I find the 'bail-out' more than skeptical. There has been a lot of unnatural 'waves' of the market under Bush.

Henry Paulson came into a more than lacklust administration on July 3, 2006 and all of a sudden everything turns around UNTIL January 2008.


You can say what you want, but, there is something more than strange about this market.




Stock indices regardless of the 'times' usually follow reasonably predictable growth.



Sure there are the ups and downs, and its the ups everyone wants to catch and ride the wave, like the "Dot.com Bubble," but, for the most part there is a predictable 'trend' line that dominates most stock market growth.

I believe there needs to be a more in-depth reveiw of the global markets before any bail out is issued. There is something a little 'too fishy' about all this and it all points toward Paulson. Are we dealing with an grossly artifically inflated market, of which needs a major adjustment? Is there something 'W'rong about a global construction slow down? I believe the 'frenzy' that Paulson is 'salesman' to is more his concern for the wealthy and not the people that 'shore-up' any economy, labor.

For the USA to be placed in a position of carrying 'global debt,' what does that do in the long run to 'entitlements' and the prospects of 'retooling' the USA infrastructure into an 'Clean Energy' economy?

I don't like it. I don't like any of it. It's all too manipulated and Paulson's priorities are hidden among the frenzy.

It would be better if 'Cooler Heads' took over and it was NOT the USA Treasury that was administering any debt, but, an autonomous legislative bureau that answered directly to Congressional Oversight Committee.

Paulson is the wrong person to trust, he is the wrong way to go. Hank is a little too worried about watching his '14,000 DOW Baby' crash. There is something very wrong here and it hasn't got to do with anything except gross market manipulations that were engineered by a man determined to undermine everything he deemed undesireable about global finance. This is a 'prelude' to 'The Fiscal World According to Henry.'

The powers Paulson seeks are wrong to give to him, they need to be directed into an autonomous bureaucracy (hate the word of course, but, hey like Henry says, it better than the alternative). What you say we set up another office and ask Greenspan to head the entire recovery? I think that would be far safer than this mess, and Greenspan could answer to Congress rather than be dictated to by the Executive Branch, the very people that 'caused' this mess. Ask Alan who he wants at his side, bar none, including Europe, Australia, China, Brazil, Russia, etc. Let Greenspan have some real clout and get to the bottom of this disaster !

That sounds more reasonable with a far greater element of safety than to trust Bush and Paulson with a trillion $US. If Paulson and Bush didn't have the expertise to head this off BEFORE it was an emergency than they don't have it now. The global markets will keep faith IF the USA is acting prudently. Prudent steps will continue investor confidence and if anyone can make 'the right decisions' Alan can. There is still some room to play. We have seen drops of 500 and with a DOW over 10,000 that isn't nearly the crisis Paulson wants us to believe it is.

4 Days and Counting...

First US greenhouse gas auction set for Sept. 25 (click here)
By Mary Esch
September 21, 2008
ALBANY, N.Y.—A coalition of 10 northeastern states this week will take steps to check global warming when it conducts the nation's first carbon auction, taking the same approach that curbed lake-killing acid rain.
Environmental groups, energy producers, and government leaders will be watching closely as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative sells carbon credits Sept. 25 in the first of a series of quarterly online auctions. The cap-and-trade greenhouse gas reduction program, which aims to hold carbon dioxide emissions steady through 2014 and then gradually reduce them, is widely viewed as a model for future programs around the globe.
"With the leadership vacuum in Washington, it has fallen to the states to take the lead on combating climate change," said Richard Revesz, dean of the New York University School of Law and an expert on environmental law.
In July 2003, then-New York Gov. George Pataki brought together nine other governors to develop a regional strategy to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. The bipartisan action followed President Bush's rejection of greenhouse gas reduction goals set under a 1997 United Nations protocol reached in Kyoto, Japan.
Governors in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont joined Pataki in the coalition known as RGGI, or "Reggie." Other regional greenhouse gas coalitions, such as the Western Climate Initiative and the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Accord, are in earlier stages of development....

PM Announces Government of Canada Will Extend Jurisdiction over Arctic Waters

Canadian Environment and Shipping Jurisdiction to be Enforced an Additional 100 Nautical

Miles Offshore
27 August 2008
Tuktoyaktuk, NT

The Government of Canada will extend its jurisdiction in the Arctic by doubling the range at which Canadian environmental laws and shipping regulations will be enforced, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced today.“Whether it is the thawing of the Northwest Passage or the suspected resource riches under the Arctic seabed, more and more countries are taking an interest in the waterways of the Canadian Arctic,” said the Prime Minister. “We will be sending a clear message to the world that our environmental standards and sovereignty are not up for debate -- if you are in Canada’s Arctic you will be playing by Canada’s rules.”...

The Weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is melting. Is there anything left to melt? Why do I get the feeling that Canada, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq don't need the 'bailout bucks?' Why is that?

Elevation :: 33 ft / 10 m

Local Time :: 2:58 PM AKDT

Lat/Lon :: 58.8° N 137.0° W

Temperature :: 52 °F / 11 °C

Conditions :: Mostly Cloudy

Humidity :: 76%

Dew Point :: 45 °F / 7 °C

Wind :: 4 mph / 6 km/h / 1.5 m/s from the East

Pressure :: 30.02 in / 1016 hPa (Falling)

Visibility :: 10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers

UV :: 1 out of 16

Clouds:
Mostly Cloudy 2400 ft / 731 m
Mostly Cloudy 3000 ft / 914 m
Mostly Cloudy 6000 ft / 1828 m
(Above Ground Level)

"Oppose the Treasury's Bailout Plan" - It ain't just me.

September 20, 2008, 4:46 pm
No deal (click here)
I hate to say this, but looking at the plan as leaked, I have to say no deal. Not unless Treasury explains, very clearly, why this is supposed to work, other than through having taxpayers pay premium prices for lousy assets.
As I posted earlier today, it seems all too likely that a “fair price” for mortgage-related assets will still leave much of the financial sector in trouble. And there’s nothing at all in the draft that says what happens next; although I do notice that there’s nothing in the plan requiring Treasury to pay a fair market price. So is the plan to pay premium prices to the most troubled institutions? Or is the hope that restoring liquidity will magically make the problem go away?...

Mine is not a political blog. I have political views, but I try to keep them out of my writing here, because they aren’t relevant to my readers. This is a rare point where the two worlds collide, and I have to take a political stand.
Let me state this plainly at the beginning of my piece, so that you know where I am going: I am asking all of my readers, and all of the financial bloggers that read me to call their Congressmen, and ask them to oppose the Bailout Plan as currently structured. I am also asking the financial bloggers to ask their readers to do the same thing.
I don’t do things like this often, so understand that I think that this bailout plan is very ill-conceived. I also think that opposing the bailout should appeal to all, regardless of party affiliation....




September 21, 2008
...Bring back the Resolution Trust Corporation, for real. Don’t do deals with solvent institutions. Let them figure out how to best maximize their financial positions on their own; after all, it was their great decisionmaking skills that got them into this.
But do do deals with insolvent companies. Take in their illiquid assets, reposition them, and auction them off once they are more saleable. To the extent that we bail out whole firms, make it so costly to the firms that it is clearly a last resort, as with Fannie, Freddie, and AIG.
I am willing to testify before Congress on this issue, not that I think that will happen. If anyone from Congress happens to read this and wants me to testify, please contact me here.
Finally, to any readers or financial bloggers that take me up on my request, I offer you a hearty thanks.

This is a 'Dumping Syndrome' Bill. Every 'bad debt' from the past will end up as the USA Taxpayers' Nightmare, whether it was generated by Subprime Lending or Not. The whole lot of them belong in prison. The Republican majority Congress of 2000 to 2006 raised the national debt limit every year after 9/11. The Democrats haven't done any of that up to now. I guess Bush's administration had to 'get their way' somehow !


FACTBOX: Key facts on U.S. Treasury's proposed mortgage fund (click here)
Buy any mortgage-related assets, both residential and commercial, for a two-year period. The types of mortgage assets this could cover and how long the government could hold them is left wide open, as is how they would be valued.
* Up to $700 billion in mortgage assets could be bought at any one time
* Broad authority granted to decide how to purchase, manage and dispose of the assets, including setting up a special fund and naming financial institutions to work for the Treasury Department.
* Assets must have been originated or issued before September 17, 2008, by a bank or financial institution with U.S. headquarters
* The Treasury Secretary would be given these powers to ensure stability or prevent disruption of financial markets and to protect the taxpayer
* No court or government agency could review the secretary's decisions. The secretary would report to Congress within the first three months and then twice yearly
* The U.S. debt limit would be increased by $700 billion to fund the plan, to $11.315 trillion from $10.615 trillion.

That vortex on the 14th finally started to become a tropical storm. It takes awhile to work up enough water vapor these days.

