France heaped pressure on Gordon Brown last night by floating an ambitious plan for a €300 billion (£237 billion) bailout fund to rescue crippled banks across Europe.
As the world held its breath on the fate of Americas $700 billion bank bailout plan, President Sarkozy was seeking the backing of European leaders for his own lifeboat.
Mr Brown also faced demands for action from British banks, furious that the Irish Republics unilateral guarantee of all bank savings on Tuesday was robbing them of precious deposits. The British Bankers Association, which represents high street banks, said that the move was anti-competitive and that it was raising the issue with Dublin. Some banks would like to see the UK respond with its own explicit guarantee.
The Prime Minister has begun to set up an emergency committee to take charge of Britains response to the crisis. The body will be similar to Cobra, which is composed of ministers and government officials and meets regularly during crises such as last summers floods. Its secretariat will be run from the Cabinet Office.
Mr Sarkozy, whose country holds the European presidency, is seeking Mr Browns support before an emergency summit, scheduled tentatively for Saturday, with Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, and Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. His proposal was greeted with scepticism in Britain and outright hostility in Germany. It appears to involve the creation of a Europe-wide emergency fund that would be used to prop up banks when national governments are unable to intervene.
Ms Merkel said that Germany could not and would not issue a blank cheque for all banks, regardless of whether they behave in a responsible manner or not.
Amid the confusion and bickering between governments, France denied at first that it had put forward a proposal for a fund at all and then, after admitting that it had done so, denied that it would cost €300 billion. Paris said that the figure had come from the Dutch Government. Officials in The Hague said that they had no idea what the French were talking about.
Mr Brown is expected to announce his new crisis committee today or tomorrow at the same time as his reshuffle to replace Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, who has asked to step down. Ed Miliband, one of Mr Browns key lieutenants, could be promoted. There is still a question mark hanging over Alistair Darlings future as Chancellor.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/01/2008 19:48 Comments ||
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#2
"Ms Merkel said that Germany could not and would not issue a blank cheque for all banks, 'regardless of whether they behave in a responsible manner or not'."
Can a German Chancellor be appointed Secretary of the U.S. Treasury?
#3
Funny thing is I was always having to nag my kids about leaving lights on, taking hour-long showers, cranking the AC down to 'meat-locker', etc. I guess UK parents must not have to pay the utility bills.
#3
That was the very first thought that popped into my head grom.
THEY don't, the little people do, if you dig hard enough. Of course it will probably come at the cost of half the Royal Navy, but hey, when's the last time they really used it anyway?
#11
On a population basis, the UK is 1/5 the size of the US but Brown's bailout is 2.5 times the cost of the original $700 billion Paulson proposal here in the US (assuming the numbers came in at about that level).
On a per-person basis, Brown's bailout is 12.5 times more costly.
Not the bailout cost. I positively despise Gordon brown, but this won't cost 1.9 trillion (unless every UK bank goes bust, and then it will be academic).
#13
I read this as the PM is increasing the British equivalent of the FDIC's guarantee to £50,000. Not a bailout, but a move to calm retail depositors and prevent a run on banks.
Posted by: ed ||
10/01/2008 16:13 Comments ||
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#14
Rumours the FDIC will have the power to borrow as much as needed from the treasury.
#15
IOW, High Muslim Birth Rate-Immigration + Bankrupt London Govt = Armed Forces equals BRITARABIA, LONDONISTAN, WHITEHALL CALIPHATE, etc.
Looks like those LONDON PRO-ISLAMIST ACTIVISTS are right on the money > THE BRITS ARE DOING MORE TO DAMAGE OR DESTROY THEMSELVES AND THEIR NATION THAN ANY ISLAMIST TERROR = INVADING MUSLIM ARMY EVER COULD.
After a long and bitter legal battle, a group of retired Gurkha soldiers, who served in the British Army, have won the right to settle in Britain.
Those who retired before 1997, when their regiment was based in Hong Kong, were not eligible for an automatic right to stay on grounds that they do not have strong residential ties with Britain. They need to apply for British residency and can be refused.
But on Tuesday, in what was hailed as a landmark judgment, the High Court ruled in their favour in a case brought by five ex-Gurkhas and the widow of another colleague. Justice Blake said Britain owed Gurkhas a "moral debt of honour" in view of their long service, conspicuous acts of bravery and loyalty to the Crown. The ruling, which is likely to benefit some 2,000 retired Gurkhas, was described by the community as a vindication of "commonsense."
"Today we have seen a tremendous and historic victory for the gallant Gurkha veterans of Nepal. This is a victory that restores honour and dignity to deserving soldiers who faithfully served in Her Majesty's armed forces. It is a victory for commonsense; a victory for fairness; and a victory for the British sense of what is right," said their lawyer Martin Howe.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
This could actually help. Remember they were primarily responsible along with the SAS of securing Malaysia during that little flare up. Now having about 1,000 well trained veteran Gurkhas deployed in various sections of Londonstan and the Midlands may give pause to any Islamic partying.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/01/2008 7:04 Comments ||
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#2
They refuse these guys and let in a flood of worthless, illiterate, lunatics that don't know what those rolls of white paper are for in a bathroom. WTF? Not the right kind of "ASIANS"?
#4
About bloody time. Labour have allowed every creep who claims to be from cess-pits like Somalia in willy-nilly, in the name of 'humanity' and refused honourable Nepalis who have actually risked their lives fighting for this country. Why? Because they have documentation and so CAN be barred entry. Let the gurkhas in, throw the parasites back out.
#5
As I write these last words, my thoughts return to you who were my comrades, the stubborn and indomitable peasants of Nepal. Once more I hear the laughter with which you greeted every hardship. Once more I see you in your bivouacs or about your fires, on forced march or in the trenches, now shivering with wet and cold, now scorched by a pitiless and burning sun. Uncomplaining you endure hunger and thirst and wounds; and at the last your unwavering lines disappear into the smoke and wrath of battle. Bravest of the brave, most generous of the generous, never had country more faithful friends than you.
- Professor Sir Ralph Turner, MC, who served with the 3rd Queen Alexandra's Own Gurkha Rifles in the First World War.
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, on Wednesday said he would not allow savers in Italy to lose any of their deposits as the crisis in the global financial system threatened to spread deeper into Europe.
The statement by Mr Berlusconi came just a day after Ireland extended a guarantee on all debts and savings accounts in six Irish banks.
France is also reported to be considering a similar deposit guarantee scheme to the Irish governments plans, as European governments seek to limit the impact of the crisis in the global financial system.
Angel Gurria, head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which has compared and contrasted deposit insurance schemes around the world, said in a report published on Wednesday that European countries may have to agree a co-ordinated plan to halt damage to their banking sectors.
Considering the exposure of European financial institutions, we might have to start thinking of a systemic plan for Europe if things dont improve on the other side of the Atlantic, Mr Gurria said. The piecemeal approach may not work in Europe either.
European countries, ranging from Ireland to Germany, have stepped in to rescue ailing banks this week as the world has waited with increasing anxiety for the US Congress to approve a bailout package.
US legislators could vote on a new bailout plan later on Wednesday after Congress on Monday shocked investors by throwing out an initial $700bn rescue scheme.
Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said on Wednesday he was working with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the European Central Bank to present proposals to leaders of the big four European powers at a meeting tentatively set for Saturday.
But the French government said no firm date had been fixed for the meeting, which officials said would only take place if there was a sufficient consensus on a joint approach.
Its not just a problem of injecting liquidity, Mr Barroso told a news conference. We also need to inject credibility in the European response. Thats why we are urging member states [to embrace]... closer co-operation. On Wednesday the EU executive unveiled proposals for tougher EU bank regulation.
Mr Barroso said the fact that EU member states, acting together or alone, had rescued several European banks this week showed the existing system of regulation, based largely on national governments and regulators, could cope for now.
But in the longer term, he said, the EU needed to go further in co-ordinated action to restore full confidence. We need a further strengthening of the supervision structures at European level, he said.
Christine Lagarde, the French economy minister, is also calling for the creation of a emergency fund for European banks, according to German newspaper reports.
Germany, which earlier this week injected billions of euros into troubled lender Hypo Real Estate, wants to stick to a piecemeal approach, leaving governments to address problems on a case-by-case basis, while pushing for stronger regulation at an international level.
The federal government cannot and will not issue a blank cheque for all banks, regardless of whether they behave in a responsible manner or not, Angela Merkel, the chancellor, told Bild daily in an interview to be published on Thursday.
Irelands decision on Tuesday to guarantee all deposits in Irish banks infuriated Britain, sucking money away from British banks where the guarantee is more limited, and is to be reviewed by Brussels as possibly constituting illegal state aid.
This has the potential to get nasty and nationalistic very quickly.
Banks will face tougher requirements on what capital they must hold to support their operations under new rules announced in Brussels on Wednesday. Supervisory arrangements for those with cross-border operations in Europe will also be strengthened.
Long-awaited reforms to the so-called Capital Requirements Directive are being used by lawmakers in Brussels to tighten banking practices and supervision in the wake of the credit crunch.
But, although the proposals were drafted after the financial crisis first struck in August last year, they pre-date the latest series of bank failures. Senior officials at the European Commission have acknowledged they will almost certainly need to be supplemented by other measures.
The legislation will require approval by both the European Parliament and member states, and could undergo further alterations in the process.
But on Wednesday, Charlie McCreevy, EU internal market commissioner, suggested that the recent turmoil might at least have provided a more favourable wind. Theres more support for what Im doing today than I had a month ago or even 10 days ago, he said.
On the supervisory front, the key change in the CRD is to make colleges of supervisors mandatory for all banks with cross-border operations. These colleges would be made up of officials from all the countries where the bank had operations and, where possible, decisions would be made by consensus.
However, the supervisor in the banks home country would have the final say in two key areas reporting requirements and the issue of extra capital requirements in specific jurisdictions.
There would also be a mediation mechanism in the event of disagreements through the London-based Committee of Banking Supervisors. Results would not be binding on the home country supervisor but it would then have to explain its actions.
The proposals fall short of centralised supervision, thought desirable by some of the EUs largest member states.
Even so, there is likely to be political resistance to these enhancements from some of the smaller countries especially in eastern Europe which fear they will play second fiddle to supervisors in the big financial markets.
Another of the more contentious proposals is that banks that devise and then offload securitised products should be forced to retain some of the risk.
Such products have been at the heart of the current financial crisis and under the new rules, originators would be required to retain capital for at least 5 per cent of the exposures they securitise. Commission officials had wanted to set the figure at 15 per cent, but the move prompted an outcry by banking groups ferocious, in the words of Mr McCreevy and the limit was revised downwards.
On Wednesday, banking associations would not comment on the final shape of the securitisation proposal.
Meanwhile, under the CRD, there will be a 25 per cent limit on all interbank exposures the amount they lend to each other with far fewer exceptions to this than permitted at present.
Finally, there are some technical provisions notably aimed at harmonizing the treatment of hybrid instruments (those with both debt and equity elements).
The commission, meanwhile, will bring forward separate legislation next month requiring credit ratings agencies to register and meet standards if they wish to operate in Europe.
STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Bad news for American writers hoping for a Nobel Prize next week: the top member of the award jury believes the United States is too insular and ignorant to compete with Europe when it comes to great writing.
Counters the head of the U.S. National Book Foundation: "Put him in touch with me, and I'll send him a reading list."
As the Swedish Academy enters final deliberations for this year's award, permanent secretary Horace Engdahl said it's no coincidence that most winners are European.
Continued on Page 49
#2
I wouldn't wipe my ass with many of the books that they call "literature". Political propaganda is a better word for it. The Nobel prize has the stain of elitism upon it.
#5
There was that really anti-American Indian woman, Cornsilk Blondie...Aryat something might be her name. Writes as if she's up for a BA in creative writing, and it's her seniour thesis.
#7
There was that really anti-American Indian woman, Cornsilk Blondie...Aryat something might be her name. Writes as if she's up for a BA in creative writing, and it's her senior thesis.
That's the core of being successful at winning a Nobel trailing wife.
