The bankers sure have killed a lot of people.

I still don’t understand why taxpayer are bailing them out. Let the bankers eat cake!

It’s such a strange feeling when what you knew was going to happen finally does, isn’t it? Actually I find it incredible that the system stayed “afloat” for as long as it has.

Dugg

I have wondered what would happen next, but its one way to get rid of the poor and disabled.

Damn right, fuck the bankers, they’re all just disease carrying parasites.

I was talking to my money guy this morning - he was asking me to dump an annuity, take the tax penalty on it, and reinvest what’s left - and said that yes, the market’s down 20 percent, but it can go a lot lower. That was several hours before I heard about IndyMac folding. (Although I can’t say I’m surprised about IndyMac, after their big layoff.)

IndyMac…f*cking whiners.

-G

The mismanagement of the American economy, American society, Americans’ expectations cannot be overexaggerated.

And, which “leader” is speaking honestly about the challenges we face and we must fight to surmount?

Hey there… Good to see you are still kickin!

Friday afternoon bank dump.

No, they’re in receivership. This isn’t really a bailout. This is the right thing to do, I suspect.

They will still be dealing with this when Obama takes power and it would be a great opportunity to greatly expand public housing at historically low prices, and thousands or properties will be in federal hands. If Obama is willing.

*crickets *

I thought that was Edwards.

Yes still here much to my own amazement

Well that’s a relief.

ian - besides attempting to have our own houses in order…. do you have any suggestions for how we can prepare for resisting / refusing a neoliberal “shock therapy” solution? especially if it is a president obama who tells us that is what is needed?

My cricket keeps chirping Kucinich.. the ornery little bastard.

Yeah, there’s an opportunity to do some stuff. I’m not a believer in home ownership as either innately good or bad, but what you could do is resell them at a cut (the government still makes a profit) after refitting them with, say, good insulation, passive and active solar and adding an energy covenant.

Think of all those gated communities on the block…! ;-)

Well that would be one of many good ideas, but in the short term there will be some real pressing problems with energy costs and prices the folks will have to deal with. And I do have a real worry, about whats to come.

Wish I did. People forget that in the 30s there was real fear of revolution. The right wingers hate Roosevelt, but so do the Communists, because they believe Roosevelt saved capitalism from itself and they’re probably right. I think it’s almost a sure thing we do half measures at best for the first couple years, after that, as people start to starve or congregate in Bush?obamavilles in numbers that can’t be ignored, we’ll see what happens. 2010 is going to be a much more interesting election year than 08.

Obama’s not a stupid man. But then Hoover was a genuine genius.

Completely OT, but the lack of care and support for our military and their families continues to blow my mind….(whats left of it anyway:))

Army Knew Alaska Base Family Housing Site was Toxic

July 7, 2008, Washington, DC - The U.S. Army knew that the site chosen to build a family housing complex at Fort Wainwright was a toxic dump but proceeded anyway, in violation of federal laws and service policies, according to an audit by the Army’s own Office of Staff Judge Advocate that was released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
http://www.veteransforcommonse.....leID/10603

yeah well the citizens of cleveland pay about a third less (than the surrounding areas) for their electricity. and they have that ornery little bastard to thank.

so realistically speaking, what are we supposed to do? Really.

Oh I meant the cricket is ornery. *g*

I consider DK a scrapper for the progressive side.

Carter’s not a stupid man either.

When the house of cards comes crashing down who do you think will get the blame?

Like I said, the ‘Greatest Generation’ (and, sorry, but screw Tom Brokaw) got to do their depression in their youth — my neo-con twin brother suggested that I write a cook book: Alpo for Seniors. Got recipes???

If Hoover was such a genius, why did things only get worse?

Hey Hi! hope you’re feeling good.

.
and Ian, stop making sense!

FDR said that there is no accident in politics.

Wealth is neither created or destroyed, merely transferred.

$Trillions are missing from our economy.

