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ECONOMIC RESCUE ALTERNATIVE PLAN September 29, 2008 We believe that policymakers must act decisively and correctly. We believe that we can help Wall Street “workout” of this crisis, not force the taxpayers into a “bailout.” We believe that voluntary private capital, not involuntary taxpayer capital, will help the system recover. A Work-Out—Not a Bail-Out• Stabilizing Financial Markets: Require the Treasury Department to guarantee losses up to 100%, resulting from the failure of timely payment and interest from mortgage-backed securities (MBS) originated prior to the date of enactment. Such insurance would provide immediate value to the MBS and a foundation for...

Darn the market! They should appreciate that Americans still have influence on their congressmen and are for a free market rather than socialism!

At least one author at the Wall Street Journal believes the Wall Street bailout will actually bailout Main Street, as the saying goes. As an aside, how many people live no Main St. anymore? Here's what the WSJ had to say: The $700 billion financial rescue that Congress votes on today must surely rank as the least popular legislation in modern times. Most Members want it to pass, though not with their vote after it has been trashed so relentlessly in the press as a Wall Street "bailout." And yet it deserves to pass because in reality it is an...

Question for the group. How can these attacks by the Democrats go unanswered? If someone doesn't take up the fight, we'll be living in the People's Republic of America come January. Now, the Dems are spinning that this (the financial meltdown) is a failure of the markets not a failure of government (CRA), which it most assuredly was. It's like falling through the looking glass. Is anybody there?

President Bush & Honorable Members of Congress: I am not a “Rich American”. While I have a small investment in stocks, most of the money that is left over after paying bills sits in a bank account. I have a mortgage, a wife and 2.5 kids. I wake up every morning and go to work, pay my taxes and deal with the ‘pain at the pump’. In plain words, I am one of the millions of Americans who live on main street and will be hit the hardest when the economy fails. Nonetheless, I feel it is my patriotic duty...

This is John McCain's speach in sponsoring a bill on May 25, 2006 in the U.S. Senate. He warns of the economic risks of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Obama joined Democrats in killing the bill and now we face a $700 billion bailout as a result. "For years I have been concerned about the regulatory structure that governs Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--known as Government-sponsored entities or GSEs--and the sheer magnitude of these companies and the role they play in the housing market. OFHEO's report this week does nothing to ease these concerns. In fact, the report does quite...

1. You believe a woman's choice of whether to have a baby comes before intercourse rather than before birth. 2. You believe a bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush - you believe government is poor stewards of your money and can do less to promote social welfare with your money than you can. 3. You believe in spanking versus timeout. Republicans tend to believe in the use of force in foreign policy matters and favor a large powerful military. 4. You want to see more nativity sets in stores at Christmas and less Santa Claus. Republicans...

Well now we have it - since this is a proposed bill (public) and in the interests of fair use, here you have it as reported by Fox: LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR TREASURY AUTHORITY TO PURCHASE MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS Section 1. Short Title. This Act may be cited as ___________________. Sec. 2. Purchases of Mortgage-Related Assets. (a) Authority to Purchase.—The Secretary is authorized to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, on such terms and conditions as determined by the Secretary, mortgage-related assets from any financial institution having its headquarters in the United States. (b) Necessary Actions.—The Secretary is authorized...

It's a rare day when finance officials, leftist intellectuals and ordinary salespeople can agree on something. But the economic meltdown that wrought its wrath from Rome to Madrid to Berlin this week brought Europeans together in a harsh chorus of condemnation of the excess and disarray on Wall Street.

In this little article we are going to repeat a mantra. If Obama thinks the free market philosophy is bad and he's not a socialist, what is he? I'm simply going to take an Obama speech on the economy from Golden, Colorado on September 16, 2008 and ask some basic questions about his philosophy.

Given the current economic climate and the discussion of the 1930's I thought this easily clickable and manipulated stock chart would be good for perspective. It is one thing to read here and there what the market did over time, but to see it in chart form for a hundred years, or broken into decade segments is a more effective "wow" point. We aren't even in the remote ballpark by the way.