Confess how Coarse and Unsophisticated the USA is. Add to your critique at least a liter of Snotty Snobbery illustrating how illiterate and Uncultured the Fat-Arsed Americans are.
In other werds grovel and apologize to the elite EYourpeans about breathing their air.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2008 11:53 Comments ||
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#9
Yeah, RD. But then you could try a more practical approach and write something that people actually wanna read enough to plunk down a few bucks for it.
Dexia, a Franco-Belgian bank that specializes in lending to local governments, got a $9.2 billion injection of capital to stave off imminent collapse after a loss of public confidence led to a 30 percent decline in its stock price Monday, according to announcements from the French and Belgian governments.
It was the fifth time in recent days that European officials have had to respond to a crisis at one of their financial institutions, abruptly ending the confidence European officials displayed as recently as last week that their financial system was not as endangered by the troubled mortgage loans undermining the U.S. system. With the pace and scale of events seeming to quicken, the Irish government guaranteed the debt of six financial companies amid a sell-off of bank stocks, and European officials discussed possible broader action to address problems with the global financial system.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2008 00:00 ||
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#4
A key quote from Bright Pebbles' excellent link:
But the AIG case shows the importance of another link across financial markets, namely massive regulatory arbitrage. The K-10 annex of AIG’s last annual report reveals that AIG had written coverage for over US$ 300 billion of credit insurance for European banks.
The comment by AIG itself on these positions is: “…. for the purpose of providing them with regulatory capital relief rather than risk mitigation in exchange for a minimum guaranteed fee”.
AIG thus helped to organise regulatory arbitrage on a gigantic scale. A formal default of AIG would have had a devastating impact on banks in Europe. This explains why AIG’s problems had sent shock waves through the share prices of European banks.
For the time being the US Treasury has saved, inter alia, the European banking system, but given that AIG is to be liquidated European banks now have to scramble to find other ways of obtaining the ‘regulatory capital relief’ they appear to need urgently.
#2
KOMMERSANT > VENEZUELA'S CHAVEZ CALLS US CRISIS A FAILURE OF [US Free Market]CAPITALISM.
Compare wid FOX NEWS Questions > WALL STREET CRISIS > IS US FREE MARKET CAPITALISM DEAD? + WHERE ARE ALL THE US FREE MARKET CAPITALISTS AND FREE TRADERS? + THE END OF FREE MARKETS?
#3
Betty, that's why George fired all those AG, because they failed to do squat about it. That's also why the Donks went after him for firing people he hired.
#4
This is an Islamic strategy at gaining power. To recruit the dissaffected. If Obama Hussien is trully Muslim deep down, he welcomes such practices as that is how they gain power in a non Islamic country.
When Hillary Clinton told a tall tale about "landing under sniper fire" in Bosnia, she was accused of "inflating her war experience" by rival Democrat Barack Obama's campaign. But the campaign has been silent about Obama's running mate, Joe Biden, telling his own questionable story about being "shot at" in Iraq.
"Let's start telling the truth," Biden said during a presidential primary debate sponsored by YouTube last year. "Number one, you take all the troops out - you better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone, where I have been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die."
But when questioned about the episode afterward by the Hill newspaper, Biden backpedaled from his claim of being "shot at" and instead allowed: "I was near where a shot landed." ...or near where there was a "loud noise". Or maybe it wasn't so loud. I forget due to my Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.
The senior senator from Delaware went on to say that some sort of projectile "landed" outside a building in the Green Zone where he and another senator had spent the night during a visit in December 2005. The lawmakers were shaving in the morning when they felt the building shake, Biden said. Empty beer can? Oh, the building shook. Empty beer keg maybe?
"No one got up and ran from the room-it wasn't that kind of thing," he told the Hill. "It's not like I had someone holding a gun to my head." But it could've been. It was that close...
The rest of the press ignored the flap at the time because Biden was viewed as having little chance of ending up on the Democratic presidential ticket. But even after Biden was selected to be Obama's running mate last month, his claim to have been "shot at" drew no scrutiny from the same reporters who had savaged Clinton for making a similar claim that turned out to be false.
FOX News has been asking the Obama campaign for details of the alleged shooting in Iraq ever since Biden was tapped to be vice president. Biden campaign spokesman David Wade promised an answer last week, but failed to provide one. He...he...just can't talk about it.
Meanwhile, the gaffe-prone Biden has again raised eyebrows with another story about his exploits in war zones - this time in Afghanistan. Biden said he will grill Republican rival Sarah Palin in Thursday's vice presidential debate about "the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan where my helicopter was forced down. If you want to know where Al Qaeda lives, you want to know where Bin Laden is, come back to Afghanistan with me," Biden bragged to the National Guard Association. "Come back to the area where my helicopter was forced down, with a three-star general and three senators at 10,500 feet in the middle of those mountains. I can tell you where they are." They're everywhere! EVERYWHERE, I tells ya!!
But it turns out that inclement weather, not terrorists, prompted the chopper to land in an open field during Biden's visit to Afghanistan in February. Fighter jets kept watch overhead while a convoy of security vehicles was dispatched to retrieve Biden and fellow Senators Chuck Hagel and John Kerry. Sorry, senator. No limos are available.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
"We were going to send Biden out to fight the Taliban with snowballs, but we didn't have to," joked Kerry, a Democrat, to the AP. "Other than getting a little cold, it was fine." Go get em, Joe. I'll cover you...
Biden never explicitly claimed his chopper had been forced down by terrorists. Nonetheless, John McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said Obama-Biden officials have been less than forthcoming about Biden's dramatic war stories. "They never explained Biden's helicopter story from last week - which is very similar to the story about getting 'shot at' in Baghdad," Rogers said. Yeah, McCain's just a big showoff, right, Joe?
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, once renowned for his jocular sessions with journalists, appeared irritable and at times sarcastic in an interview in which he defended running mate Sarah Palin's experience and campaign ads critical of rival Barack Obama.
Meeting Tuesday with the editorial board of The Des Moines Register, McCain was asked why he picked the Alaska governor, someone "who doesn't have a lot of experience."
"Thank you, but I disagree with your fundamental principle that she doesn't have the experience," McCain replied before citing Palin's work as a PTA member, city council member, mayor and governor. "You and I just have a fundamental disagreement, and I am so happy the American people seem to be siding with me."
When it was suggested that Palin's lack of experience worried voters, McCain turned sarcastic.
"Really? I haven't detected that in the polls, I haven't detected that among the base," he said. "If there's a Georgetown cocktail party person who, quote, calls himself a conservative who doesn't like her, good luck. I don't dismiss him. I think the American people have overwhelmingly shown their approval."
At another point, McCain was asked if he's strayed from his "straight talk" image with advertising that some have labeled deceptive. McCain dryly responded, "It would be valuable if you gave some examples for an assertion of that nature."
He went on to say: "I have always had 100 percent, absolute truth, that's been my life and putting my country first. I'll match that record with anyone and an assertion that I have ever done otherwise, I take strong exception to."
As examples, a questioner at the Register noted a McCain commercial that suggested Obama favored comprehensive sex education for kindergartners and assertions by his campaign that a "lipstick on a pig" comment Obama made was a reference to Palin. News media fact-checking the sex education ad deemed it deceptive and a distortion of Obama's position.
"It certainly is your opinion and I respect your opinion, but it's not the facts," McCain said in the interview. "I respect your opinion. I strongly disagree with your assertion."
He also sarcastically referred to his five years as a prisoner of war when answering a question about his having government-financed health care throughout his military and congressional career.
"The answer is that most of my life, in serving my country, I have had health care," he said. "I did go for a period of time when the health care wasn't very good."
McCain met privately with the newspaper's editorial board after holding an economic roundtable earlier in the day at a Des Moines business. The newspaper posted videos of the session on its Web site.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
10/01/2008 14:04 ||
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#1
Oh, to be there on the day McCain finally gets fed up with these 'journalist' mooks and punches one of them in the snout.
A running cliché of the political left and the press corps these days is that our current financial problems all flow from Congress's 1999 decision to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 that separated commercial and investment banking. Barack Obama has been selling this line every day. Bill Clinton signed that "deregulation" bill into law, and he knows better.
In BusinessWeek.com, Maria Bartiromo reports that she asked the former President last week whether he regretted signing that legislation. Mr. Clinton's reply: "No, because it wasn't a complete deregulation at all. We still have heavy regulations and insurance on bank deposits, requirements on banks for capital and for disclosure. I thought at the time that it might lead to more stable investments and a reduced pressure on Wall Street to produce quarterly profits that were always bigger than the previous quarter.
"But I have really thought about this a lot. I don't see that signing that bill had anything to do with the current crisis. Indeed, one of the things that has helped stabilize the current situation as much as it has is the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, which was much smoother than it would have been if I hadn't signed that bill."
One of the writers of that legislation was then-Senator Phil Gramm, who is now advising John McCain, and who Mr. Obama described last week as "the architect in the United States Senate of the deregulatory steps that helped cause this mess." Ms. Bartiromo asked Mr. Clinton if he felt Mr. Gramm had sold him "a bill of goods"?
Mr. Clinton: "Not on this bill I don't think he did. You know, Phil Gramm and I disagreed on a lot of things, but he can't possibly be wrong about everything. On the Glass-Steagall thing, like I said, if you could demonstrate to me that it was a mistake, I'd be glad to look at the evidence.
"But I can't blame [the Republicans]. This wasn't something they forced me into. I really believed that given the level of oversight of banks and their ability to have more patient capital, if you made it possible for [commercial banks] to go into the investment banking business as Continental European investment banks could always do, that it might give us a more stable source of long-term investment."
We agree that Mr. Clinton isn't wrong about everything. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act passed the Senate on a 90-8 vote, including 38 Democrats and such notable Obama supporters as Chuck Schumer, John Kerry, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, Dick Durbin, Tom Daschle -- oh, and Joe Biden. Mr. Schumer was especially fulsome in his endorsement.
As for the sins of "deregulation" more broadly, this is a political fairy tale. The least regulated of our financial institutions -- hedge funds -- have posed the least systemic risks in the current panic. The big investment banks that got into the most trouble could have made the same mortgage investments before 1999 as they did afterwards. One of their problems was that Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns weren't diversified enough. They prospered for years through direct lending and high leverage via the likes of asset-backed securities without accepting commercial deposits. But when the panic hit, this meant they lacked an adequate capital cushion to absorb losses.
Meanwhile, commercial banks that had heavier capital requirements were struggling to compete with the Wall Street giants throughout the 1990s. Some of the deposit-taking banks that were allowed to diversify after 1999, such as J.P. Morgan and Bank of America, are now in a stronger position to withstand the current turmoil. They have been able to help stabilize the financial system through acquisitions of Bear Stearns, Washington Mutual, Merrill Lynch and Countrywide Financial.
Mr. Obama's "deregulation" trope may be good politics, but it's bad history and is dangerous if he really believes it. The U.S. is going to need a stable, innovative financial system after this panic ends, and we won't get that if Mr. Obama and his media chorus think the answer is to return to Depression-era rules amid global financial competition. Perhaps the Senator should ask the former President for a briefing.
#1
Geez, the left has really declared war on their once "golden boy". I kinda feel sorry for the guy sometimes. Not sorry enough to vote for his wife, but in retrospect, he wasn't near as far left as the new bunch that's running around.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats, acting last week behind closed doors, cobbled together a temporary spending bill to keep the federal government running past Oct. 1st. The continuing resolution was needed because Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid simply have not done their jobs.
The 2008 budget year ended yesterday, but Congress hasn't approved a single one of a dozen annual appropriations bills needed to keep the federal government functioning on a day-to-day basis. Hence the $630 billion stop-gap measure, nearly the size of the failed Wall Street bailout. It passed the House on a 370-68 vote even though, as Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., candidly admitted, "very few people have any idea what's in it." Cornered House members had less than 24 hours to review the 357-page bill and 752 pages of accompanying material before being forced to either pass it - or shut down most of the federal government today.
One thing the continuing resolution is full of is earmarks, none of which were debated or voted on in public. The House Budget Committee's final tally is 2,760 earmarks totaling $19.1 billion (including presidential requests). None were publicly vetted through the regular legislative process or even posted on the committee's web site prior to the vote. And, since this temporary spending bill expires in five months, the whole dysfunctional process will begin anew in March unless theres a major shakeup of Congress in November.
