Worst Crisis Since '30s, With No End Yet in Sight

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

Source: Wall Street Journal

The financial crisis that began 13 months ago has entered a new, far more serious phase.

Lingering hopes that the damage could be contained to a handful of financial institutions that made bad bets on mortgages have evaporated. New fault lines are emerging beyond the original problem -- troubled subprime mortgages -- in areas like credit-default swaps, the credit insurance contracts sold by American International Group Inc. and others. There's also a growing sense of wariness about the health of trading partners.

The consequences for companies and chief executives who tarry -- hoping for better times in which to raise capital, sell assets or acknowledge losses -- are now clear and brutal, as falling share prices and fearful lenders send troubled companies into ever-deeper holes. This weekend, such a realization led John Thain to sell the century-old Merrill Lynch & Co. to Bank of America Corp. Each episode seems to bring government intervention that is more extensive and expensive than the previous one, and carries greater risk of unintended consequences.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122169431617549947.html

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Worst crisis since the '30's. That is a seriously scary headline.

[Booster]

1. The people who thought giving mega-million dollar golden

parachutes to CEO's who couldn't cut the mustard are the same people who thought lending people 125% on their homes (which they couldn't afford in the first place)was a good idea. This has been nothing but a pyramid scheme.

[Purveyor]

4. This one can only hope that those 'golden parachutes CEO's' did as I suspect they did and

plunked those funds in good, solid investments such as AIG, Lehman, etc...

[Booster]

9. hahahaha I certainly hope so.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Being demonstrably dirt poor...

And so far below the poverty level that there really is not a classification for what I am, I have to say that the thought of a lot of smug, greedy, self-satisfied pricks ending up down here with me is quite satisfying.

I especially look forward to some of these right-wing frothers, especially the young ones, coming down this economic way. I fully intend to have great good fun at their slimy expense. It will be quite hard for me to be kind and empathic.

[Frisbee]

7. Damn shame the windows of the highrises...

on Wall Street no longer open.

[jwirr]

11. I have been extremely bad this last month as things have headed

downhill. Find myself asking forgiveness a lot. It is truly hard to be humble. Problem is that as they come falling down from up their they seem to be pushing us further down. So I get pulled out of my glee whenever it is also getting harder for me and my family.

[FVZA_Colonel]

3. You know in the history books when they talk about thing like the crisis of the 1890's?

This is going to be one of those.

[napi21]

5. We all knew this was coming, and I for one am HAPPY it happened with Shrub was still in

office! I was scared to death that the Pubs would be able to stave off disaster until a Dem took office and them blame everything on HIM!

Don't minunderstand me. I didn't WANT this mess that is hurting every single one of us, but ever since I saw Wall Street demanding that every company to consistently post hugh earnings every quarter, CEO's demanding multimillions in compensation, loans being given to anyone who asked, and housing prices doubling & tripling in 1-2 years, I KNEW disaster was unavoidable. I'm just glad the AH's that created this mess are having to take the blame!!!

[loudsue]

12. Heard on NPR today that the Fed is holding off the worst until AFTER the election

That's why they're bailing out AIG. Under the guise of "not wanting to affect the election". Assholes. It's coming, and it's too damned late to turn the tide.

[dgibby]

13. I will only be happy

if dubya and darth really leave. Scares me to think about it, but I worry that as things get worse, they may decide to impose martial law, cancel the elections,and suspend congress. Either that or attack Iran, impose martial law, ---well, you know the rest.:scared:

[napi21]

14. Naw, I don't think they'll do that. Darth Vader has been hiding for

months now, and little Shrub just wants the hell out!

[sce56]

16. You don't think they won't leave a parting shot do you?

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/16/headlines
US to Sell 1,000 New Bunker Buster Bombs to Israel

The Bush administration has announced it plans to supply the Israeli Air Force 1,000 new bunker buster bombs built by Boeing that are designed to penetrate fortified facilities located deep underground. The Jerusalem Post reports the bombs would likely be used in the event of an Israeli strike on Iran. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notified Congress about the planned sale of the GBU-39 bombs over the weekend. Congress has thirty days to object to the $77 million deal.