While Barack Obama has seized on the economic woes of America as a political opportunity, going rally to rally spreading gloom and doom, John McCain has tried to console and reassure Americans. The mainstream media continues to classify both candidates as weak on economics and basically clueless. At the same time the media continues to erroneously link John McCain to George Bush thusly lending a helping hand to Obama's campaign. But when it comes to change, with a plan, McCain is the one who has the facts on his side. McCain prophetically warned the President and the American people that...

One of the original and largest money market funds has put a seven-day freeze on investor redemptions after the net asset value of its shares fell below $1, in a rare instance in the fund industry of what is called "breaking the buck." Primary Fund (RFIXX), managed by New York-based money market fund inventor The Reserve, said late Tuesday that its $785 million holding of Lehman Brothers Holdings debt has been valued at zero. As of 4 p.m., Eastern, the value of the fund's share was 97 cents. The Reserve said that redemption requests received before 3 p.m. will be...

NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) Sept. 16, 2008--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it has lowered its principal stability fund rating on the Reserve Funds - Primary Fund, Reserve International Liquidity Fund Ltd., and the Colorado Diversified Trust (CDT) to 'Dm' from 'AAAm' due to exposure to defaulted Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. commercial paper. Additionally, Standard&Poor's has placed on CreditWatch with negative implications the ratings on nine other Reserve Funds (see list below) and has withdrawn their ratings, as CDT will cease to exist effective tomorrow, Sept. 17, 2008. With the exception of the three funds, which paid out less than $1.00...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- [The Reserve] has put a seven-day freeze on redemptions after the net asset value of [shares of its "Primary Fund"] fell below $1.

Medvedev Promises Liquidity Injection 12 September 2008 By Courtney Weaver / Special to The Moscow Times A concerted effort by President Dmitry Medvedev and other top officials to bolster nervy Russian markets failed to impress investors Thursday, despite his pledge that the government would step in with extra funds to plug growing liquidity shortfalls. "The government and the Central Bank must do everything possible to ensure the flow of additional funds into the financial market,'' Medvedev said during the televised part of a Kremlin meeting attended by senior ministers and state banking officials. "This is absolutely obvious and it must...

FOB KALSU — Farmers in the Lutifiyah area of Iraq came together recently to celebrate the opening of the al Baraka Operative Farmers Association. “Lutifiyah is a big part of Iraq … it connects the Tigris with the Euphrates rivers, and we are very proud of it,” said Ali, a retired Iraqi Army lieutenant colonel and a member of the new association. “We will work together for the sake of the people, and we thank everybody who contributed to making Lutifiyah a safer place.” Ali said the association is opening its doors because of the improved security in the area...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, Aug. 26, 2008 – Sealing off a cornerstone time capsule marked a new beginning for the farmers in the northern portion of Iraq’s Babil province. Sheik Kudair Ulawi al-Jubori, chairman of the Central Euphrates Farmers Market and Agricultural Center Management Board, signs the official document that was placed in a time capsule during a foundation-stone ceremony in an open field just north of Forward Operating Base Kalsu, Iraq, Aug. 23, 2008. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Tami Hillis  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Agriculture leaders, provincial government officials, Iraqi security forces...

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Talk of $200-per-barrel oil prices by the end of the year has quietly faded away and been replaced by forecasts for $100. It would be easy to say that crude oil has failed to meet market expectations, and a bear market may be in place. But the harder part is to figure out how long and to what point oil prices will fall. Projections earlier this year for oil prices as high as $200 fell flat, with prices unable to even reach $150. "Now analysts are lining up to say the top is in," said Sean...

John A. Thain said he had to do something to stop the bleeding at Merrill Lynch. A week after he stunned Wall Street by selling billions of dollars of toxic mortgage investments for pennies on the dollar, Mr. Thain defended his decision on Monday, saying he needed to take decisive action to shore up the Wall Street giant and morale among its employees. “We have over 60,000 people working every day,” Mr. Thain said in an interview after eight tumultuous months as chief executive of Merrill. “All the efforts of these people were overwhelmed by the write-downs in the mortgage-related...

Call Congress back to have an up-or-down vote on a comprehensive energy bill which includes expanded drilling for oil. There is a petition here: http://www.callbackcongress.com/

Understanding of Dark Pools is Elusive, Reports Traders Magazine Survey June 17, 2008 By Nina Mehta The dark pool landscape is changing so rapidly that a large portion of buyside traders can't keep up with some of the developments. According to a Traders Magazine electronic survey, 38 percent of buyside traders said they were not aware that some dark pools send out or receive information about resident orders. Nor were they aware that some dark pools send and receive electronic immediate-or-cancel orders from other venues. Dark pools are now stepping up efforts to cater to different buyside constituencies through their...