House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, D-WI, who helped Pelosi craft the earmark-stuffed bill, admitted that the Democratic leadership deliberately decided to "kick the can down the road" and wait for a new president who presumably won't veto future earmark-laden legislation. This may be a good partisan strategy to protect the special interest recipients of all that pork, but Pelosi & Co. were elected to protect the people who pay the bills.
Obey defended the Democrats' lack of transparency, saying "you're damn right it has [been secretive] because if it's done in public, it would never get done. Ah, those pesky voters who expect to see what their representatives are doing! Obey thus abandoned any further pretense that he, Pelosi and their fellow Democrats meant it in 2006 when they promised to "drain the swamp" of political corruption. So in the middle of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Favor Factory is still working three shifts and earmarks are flying out the window as fast as ever, taxpayers be damned.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year.
Financial Leasing Services Inc. (FLS), owned by Paul F. Pelosi, has received $99,000 in rent, utilities and accounting fees from the speaker's "PAC to the Future" over the PAC's nine-year history. The payments have quadrupled since Mr. Pelosi took over as treasurer of his wife's committee in 2007, Federal Election Commission records show. FLS is on track to take in $48,000 in payments this year alone - eight times as much as it received annually from 2000 to 2005, when the committee was run by another treasurer.
Lawmakers' frequent use of campaign donations to pay relatives emerged as an issue in the 2006 election campaigns, when the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal gave Democrats fodder to criticize Republicans such as former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Rep. John T. Doolittle of California for putting their wives on their campaign and PAC payrolls for fundraising work.
But it's different when Democrats do it. Really.
Last year, Mrs. Pelosi supported a bill that would have banned members of Congress from putting spouses on their campaign staffs. The bill - which passed the House in a voice vote but did not get out of a Senate committee - banned not only direct payments by congressional campaign committees and PACs to spouses for services including consulting and fundraising, but also "indirect compensation," such as payments to companies that employ spouses.
"Democrats are committed to reforming the way Washington does business," Mrs. Pelosi said in a press release at the time. "Congressman [Adam] Schiff's bill will help us accomplish that goal by increasing transparency in election campaigns and preventing the misuse of funds."
Last week, Mrs. Pelosi's office said the payments to her husband's firm were perfectly legal, insisting she is compensating her husband at fair market value for the work his firm has performed for the PAC. But ethical watchdogs said the arrangement sends the wrong message.
"It's problematic," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonprofit ethics and watchdog group. "From what I understand, Mr. Pelosi doesn't need the money, but this isn't the issue. ... As speaker of the House, it sends the wrong message. She shouldn't be putting family members on the payroll."
A senior adviser to Mrs. Pelosi described the payments to FLS as "business expenses."
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/01/2008 09:43 ||
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#1
This should be illegal and she should be jailed for it.
#4
Good looks will only go so far. Somewhere there is a man are quite possibly as many as 300,000,000 people who are sick and tired of putting up with her kak.
#1
My fantasy is that Palin in the debate who the MSM consider an unsophisticated dunderhead from the sticks is nice during the debate but at the end she says: "Joe, here are your testicles back."
#2
My fantasy is that Palin in the debate who the MSM consider an unsophisticated dunderhead from the sticks is nice during the debate but at the end she says: "Joe, here are your testicles back."
Not with Gwen Ifill as moderator. She's so far in the tank for Obama (book deal, being one aspect), it's pathetic. Her GOP Convention post-Palin speech commentary was very indicative of where she's at politically.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/01/2008 9:51 Comments ||
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#3
There is no impartiality, anywhere.
The only difference between them and me, is that I will accept the will of the majority and not be a crying little bitch about who wins.
#5
As much as I like Palin, her performance during her two interviews were less then stunning. I want more from her but in reality I'm not expecting more. I think she will hold the line during the debate but will not propel forward. All Biden has to do is hold steady. They are ahead in the polls in every way and McCain is running a craptastic campaign. His trip to DC last week backfired and made him look inept. I'm pissed that he is not taking off the gloves and getting down to brass tacks. He seems tired and just going through the motions.
Its going to be an interesting 4 years after the chosen one wins.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
10/01/2008 10:59 Comments ||
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#6
We'll see. If past performance is an indicator, the Governor will be ok, even in a hostile environment. Apparently she did debates quite nicely when running for her current office. And it will be different for the honourable Senator Biden, who is used to being able to pose the gotcha questions, not having to answer in public, and with a limited time limit.
#8
I just came across this tidbit at the NPR website, swksvolFF: Rather than having the candidates engage each other, the debate will be set up more like a dual conversation with the moderator, PBS journalist Gwen Ifill.
#3
Couldn't agtee more with you Betty. It's almost as if McCain is setting her up as a scapegoat for when he loses, instead of releasing the unique phenomenon that is the Barracuda. Why was she forced to take trivia pursuit quizzes when she could have been doing what she does best, energizing the base in her own unique manner. Maybe McCain is the one who should be dropped from the ticket.
#4
The fact that the "press" is so in the tank for Obama means people would be very hard pressed to find anyone in that field that wouldn't be biased against the Republicans. Maybe they just chose the most biased one and will release the Barracuda and let all hell break loose. Maybe.
Either way, I'm so sick of the talking heads talking down to us for not supporting this moron that I'm about to skin the next one that I see at a rally yammering on about how great the "ONE" is and how stupid we are.
#6
The sort of biased moderator we have all come to expect in these debates. How about a bumper sticker for these elitist Obama supporters that says: "In the Bag for Barack?"
"Thank you for the question, Ms. Ifill patronizing though it is. And, yes, if pressed, I could probably stand up right now, walk across the stage and name every country on that blank map of the Middle East youve so graciously set up for me. But I think Ill pass.
First of all, Id rather not spend next week fielding questions about whether I saw Tina Fey doing another impression of me of Saturday Night Live, this time bending over to point out Yemen during which, of course, shell throw in a blank stare and gratuitous wiggle of her butt in order to suggest that the only reason John McCain picked me for the vice presidential slot was because I was once a beauty queen.
Second of all, Id rather not log onto the Internet next week and discover that one of your producers has surreptitiously supplied Bill Maher, who two weeks ago called me a category five moron, with a camera angle that shows a flash of cleavage which, of course, he will freeze-frame and weave into an obscene rant.
The point, Ms. Ifill, is that ever since I accepted Sen. McCains invitation to be his running mate, Ive become an object of ridicule and derision among the media elites whose commitment to political correctness apparently admits an exception for howling, sophomoric sexism as long as it is directed at their ideological adversaries.
Its not that I expected a fair shake, Heaven knows. I realize that theres a deep-seated emotional investment among liberal commentators in the candidacy of Barack Obama. I watched them chew up and spit out one of their perennial darlings Hillary Clinton when she stood in the way of their group hug. I heard Senator Clinton called a big f -ing whore by an Air America host; I heard one MSNBC host accuse her of pimping out her daughter, another call her a she-devil, and a third suggest that she needed to be taken into a backroom and beaten senseless to convince her to drop out of the primary race. And I heard a CBS News anchor yes, the same one who turned a recent interview with me into a pop quiz ask Sen. Clinton if she remembered being nicknamed Miss Frigidaire in school. Ugly stuff, isnt it? So its no surprise that when Senator McCain began to surge in the polls after he selected me as his running mate, the liberal media would come loaded for bear every time I made a public statement.
Ever since Senator McCain made that selection, by the way, Ive been working hard to get up to speed on foreign policy and global issues. The reason I wasnt up to speed beforehand is that, curiously enough, Id been focusing all my energy on doing the jobs Id been elected to do. When I was elected mayor of Wasilla, I tried to be a good mayor. When I was elected governor of the Alaska, I tried to be a good governor. I didnt regard either position as a stepping stone to anything else. I saw no need to go on fact-finding tours, at taxpayers expense, to foreign countries in an effort to bolster my geopolitical credentials for higher office.
By the time John McCain and I take office in January, rest assured I will be up to speed on geopolitics. I will be altogether qualified to be a heartbeat from the presidency. And Ill surround myself with altogether qualified advisers and staff, not yes-men and yes-women. Because I know from experience the very experience my opponent, Sen. Biden, lacks what it is like to make an executive decision. I know what it is like, after the legislative wrangling is done, after the wheeling and dealing by party hacks who are determined to maintain political cover and plausible deniability, to have the buck stop at my desk, to enact a law by my signature, to put my name on the bottom line.
So no, Ms. Ifill, I think Ill keep my seat. You can take down your blank map. I came here tonight to discuss, to the best of my abilities, the international and domestic issues that confront the United States and to provide the American people with an insight into my governing philosophy. I didnt come to convince voters that I could be a Jeopardy champion. If thats the main qualification for the vice presidency, then Id suggest both Sen. Biden and I step aside for Ken Jennings."
#8
I completely agree with you Betty. With the craptastic campaign McCain is running, he does not deserve to win. His "bipartisanship" banter is feeble and will not work because the Dems do not want no participate. He comes off tired, out of ideas and just holding on until the end. I cannot believe this is the best this country has to offer for presidential nominees. We republicans deserve what is about to be served to us. We have failed as a party and have been out performed by the Democrats. They have proven they want it more then we do and therefore deserve it.
We let ourselved down.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
10/01/2008 11:06 Comments ||
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#9
They have proven they want it more then we do and therefore deserve it.
Well they've certainly worked harder to steal it, if that's what you mean. I confess that I get rather upset when someone tries to steal my vote. Makes me ornery and more likely to vote against that party. So while McCain isn't the perfect candidate for me, when I see ACORN, Soros, Move.on, the Ohio SoS, the MSM, and Democratic glad-handers large and small out there trying to take the election for themselves, it makes me determined to help Mr. McCain.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/01/2008 13:34 Comments ||
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#10
i'm w/ you Steve -- the expectation that my gender / social class / whatever should determine my vote, and likewise, that if i rebel against that notion, that i'm somehow not an 'authentic' whatever because of it is galling.
#11
James Taranto, editor of the Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com, discusses Ms. Ifill in today's Best of the Web. He thinks this is all a tempest in a teacup:
Journalism entails endless conundrums of this sort. Every reporter who covers a particular campaign has an "investment" in that campaign. This is presumably why debate moderators are not usually selected from the traveling campaign press.
Further, it is quite possible that the appearance of a conflict of interest will actually work to neutralize the reality of such a conflict--that is, that Ifill, knowing her book puts her under additional scrutiny, will take extra care to be fair.
It also occurs to us to wonder just how important the moderators of these debates are. We've watched every presidential and vice presidential debate since 1988, and in our memory the moderators are just a blur--an endless procession of Jim Lehrers, a significant percentage of whom were Jim Lehrer.
There is one exception: CNN's Bernard Shaw, who opened the second Bush-Dukakis debate by asking the Massachusetts governor: "If Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" This was a highly dramatic question, one that some Dukakis partisans thought unfair to their man.
In truth, though, Shaw's question worked to Dukakis's disadvantage only because Dukakis played to type, answering it with a rote recitation of his position against capital punishment. He could have answered in a way that was both human and thoughtful: "If someone did that to my wife, I'd want to rip the bastard limb from limb with my own hands. But in a civilized country...
#12
The Repubs were not going to get anything close to an unbiased, neutral moderator. Might as well accept one with an obvious conflict of interest - she has a motivation not to be too flagrant with everyone watching.
The House is limiting e-mails from the public to prevent its websites from crashing due to the enormous amount of mail being submitted on the financial bailout bill. As a result, some constituents may get a 'try back at a later time' response if they use the House website to e-mail their lawmakers about the bill defeated in the House on Monday in a 205-228 vote.
"Don't go away mad. Just go away. And vote for us in November."
"We were trying to figure out a way that the House.gov website wouldn't completely crash," said Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the Chief Administrative Office (CAO), which oversees the upkeep of the House website and member e-mail services.
