to get a lot of that money...

The last thing government officials should do is try to bail us out of the economic crisis they are responsible for creating in the first place. The lack of oversight provided by Chris Dodd and Barney Frank of the Banking and Financial Services subcommittee is unprecedented and should require the immediate dismissal of both men. Their decisions, which have in large part brought about the current market crisis, make the decisions made during Hurricane Katrina look like sheer genius. Campaign contributions have a miraculous way of clouding any career politician's ability to make intelligent choices that would directly benefit the...

A year into the global financial crisis, several key central banks remain extraordinarily exposed to their countries' shaky private financial sectors. So far, the strategy of maintaining banking systems on feeding tubes of taxpayer-guaranteed short-term credit has made sense. But eventually central banks must pull the plug. Otherwise they will end up in intensive care themselves as credit losses overwhelm their balance sheets. The idea that the world's largest economies are merely facing a short-term panic looks increasingly strained. Instead, it is becoming apparent that, after a period of epic profits and growth, the financial industry now needs to undergo...

President Bush, in a Rose Garden address, presented a dire portrait of the struggling economy as the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department announced "unprecedented" actions to try and stop a crisis on Wall Street that has in recent days seen historical financial giants crumble. After a late-night meeting with members of Congress, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke joined Bush and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Chris Cox in an effort to reassure Americans about the strength of the U.S. economy in “the long run.” However, Bush also pointed to risks associated with the...

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that “Americans’ personal savings are threatened” by the financial crisis and that bold steps are needed to fix the situation. Paulson, in his Friday morning statement at the Treasury Department, assured the country that the nation will make it through the current situation but said it would take “hundreds of billions” to fix the crisis. “I am convinced that this bold approach will cost the American people far less than the alternative,” Paulson said of the solution that the Bush administration and Congress have worked on. Paulson met with Congressional leaders late Thursday night on...

Putnam money-market fund suddenly closes after institutional investors pull cash Putnam Investments on Thursday suddenly closed a $12 billion money-market fund and announced plans to return investors' money after institutional clients pulled out cash despite the fund's lack of exposure to troubled financial firms such as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The move, believed to be unprecedented in the nearly $3.4 trillion money-market fund industry, came a day after asset managers sought to reassure investors in the wake of a massive pullout from large retail fund Reserve Primary Fund. The run on that fund caused its assets to plunge in value...

If the Dhims do decide to adjourn without any legislation, will it not be a sign of complete capitulation on energy? Moreover, why are the dims so desperate to get out of town? Can it be a sign that they must return home to campaign? I ask you to do a bit of anecdotal research on your local congressional/senatorial races and be observant of which congress critters actually utilize their respective party's presidential ticket as an element of their campaign. I think the findings maybe illuminating, especially in so-called blue states where BhusseinO has such supposed insurmountable odds. Pardon my...

By nationalizing nearly 80% of AIG for $85 billion, the Fed is doing a lot more than simply flushing taxpayer money down the toilet. The greater wrong is allowing the agency that has the power to print money to take control of a private enterprise, especially without the approval of the company’s shareholders. The move represents the largest lurch toward socialism that this country has ever seen, and signals the end of the vibrancy of America’s once vaunted free market economy. Since there is no limit to the amount of money the Fed can create, there is no limit to...

Threatened by a "financial tsunami," the world must consider building a financial order no longer dependent on the United States, a leading Chinese state newspaper said on Wednesday. The commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily said the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc (LEH.P:)"may augur an even larger impending global 'financial tsunami'." The People's Daily is the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, and the overseas edition is a smaller circulation offshoot of the main paper. Its pronouncements do not necessarily directly reflect leadership views, but this commentary by a professor at Shanghai's Tongji University suggested...

"Two years ago, I warned that the oversight of Fannie and Freddie was terrible, that we were facing a crisis because of it, or certainly serious problems," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told CBS this morning. "The influence that Fannie and Freddie had in the inside the Beltway, old boy network, which led to this kind of corruption is unacceptable and I warned about it a couple of years ago.” How does this claim of foresight square with this interview that McCain gave to the Keene (NH) Sentinel, discussing the subprime mortgage crisis, in December 2007? Q: “Well the dimension of...

