Nouriel Roubini Speaks

Interesting article about the (other) guy who predicted this entire melt down:

While the economic sun was shining, most other economists scoffed at Roubini and his predictions of imminent disaster. They dismissed his warnings that the sub-prime mortgage disaster would trigger a financial meltdown. They could not quite believe his view that the US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would collapse, and that the investment banks would be crushed as the world headed for a long recession.

Yet all these predictions and more came true. Few are laughing now.

...

What does his objectivity tell him now? No end is yet in sight to the crisis.

Read the article

Funny Quote from Chavez

Socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez mocked George W. Bush as a "comrade" on Wednesday, saying the U.S. president was a hard-line leftist for his government's intervention of major private banks in the U.S. financial crisis.

Chavez, who calls capitalism an evil and ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor, ridiculed Bush for his plan for the federal government to take equity in American banks despite the U.S. right-wing's criticism of Venezuelan nationalizations.

"Bush is to the left of me now," Chavez told an audience of international intellectuals debating the benefits of socialism. "Comrade Bush announced he will buy shares in private banks."

Bailout Knockout

Your company is bankrupt. Your stockholders are wiped out. You get to keep 480 million dollars. Is that fair?

"This is Our Katrina"

“It really is a financial tsunami, and it could go either way,” said the multimillionaire telecommunications mogul who ran for the U.S. Senate in 2006. “It took Japan 20 years to recover from their buying binge. How long does it take us to work through excessive leverage? That could take years not months. This is our Katrina.” - Ned Lamont

The self importance of these jerks is unbelievable. Financial Crisis != Katrina. Financial Crisis != Tsunami. Gamblers who lose != Victims. Entire Story.

Senate Passes the 700 Billion Dollar Bailout

After one spectacular failure, the $700 billion financial industry bailout found a second life Wednesday, winning lopsided passage in the Senate and gaining ground in the House, where Republicans opposition softened.

Senators loaded the economic rescue bill with tax breaks and other sweeteners before passing it by a wide margin, 74-25, a month before the presidential and congressional elections.

I should post the exchanges I've had with my representatives. Not only is the free market no longer free. Representatives no longer represent. Phones have been off the hook against this bailout.

And they continue to buy the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt that they are being fed by the same people that got us in to this mess.

Sad.