[Hissyspit]

6. Began 13 months ago?

DUers were on top of it well before that.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. "This has been the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. There is no question about it"

If seeing that printed in the WSJ doesn't put the fear of future Republican led economic policy in the hearts of a few readers, nothing will.

[mcollier]

10. There is danger in the air....

Republicans must have missed the Tax Increase which was just slapped on the American People today.... 3% reduction in the rate of the money market investments... Which is where millions of Americans moved their investments to prior to monday because of the terrible outlook for the stock market. Thinking our money would at least be safe in a money market account, but no, the bush administration hit us with a 3% tax ( as a penalty, so to speak ) for moving our money....

Its like saying after you lose a ton of money at a casino, as you leave you are hit with a fee just to walk out the door....

But republicans are so smart as to know who has their best interest in mind...

Pleeezzzzzzzzzzz

[Mark D.]

15. The Money Masters

I urge folks to watch this. Go to Google Video and look it up (it's broken into parts on You Tube, but Google has it in the full 3 1/2 hours). Take the time, I'm glad I did. The scare in the early part of the 20th century that brought about the manufactured 'need' for a Federal Reserve was partially brokered by JP Morgan. After the Fed was in, it made it more possible, not less, that we would have a bigger crash. Sound familiar (Bush is to 'protect us' fighting manufactured or inflated 'terror', and as a result we are less safe and seen more hated around the world). Well that bigger crash was the Great Depression the Fed and Morgan created the same way, manipulating monetary/banking policies.

Creating a roaring 20s of generous money-supplies, tightening it up at payback time (ie. when rates went up on adjustable mortgages - the current example) and 'surprise' it's a crash! JP Morgan's grandfather founded the nations first and now largest health insurer, AETNA, leading in the fight against single-payer, not-for-profit Universal Health care. Thanks guys! Energy speculation in the deregulated market is to blame for about $2 of the increase in gas prices. Morgan is the biggest energy speculating company. Selling terrible mortgage loans bundled to investor helped create the sub-prime housing fiasco. The biggest of those by far are Hedge Funds. The biggest Hedge Fund is again, Morgan.

We're at war so the corporate and political tools (like Dick Cheney and his PNAC buddies) can profit, and their puppet-master energy giant/Bilderberg head honcho now, David Rockefeller can laugh all the way to the bank. War to control more resources, and create more debt for his good friends, and frequent family business partners, the Morgans and Rothschilds. The Teutonic Knights of the Holy Roman Empire are fighting on and we are losing. Feudalistic Fascism is on its way. They won't need military rule, we'll be too broke and defenseless and smitten with how 'purty' Palin is (who'll inherit the Job when McCain decides to take it easy for the duration, after those two steal yet another election).

[OneBlueSky]

17. like it or not, the only way out of this mess will be for the government . . .

to exercise a fair measure of control over the economy . . . the "free market" is no more, having proven that it works only for the very rich, and then only through trickery, chicanery, and outright theft . . . the notion of corporations as persons will have to be abolished, as will the sanctity of property rights over human rights . . . a whole new system based on a whole new set of principles will have to be implemented if this country is ever going to regain its preeminent economic position in the world . . .

conservation will have to be valued over new energy production; the rights of people to shelter will have to be valued over the rights of banks to foreclose and eject; the notion of conducting foreign policy as an equal among nations will have to take the place imposing our will through pre-emptive wars; teachers and social workers will have to be valued more than entertainers and athletes; and healthcare will have to become a human right rather than a deep-pocket ATM for insurance companies and HMOs . . . getting out of our current mess and building a steady state economy (rather than one based on unlimited growth) will take the kind of innovative thinking that this country hasn't seen in a long, long time -- if ever . . .

whether Obama and Biden are up to such a gargantuan task, I do not know . . . but I DO know that McCain sure as hell is not . . .