Well, the House declined to push through that 'crap snadwich' of a bailot Monday and stocks plunged.

Tuesday they rebounded.

Wednesday stocks slipped a bit. Senate passed the bailout by attaching it to a spending bill they already had. (how they voted)

Today stocks fell. Again.

Isn't that what this stinkin' bill was supposed to prevent?


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Europe catches what's ailing U.S. financial sector

WASHINGTON: Barely a week after Europeans rebuffed American pleas to join in their bailout of the banking system, Europe now faces a financial crisis almost as grave as that in the United States — demonstrating how swiftly this contagion is spreading around the world.

In the last two days, governments from Dublin to Berlin have seized or bailed out five faltering banks. In Ireland, where rumors of panicked withdrawals from banks spooked the stock market, the government has offered a two-year blanket guarantee on all deposits and bank debt.

Asia has been less buffeted by the turmoil, though a brief run on a bank in Hong Kong last week brought back dark memories of June 1997, when speculation against the Thai currency sparked a financial crisis that fanned rapidly across Asia, and later to Brazil and Russia.

Economists see a parallel between these two crises a decade apart: once creditors panic and begin to pull out their holdings, the underlying health of banks — or entire countries — no longer matters a great deal. In a global financial system, national borders are porous.




America’s Nervous Breakdown
Should it continue, a world breakdown may follow.

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Even though the U.S. government rushed to restore trust, hundreds of billions of dollars in paper assets simply vanished. Friends and enemies abroad were unsure whether the irregular American heartbeat was a major coronary or a mere cardiac murmur. How strong — really — was the world’s greatest economy? Was this panic the tab for years of borrowing abroad for out-of-control consumer spending? Had America finally gone too far enriching dictators by buying energy that it either could not or would not produce itself? Had the chickens of lavishing rewards on Wall Street and Washington speculators rather than Main Street producers finally come home to roost?
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We’ve seen the connection between American economic crisis and world upheaval before. In the 1930s, the United States and its democratic allies — in the midst of financial collapse — disarmed and largely withdrew from foreign affairs. That isolation allowed totalitarian regimes in Germany, Italy, Japan, and Russia to swallow their smaller neighbors and replace the rule of law with that of the jungle. World War II followed.
...
Should that heart of American financial power in New York falter — or even appear to falter — then eventually the sinews of the American military will likewise slacken. And then things could get ugly — real fast.




European Central Bank hints at rate cut

FRANKFURT: Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, on Thursday said that the threat to inflation in the 15-nation euro zone was diminishing, as he struck a new, dark tone about the growth prospects for the region.

Trichet's comments, which came after the ECB left its benchmark interest rate on hold at 4.25 percent, suggested that the bank is likely to cut interest rates later this year, analysts said.
"With the weakening of demand, upside risks to price stability have diminished somewhat, but they have not disappeared," Trichet said.




Fed loans to banks, brokers, AIG totals $410 bln

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Commercial banks, investment banks and American International Group borrowed a record $410 billion from the Federal Reserve as of Wednesday, the Fed reported Thursday. AIG borrowed $61.2 billion, the investment banks and broker-dealers borrowed $146.6 billion, and commercial banks borrowed $49.5 billion, the Fed said. In addition, banks have tapped $152.1 billion to buy asset-backed commercial paper from money market mutual funds.




Inflation pressures recede but still threaten-IMF


WASHINGTON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Global inflationary pressures are diminishing, but still pose a danger, especially in emerging and developing economies, with commodity prices likely to remain high and volatile, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday.

In new research, the IMF noted commodity prices had declined from their peaks, but are set to remain high by historical standards due to supply constraints and low inventories.

'It is still too early to relax,' Charles Collyns, deputy director of the IMF's research department, told reporters in discussing the research contained in initial chapters of the IMF's World Economic Outlook.



Lloyds-HBOS deal in doubt

The pivotal deal brokered by the government for Lloyds TSB to rescue beleaguered mortgage bank HBOS is in jeopardy tonight after a plunge in the value of HBOS shares. City investors fear that Lloyds is paying too much for the Scottish-based bank because its shares have collapsed since the deal was announced two weeks ago.

Today HBOS, owner of the country's biggest mortgage lender Halifax, was again the biggest faller in the FTSE 100 of leading shares, dropping 13%. HBOS is now worth just £6.4bn but Lloyds TSB has agreed to pay £9.8bn.

The differential in the price has heightened fears that the deal may not go through on the original terms which were agreed after the prime minister intervened to ensure the takeover could proceed.



