Free Republic

U.S. stock futures pointed to another monumental beating on Friday - with leading contracts falling as much as rules allow -- as a plunge in Asia reignited concerns about the health of the global economy. S&P 500 futures dropped 60 points to 855.20 and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 85 points to 1,168.50. Dow industrial futures fell 550 points. All three contracts fell so much that they reached pre-specified limits that can't be broken until pit trading opens.

The classicists argue as to whether Nero really fiddled while Rome burned. Yet the story is seen as apocryphal in the same way biblical parables and myths from Greek Mythology are often so viewed. That is because we all know people who have done just that sort of thing. It happens amongst us now – and on a grand and extravagant scale. Perhaps the most amusing recent examples of this sort of behavior come to us from both the business world and from our friends, the environmental movement. We begin with the detestable resort vacation taken by those corporate bums...

Japanese stocks tumbled Friday, with the two benchmark indexes slumping 7% or more during early trading on panic selling after Wall Street shares suffered deep losses overnight. The Nikkei 225 Average plummeted 7.4% to 8,483.77, while the broader Topix index fell 7% to 841.88.

While the two presidential candidates, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama, prepare for their second debate on Oct. 7 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tom Brokaw gets to sift through questions submitted by you. In addition to queries from a group randomly selected by the Gallup organization, Brokaw will be fielding questions submitted online at mydebates.org, the site created by the Commission on Presidential Debates and Myspace. The focus of the town hall-style debate will be domestic and foreign policy, Brokaw's specialties.

Recently a friend told the story of his 80-year-old father submitting a check for payment at Washington Mutual. "The bank bounced the check," he said. Think about it: Your check didn't clear, not because of you but because the bank had insufficient funds. Not a story you hear often and sad indeed. Washington Mutual, IndyMac, Wachovia. Sweaty palms everywhere as people wonder what's next. If you haven't already, it might be time to check out your corner credit union. Those on the highest ground fare better in a hurricane. So where's the "high ground" in financial services today? Right now,...

European shares fell sharply in early trading on Monday, with banks slumping after a $700 billion bailout package from the U.S. wasn't matched by a coordinated effort from governments in Europe as they continued to shore up institutions on a piecemeal basis. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index fell 3.9% to 251.21, with a 5.2% drop for the banking index after an extraordinary weekend in which Germany backed its retail deposits.

Here are some of the special-interest provisions that are now part of the Wall Street bailout legislation. The bill started at 3 pages, grew to 106 pages, and is now 451 pages. Film and Television Productions (Sec. 502) Wooden Arrows designed for use by children (Sec. 503) 6 page package of earmarks for litigants in the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident, Alaska (Sec. 504) Virgin Island and Puerto Rican Rum (Section 308) American Samoa (Sec. 309) Mine Rescue Teams (Sec. 310) Mine Safety Equipment (Sec. 311) Domestic Production Activities in Puerto Rico (Sec. 312) Indian Tribes (Sec. 314, 315) Railroads (Sec....

WOOHOO!!!!

‘Friends’ unveil initiative to avert collapse: Over $15bn needed: media By Anwar Iqbal and Masood Haider NEW YORK, Sept 26: A permanent forum was launched in New York on Friday to help raise billions of dollars to avert a possible economic collapse in Pakistan. The forum, which will be called the Friends of Pakistan, will hold its first meeting in Abu Dhabi next month. The decision to form such a body was made at a meeting of some of the world’s richest nations that also have close ties to Pakistan and want to help. “I don’t want them to give...

SOURCE: House Republicans met in am: Just 4 members support Paulson plan...

AP: FBI Investigating Fannie, Freddie, Lehman & AIG

Excerpt: Not simple loans, but complex investments created by pooling millions of mortgages together and then slicing them into pieces. These were the investments that Wall Street bought, sold and borrowed against in cooking up the money it poured into housing. ...

A key quote in this morning's Senate hearing about the Paulson bailout is worth repeating. This comes from Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat: "Like my colleagues, my phones have been ringing off the hook. The sentiment from Ohioans about this proposal is universally negative." Not "overwhelmingly negative." Not "deeply suspicious." Not "extremely upset." Universally negative. I'll state the obvious: Members of Congress aren't generally in the habit of passing historic and spectacularly unpopular legislation five weeks before election day. Republicans in Congress hate this bill, and I'm unconvinced the Democrats in Congress will take a bullet, figuratively, for the...

German economists endorse the government's refusal to buy up bad U.S. debt, saying it would reward reckless investment behavior --- SNIP Economics experts think that's the right response. As they see it, in the long run, those responsible for the crisis—who have been cashed out with high salaries and bonuses for years—will not be penalized for billions "but will be let off the hook like everyone else," says Carsten Meier of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW). According to Meier, by injecting capital into the market, the US government is putting everyone who speculated and lost back on...

The federal government has already taken effective control of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and American International Group - and there could be more full or partial corporate takeovers if some Democrats and economists have their way. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s historic Wall Street bailout plan calls for the federal government to purchase at discount the bad debts of financial firms struggling under the weight of bad subprime-mortgage investments. But Democrats are pushing in negotiations with the White House to give the federal government power to effectively nationalize, or partly nationalize, financial firms via the purchase of their stocks, according to...

Over the past few weeks I've been skeptical of claims by Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, that he's been a consistent and leading voice for reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government-sponsored home-lending giants whose fall is the immediate cause of the current financial turmoil. The Massachusetts Democrat and I went at it here and here and here. Now, finally, Frank acknowledges that he dismissed ample warnings about Fannie and Freddie shenanigans five years ago. Here's an exchange with CNN's John Roberts yesterday: ROBERTS: Congressman, you know, a lot—big question that people...

There was a time when Dick Cheney could turn back a Republican revolt on Capitol Hill. That time is gone. House Republicans rose up en masse against their vice president on Tuesday morning to blast an administration proposal that would grant Treasury historic authority to start buying hundreds of billions of dollars in devalued mortgage-related assets, according to members present. The lines to speak were long, the questions many and sentiment in the Cannon Caucus Room Tuesday swayed heavily against the Treasury proposal. Afterward, Texas Rep. Joe Barton took the unusual step of telling reporters that he had politely given...

Obama is addressing the economy.

As Congressional Democrats and the Bush Administration wrangle over the need for aid to homeowners in the Wall Street bailout plan, both sides appear to have forgotten that Congress approved a $300 billion mortgage rescue package in late July. AP “We already have a rescue package for homeowners,” says Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight, sounding a bit dumbfounded by the development. “Things get so weird in a presidential election year.” Among the provisions of the Housing And Economic Recovery Act of 2008 is the Hope for Homeowners program, which was designed to provide up to $300 billion for...

When Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) gavels in the Senate Banking Cmte., he is expected to pro- pose changes to the Bush admin.'s $700 billion intervention in the financial markets. Witnesses include Sec. of Treasury Henry Paulson; Ben Bernanke, Chair of the Federal Reserve System; and others