From Stan O'Neal the ousted CEO of Merrill, The current CEO's of UBS Americas and Deutche to the presidents of imploded subprime lenders New Century and Evergreen... In Our Article: Obama Accepts Millions From “Subprime” Tied Contributors, we launched our attempt to inform the public of the millions of individual and bundled campaign dollars funneling into the Obama campaign from High Level Executives of Investment Banks, Mortgage Lenders, and Hedge Funds involved with the Mortgage Meltdown. The ties between Obama and the industry are too expansive and raise the question...

The Dow took a 325 point plunge on Friday as Wall Street reacts to an unprecedented $10 surge in crude oil prices and the largest one-month rise in the nation's unemployment rate in two decades. Today's Market As of 2:46 p.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 317.46 points, or 2.52% to 12286.26, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 31.88 points, or 2.27%, to 1372.17 and the Nasdaq Composite Index lost 61.54 points, or 2.41%, to 2488.40. The consumer-friendly Fox 50 fell 21.92 points, or 2.22%, to 964.53. It didn't take long for Wall Street to erase all...

BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States is already in a recession and it will be longer as well as deeper than many people expect, U.S. investor Warren Buffett said in an interview published in German magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday. He said the United States was "already in recession" and added: "Perhaps not in the sense that economists would define it" with two consecutive quarters of negative growth. "But the people are already feeling the effects," said Buffett, the world's richest man. "It will be deeper and last longer than many think." But he said that won't stop him from...

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Reuters) - Significantly raising margin requirements on oil futures trading at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NMX.N: Quote, Profile, Research) would not rein in speculative investors and bring down crude prices, U.S. Energy Secretary Sam Bodman said on Friday. Many U.S. lawmakers blame hedge funds, pension fund managers and other speculative investors for pushing up prices for crude oil and other commodities to record levels. "I don't think that the margin requirements per se are going to have any impact on it," Bodman said in an interview on CNBC television. Legislation is pending in the U.S. Senate...

Oil prices surged nearly $5 to a record near $134 a barrel on Wednesday after a U.S. government report showed a surprise drop in crude stockpiles, reinvigorating fears of a supply crunch. The gains bring oil up more than 33 percent so far this year in a rally that has raised alarm bells in consumer countries like the United States, already hard-hit by a housing slump and credit crisis. Weakness in the U.S. dollar encouraged Wednesday's buying spree by bolstering the purchasing power of buyers holding other currencies, dealers said. U.S. crude settled up $4.19 at $133.17 a barrel after...

http://www.nymex.com/index.aspx

LONDON (AFP) — The price of crude oil struck a record high 126.98 dollars a barrel on Tuesday despite expectations of slower demand growth for crude, traders said. New York crude beat its all-time peak of 126.40 dollars, which was reached on Monday. The price of oil had fallen earlier Tuesday on profit-taking as the International Energy Agency (IEA) cut its forecast for growth in global demand. After reaching new heights Tuesday, New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for June delivery, stood at 125.94 dollars, up 1.71 dollars from Monday's close. London's Brent crude contract for June...

A startup is planning human trials for a nanostructured material that quickly stops bleeding. A startup based in Cambridge, MA, says that it plans to soon begin clinical trials of a nanostructured material that stops bleeding almost instantly. A startup called Arch Therapeutics has licensed the technology from MIT and is developing manufacturing processes for making it in large amounts. The new material can be poured over a site and will stop the bleeding almost at once. The first application, pending Food and Drug Administration approval, will be for use during surgery to quickly stop bleeding and even prevent it...

The price of crude oil today is not made according to any traditional relation of supply to demand. It is controlled by an elaborate financial market system as well as by the four major Anglo-American oil companies. As much as 60% of today's crude oil price is pure speculation driven by large trader banks and hedge funds. It has nothing to do with the convenient myths of Peak Oil. It has to do with control of oil and its price. How? First, the role of the international oil exchanges in London and New York is crucial to the game. Nymex...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices leapt to a new peak of more than $126 a barrel on Friday, hitting a record for the fifth straight session, in a market given an additional spur by tight supplies of diesel. U.S. crude for June delivery rose $1.87 to $125.56 by 9:35 a.m. EDT, off a record high of $126.20 a barrel. London Brent crude rose $2.81 to $125.65 per barrel. "I'm not particularly surprised by the speed of the rise in crude. There are many market bulls hoping for prices to rise heading into the summer," said Tetsu Emori, fund manager at...

