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Greece's chances of being thrown a financial lifeline were dealt a heavy blow today as German economy minister Rainer Bruerderle warned Berlin has no intention of offering Athens a single cent in financial aid. The debt-laden country has been forced to plead with Germany and other European Union partners for a bailout to help it lower its spiralling borrowing costs. But Mr Bruerderle said at an event in Berlin: 'The German government does not intend to give a cent.'

If you couldn't tell from my post below, I think the McCain housing plan is a disaster. It's Dodd-Frank on steroids. I didn't get the chance to ask any questions in the conference call earlier, but here is what was one my mind: 1. Why are you replicating the Dodd-Frank legislation bailout in your plan? Their plan gave $300 billion to FHA to guarantee failed mortgages. It passed in July. Shouldn't we give that some time to work? 2. Why does your plan empower the Treasury Secretary to buy up these failed mortgages and renegotiate them? Shouldn't that power be...

[B]oth Democratic and Republican nominees for President, self-professed agents of reform, followed the cattle call to back the bailout. Sen. Obama, who claims to be the messiah of change, sure is showing his true colors in two huge decisions – first by his appointment of politics-as-usual Joe Biden and now by his vote to pass this economic bailout bill and drive us deeper into debt. And, quite frankly, Sen. McCain is also disappointing me at this point. At the Republican Convention, John talked about bringing the power back to the people. So he chose Sarah Palin, and finally gained my...

Dear Forbes.com readers: This will turn out to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and the worst U.S. recession in decades. I first said so in August and, since I wrote those words, financial and economic conditions have deteriorated further--and severely. Stock prices are sharply down and there is a risk of a market crack. Interbank and credit spreads are wider than ever since the beginning of this crisis, Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news - people ) and Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER - news - people ) are gone, and soon enough Morgan Stanley (nyse: MS...

The Monster Returns By John H. Cochrane Like a monster from an old horror movie, the Treasury plan keeps coming back from the dead. Yes, we are in a financial crisis that needs urgent, determined, and clear-eyed help from the government. But this plan is fundamentally flawed. It won’t even work if we leave aside its horrendous cost and long-lasting damage to the financial system. The additions and sweeteners in the Senate version, and those on the table in the house, make it even less likely to work. A workable plan has to be based on fundamentally different principles: recapitalizing...

They put a gun to our heads. They ate Crap Sandwich 2.0. Washington’s pork-stuffed panic mob forked over $700billion/$850billion/$1 trillion-plus of our money over to the Chicken Littles, who handed it over to Foxy Loxy at the Treasury Department. And now? And now, they tell us it’s not enough. It’s never enough.

The bailout bill that the U.S. Senate passed late Wednesday night is not the remedy for what ails this nation's economy. While we are all anxious to take action to help America recover from it's current financial crisis, it does us no good to pass a bill that does not address the underlying problem before us, and that's the credit crunch. After the defeat of the original proposal in the House on Monday, Congress had an opportunity to really address some of the shortfalls of the failed bill. Instead they loaded on millions of dollars in pork barrel spending and...

RUSH: Here's Rick in Minneapolis. Rick, I'm glad you waited. Welcome to the EIB Network. CALLER: Yeah, Rush, thanks for taking my call. I'm an avid listener. I love your show, and I think you're an asset to the United States of America. RUSH: Thank you, sir, very much. Very perceptive of you. CALLER: If you give me ten seconds, I'm going to say press as who I am. I'm a small business owner who is downsizing. I have four children, a wonderful wife. RUSH: How do you do it? CALLER: I almost ran for mayor in my small town...

RUSH: Both Senators McCain and Obama made campaign rally appearances today before flying back to Washington to vote on the Senate version of the bailout bill tonight. Obama was in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and McCain was in Independence, Missouri, close by the Harry Truman library. McCain said, (paraphrasing) "Look, the blame game is for later. We have to fix this." I don't know how you can address this without affixing blame right now. All of this talk about earmarks and inflated spending that Senator McCain talks about doesn't connect without mentioning why we got here in the first place. Obama...

I’ve been listening to his economic speech in Independence, Missouri. He has basically echoed Nancy Pelosi’s line that opposing the bailout is unpatriotic. Here’s what he said: We are square in the greatest financial crisis of our lifetimes. And I am pleased to report that today, I will be returning to the floor of the Senate to vote on a bill that marks a decisive step in the right direction. The original proposal was flawed. I urged additions of taxpayer protections, stronger oversight, limitations on executive compensation and more protections for people’s bank accounts. I am pleased that these are...