A conspiracy needs three ingredients for success: disciplined planning, constant lies, and a feeling of helplessness among the fleeced.

Welcome to the New World Order.

get your household in order. Get a garden. Make sure your neighbours love you. Diversify your money a bit (it won’t help much, but better than not doing it.) Work with your community to build up community networks. Get to know your local reps if you can, so that when push comes to shove you can show them the suffering they can help and so they trust you. Push behind real progressive candidates when you can, when you can’t, go for the person who seems to be genuinely compassionate — they’re the ones who will at least break and give relief.

It’s one of my good days thanks for asking.

Pool resources and start regional FDL communes?

We’ll see. That’s the next big fight - to make sure Republicans do. If it wasn’t for SCOTUS and Iran I might even want McCain in charge just for that reason.

Freddie Mac
Fanny May
Bear Sterns
Titanic ….. All built large in man’s imagination, none small enough to fail?
We’ll see now, won’t we ?

What’s the big deal? Can’t we just get China and Middle Eastern countries to give us more money to bailout all these companies? I don’t see what the problem is…(hiccup).

Well, we’ve talked about one in Provence, recently…! *g*

I have had a real hard time keeping any faith in the political system yetI would like to believe.

yet I not yeti altho I do wonder if a politician that keeps their word is any less a mythical beast.

Holy Cow, Ian. You said exactly what we need to do…are already striving to do, but, we gotta turn up the heat on everything.
I just copied and pasted that to send to all my friends and family.

I missed that thread! Sounds devine. I speak not a lick of French, though.

Unless there’s a Provence, HI of which you speak. *g*

I do too. I remember those Minnesota winters.

Similar Clime! ;-)

I shall return…!

Also, are we assuming that the term “obamavilles” will be in vogue in September 2010?

Sure, sure…get your own finances in order, but first don’t forget to help Hillary pay off her debt to Mark Penn, who incidently just hired Karen Hughes:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....12058.html

Yikes!!

To do what, please?

David Niewert upstairs…………

get your household in order.

Get a garden.—we co-habit it with the groundhog under the deck that we can’t get rid of.

Make sure your neighbours love you.

Flag waving rethugs.

Diversify your money a bit (it won’t help much, but better than not doing it.)

check—spouse calls me and the bloggers who write about this Cassandras (no offense to Cassie) and thinks we are overblowing it. I don’t.

Work with your community to build up community networks.

that’s my job.

Get to know your local reps if you can, so that when push comes to shove you can show them the suffering they can help and so they trust you.

Fortunately we have a good state sen. & rep. who do their best for those in need, really.

Push behind real progressive candidates when you can, when you can’t, go for the person who seems to be genuinely compassionate — they’re the ones who will at least break and give relief.

Spouse again tonight noticed that I didn’t send money to my Roth IRA yet this year. I told him it was intentional, I don’t want to send money that will be lost in the market. And he’s the person who just retired from a job running the pension and insurance plans for our denomination. You’d think he’d have a clue. The one thing he has done is diversify. Don’t know how much that will help in the long run.

%^&* damn greedy sobs that have run this economy into the toilet.

Well after living as one of the motorhomeless in Santa Barbara, for a few years after I was injured I do know that I would not wish that experence on anyone. But it seems like that’s whats in store for more people than I would like to contemplate.

Bipartisan profiteering was about as much as I could gleen. Now I must go hurl.

“Karen is one of the leading communications strategists working today,” Penn declared in the announcement. “She brings enormous strategic insights coupled with the ability to drive successful campaigns at the highest levels of the political, governmental and corporate arenas. I cannot think of anyone better suited to counsel our clients.“

In the world of corporate Washington, there is nothing strange about Hughes, a top strategist for the party of Wall Street, going to work for a key operative for the “party of working men and women“

Whew, Thank Gawd for ‘Serious People’ tending to our affairs…! 8-(

Well keep the faith all I must go, I have had my 20 minutes where I make some kind of sense. Love and Peace all.