Rainfall rarity: Precipitation totals seen once every 25 years (click here)
09/21/2008, 9:53 am
By Leila Noelliste
lnoelliste@daily-journal.com
815-802-5144
You could call it the perfect storm.
Key factors came together to make last weekend's intense rain and flooding a very powerful and unusual experience. The rain dumped close to 9 inches in some towns, and Illinois State Climatologist Jim Angel classifies it as a 25-year storm, not likely to happen again within the next two and a half decades.
"With a lot of those rainfall totals, we're talking about a 25-year storm. And some of those totals that are over 8.75 inches could be described as 100-year storms, expected to happen once every 100 years, on average," he said.
The rains were powered by Hurricane Ike, which traveled north to Illinois after battering Texas. According to Angel, most hurricanes would have lost most of their power after leaving the heat and moisture of the tropics, but Ike stayed strong, unleashing wind and heavy rain on the Midwest....


September 17, 2008
Peru, Illinois
Photographer states :: Flooded Illinois River In Peru, Illinois.


September 18, 2008
Seabrook, Texas
Photographer states :: damage from ike at houston yacht club in la porte texas and seabrook sailing club in seabrook tx


September 21, 2008
1730z
UNISYS Enhanced Infrared GOES East Satellite

It was a Timothy McVeigh style bombing. Similar to the bombing in 1993 of the WTC.

This is going to go on until the Returning Government of Pakistan can gain cooperation with the tribal areas and bring in terrorist elements in the country.

Recent bomb attacks in Pakistan (click here)

20 Sep 2008, 2145 hrs IST,AGENCIES

Here is a list of major attacks in Pakistan since January 2008.

January 10: Twenty people, mostly policemen, killed in suicide bomb attack outside Lahore High Court.

January 14: Bomb kills 10 people at a market in Karachi.

February 9: Suicide bomber kills 25 people at an opposition election rally in the northwestern town of Charsadda.

February 11 : Nine killed in suicide bombing at an election meeting of an independent candidate in North Waziristan.

February 16 : Suicide car bomber strikes a rally of Pakistan People's Party in the northwestern town of Parachinar, killing 37.

February 22: Roadside bomb hits wedding party in Swat, killing at least 14.

February 25: Suicide bomber kills army surgeon Lieutenant General Mushtaq Baig and seven others in Rawalpindi.

February 29 : Forty-four killed in a suicide blast in Mingora in northwest Swat valley during the funeral of three policemen killed by a roadside bomb earlier in the day.

March 2: Suicide bomber kills 43 at tribal elders convention in the northwestern district of Darra Adam Khel.

March 4: Two suicide bombers attack Pakistan Naval War College in Lahore, killing five people.

March 10 : Suicide truck bombings target Federal Investigation Agency building in Lahore; 26 killed.

March 15: Bomb blast at a restaurant in Islamabad kills a woman and wounds 10 others, including four FBI men.

July 2: Suicide car bomb outside the Danish embassy in Islamabad kills eight.

July 6: Fifteen killed in suicide attack on policemen during a rally to mark the anniversary of Lal Masjid raid.

August 12: Roadside bomb attack targets Pakistan Air Force bus in Peshawar, killing 13.

August 19 : Twenty-three killed in suicide attack on a hospital in northwestern Dera Ismail Khan town.

August 21: At least 78 killed in twin suicide attacks outside Pakistan's main ordnance factory in Wah.

August 28: Nine persons, mostly policemen, killed in roadside bombing in North West Frontier Province.

September 6: Thirty people were killed and 70 injured in suicide bombing near a police check post in Peshawar.

I frequently disagree with Nancy Pelosi, especially when it comes to funding Iraq,...

...but, this time we have something in common. American families have to come first. If American families come first that will stabilize the circumstances of their foreclosures. There needs to be an underpinning to their economic stability and that might mean extending unemployment further or working with mortgage companies to secure monthly payments families can afford. But, the basis of this economic clamor is due to the loss of jobs and home foreclosures.



...She says the bailout should include provisions to help families facing foreclosure to stay in their homes, as well as create jobs, extend unemployment benefits and prevent CEOs of failed companies to leave with multimillion-dollar "golden parachutes."...


To simply 'hand out' money in the way of a bailout does not insure the well being of our country. According to Hank Paulson we even have to extend the bailout to other countries.


I don't think so.


If other investment firms came to the USA to make a profit and attempt to help Americans with their purchases of homes to enhance their future security then the 'real security' lies in the financial security of the American family, their job security, their wellness and a promise to a future that is not undermined by Republican priorities that destroy lives and deplete the quality of life.


If Hank Paulson can ask Congress for nearly a trillion $US to bailout financial institutions, including those institutions in other countries, then there is no reason why those same monies can't go directly to the people facing foreclosure. This is such a scam its hideous.