Hill sources buzzing. A Senate bailout vote is scheduled tomorrow at 9pm Eastern. No bill details seen yet. How it will go down…There will be up to 6 roll call votes on the following items: (1)Motion to concur on the House message, H.R. 2095, Rail Safety; (2)a Dorgan amendment relating to H.R. 7081, the U.S. - India Nuclear agreement; (3)a Bingaman amendment relating to H.R. 7081, the U.S. - India Nuclear agreement; (4)passage of H.R. 7081, the U.S. - India Nuclear agreement; (5)a Dodd amendment to H.R. 1424, relating to the bailout package; and (6)passage of H.R. 1424, the bailout....

RUSH: I've gotta check the transcripts of the first half hour of this program today. There's a story that's just been posted by Politico and also at CBS News on their website. The headline to this story is: "House GOP Mocked by Rush." Now, as far as I remember, I said, "God bless the House Republicans," today. "House GOP Mocked by Rush." For those of you in the House GOP -- those of you on The Hill listening, those of you who know people on the Hill -- I did not mock the House GOP today. I got on conservative...

RUSH: I want to dedicate today's Dow Jones Industrial Average, it's at about 269, up at the moment, to the Republicans in the House of Representatives for their boldness yesterday. Greetings, ladies and gentlemen, Rush Limbaugh, the Excellence in Broadcasting Network, and three hours of broadcast excellence, as you have come to know, love, and expect, straight ahead for the next three hours. Telephone number, 800-282-2882. The e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com. I was going to say, I can't believe how wrong everybody's getting this. Then I have to stop and think, yes, I can believe how wrong everybody's getting this, because...

It was just two days short of being an October surprise. A historic House vote on the Paulson bailout plan became historic for a reason no one expected: It went down to defeat, and not by a narrow margin. As the Dow plummeted 777 points, Republicans and Democrats took to the microphones to play the blame game, no holds barred. Superficially, both parties are to blame: 133 Republicans and 95 Democrats voted against, large numbers in both caucuses. But a majority of Democrats voted in favor. Republicans said a harshly partisan speech by Nancy Pelosi turned off about a dozen...

After nearly eight years of voting in virtual lock step with President Bush on everything from tax cuts to torture, House Republicans decided on Monday to break ranks on the survival of the nation’s financial system. The rejected bailout bill that was on the floor after a weekend of hard negotiating was objectionable in many ways, but it was a Republican-generated bill and was improved from the administration’s original version. Sixty percent of House Democrats voted for the bill, enough to easily pass the measure if the Republicans had not decided to put on their display of pique and disarray....

I’ve seen and heard the anecdotes about McDonald’s franchises getting denied credit spread everywhere over the past week. Stop pounding the panic button. Don’t blame the bailout flame-out. Memo to the McChicken Littles: The sky is not falling because we refused to fork over $700 billion to failing banks. The inconvenient truth: Bank of America said it is not freezing any current or new lines of credit to McDonald’s Corp. franchise owners, despite reports citing an internal memo from the fast-food giant advising franchisees of the contrary. Bank spokesman Larry DiRita said the Charlotte-based bank will continue to honor its...

A friend from the Hill writes: For the life of me I cannot understand the Corner these days. I keep wondering where the call to “Stand up and Yell Stop” that Mr. Buckley spoke of has gone. I keep reading about the irresponsibility of House Republicans, but how is it irresponsible to stand up and say that you think a bill is bad for America? It is the height of irresponsibility for the Bush administration – and all those doing their bidding – to be screaming “crisis” and scaring the hell out of the American people, holding a shotgun to...

Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn was among the conservative Republicans who bucked both parties’ leaders to kill the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 on Monday. She explained her reasoning to National Review Online editor Kathryn Lopez. Kathryn Jean Lopez: Monday morning on Bill Bennett’s radio show, you said you were leaning “no.” What solidified that no? Marsha Blackburn: Hearing from my constituents in the district solidified the “no” vote. We had phone calls and e-mails by the thousands. They did not want a bill that would favor Wall Street over the taxpayer. Lopez: Are you concerned by your vote you...

RUSH: Boy, this is fascinating. There are so many elements here and we are once again learning that conventional wisdom is BS. Let's start with one thing, and that is all last week we heard, "The Democrats can pass this if they want to, why wait for the Republicans?" Obviously that wasn't true. There's another thing that's a factor in this House vote today. It has failed. However, they suspended the vote, and Nancy Pelosi, she needs to get 11 Democrats to change their minds. Can you imagine the arm twisting in the speaker's office going on as we speak?...

Today’s stock market drop is a record point drop, but does not even crack the top 10 single-day percentage drops in American history. Let’s stop pounding the panic buttons. *** On FNC right now, Neil Cavuto emphasizes that lending is going on and puts a damper on Heather Nauert’s panic-button heaving about credit-freeze anecdotes. Are there businesses getting turned down for loans? Yes. Here’s a novel thought: Maybe banks are finally learning they shouldn’t fork over money to bad risks. *** Reader Jamie e-mails this link to a history of US stock market crashes and adds: I like that the...