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Iraq to take control of Babil from US troops: officials

HILLA, Iraq (AFP) — Iraqi security forces will take control of the central Shiite province of Babil within a month, the provincial governor told AFP on Sunday, but warned that armed groups still roam the region.

Salem al-Saleh Meslmawe said security control of Babil, south of Baghdad, would be transferred from mid to late October, making it the 12th of Iraq's 18 provinces to be handed over by the US-led forces.

"We have discussed with the government and the coalition forces and there is an agreement to transfer security. This will be done within a month," Meslmawe said.

"Security (in Babil) is very good and Iraqi security forces can control it."

The US military had a sprawling base in the historic town of Babylon, just north of Hilla. According to UNESCO, archaeological treasures there suffered serious damage when US forces established the base in 2003.




The Hot Holiday Destination: Iraq?

The way Barack Obama talks of Iraq, you'd think the whole county is a sea of fire and blood, created by the United States. So he might be surprised to learn that tour operators in Europe and the Middle East are touting this "sea of fire and blood" as a new holiday destination.

One program just put on the market by Terre Entiere, a leading French tour operator, offers a "Christmas Pilgrimage" in December to Iraq's biblical sites, some of which date back more than 2,000 years.

Another program starts in January. Called "Forgotten History," it includes visits to some of the most ancient sites of human civilization in Iraq, the ancient Mesopotamia.

"Frankly, we were surprised by the positive echoes we had as soon as we launched our program," says Pierre Simon, a spokesman for the French company marketing the Iraqi holidays. "People from many European countries, not just France, are showing interest. They want to go and see for themselves."




IRAQ: Honeymoon in Baghdad?

Coming soon: a romantic island getaway in the heart of Baghdad! That's the hope, at least, of Iraq's Tourism Board, which held a news conference Sunday to announce an ambitious project to lure investors to build up the capital's Jazirat Al A'ras, a slab of land surrounded by water from the Tigris River.

Before a sometimes skeptical crowd of mainly Iraqi journalists, the head of the tourism board, Hamood Yakoubi, said the resort, whose name translates to Wedding Island, would be modeled on the "One Thousand and One Nights" tales. Not that King Shahryar, Scheherezade, Sinbad or Alladin had Ferris wheels, fast-food restaurants or a water park to entertain them. But Yakoubi and Ahmed Ridha, the chairman of the government's National Investment Commission, said the point was to give visitors a feel for ancient Baghdad while providing five-star service and amenities.

Those amenities would include some things not currently seen in Baghdad, such as special villas for handicapped visitors, an 18-hole golf course and a multi-level shopping mall.




*****


Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis

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In an earlier post, I noted the liberal record of unmitigated legislative disasters, the latest of which is now being played out in the financial markets before our eyes. Before the 1994 Republican takeover, Democrats had sixty years of virtually unbroken power in Congress - with substantial majorities most of the time. Can a group of smart people, studying issue after issue for years on end, with virtually unlimited resources at their command, not come up with a single policy that works? Why are they chronically incapable?

Why?

One of two things must be true. Either the Democrats are unfathomable idiots, who ignorantly pursue ever more destructive policies despite decades of contrary evidence, or they understand the consequences of their actions and relentlessly carry on anyway because they somehow benefit.

I submit to you they understand the consequences. For many it is simply a practical matter of eliciting votes from a targeted constituency at taxpayer expense; we lose a little, they gain a lot, and the politician keeps his job. But for others, the goal is more malevolent - the failure is deliberate. Don't laugh. This method not only has its proponents, it has a name: the Cloward-Piven Strategy. It describes their agenda, tactics, and long-term strategy.
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Secret, Foreign Money Floods Into Obama Campaign

Unlike the McCain campaign, which has made its complete donor database available online, the Obama campaign has not identified donors for nearly half the amount he has raised, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP).

Federal law does not require the campaigns to identify donors who give less than $200 during the election cycle. However, it does require that campaigns calculate running totals for each donor and report them once they go beyond the $200 mark.

Surprisingly, the great majority of Obama donors never break the $200 threshold.
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In a letter dated June 25, 2008, the FEC asked the Obama campaign to verify a series of $25 donations from a contributor identified as “Will, Good” from Austin, Texas.

Mr. Good Will listed his employer as “Loving” and his profession as “You.”

A Newsmax analysis of the 1.4 million individual contributions in the latest master file for the Obama campaign discovered 1,000 separate entries for Mr. Good Will, most of them for $25.
In total, Mr. Good Will gave $17,375.

Following this and subsequent FEC requests, campaign records show that 330 contributions from Mr. Good Will were credited back to a credit card. But the most recent report, filed on Sept. 20, showed a net cumulative balance of $8,950 — still well over the $4,600 limit.
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