The CAO issued a "Dear Colleague" letter Tuesday morning informing offices that it had placed a limit on the number of e-mails sent via the "Write Your Representative" function of the House website. It said the limit would be imposed during peak e-mail traffic hours.
"This measure has become temporarily necessary to ensure that Congressional websites are not completely disabled by the millions of e-mails flowing into the system," the letter reads.
Ventura likened the problem to a bottleneck scenario on a highway, where multiple lanes of traffic converge into a smaller set of lanes. In that situation, some cars get to move forward while others have to remain at a standstill.
"What we had to do was basically install the digital equivalent of a traffic cop," Ventura said. "It was a question of inconveniencing everybody or inconveniencing some people some of the time, while servicing other people the other half of the time."
Member offices began to notice an overwhelming number of e-mails last week as the economy roiled and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, or "bailout package," became of interest to millions of Americans. All the clogs in the traditional e-mail service have since been resolved, according to the CAO.
However, Ventura ventured that the problems on the House website might not be resolved until the economic package was finalized. "We think we will see this spike [in Web traffic] until when and if another bill is hammered out," Ventura said. "There's going to be a lot of interest in this all week."
The error message in its entirety reads:
"The House of Representatives is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high amount of e-mail traffic. The Write Your Representative function is therefore intermittently available. While we realize communicating to your Members of Congress is critical, we suggest attempting to do so at a later time, when demand is not so high. System engineers are working to resolve this issue and we appreciate your patience."
#3
Well Congresspeople, do you just think maybe the people you think are chumps people in flyover land are slightly pi$$ed? Congressional elections are coming up in November. We won't forget you.
#4
This is what makes me believe the bailout ain't gonna happen. I can sorta see the wisdom in it even though I hate giving money to the crooks who got us into this mess. But it's like immigration. If you get that many representatives this close to an election with their constituents so pi$$ed off and watching so closely they're gonna get scared. And then ask yourself: How many of them really understand this problem any more than the average Joe Sixpack? Then you factor in that little speech that Madam Pelosi delivered on Monday and you have a very bad combination of factors. Bad for the bailout anyway.
The email crash makes me glad I sent my little rant to Madam Pelosi yesterday. Not that I'm under any illusions that she would ever read mine but the sheer volume has to be getting some kind of a message across.
Then I think, you know, what if she delivered that speech knowing full well that self-respecting Republicans could never vote in favor of the bailout after being slapped in the face like that? That leads to the question: What if the donks really want a depression? Because they think they can blame the Republicans and thereby get Obama elected? I wouldn't put it past them.
#6
Kumbaya. Messianic thing coming out (again). It is very creepy. Joseph Goebbels was good at this kind of thing too--controlling the media. Oh, I forgot we are already there with the MSM. Telling the big lie repeatedly--oh we are already there again with the MSM. A BO Presidency and a Democratic controlled Congress ought to give the American people a lot of concern. Big spending, big government control, gun control, and increased taxes should just about tank the country into depression and move it rapidly towards socialism. There won't be talk radio around due to the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" to counter what's going on.
#8
And don't forget John, Microsoft and Cisco have worked closely with the Chinese government in making the internet 'Regime Friendly(c)' too. Spyware with the government stamp of approval, soon to the CPU near you. As long as the industrialists corporations get their cut, why would they care.
#9
I wonder where this video was made. Some school or church near you?
Posted by: Jan ||
10/01/2008 11:32 Comments ||
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#10
Jan, the video opens with a neighbor's house... venice, california Note the friendly and unthreatening no-caps font.
"Tomorrow belongs to me" I hate that film, because it's that easy for something beautiful and life-affirming to be twisted into hate and destruction. But Obama's songwriter doesn't even respect his/her audience enough to present poetry or little potatoes with empty heads, just the hammerblows of trigger words. I'm awfully glad this thing was cached; it's important to keep it from the memory hole.
#14
This is the video I intended to post instead of the video in post #13. Again, I apologize for the mix-up. The video in #13 is totally inappropriate.
#19
This is political indoctrination of young children, plain and simple, and I find it terribly disturbing. I don't care what your political beliefs are as any parent that engages in this kind of practice is doing their impressionable and innocent young children a gross disservice.
Despite the "good" intentions of the parents orchestrating this display, if I were Obama and I saw this, I would be very, very troubled by it. Children should not be recruited (or forced, as the case may be) into politics and exploited like this. I can only hope that he would say, "thanks for your efforts here but I think it best that we leave politics to the adults, don't you agree?"
Can you imagine a choreographed group of young children singing praise and homage to McCain? Me neither but I know the MSM would be nuclear over the thing in a nanosecond. And they would be justified in doing so because this kind of political demagogeury is not only wrong and shamelessly anti-American, it's dangerous.
Posted by: Kelly ||
10/01/2008 15:32 Comments ||
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#21
eltoroverd - the fact that Obama doesn't disapprove of it and doesn't seem to be troubled by it at all is even more terrifying. He actually believes he _deserves_ all this pure adoration and (yes!) worship. He doesn't seem to be ashamed of it at all.
This type of thing is appropriate to North Korea, China, Pol-Pot, and yes even nazi germany where 'Dear Leader' approves the adoration and worship of the children and adults - and the media.
#22
I watched the video again twice: the first time GolfBravoUSMC's post #14, with the stirring music, and then the original, and I noticed a few things. The banner with the Obama logo says "Sing for Change". There is a Change poster on the far wall of the living room. Finally, there must be several cameras going at once to get the various shots, but I see no electrical cables or equipment in the final audience shots, which suggests to me in my ignorance that pretty good, ie expensive, miniature video cameras were used. Then I followed Procopius2k's link, and found the following in the comment thread:
peterike:
Yup, just a bunch o regular folk sittin round the house thinkin theyll sing a bunch o songs about Fearless Leader.
Crew
Andy Blumenthal, Editor
Ann Partrich, Assistant
Barry Rosenbaum, Producer
Christian Wilson, Technical Director
Darin Moran, Camera Operator
Eriko Matsumoto, Art Direction
Eugin Hong, Banner Artist
Gary Rhoades, Producer
Hana Rosenbaum, Banner Artist
Harry Zucker, Production Assistant
Holly Schiffer, Post Producer
Jean Martin, Assistant Camera
Jeff Zucker, Director
Kathy Sawada, Executive Producer
Nick Phoenix, Sound
Peter Rosenfeld, Steadicam Operator
Sandy Silver, Assistant to Executive Producer
Scott C. Smith, Wrangler
Wilma Wong, Producer
Yvette Carter, Production Assistant
Sep 30, 2008 - 2:41 pm
Just in case any of you have friends who hang out in Venice, CA. Finally, trailing daughter #2 watched it with me, and was scornful; it seems neither singing nor song were very good -- but then, several of the those she sang with are now at CCM, Juilliard, etc, so perhaps her standards are a bit impossible for a neighborhood chorus that's as much a vehicle for the soloist's career in commercials as it is a political statement.
Posted by: Heir Red Dog ||
10/01/2008 16:52 Comments ||
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#25
Speaking of forced policiticalization of children; last week there was the story of the kid that got expelled from school for wearing a shirt w/ a ploitical statement on it and his dad was quoted as supportive; anybody have any update on that? it seemed to fall off the news table...
#27
Here's the modified 2nd verse of the Cultural Revolution song "The East is Red". Substitute
"Mao" for "Obama" and "China" for "America" and
you have the original:
#28
An additional comment:
The youth organization of the East German communists was informally known as the "Blauhemden" (blueshirts). Their symbol was a rising sun.
#30
Trailing wife,
I presume you were referring to the film 'Cabaret'? I thought it was an excellent and powerful work, and not at all irrelevant to this discussion. Though I do not want to risk invoking Godwin's Law, this scene is creepily similar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdM8PDu6VMg
Commodities prices were on Monday heading for their biggest quarterly drop in more than 50 years on concerns that the US economic slowdown is hitting China, the worlds engine of raw materials demand.
A global benchmark of commodities prices, has fallen more than 23.5% since the end of June
Bankers fear that the drop in commodities prices will trigger a wave of liquidation among speculative investors, further depressing prices in the short term.
Kamal Naqvi, head of commodity hedge fund sales at Credit Suisse, told a gold conference in Kyoto that commodity hedge funds could lose up to 25 per cent of their assets by the end of September because of investor redemptions.
Redemptions are going to happen, Mr Naqvi said, referring to investors assets in hedge funds.
But he added that pension funds and other long-term institutional investors did not plan to liquidate their positions for the time being.
Chinas steelmakers were defaulting on contracts to import iron ore from India.
This has provided the starkest sign yet that Chinese demand for raw materials is cooling amid slower economic growth.
The Reuters-Jefferies CRB index, a global benchmark of commodities prices, has fallen more than 23.5 per cent since the end of June.
With just one trading day left in the quarter, that is its worst performance in any quarter since 1956, when the index was first published, and is double the size of the previous worst quarterly drop.
The drop in the Reuters-Jefferies CRB index is a sharp reversal of the strong gains of the first half of the year, when it posted a 29 per cent increase. The index is now 1 per cent down in the year to date.
Worries about Chinas commodities demand were exacerbated on Monday after news emerged that the countrys steelmakers were defaulting on contracts to import iron ore from India.
This has provided the starkest sign yet that Chinese demand for raw materials is cooling amid slower economic growth.
Michael Wittner, global head of oil research at Société Générale in London, said world economic growth was at risk.
He said slowing economic growth in the US and other developed nations might weigh on China and other developing economies via their trade links, but also a cooling in their domestic activity. The perception in the commodities market about emerging economies is in the process of changing, Mr Wittner said.
#3
World commodities prices have to fall a lot more. The US can't continue to run a trade deficit of $7-800 billion/year. Either the US earns those dollars back or the dollar heads for sustained devaluation.
Posted by: ed ||
10/01/2008 16:04 Comments ||
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#4
I think you're right, nobody wants to answer the question of where we call the line on borrowing. We are living on credit and digging the hole deeper every day. They are going through money like drunken sailors in D.C. and now they want to add $700B to the tab, actually, with add-ons, its already over a trillion.
#5
Readw deficits don't matter. It's a global economy. A global trade deficit would matter, but that's not possibly since everyones deficit and surplus balance each others out.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
10/01/2008 16:15 Comments ||
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#8
Mike N, tell that to your credit card company. Or your mortgage lien holder.
Posted by: ed ||
10/01/2008 18:08 Comments ||
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#9
Is not a good chunk of the commodity price fall actually the result of an increase in the value of the dollar? As vulnerable as the US economy is, it seems like others must be worse, because their money is 'fleeing' to the US.
#12
An individuals credit cards, mortgages etc and national trade deficits are separate issues.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
10/01/2008 20:06 Comments ||
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#13
It's all credit. Money is nothing but a promissory note to exchange some tangible asset for that funny piece of paper. Everything seems fine right up to the point the bank issues no more credit/other nations stop accepting your currency for payment.
Posted by: ed ||
10/01/2008 20:38 Comments ||
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#14
Pay me in usable ammo, unfired, and I will be happy.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/01/2008 20:58 Comments ||
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(PTI) After inking the first civilian nuclear agreement with France, India today assured its European partners that it plans to enter into similar pacts with them in future. "Today we signed a bilateral agreement in this area with France and we expect to finalise agreements with other European partners too," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured CEOs of major European companies while addressing the India-EU Business Summit here.
Singh said India has opened up its civil nuclear commerce sector for foreign collaboration. France is the first country to open nuclear commerce with India in 34 years after the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) granted a waiver to New Delhi on September six. The agreement, hailed by both New Delhi and Paris, will form the basis of wide-ranging bilateral cooperation from basic and applied research to full civil nuclear cooperation, including reactors, fuel supplies, nuclear safety, radiation and environment protection and nuclear fuel cycle management.
India, which has 17 nuclear reactors and is building five more, has plans to have around 40 reactors by 2025. India's nuclear sector is worth USD 100 billion.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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At least 168 people were trampled to death and more than 425 were injured in a massive stampede at a Hindu temple in Jodhpur city, officials said, the third such tragedy in India in three months.