Democrats in the U.S. Senate are looking beyond a summer gasoline tax holiday to focus on broader oil market fundamentals. Yesterday, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid [D-Nev.] unveiled the Consumer-First Energy Act, which calls for a revocation of tax breaks to big oil companies, a windfall profit tax and a cap on additions to the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Included in the bill is a diktat to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC] to substantially raise margin requirements for oil futures. That measure, say the bill's sponsors, would discourage excessive speculation which is blamed for fueling oil's meteoric price trajectory....

Oil prices have risen 25% in the last four months and by an incredible 400% from 2001. Goldman Sachs energy strategist Argun Murti now warns that all parameters point to the occurence of a 'super-spike' past $200 in six months to two years' time. He joins OPEC's very own chief, who recently uttered the same frightening words. Murti correctly predicted three years ago - when oil was about $55 a barrel - that it would pass $100, which it reached for the first time in January of this year. Current oil prices - benchmark US light crude passing the $122...

CAMP STRIKER — The Yusifiyah Wholesale Farmers’ Market had a grand reopening last week after closing four years ago. “This was the center of commerce for the city before the war,” said Capt. Steve McGregor, from Longwood, Fla., projects officer for 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault). “It shut down because of all the fighting ... It was the main way the farmers in this agrarian society made their money.” Now, the wholesale market may help turn a profit for local farmers. Regular markets only allow farmers to sell produce or goods...

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Sovereign wealth funds are growing at a whopping 24% a year, and could grow at that pace for at least the next three years, surpassing the economic output of the U.S. by 2015, according to a study released Monday. New data from financial analysis firm Global Insight showed that sovereign wealth funds racked up a combined $3.5 trillion in 2007. The largest funds were fielded by China, with $1.2 trillion, Russia and Kuwait, but could soon be outpaced by up and coming funds in Nigeria and Oman, the report said. Funds from developing countries are advancing...

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil hit a new record near $120 a barrel on Monday, boosted by a string of bullish factors that include big disruptions to Nigeria's output and a UK refinery strike, highlighting anxieties over threats to supply. Prices retreated from early peaks as the dollar rallied versus the euro and yen, reflecting some expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve may not cut interest rates this week. U.S. light crude for June delivery was up 30 cents at $118.82 a barrel by 1321 GMT (9:21 a.m. EDT), after a record high of $119.93. Prices are up almost 25 percent...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil plummeted $4 on Thursday as gains in the U.S. dollar spurred profit-taking that dragged crude further from its record peak near $120 a barrel. U.S. crude traded down $3.35 at $114.95 per barrel by 1:11 p.m. EDT, up from its low of $114.25 reached earlier. London Brent fell $3.30 to $111.16 a barrel. Oil and other dollar-denominated commodities came under pressure after data showed U.S. jobless claims down sharply last week, boosting the dollar by more than 1 percent against a basket of major currencies. "This morning's sell-off has been engineered by the strengthening of...

NEW YORK (AP) - Crude oil prices set a new record Monday, spiking above $117 a barrel after an attack on a Japanese oil tanker in the Middle East. Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose to a record $117.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange but later fell back to $116.29, down 40 cents from Friday's close. Retail gasoline prices, meanwhile, hit another milestone Monday, tightening the squeeze on drivers by jumping to an average $3.50 a gallon (92 cents a liter) at filling stations across the U.S. Nationally, retail gas prices are up 23 percent from...

MAC Indexing has announced the introduction of the MAC Global Solar Energy Index, the first index to independently track the rapidly growing solar energy sector. Dow Jones will publish the Index, which was developed and is maintained by MAC Indexes, an affiliate of Melvin and Company that specializes in clean energy equity research and index development. The MAC Global Solar Energy Index has been licensed to Claymore Advisors, LLC, which anticipates launching the first solar power exchange-traded fund (ETF) on the NYSE-Arca under the symbol "TAN" in April (www.claymore.com/tan). "The creation of the MAC Global Solar Energy Index recognizes the...