What do you suppose happened to going back to Texas to spend more time with her family, I wonder?

Birds of a feather….. (yes, very trite, I know…..)

Try to stop in more often, ‘k?

[K]iss your spouse every morning and treat’em right because the bad times are only beginning.

This is excellent advice: divorce is a major cause of financial failure. Of course, financial failure frequently leads to divorce, too.

New post.

Ian, I so love your posts, but they scare the crap out of me. We’re in the process of buying a home. Is this a bad idea?

Glad to see you, argosfalcom. I enjoy reading the articles you post on facebook.

crap, i like this thread. i can’t keep up.

If the mantra ” to big to fail” is to be believed, then the only option would be to nationalize the banks. The question is not whether there would be a bail-out, but how hard the terms would be on creditors and shareholders. (Bear Stearns was not allowed to fail–but its shareholders were crucified.) With the failure of Indy, I found it amusing that come Monday ( according to CBS Marketwatch ) its new name will be Indy Federal Bank. Perhaps a small step in the right direction, but then again, I have always believed that the constitution had called for U.S. Treasury banks, not a private banking cartel called the Federal Reserve.
If we are to believe that all of the US gold holdings in Fort Knox are actually in those vaults ( a full audit not being performed since 1955 ) then one can only question why Congress which controls weights and measures states that our gold is only worth $42.50 an ounce when the rest of the world says its worth $950 an ounce. get off fiat and return to a sound money system as dictated by our founders. No matter how one may look at future developments, there is going to be a whole lot of pain before any light is seen at the end of this tunnel.

The best thing may be to let the whole sh*t pile fall now rather than undergo a death of a thousand cuts. We still have enough safety mechanisms is place to set a bottom line,

Then, we can begin to rebuild based on the fact that we the people count.

here’s a firedog link that helped me back up my own ass on my calls, follow the links at the end………..along with one from yesterday that you can look up yourself

http://firedoglake.com/2008/05.....s-baggage/

oops wrong thread

You know, I listened to two full stories on freddie and fannie which is really difficult for me to digest and didn’t hear a single word about IndyMac which may have been a little reason why people are jittery.

Ian

Do we get another Roosevelt to save capitalism? How will whoever it turns out to be manage it? The thing that gets me is the feeling government solves everything. Bad mortgages? The government buys them? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac down the tubes? The government to the rescue. The Fed discount window is open, but what can the Fed do other than print money and that’s got to be exceptionally painful somewhere down the line? Do we go through a period like Germany did in the twenties and thirties?

What do you see in your crystal ball?

Jim Cramer from CNBC has a plan. I’d like to know what you think about it:

If the Bush Administration had any sense, it would guarantee all of the debt of both mortgage houses and take 20% of the companies in warrants. If it took this step, mortgages would become the new treasurys and investors would scramble to buy mortgages and sell treasurys for a huge win that would stop the depreciation of housing prices cold.

If the Feds were to adopt this plan, Cramer thinks the mortgage market would immediately rally as some much-needed liquidity would flood the system. Banks would rally and all the credit default spreads would implode. The beauty of the plan is that the government doesn’t have to spend a penny to do it, but it would fix what should have been fixed last year – WITHOUT A BAILOUT.

Government would probably take a loss on that, needs to be more than 20%. Probably 40%. House price drops are not being driven by the mortgage market and I don’t think this plan would stop the decline in real estate prices.

In general Cramer hasn’t impressed me for years, I think he’s a great illustration of “genius is leverage and a rising market”.

Could be wrong, maybe I’m missing something obvious, but it looks to me like he is mistaking the financial problems as basic when the economic problems are. (ie. the financial problems are more caused by the housing bubble thanthe other way around.)

I don’t know. We’re still in early years. Probably this is our 29, if you use the 30s as a model. If you use the 70s, we’ve got less years of less pain, but still a ways to go.