With no crowd control, more than 12,000 people had gathered at dawn to celebrate Navratra, a nine-day Hindu festival to honor the Mother Goddess, Jodhpur Police Superintendent Malini Agarwal told reporters. Witnesses said the early morning stampede began as false rumors of a bomb spread among the crowd.
"Everyone was yelling, 'there's a bomb, there's a bomb,' then I heard horrible screaming."
"Everyone was yelling, 'there's a bomb, there's a bomb,' then I heard horrible screaming. It was the sound of total panic," said Vikki Koshi, who manages Yogi's Guest House very close to the temple.
The temple's floor had become slippery when devotees in a male-only line broke hundreds of coconuts for offerings, officials said. "Someone slipped," Home Minister G.C. Kataria told reporters. "Then people just kept falling over one another." Most of the dead were males.
Also contributing to the pandemonium was a power outage and the collapse of a wall on the narrow path leading to the temple, officials said. Television images of the scene afterward showed chaotic crowds hoisting limp bodies through the air. Hysterical women slapped the faces of husbands, trying to revive them, and wept over their bodies as paramedics tried to push through the crowds.
The tragedy occurred in the Chamunda Devi temple. It is nestled in the narrow passageways of the historic 15th-century Mehrangarh fort, a sprawling hilltop monument that overlooks the town. Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje called for an inquiry into what could be done to prevent similar events in the future. Local business leaders and emergency rescue experts said India has a growing need for better planning at major religious festivals and stricter crowd control.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
Dude!
What's the deal with Hindus and stampedes?!?
They really need to work on that before they have an Ikea open up.
#2
They're just jealous of the Muslim stampedes during the Hijaz.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
10/01/2008 11:44 Comments ||
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#3
Lack of proper policing. Too few firemen. Lack of basic infrastructure.
India has far few policemen per 1000 of its population than most countries. And many of those counted as police are actually tied up in counter-insurgency.
It doesn't help that the Indian government takes the contributions towards Hindu temples and gives back only a small fraction. It doesn't do the same with Churches or Mosques, allowing those to invest in far better facilities.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/01/2008 15:24 Comments ||
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In a tit-for-tat retaliatory attack, Shiite hackers infiltrated Sunni religious websites Monday in response to attack on prominent Shiite websites earlier this month.
The Shiite hackers posted a face painted with the Iranian flag with a logo resembling that of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and a picture of the Israeli flag split in two by the Arabian Gulf embossed with words "The Persian Gulf."
The hackers also posted a verse from the Quran reads "Assault those who assaulted you" in reference to the hacking by Sunnis of the Ahlulbayt Global Information Center, the largest Shiite website in the world, which is supervised by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani.
In the cyber-attack earlier this month Sunni hackers posted a religious chant and a video by American comedian Bill Maher in which he made fun of Sistani's "sexual fatwas."
Among the websites devoted to Sunni teachings hit was Islam Net, a site supervised by Saudi preacher Dr. Aaidh al-Qarni, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat reported on Monday. "The entire website is damaged and all its content is lost," Qarmi told the paper, describing the hacking as "ugly and aggressive" as well as contradictory to Iran's calls for bridge-building between Sunnis and Shiites.
Islamist scholar Sheikh Abdul-Aziz Qassem said that this exchange of hacking is a projection of the conflict in the Muslim world between Sunni and Shiite faiths, especially as far as missionary activities are concerned.
"These hackings were done by extremist Shiite youth," Qassem told the Saudi newspaper Al-Watan on Monday. "They were infuriated by the statements of Sunni Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi in which he warned of the Shiite missionary infiltration of the Sunni world."
Qarni suggested that hackers targeted his website in opposition to his support of Qaradawi.
Sheikh Faleh al-Sagheer, whose website Al-Burhan was hacked, described the attacks as "uncalled for" and said that preliminary estimates indicated that the number of hacked Sunni websites could reach 900.
The UAE-based Sunni hacker group Ghoroub X.P. had targeted about 300 Shiite websites for hacking, including Sistani's Ahl al-Bayt, according to Iranian news agency Fares.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2008 00:00 ||
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The Pentagon is inching closer to replacing the Humvee once called the "jeep on steroids" and currently the vehicular backbone of U.S. military operations in Iraq with the latest lightweight tactical vehicle under development.
The Defense Department next month is expected to select at least three of the seven competing teams to advance to the next phase of a multibillion-dollar competition to build a lighter, more agile tactical vehicle that can withstand roadside bombs and explosive devices.
Like the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles, or MRAPs, urgently requested by the Pentagon more than a year ago, the lightweight vehicles will be equipped with V-shaped hulls to protect soldiers from the latest urban threats, while still providing maneuverability and speed.
Among the teams competing for a stake in the deal while mingling with military officials here Tuesday at a Marine Corps conference were: Northrop Grumman Corp. and partner Oshkosh Corp.; the U.S. subsidiary of BAE Systems PLC and its teammate Navistar International Corp.; General Dynamics Corp. and Humvee maker AM General; and Lockheed Martin Corp. and Armor Holdings.
The vehicles will feature technology to absorb shocks from blasts, travel 90 miles per hour, and be easier to transport into and out of battle zones compared with the heavier MRAPs. While no weight requirement has been set by the services, the vehicles must be light enough for a C-130J aircraft to transport two of them, according to industry officials.
#1
"a lighter, more agile tactical vehicle that can withstand roadside bombs"
A lighter weight vehicle with superior agility AND armor? What, no 100mpg carburetor? LOL With pixie dust specs like these, I boldly predict this development program will proceed for a bit...and get canceled.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
10/01/2008 12:33 Comments ||
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#2
Minister, I think that "bit" you mention is the "bit" where a few people a) get very rich; and b) offered really high paying jobs in the civilian area.
#3
There are 3 serious teams with prototype versions of a Joint Light Tactical Vehicle in test by the US Army, a whittling down from a bunch of early stage proposals. Other teams are competing at the DOD level.
Blackwater and Raytheon are teamed - more here on their pitch to the special forces community.
Oshkosh & Northrup are teamed and building on their USMC vehicle experience, especially the TAK-4 suspension system they developed for the Marine Corps' Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement (MTVR) trucks, which are designed for fast speed over uneven terrain and their electrical drive train.
Lots more to be found by googling. It's a major procurement and the various teams are focusing their offerings on different design strengths. DOD is inviting international participation along the lines of the JSF, which would enable interoperability with allies in the future (and shared development costs).
#5
"The HUMVEES will [still]be around for decades..."> THOUGHT SO.
"BEGINNING OF THE END" > Yessirree You Betcha, like the COLT .45, the JEEP per se, HUEY SLICKS AND COBRAS, Ma Deuce, M113's Series, .....@etc. FAMOUS LAST WORDS, FULL OF SOUND AND FURY, SIGNIFYING NUTHIN'.
Iran's Interior Minister Ali Kordan has admitted to holding a fake Oxford University degree which he thought was valid, coming clean after weeks of controversy, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Hey! I've got a fake degree from Cambridge! I think mine's valid, too.
"In a letter to the president on Saturday, Ali Kordan said he had pressed charges against the person who claimed to represent Oxford University in Tehran as soon as he realized his degree was fake," the government daily Iran said. "All those hours, days, weeks, years, I spent at what I thought was Oxford, doing what I thought was studying -- wasted!"
Pressure has been mounting on Kordan following his appointment in August since Britain's prestigious university denied awarding him any qualification through a representative. "Who? Oxford educated, y'say? Must be another Oxford."
"Over the past eight years, I never doubted the validity of the degree and that's why I presented it in the course of the confidence vote," Kordan wrote in his letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The minister said he approached Oxford University after MPs cast doubt on his degree, but "to my utter disbelief, the university did not confirm (the degree) when my representative went there."
The degree had been issued for his "managerial and executive experience and for submitting a thesis to Oxford University via a person who had opened an affiliate office in Tehran in English-language affairs," the minister said. Oh, yeah. We got one of those here in Baltimore, too. Lotsa people get degrees from prestigious non-accredited universities.
Kordan said his search for the intermediary had proven fruitless and that he had filed a complaint against the unnamed person on September 14. "I feel so betrayed. He was a close personal friend. I think his name was 'Bob.'"
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2008 00:00 ||
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"My parents went to London and all I got was this lousy fake diploma!!!1!!"
FILM stars including Forest Whitaker, Leonardo DiCaprio and Dustin Hoffman joined forces with Google in a campaign to get US citizens to vote in the coming presidential election.
The celebrities make rapid-fire appearances in a 5 Friends YouTube video that warns people their rights and futures are at stake and implores them to wield power over the outcome by voting.
In keeping with the video title, the movie stars urge people to send it to five friends so it spreads, as comedian Sarah Silverman put it, "rampant like herpes but for a positive".
"If you're not going to vote I don't even know what to say to you anymore," DiCaprio says after the video turns serious. "You know you have to vote."
Celebrities in the sometimes humorous, sometimes foreboding video direct viewers to www.maps.google.com/vote for geographically-tailored information about voting and voter registration.
"There's a lot of buzz about turnout this year, but one in four Americans still aren't registered to vote," Google said on its website, citing US Census data.
"Now is the time - voter registration deadlines are less than a week away in most states."
As a followup to my post yesterday on how to handle the financial crisis, the writer at the link describes the basics in simple terms. Worth a look.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/01/2008 16:36 ||
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well, I had a problem getting past this statement, " Teaser-rate mortgages first became widespread after Mr. Bush took office in 2001.)"
It's a meaningless statement and gives away the writer's bias.
He does do a fairly good job of explaining the food chain, and makes some good points. But the point that I believe he is missing is this:
There are lots of people who have lots of money. Right now, they are looking for places to put their money now where it can be safe and they can get their best return. So that means that there are plenty of people willing to lend money to credit worthy subjects. And yes, the interest rates will go up, because if you need credit, and credit is difficult to come by, you would be willng to 10% or maybe even more. Supply and demand, baby.
Yes, we need to do some things to make the credit continue to flow from the big institutions so that the engine doesn't freeze.
The problem is that the bailout it is just a big giant pile of money. Giving to these Senators and lobbyists is like giving food aid to Zimbabwe or North Korea. It doesn't get to where you want it to go, so why give it in the first place?
You have to have a plan that assures that the money goes to where it is needs to go to solve the crisis. If a well in a desert town in Africa has dried up, you need to give the residents the ability to continue to get water. Shooting a firehouse of water into a city that needs a well will solve nothing and waste lots of water.
Do we need to act fast, yes. But Paulson should be fired and someone who can enact a real plan needs to be put in his place.
While I may disagree with lotp on some aspects of the present crisis, I do not disagree with her on its menace or magnitude. It is happening, folks. More evidence. It takes time for these forces to reach every part of the economy. Sort of like a tsunami. But it's headed your way. My opinion is no ifs, ands, or buts, its coming and you're the target.
Auto sales, which were weak over the past 11 months, fell off the table last month:
Ford Motor posted a 34% drop. Their truck and van sales fell 39%, SUV sales plummeted 57% and F-series truck sales dropped 42%.
Honda reported a 24% decline in sales;
Toyota U.S. Sept. sales drop 32.3%, light truck sales dropped 38%
#2
Well they have people so freaked out about this financial crisis that they naturally aren't going to be buying cars right now. People don't know if they are going to have a job tomorrow morning the way the news outlets are talking.
Posted by: ed ||
10/01/2008 16:38 Comments ||
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#4
Again, Americans have gotten far to used to living high on borrowed money. Most sales of new autos are completed with a car loan, and that's harder to get lately.
The average car gets traded in at about six years and 70,000 miles. Most people who deferred buying in September can wait another couple of years if they need to.
#5
Carmakers have been borrowing from future sales for so long - using easy lending schemes and NINJA (no income, no job or assets) loans - that they are finally being forced to pay the piper. This collapse was a long time in coming. This wasn't a subprime bubble or a housing bubble - it was a credit bubble.
#6
Their are way too many car makers with way too many model competing model lines. The jig is up, it's time for consolidation.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
10/01/2008 17:38 Comments ||
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#7
Amsn Mike N. It is going to be hard, but it has to happen. There is no way that people are going to continue to purchase cars or trucks at the rates they have been the past several years. I wouldn't buy a new car if you paid me. It is a losing proposition as soon as you drive it off the lot.