You put a CEO at the top of the USA Treasury, what will he do? He'll seek to 'handle it' with only fiscal outcomes being the focus.


If you put a 'human being' at the top of the USA Treasury, they will see 'the people' being disaffected and act accordingly. The people in the Bush Executive Branch like their big banks, big money and big projects. We don't need them, we need Democrats to 'handle' Hank because the guy is indiscriminately insensitive to the real victims of these issues and that IS The American People. He couldn't care less and it shows at every turn.

There is no reason for what is transpiring. Bush and his financial 'Whiz-Kids' don't seem to understand good accounting practices, so they simply undo the entire infrastructure and watch the entire economic infrastructure disintegrate until it meets their satisfaction.

So, let's see if i get this right.

Countrywide Financial (click here) gets bought out by Bank of America (one of the larger surviving banks today) in January 2008 and all of a sudden everything else falls apart. Subprime lending is the culprit and therefore every financial institution is tainted by this form of lending.

NOT.

It would seem as though out of seek panic, Bernanke and Paulson decide that holding everyone's feet to the fire, while freezing everything, in the way that "Mark to Marketing" can will bring about the destruction of all the 'bad credit' in the world and then they can 'ride the ignorant' in the country into the ground while having dominion over a trillion $US to power play any advantage they can get out of it.


All this HAS to occur according to Hank because there is JUST NO TIME to explain 'the plan' to Congress. So, therefore, Congress HAS to pass a trillion $US spending bill on Monday to give confidence to the markets EVEN THOUGH the details can be worked out later.

???????????????????????????????what??????????????????????????

Why would lack of details instill confidence? Simply panic? Yeah.

Others panic is NOT a problem for me or for Congress. What will result in a huge deficit for the USA while the people of this country flounder will be a windfall for people other than the ones most disaffected.

I 'do not buy' the fact that details aren't important and if others think a bill opening up that level of power to ONE man in an office in DC is reassurance, it ain't. Look who got us into this mess. And he has an answer?

I don't think so.

NOR that the consumers of the USA should not be the focus of this 'bailout.'

The Congress needs to run an investigation to the causes of 'such a rush to judgement' by Hank when in fact the 'writing was on the wall' the entire time and in plenty of time to 'have a detailed plan.'

It is an outrage that the USA Treasury which has seen many people in that Secretary's seat including a man that resigned in the first years of this administration, can't 'detail' a plan that is supposed to be worth a trillion $US. I find that blatant incompetence and the American people are AGAIN asked to carry the burden of this White House's blundering.

I think foreign banks are managing 'JUST FINE.'


AUB secures US$ 800 Million syndicated loan facility (click here)
21 September 2008
"We are extremely pleased by the response to the facility. The success of the syndication in difficult international market conditions is proof of AUB, AUB's reputation in the market and the confidence that the participating banks have in our strategies." said Michael Collis, Senior Deputy Group CEO, Ahli United Bank, Ahli United Bank.
Ahli United Bank B.S.C. (AUB or Group), Ahli United Bank B.S.C. (AUB or Group) a 40.5% rise in net profits for the first half of 2008 of US$ 211.7 million, as compared to the same period last year. Operating income to 30 June 2008 stood at a record US$ 461 million (30 June 2007 - US$ 313.1 million). As of 30 June 2008, the Group's total assets stood at US$ 27 billion, an increase of 17.4% over 31 December 2007, reflecting robust growth. The growth was funded by an increase in customers' deposits by US$ 3.2 billion (+30%). Inter-bank deposits as of 30 June 2008 rose to US$ 7.4 billion.

The Art of the Con - The entire mess has been created by good 'ole Hank. It's all in the slight of accounting handling...

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson speaks during a taping of Meet the Press on September 21, 2008 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

The failed financial institutiosn were 'set up' for failure and then ridden into obsurity. It should never have happened. The Bush Bunch are incompetents.

....Mark to market rules and strict ratings may be appropriate (though unfair) in the good times as a means of preparing institutions for the bad times. That doesn’t mean they should be rigidly applied or even tightened up during the bad times. Hard exercise may boost your immune system to help stave off disease. Hard exercise after the onset of the disease may not be such a good idea.
Critics of some mild regulatory forbearance during this most serious of crises since the Great Depression will no doubt cite transparency as essential, but the two can go together. I’m not advocating hiding temporarily impaired assets. They can remain on the balance sheet with a footnote explaining the intent to hold to maturity.
It is time for common sense to come before accounting purity and cut our losses. It’s one thing to become a victim of a bad loan or a bad economy. It’s quite another thing to become a victim of unnecessarily strict accounting rules.