You might want to put a big red "X" on today's date. It may mark the start of the biggest financial revolution in the nation's history, and is a landmark in the planned, or otherwise, transition from 'free markets' to an emerging 'socialism for the rich' which is aimed at shifting the cost of bailing out bankers and speculators to the wallets of America's working class. It will come packaged as a 200 page set of proposed regulations which broad new powers to the (not really) Federal Reserve, designating it a "market stability regulator". In plain English, it means something...

The United States is experiencing one of its periodic fits of isolationism. In the age before missiles and satellites, we often felt that two oceans protected us from warring states in Asia and Europe. In addition, for over a century our own frontier kept us busy enough. Both the Founding Fathers and waves of immigrants warned us against getting too involved with the aristocratic prejudices and age-old feuds of the Old World. After the Civil War, the federal government turned our army into a tiny constabulary. The nation industrialized, and didn’t much worry about the rising tensions between European colonial...

ADHAMIYAH, Iraq, March 24, 2008 – Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers here witnessed the changes and progress in the area and its bustling market during a joint dismounted patrol with the Iraqi army on Chem Street. Iraqi army and Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers head toward Chem Street in Adhamiyah, Iraq, during a dismounted patrol, March 20, 2008. Soldiers of 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, which is attached to 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, regularly patrol the streets with their Iraqi counterparts from 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 11th Iraqi Army Division. Photo...

You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist in the 1990s to figure that speculative investment in dot-coms with no revenues would be disastrous. The same goes for lenders giving mortgages to borrowers with no job, no income and no assets. So after surviving the tech bubble and while trying to extricate the economy from the housing bubble, why are we bent on heading into the global warming bubble? So who in their right mind would push for this? I met many of them up-close-and-personal last week at a major Wall Street Journal conference at which I was an invited...

One of the major Wall Street firms just sold itself for about 6% of its value as of Friday, and analysts somehow see this as a positive sign for the economy? Bear Stearns, which had a market capitalization of over $3.5 billion on Friday, will go for a mere $236 million today to JP Morgan, who can apparently absorb the crash of Bear Stearns’ credit business. The Fed and JP Morgan attempted a bailout last week, but it apparently wasn’t enough: Bear Stearns Cos. reached an agreement to sell itself to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., as worries grew that...

Financial system must tap the taxpayer By Krishna Guha Published: March 14 2008 19:00 | Last updated: March 14 2008 19:00 The notion that the US could suffer the kind of deep and protracted recession that plagued Japan in the 1990s no longer looks as far-fetched as it did a month or two ago. House prices are in free-fall, spreading losses through the universe of mortgage-backed securities and making it very difficult for financial markets to stabilise. The labour market is cracking, with three consecutive months of job losses in the private sector. Consumer sentiment has soured and spending is...

STARTLED BY A RAPIDLY WORSENING liquidity crunch at Bear Stearns, the stock market fell Friday in a broad wave of selling as investors worried anew about the severity and spread of the credit rot. The crisis of confidence at the nation's fifth-largest investment bank, where customers were demanding their money back, mirrored the crippling anxiety spreading through the markets: The cost of protecting investment banks' debt against defaults increased. Shares of merger targets slipped further below offer prices amid fear about the unwinding of arbitrage positions. Emerging-market assets skidded. Investors rushed to hedge in the option market. That the New...

To all of you financial wizards out there. I currently own 30 oz of silver and bought it around $15.00 per oz I check the spot price every know and then and have seen a rapid jump in the daily spot price. In the past 3 days it has gone up 5%. Is it a good time to sell or is $30 or $40 silver possible?

The Group of Seven industrialized nations is closely monitoring the global financial market turmoil and stands ready to take action to enhance stability in the market, Japan's top financial diplomat said on Thursday. Naoyuki Shinohara, vice finance minister for international affairs, also cast doubt on calls to establish a Japanese sovereign wealth fund, saying the country's foreign reserves are not a pure investable asset given its huge budget deficit. G7 finance chiefs warned in Tokyo earlier this month that credit turmoil could still unhinge the global economy and pledged a plan of action for restoring markets to financial health. But...