My buddy just scored a used Honda Accord; settled with them at 8:30 PM last night (last day of the month so the sales guy's more likely to fold on price just to meet his monthly quota) and got $2000+ off list price. Sales guy's still worried about getting canned, so I don't think used car sales are doing that much better.
#10
Interesting that they have all these sales figures pulled together less than half a day after the end of the month. Suspicious even. It's not their norm:
http://www.forex-brokerage-firms.com/economicindicators/auto-truck-sales.htm
Bottom line up front: the European central banks are pumping massive amounts of liquidity into their systems, so the LIBOR dropped 3 of the 4+ percentage points it gained the previous trading day. However, rates are going up for 3 month money, indicating that there is massive strain internationally and the markets don't think that is a transient problem. While the central bankers say they'll keep up the liquidity bailout as long as is needed, it's not obvious that they have the economic strength to do this for a long time -- and especially if Congress doesn't act soon.
The volatility in wholesale money markets was underscored on Wednesday with big reductions in overnight unsecured interest rates, but rises in the cost of three-month money.
The Libor rate for overnight US dollar borrowing was fixed at 3.79 per cent, a plunge from 6.87 per cent on Tuesday, with a similarly large fall seen in sterling overnight interest rates.
But for those banks able to borrow longer-term, whether in dollars, euros or sterling, the interest rates on three-month money rose up to 4.15 per cent in the US, 5.28 per cent in the eurozone and 6.31 per cent in the UK.
The collapse of trust in money markets has led to more than 100bn being parked overnight at the European Central Bank by far the highest amount ever, underscoring the extent of stress in the global financial system.
Banks are increasingly dealing with central banks rather than each other as the crisis of confidence persists, but central banks around the world are finding it difficult to judge demand for funds as every banks needs are different.
The 102.8bn left on Tuesday night in the ECBs deposit facility, which pays a below-market interest rate of 3.25 per cent, highlighted banks reluctance to deal with each other. The sum was more than double the amount deposited on Monday night.
At the same time, other banks borrowed almost 16bn from the central banks marginal lending facility, which incurs a penalty interest rate of 5.25 per cent.
For a smaller economy, a similarly large amount of money some £7bn was squirreled away by UK banks in the Bank of Englands equivalent deposit facility on Tuesday night, earning an interest rate of 4 per cent, a percentage point below the Banks policy rate.
The Bank of England is now planning to drain £10bn of cash from banks that have found themselves awash with overnight money but are reluctant to lend it out.
In a sign of the difficulties of working out how much money to pump into the banking systems, the UK central bank offered two US dollar auctions on Wednesday morning, one overnight and one for a week, but found demand thin for both. Less than half the money offered was taken up in the $30bn weekly auction.
Since the failure of the US authorities $700bn bail-out plan, the ECB has dramatically expanded its financial market liquidity boosting operations.
In the latest move on Wednesday it pumped in an extra $50bn of overnight dollar liquidity at an interest rate of 3.25 per cent.
Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, pledged in a speech in Frankfurt late on Tuesday that the central bank would continue to support solvent banks access to liquidity and the functioning of money markets for as long as necessary.
But, separately, he also highlighted European policymakers concern about the scale of the global financial crisis when he urged US politicians to revive the planned rescue plan.
It has to go, for the sake of the US and for the sake of global finance, Mr Trichet said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.
The ECB has so far stuck to a strict separation of measures to help financial market liquidity and its monetary policy aimed at combating inflation. Its governing council is widely expected to keep the main policy rate unchanged at 4.25 per cent when it gathers in Frankfurt on Thursday.
Not quite. It implies that banks are scared to lend or borrow right now. These were dollar auctions because the European and UK banks are holding large amounts of dollar-denominated derivatives.
The global banking system was gripped by a worsening crisis of confidence yesterday as the leaders of the US Congress struggled to salvage the administration's $700bn bail-out plan.
"Congress must act," said President George W. Bush, expressing disappointment the government's bill was thrown out the previous day. "The reality is that we are in an urgent situation, and the consequences will grow worse each day if we do not act."
With leaders of both parties pledging there would be legislation in Congress this week, senators were discussing bringing the bail-out plan before the upper house as early as tonight.
Although stock markets steadied after the savage sell-off on Monday night sparked by the failed vote, overnight interbank lending rates spiked to painfully high levels in the major currencies, with overnight dollar Libor leaping 4.3 percentage points to a seven-year high of 6.88 per cent.
The money market strains were exacerbated by the end of the financial quarter yesterday, a time when there is increased demand for funds and banks have to balance their books.
The language of bankers and analysts grew apocalyptic as they warned that the near total seizure gripping money markets could turn into widespread financial meltdown.
"This crisis of confidence seems grossly out of proportion with the albeit fragile fundamentals of the financial system and of the global economy," said Marco Annunziata, chief economist at UniCredit. "But it is now threatening to turn into a self-fulfilling run on the system which could trigger a global financial and economic meltdown."
Further signs of strain emerged in Europe when Dexia, the Belgian-French bank that specialises in local authority finance, received a 6.4bn ($9bn) cash injection from the Belgian, French and Luxembourg governments after its shares lost 30 per cent of their value on Monday.
Banks in Europe increasingly appeared to be conducting all money market operations through the European Central Bank as increased injections of funding were met with rapid increases in the amount of money banks were opting to put on deposit at the central bank. One senior liquidity manager at a large European bank said this was because almost no bank was willing to lend to any other.
That's the key evidence that that credit system is right on the edge of collapse, folks.
The 'system' is damaged but could function adequately - if the participants all had enough confidence to let it. That's what the bail-out is intended to do: the only reason to believe it could work is that it does not have to affect reality, just perception.
#2
increased injections of funding were met with rapid increases in the amount of money banks were opting to put on deposit at the central bank.
And this is the key reason the bailout will not work. I hate to go all Keynesian on you, but we are falling into a liquidity trap. Congress should instead be appropriating funds for major capital improvements, highways, nuclear power stations, etc., not rescuing the hos who got us into this mess. The capital gains and corporate income taxes should be repealed. We will need spending, not liquidity.
#3
There is a lot of anger about the bailout bill. I for one get tired of hearing that giant sucking sound that sucks taxpayer money into the Washington blackhole. Get rid of the lobbyists, graft, corruption, influence buying and pedaling, back-door deals, partisan politics, and insidious under-the table vote trolling. Do something about manufacturing, jobs, OUTSOURCING OF JOBS, energy, give-away programs and WE MIGHT MORE WILLING TO LISTEN TO YOU WHEN YOU ASK FOR MORE, AND MORE MONEY.
#4
"Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind."--King Solomon
Everybody has goofed here: politicians, bankers, and the rest of us. The politicians are playing power games instead of leading. The bankers see money, not wisdom in using it. And for three generations the rest of us have had the attitude, "I want it now."
#6
overnight interbank lending rates spiked to painfully high levels in the major currencies, with overnight dollar Libor leaping 4.3 percentage points to a seven-year high of 6.88 per cent.
Kind of like an adjustable rate mortgage ratcheting up, eh?
#7
Much more than that. Overnight lending between banks is quite literally what makes access to credit of all kinds possible for most consumers and businesses. When it dries up, expect an accelerating economic downturn to follow.
#8
Out of curiosity, what do all the banks decide to do with the money they aren't using to lend to each other anymore?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
10/01/2008 11:57 Comments ||
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#9
They hold onto it in less productive and risk averse ways. They don't lend it out much, and certainly not to the people who are most likely to use it in economically productive ways. At best they deposit it with their national bank or the European Central Bank.
That means a substantial reduction in the 'velocity' of the money supply, i.e. how often a dollar or euro is traded for goods or services in a given year. Low velocity = low economic activity/productivity = recession or depression.
The effect starts slowly but then snowballs. That's why you can't look at the stock market today and decide things are just hunky dory out there.
Credit card and mortgage rates will go up - and go up much higher than they would otherwise have done. Businesses will find it hard to finance supply purchases and new hires - or worse, find themselves unable to collect what's owed them by other businesses on time (or at all) and unable to get a bridge loan. That means layoffs and bankruptcies. Consumers will spend less and as a result stores etc. will lay off workers. etc etc
This is the cascade of accelerating failures that we will either slow down now or lose control of quickly.
#10
The Freddy Krueger bailout bill moves through the Senate gaining more pork and earmarks.
$875 Billion and growing.
Really a bill onto itself, the mental health parity measure has been a bipartisan priority for top lawmakers in both chambers but has stalled because of disagreements again over how to pay for its estimated $3.8 billion five-year cost. In the current climate, that seems to be no longer a stumbling block, and if the Treasury plan becomes law, it will also.
The rural school aid is smaller about $3.3 billion over the next five years but has great importance for many Western communities and could be important then in the House.
Congressional Budget Office estimates indicate that the net impact will be to add almost $105 billion to an already large deficit next year, and fiscal conservatives will feel they are being straight-armed by the Senate which has refused to do more to offset the costs. Yahoo News at:
#11
I THINK Bush has the balls to veto it if it's too pork laden.
(I sincerely hope so)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/01/2008 16:52 Comments ||
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RJ- I sincerely doubt it; the way he has been groveling this past week, it would not surprise me to see him at the table in the House or Senate ( whichever one finally approves the latest version last) and actually snatch it away and sign it before the previous signature is dry.
A rare outbreak of common sense at the SEC. This provides some needed slip in the 'mark-to-market' rule which is what the market needs for now.
Under pressure from banks and legislators, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued an interpretation of an accounting standard that could make it easier for banks to report smaller losses, or perhaps even profits, when they announce results for the third quarter, which ended Tuesday.
The move on Tuesday drew praise from the American Bankers Association, which had complained to the S.E.C. that auditors were forcing banks to value assets at unrealistically low "fire sale" prices, rather than at the higher values the banks believe the assets should be worth in an orderly market.
Some congressmen had pressed to order a suspension of the fair-value rule, known as S.F.A.S 157, as part of the bailout bill that the House defeated on Monday but that may be revived later in the week. That bill stopped short of that, but did require a study of the rule and authorized the S.E.C. to suspend it.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/01/2008 00:00 ||
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Steve that's Rubbish! It's like trying to turn a ship, by holding a magnet near the compass.
Everyone will know that the accounts are meaningless, and so no-one will lend to anyone.
#2
Disagree with BP's assessment. First, there is no known inventory of the asset values. Just because these are default mortgages doesn't mean they have below par value. In fact, I believe this is a win-win-win for bankers, investors, the Fed. I will be leading the way with my broker finding the best managed funds to take a share of their potential come-back valuation but the mark-to-market has to be fixed first exactly to allow market value to rule versus regulatory auditors subjective assessments.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/01/2008 7:08 Comments ||
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#3
Is this a temporary rule?
It seems like it could be misused easily. It will make it much harder for investors to evaluate a company's true ROI.
#4
This rule is total BS. These values should be footnoted, and the data should be available, but the statements should be constructed on a historical cost basis with sufficient reserves in management's judgment.
There are more games that can be played with "fair" value to manage earnings than with historical cost.
And I am getting sick of the misuse of the word "fair". If we could come back in 200 years, I think we would find that the definition of "fair" had become "liberal manure".
#6
I guess if it was footnoted it would be possible to factor that in, but it would make it "Skill Level 5" at least. I think investing in the future is going to be somewhat more complicated with several hundred billion dollars of dubious assets in the finance industry.
#7
Part of the problem today is that people are sitting on the sidelines of investment because they can't be certain what they are buying for their money. Companies over-leveraged their assets so much that it is hard to know what they have at this point. Investors are waiting for things to shake out. Because of organizations like Fannie and Freddie where the books were cooked, money was looted, and risky loans were re-packaged and sold under various instrument names and backed by other financial esoterica that were sold. Consequently, a financial cancer was spread through our economy.