Here are ten things that this financial panic means for you. 1. Check that your bank accounts are federally insured. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) guarantees deposits up to $100,000 per person. If you have to hold more than that, spread it across multiple banks. As a taxpayer you are paying for this insurance. Use it. 2. Make sure your brokerage accounts are federally insured, too. The Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC) guarantees you at places like Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, E-Trade and the like up to $500,000, including $100,000 worth of cash. The same rules apply: If you...

Do you think the recent stock market collapse or troubles in the banking system are good news? Well, according to CNN's Candy Crowley, the Obama campaign does. On Monday's "Anderson Cooper 360," after CNN senior political analyst David Gergen said "what happened over the weekend with the economy and the bottom falling out of the financial markets...is the opportunity for Obama to seize the momentum back on his side," Crowley actually said, "[J]ust as foreclosures were showing up on B-17, or in the real estate section, along comes this horrific headline out of Wall Street...I mean, this is what they...

The meltdown of Fannie and Freddie should be a transformative moment in American politics. It should discredit the whole Democratic economic agenda. It is too bad that it happened in the middle of the most interesting Presidential election in a generation because there are lessons to learn from it. Several points. Let's start with some numbers. Contributions since 1989(!) to ALL members of Congress. Note that this is an aggregate over time. Note how a guy who has been in Congress for 3 years manages to come in 3rd on the list.

CML Studios Carlos Leon, 25 www.cmlstudios.net North Hollywood, Calif. Carlos Leon is a media mogul in the making. With $25,000 in savings, and no outside financing, he managed to expand the multimedia business he started in a room in his parent's mobile home into a full-service production company with such clients as Warner Bros., VH1, Sirius, and MTV3. Leon, who earned a bachelor's degree in film from Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla., says the business—which includes a 1,500 square-foot production studio that he built from scratch with help from friends. Up next: Leon is starting an online TV...

On Monday, shares of United Airlines lost more than 75 per cent of their value -- erasing about $1.2-billion from the company's market capitalization -- after a story about the airline's bankruptcy in 2002 somehow got pushed onto the website of a Florida newspaper, was picked up by Google's news-aggregation service, then made its way onto the Bloomberg news wire and out to hundreds of thousands of stockbrokers and traders. But whose fault was it? By Tuesday morning, fingers were being pointed in multiple directions.

  Has America created its own variety of communism with the U.S. Treasury Department’s bailout of two beleaguered government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae (NYSE:FNM) and Freddie Mac (NYSE:FRE)? According to Rogers Holding CEO Jim Rogers, the answer is yes.       “America is more communist than China is right now,” Rogers told CNBC Europe’s “Squawk Box Europe” September 8. “You can at least have a free market in housing and a lot of other things in China. And you can see that this is welfare for the rich. This is socialism for the rich. It’s bailing out the financiers, the banks,...

Cannot post. here is the link:http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20080827&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=808270366&Ref=AR

WOW!!! Sarah Palin's pick to be McCain's VP has given me an overwhelming feeling of hope for the USA. I never thought a single person could make this much difference. The typical considerations (in the media) of Romney/Lieberman/etc, made me think of more of the same. I've voted in every election since I've been 18 and certainly remember how "bad" it was during the Carter reign with 21% interest at the banks. So looking at the democrats and expecting a throw back to the Carter demolition of the US was very depressing, and what was going to make a difference...

When William Bolthouse, a California philanthropist, donated $100,000 in March to support a proposition to ban gay marriage in California, calls and emails poured in -- not to Mr. Bolthouse, but to the corporate offices of a company that bears his name -- even though he sold it three years earlier. "It wasn't us, it's not our fault," says Jeffrey Dunn, now the chief executive of Bolthouse Farms, whose juice bottles are sold at upscale markets such as Whole Foods. Bolthouse Farms is the latest target in what has become an increasingly bitter political fight in California. As gay-rights activists...