However, I can't believe that you can't value assets in some meaningful way. If I bought a $30,000 truck earlier in the year and I go out of business because of bad management, health reasons, business climate changes, etc. that truck might be sold for $1.00 today! That's what's being said about these large investment firms that are in trouble. Somewhere between around what I paid for the truck and virtually nothing ($1.00) is some reasonable valuation that people might agree on. If people come to look at my truck and make offers, one will arrive at some kind of reasonable valuation for this asset. I can sell the asset for some value--maybe. There is some risk I might end up eating a loss and go on. That's the risk inherent in being in business. Or the government might bail me out for not knowing how to run a business. Political correctness would say that no one should fail.
"Failure" is a signal that we need to learn something that we are not doing right. In engineered systems that rely on feedback control, deviation from expected performance is used to control the system and get it back on track. Mistakes and failure are essential to learning. Maybe oversimplified.
#8
OK, my take here is to have the Government actualy take all the mortgages failing, restore the original terms, make all a fixed interest and jail the thieves who played the shell game of "Selling Mortgages" Then jacking up the interest.
A fixed mortgage rate
(And a law oulawing "Variable Rate loans) will not only fix this mess, it'll prevent it happening again, and the US Government will profit handsomly to boot.
That's my.02 .
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/01/2008 10:04 Comments ||
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#9
Variable rate, interest only, ARM and other specialty loans have their place. They can be real handy for some people in the right situation. Some people know that they will only live in a house for a certain period of time, say if you were living on location for a job, or you were going to retire at a known time in the future and move abroad. They were not originally conceived to get people into houses that they obviously could not afford, but that's what happened. You need to reinforce good qualifications for buyers and make it stick, those pre-qualifications are already there, and they work well, if applied.
#10
If you want to diddle the books you always do it in stock account. Why? because it's the only category that appears in the balance sheets and profit and loss. It's always about valuation. That's why they have auditors, who if they are any good should know what to look for.
#12
GAAP standards only require them to do sampling I'm pretty sure, at least for external auditors. If they actually catch you with auditing, you have probably gone buck wild anyway.
#14
BP is right. Now that everyone knows that nobody knows what these things are worth, any new rule 'interpretation' is meaningless.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
10/01/2008 13:21 Comments ||
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#15
The notion that a temporary market glitch should be allowed to bankrupt firms due to strict application of an accounting regulation is batty.
These mortgages have value, just not one that makes their holders happy. The temporary lack of a market does not mean they are worthless. Many of these securities are intended to be held for years. All are backed by real estate of some worth and many have income from payments arriving monthly.
The market locked up because some major players decided they would not accept market prices but would hold out for government intervention. They know that their bought Congresscritters will pay more for this paper than the market. The House bill allowed the Treasury to pay some holders more than they paid for the securities originally.
As a practicing senior-level accountant for over 20 years, I will say that mark to market is one of several FASB / government originated decisions that have made business more difficult in the last two decades.
Pension valuations will make this situation look like a walk in the park.
From Newsbusters. Check out the table at the end: the age 18-54 crowd doesn't watch Network News. The network news operations are zombies -- they're dead but just don't know it yet.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/01/2008 00:00 ||
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OTOH, CNN has copied a lot from the FOX format such that FOX now follows CNN's lead in breaking stories.
#2
I rarely watch even my local news anymore. I WANT to watch it, and I tune in about once a week HOPING to see something, but alas, it just sucks too much to waste my time.
I was with a bunch of moms today and not one of us took the local paper. What's worse is that I was at a party last weekend and a group of women were planning a trip to the movies but none of them got the local paper. And they were all in their early 60's.
#5
I had the option of getting local channels for a nominal fee when I got my little satellite dish installed a few years ago. I told them to stuff the local channels. Network free. Ahhhh!
#6
My mom and grandma watched the evening news religiously. Once, when I was about 10, Wells Hangen was reporting live from Saigon when a grenade went off nearby. A piece of shrapnel hit him in the leg. He calmly stated that he'd been hit by shrapnel, he wasn't seriously injured, but he'd have to sign off.
The network cut to the commercials. I think one of them was for aspirin.
Chicago news anchor Bill Kurtis addressed my high school in an assembly in 1974. He stated that television news was more of a "headline service".
#7
Their loyal viewership is literally dying off. I'm surprised they haven't manufactured a Longevity Crisis(c) to rush a hundred billion dollar package through Congress to keep that viewership on life support. They can even have a nifty motto - Don't Pull That Plug!
#8
It may be that the in-the-tank media is now only preaching to the already converted. They're the only ones still watching.
Which is why BO's numbers in the polls worry me. You can't get those kind of numbers with just True Believers; you need the great middle.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
10/01/2008 9:42 Comments ||
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#9
I trust those people so little that if the New Yuk Times wrote the sun was going to rise in the east tomorrow morning, I'd have to get up and check. They can't be believed on ANYTHING because they play politics with EVERYTHING.
#10
I am positive that the polls are slanted to create an Obama lead. All the media, pollsters included are banking on an Obama win, and you know what happens to banking on a gamble. Also, there are a lot of people who will never vote for him or any black associated with the 'black movement'. When polled, they will say sure, count me in, but in fact, no way.
It's no surprise that the black caucus is attached at the hip with Fanny Mae and this financial crisis. This entire debacle was created to funnel money to blacks so they could buy 'affordable housing' even without the means to repay the loans.
It's not the fault of black people, but the fault of the congressional black caucus voting for a payback for their constituants. What could be better than piles and piles of money to play with ?
No bailout ! Your party, my dime ? No way.
Maybe if the MSM ran this story they would begin to recover. Don't bank on that either.
#11
"This entire debacle was created to funnel money to blacks so they could buy 'affordable housing' even without the means to repay the loans."
At the start, and in concept yes. But once the rules changed that (seemed to) guarantee loans made to people who clearly lacked the wherewithal to repay, McMansions, and zero down flipping became all the rage. There really is enough blame to go around.
Posted by: Minister of funny walks ||
10/01/2008 12:23 Comments ||
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#12
The MSM have shot themselves in the feet. They used to slightly mask their bias'. Now it so obvious that they are nothing but "trumpeters and cheerleaders" for BO and a left agenda. The lying and their agenda have left people distrusting anything they say. Bring on the fall faster please. They abuse the freedoms of the First Amendment.
Here's an example of how easily they do it: The lying and their agenda have Left people distrusting anything they say.
Recognize your own sentence? The MSM is so far in the tank for these folks they can't be trusted to report anything straightforwardly. Obama is the worst candidate a major party has put forward for the POTUS in my fairly long lifetime. I've NEVER seen them in such cahoots before, not even in 2004. If it wasn't for their complete sellout in becoming a fully-owned subsidiary of the Democrat Party, Obama would be back finishing up a very obscure first term as junior Senator from Illville.
Consumers facing rising unemployment kept their spending unchanged in August even though incomes rose, according to a government report Monday that showed optimism about the economy's direction was fading.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
So in other words we acted like sensible f*cking people for a month?
Yeah, well Christmas is coming up and some of us need to 'bank' the extra for gifts for family and friends and travel. Some of that travel will probably involve GAS. August is about the start month to getting the act together.
#3
Haven't they been telling us we need to save more anyway? Now they sound worried that we arent buying as much miserable crap. I have no idea what these goons are going to do to the economy in the next month so I save more and spend less on non-essentials, where is the mystery in that?
#4
If American consumers saved a reasonable proportion of their income and lived within their means, the entire US economy would collapse within weeks. This has been true for some years (? decades).
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I don't know about everyone else but I'm really upset that Bush, our representatives and the media seem to be attempting to create a run on the banks and stock market by shouting "fire". They didn't pass that bill and this morning the stocks went back up. Hmmm.
I was driving this morning and some unknown news announcer was telling listeners how to explain the financial crisis to children in an age appropriate way. Something like, "Tell them that when it comes to matters about money and keeping the house that mommy is nervous and concerned but hopefully everything will turn out ok."
#2
The danger is real, Betty, not faked. The international credit and currency exchange system is tottering very very close to the edge of a cliff we really do not want to go over.
Look: I'm as skeptical as anyone about government action in the markets. But there really is a potential here for massive world wide depression. Paulson was trying to STOP a cascading set of failures already under way in the finance system, not trigger one.
#3
I don't think anyone has a problem with saving the financial system, but they could pick one of the intelligent ideas that have been floated to them.
#4
Potential? I'd say certainty. We're only discussing whether or not we can cushion the blow.
And then I awaken this morning to the whiney voice of Robert Reich III complaining on NPR about the effect of this on...early wave boomers...like him. ME, ME, ME, for ever. An assh*le like that ought to be thanking the Lord for all his blessings and worrying about the poor of all ages who won't be able to pay for heat this winter and will resort to open flame heating that will burn their house down while they sleep. But instead, I guess he's worried about not being able to summer on the Riviera. It's exactly that attitude that has made this reckoning inevitable. Let it be swift.
#5
Look. Let's get past the "cliff" metaphor and talk about what's really down there. Not "there be monsters"... what's really the downside of not doing anything? I'd like to know beyond "it's scary, trust me".
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
10/01/2008 9:34 Comments ||
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#6
It's far enough down that there are some clouds obscuring the view, but ....
If credit dries up that has a massive effect on the economy. Small and mid-sized businesses depend on working capital to operate and expand, so a credit crunch means fewer jobs and more layoffs. Families that are using credit to skate by a rough spot will spiral down and the rate of home foreclosures will increase exponentially - i.e. slowly at first and then massively over time. We might well be looking at 15-20% unemployment, 25% credit card rates (if you can get them), ARMs adjusting to 15-20% or more annual rates in a year or two ....
Overall the biggest danger is that there is a mid-term and long-term flight from the dollar. We have been financing our wealthy lifestyles (and yes, I mean YOU are wealthy compared to the middle east, africa and major parts of Europe) through national borrowing and because of the wealth spinoffs of easy consumer and business credit. When Bush was thwarted at every turn by the Left wrt the GWOT, he bought them off with a variety of financial measures that he didn't like. He stopped pushing Social Security reform. He accepted Medicare part D as written. And he let the dollar drop (as it would have anyway) in order to force others to indirectly help fund the war(s).
It was inherently a balancing act. I'm not going to argue here whether or not he could have done some of it differently. Certainly a huge portion of the mess we're in has its roots in Congress -- and in the divided, spoiled voter population that elects them.
But be that as it may, where we are now is that the whole rickety mess is in danger of crashing down onto the main day to day economy, here and around the world. Overly leveraged derivatives would have had a market correction anyway. What makes this one so very dangerous is that it is hitting developed economies globally and that it will spread at the speed of 24 hr/day computerized trading.
Can anyone tell me exactly who will benefit directly from this bailout and why that will help the rest of the economy.
Also, the same people that got us into this mess seem to be the same people that are going to benefit the most. WTF up with that?
What would happen if these banks that are in such trouble were just abandoned and their assets parcelled out to conservative, solid banks; then take some of that bailout money to fund mass infrastructure improvements for power plants, bridges, etc. to help the employment picture and get the money into the system?
Oh, yeah, kill the cap gains tax and cut business taxes.
#8
Okay. So there's the hard bottom of it, apparently. What does the recovery from that point look like?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
10/01/2008 10:52 Comments ||
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#9
Bachmann (R-MN) summarizes the situation this way: "We're told on the one hand that we're facing financial Armageddon, but we weren't given evidence to explain why ... and we weren't given information to show why this bailout was the only solution." Also, evidence showing this bailout would even work was lacking. Also, no alternative measures or points of view were ever considered.
#10
It's far enough down that there are some clouds obscuring the view, but ....
If credit dries up that has a massive effect on the economy. Small and mid-sized businesses depend on working capital to operate and expand, so a credit crunch means fewer jobs and more layoffs. Families that are using credit to skate by a rough spot will spiral down and the rate of home foreclosures will increase exponentially - i.e. slowly at first and then massively over time. We might well be looking at 15-20% unemployment, 25% credit card rates (if you can get them), ARMs adjusting to 15-20% or more annual rates in a year or two ....
Overall the biggest danger is that there is a mid-term and long-term flight from the dollar. We have been financing our wealthy lifestyles (and yes, I mean YOU are wealthy compared to the middle east, africa and major parts of Europe) through national borrowing and because of the wealth spinoffs of easy consumer and business credit. When Bush was thwarted at every turn by the Left wrt the GWOT, he bought them off with a variety of financial measures that he didn't like. He stopped pushing Social Security reform. He accepted Medicare part D as written. And he let the dollar drop (as it would have anyway) in order to force others to indirectly help fund the war(s).
So he basically let himself be blackmailed into Robbing Peter to Pay Paul.
SO, the inevitable result... another cycle, and we get to be given the choice to Rob Peter to Pay Paul to hold everything together again.
And the end result of this will be another blackmail a couple months down the road... until we're instituting the European managed economy system ourselves, and the blackmailers are pushing something else for the cures of its ills, and blaming 'free market capitalism' for the problems with the previous iteration of the socialist system.
I find it interesting that one of the alleged precipitators of this crisis, "Mark to Market," was part of the Sarbannes-Oxley regulations. I know people whose primary response to S-O was that they wouldn't start a public company in this sort of regulatory environment.
I remember when it was being sold as the answer to all bad asset valuation problems and other assorted skullduggery.
I wonder what the proposed regulations will look like for Febuary's crisis, or the one it causes?
#11
We need a way out that doesn't lead to just a next step in the blackmail/rob peter cycle. Down that road lies Stalin and Hitler, throwing away human lives like dogfood and saying they're the only ones that can stop Hitler and Stalin.
#12
So he basically let himself be blackmailed into Robbing Peter to Pay Paul.
How many Rantburg regulars wanted Bush to pull out of Afghanistan, Iraq, our naval presence in the Gulf, our special ops people in Africa and South America where Hezb'allah and Al-Qaeda have training and recruiting camps ... on the basis of fiscal responsibility???
Can't say as I remember many.
Alternately, how many people here really think Bush had or could have generated sufficient public support for the GWOT to get the public to live frugally and to get financial traders and leaders to curb their greed?
And how many people here think any of us or all of us could have curbed the power and money greed of Pelosi, Reid etc etc and gotten them to act on behalf of the greater good of the country? Or Republicans like Ted Stevens, for that matter?
If you think you could, go run for office or otherwise take a visible leadership role. Because Bush and Rumsfeld etc. couldn't.
#14
You're going to lose all those things anyway under President Obama. Oh, I'm sure he'll make a token effort, set up to fail, rather like the Bay of Pigs was.
Maybe I should have been against the war from the start, in both Iraq and Afghanistan, until the American Public started putting down the crack pipe that we could shovel money to Saudi Arabia and expect everything to turn out ok?
#16
lotp, what you say only serves to minimize Bush's culpability. That's fine.
But, it has long been said that Bush's biggest failure vis a vis the GWOT was his failure to ask / push on the American people the cost and what they needed to do to help.
Something like War Bonds for instance might have helped to fund this. Now, that would also have cut into consumer spending, etc. etc.
I don't think that there is necessarily a good answer but his approach of sucking up to the Dems certainly didn't help.
#17
Granted. But I've long said here that Bush couldn't do it alone. He needed a lot of public sentiment pushing Washington and he didn't get it from you and me in any way that counted.
#18
I think we could stand to have some serious credit tightening in this country. We've got way too many:
* People who buy more house than they should.
* College students taking out loans for dubious majors that would be cheaper at public colleges and in-state colleges anyway.
* People maxing out on multiple credit cards.
* People who are buying groceries on credit and then putting them into their gas-guzzling SUV with satellite radio, DVD player, and navigation system and driving off while chatting on their high-end mobile phones.
I could go on and on. The point is that we've got way too many people in this country who are living beyond their means. There's way too much "buy now, pay later".
The same is true for businesses and working capital. It's ridiculous how many businesses borrow money to cope with even day-to-day operations. Tighten the credit and those of them who deserve to survive will adapt accordingly. I carry some cash for day-to-day expenses and I save in advance for large purchases. They can too.
Screw the bail out. It's way too much, way too fast, way too vague, way too based on numbers pulled out of Paulson's rear end, way too rewarding to risk-takers and idiots, and way too socialistic. No way.
#19
Tighten the credit and those of them who deserve to survive will adapt accordingly. I carry some cash for day-to-day expenses and I save in advance for large purchases. They can too
Sounds good in theory. But if your employer goes out of business because a larger firm slowed down payments for goods/services that were honorably delivered, you might find that your cash stash dwindles quickly.
#20
Then your employer was not very diversified in clients, didn't get a suitable payment plan, and was maybe a bit over-extended. Look, I've been there. I'm a consultant and I've been down to one client and eagerly awaiting the check. People will always take risks and some will fail, but it's high time for a lot of people to be a little more financially conservative.
#21
Screw the bail out. It's way too much, way too fast, way too vague...
Is there a way to do it slower or in smaller pieces?
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
10/01/2008 15:06 Comments ||
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#22
Darrell, agreed re: financial conservatism. Mr. Lotp and I have lived beneath our income means for a good while and it has served us well during harder times.
However: the point here is that we are facing a potential correction so hard and so deep that many people may be harshly impacted, including the fiscally responsible.
#24
The first thing we have to do is stop calling this a bailout. That word serious overstates what this bill actually is.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
10/01/2008 15:32 Comments ||
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#25
Could someone please tell me exactly what this "bailout" will do?
Is the gov't going to cut a series of checks (electronicall not on paper) totalling $700b and start passing them out to the big players in the market? If not, what ARE they going to do?
#26
I feel for President Bush, as he had to fight this WoT and Homeland Security, still deal with the aftermath of 9-11, Katrina, Ike, and he inherited this greedy globalized mess that has been decades in the making. It's tempting to vote Obama just to let it all land in their liberal laps, along with a lot of the blame.
It is already affecting main street, btw. Our wholesale small business, locally supplying mostly new construction, uses credit to buy inventory. Many customers have been squeezed for sometime now, and aren't paying their bills, because the construction companies are filing bankruptcy, with excess homes selling below the cost to build them. The banks don't want to extend the line of credit any more than it is. Home equity loans aren't available, even with good credit ratings, so contractors like roofers are idle. You feel guilty for buying a new gas guzzler even when you can afford it, as others resent it. It wasn't that long ago that many had union jobs with union wages and benefits, but cheap immigrant labor and outsourcing broke the unions. Plumbers have to purchase products at a good price and try to make it up in labor costs. People lost health insurance and began using adjustable ARM's and credit cards to make ends meet. The high cost of transportation made the cost of everything go up so Walmart was welcomed. The trade deficit grew even larger and the small shops closed because you can't compete with those that buy in such unimaginable quantities, often container ship loads full, as these large companies. Add a local disaster like the floods or a personal setback such as cancer, and people just despair. Then they wake up and see their life savings plummet 30% in one day. Retirement becomes out of the question, yet they have elderly parents to care for and children to put through college. Family and friends are asking for personal loans and even hand outs. All of this is no fault of their own and it is human nature to scapegoat and blame. I know many people working multiple jobs and are skimping to get by,and rightfully angry, but maybe it is the area where you live or the circles you keep. Wall Street and the Beltway often seem oblivious to anything west of the Potomac. "Woe to those who make unjust laws" wail the prophets. I certainly wouldn't want to be a Congresscritter or a banker or a stock broker that gambled away someone's pension while paying themselves millions in bonuses. Their yachts can even be renegotiated if filing bankruptcy but a primary mortgage cannot. I'm afraid it will get ugly and violent but I also fear the solution Congress comes up with will be even worse--kinda like having to choose between the cobra and an asp. It just sucks. Worry-wart Mom has been put on fulltime prayer duty--the saint is about to personally strangle Pelosi herself!
#27
"Our wholesale small business, locally supplying mostly new construction"
I'm afraid that's a tough row to hoe even with a bailout. You've chosen a business that has always been highly cyclic, and this is a pretty deep cycle.
#28
Re #21: "Is there a way to do it slower or in smaller pieces?"
I'd prefer we stuck with the Wachovia model of a few days ago. Wachovia bought a boatload of trouble by acquiring Golden West in 2006. The feds assisted in a Citibank buy of Wachovia. Minimal cost to taxpayers and Wachovia gets what it deserves for making a spectacularly stupid mistake. Let natural selection improve the market.
#29
@25 - From what I've been able to gather, Big Poppa Gov is going to come buy ALL the craptastic securities that no one else wants... at least right now.
Their theory is that someday someone will want them again and The Gov't will sell them out. (I'm not holding my breath for that scenario.)
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
10/01/2008 17:22 Comments ||
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#30
LOTP re Bush asking for us to sacrifice...after 9/11 there was the fear that the economy would go into the toilet. Instead of expressing confidence in the core underpinnings of the economy and instead of preparing the country for a prolonged and expensive war, Bush told us to go shopping. It was an opportunity missed.
He should have slammed the brakes on non-defense spending, called for an increase in the size of the military and pushed for the sale of war bonds. He had the American public and the Congress in the palm of his hands and he wasted it. It was, IMO, the greatest failure of his presidency.
#31
That said, I am going to batten down the hatches because I think this is going to get really ugly and will last for a while.
The only potential silver lining I can see in this is that hopefully it teaches the general population that you have to be able to pay for what you buy and that we don't get to have everything we want. Not sure that the government types are ever going to get that message though.
#36
Look, lets be honest. We stopped being an economic superpower years ago when we exported most of our manufacturing jobs to less expensive wage sie like China, India and Mexico. We have been living on the colective national credit card for years. Literally, we don't reward saving or prudence in any concrete way, and the sad reality now is that those of us who have behaved responsibily are essentially being forced to subsidize more drunken-sailor behavior or rest losing everything.
There are so many guilty parties I cannot begin to name them all, but the fix is generational and will require national will. Spend less than you take in, encourage businesses through tax breaks and protectionist tariffs (free trade is a myth, we have had our heads handed to us becasue we actually believed the other people would be honest and play fair, time to cut them out and take the pain). A whole generation or two must essentially accept less quality of life and carry the burden of paying down the debt.
Since we have so diluted the American character with unfettered immigration of the least worthy from other nations, dumbed down our education system to the point that it does not produce sufficient qualtity of high quality, industrious workers, and so designed governments intrusion into every aspect of our daily lives that half of us carry the other half through a class-warfare tax system...... we can't do it!
So, and bullshit bandades politician lies will lull the fools back into the cauldron for more cooking, but the Republic is done.
Look for violence within 25 yrs as parts begin to separate (probably the Southwest) and balk at paying the freight.....
Wish this was all wrong...... but the 450 page bailout did it for me..... buying votes while the ship sinks by promising to only take the water out of one side of the bucket....
God, to have had this happen in my lifetime......overwhelming sadness.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
After a long and bitter legal battle, a group of retired Gurkha soldiers, who served in the British Army, have won the right to settle in Britain.
Dexia, a Franco-Belgian bank that specializes in lending to local governments, got a $9.2 billion injection of capital to stave off imminent collapse after a loss of public confidence led to a 30 percent decline in its stock price Monday, according to announcements from the French and Belgian governments. 
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm over the past decade, a practice of paying a spouse with political donations that she supported banning last year.
The House is limiting e-mails from the public to prevent its websites from crashing due to the enormous amount of mail being submitted on the financial bailout bill. As a result, some constituents may get a 'try back at a later time' response if they use the House website to e-mail their lawmakers about the bill defeated in the House on Monday in a 205-228 vote.
(PTI) After inking the first civilian nuclear agreement with France, India today assured its European partners that it plans to enter into similar pacts with them in future. "Today we signed a bilateral agreement in this area with France and we expect to finalise agreements with other European partners too," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured CEOs of major European companies while addressing the India-EU Business Summit here.
At least 168 people were trampled to death and more than 425 were injured in a massive stampede at a Hindu temple in Jodhpur city, officials said, the third such tragedy in India in three months. 
Iran's Interior Minister Ali Kordan has admitted to holding a fake Oxford University degree which he thought was valid, coming clean after weeks of controversy, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. 
The global banking system was gripped by a worsening crisis of confidence yesterday as the leaders of the US Congress struggled to salvage the administration's $700bn bail-out plan.
