Team Obama is throwing the Titainic furniture overboard hoping to conteract the weight of the ocean water gushing in, in a futile attempt to reach an equilibrium short of full submergance. When will Team Obama work on closing the gash in the hull? “It’s time to act, right now”!!!!!!!!!!!

g,now, with heavy losses and government guaranteesthey should be making some really recklessdecisions, bets, to get back in something like the black. hahaha.they need to be stopped. triage, triage ….

Obama didn’t out right use Roubini’s name in his speech but he basically called him out and said he was aware of his economic critics Roubini/Krugman/Stiglitz and that he believes they are dead wrong in their views. He said it in a very staunchly manner which only shows that we have huge problems our president is a great speaker but he’s not a very smart man like we all hoped. It was a very sad wake up call for me last night. I believe it must have been fort the professor as well, in my mind Obama challenged the wisdom of those 3 very smart individuals-Obama will turn out to look like the fool in the end but Americans will suffer. Expect huge changes as a collapse is coming like the world can’t imagine!

i agree with the person stating a collapse of the US like the world can’t imagine.the change obama is intellectually grasping and hoping will only happen once we are forced to change by Necessity.this is the unfortunate yet amazing Logique of the universal Law of Causes and Consequences at work.i can’t yet prove it,but i can sense it….nobody is questionning this wishfull return to the type on consumerism lifestyle we can no longer afford and promote and that is why we will collectively soon experience this metamorphosis experience to come.

I was impressed with Obama’s speech. He really is a great orator. Does he memorize these speeches? If not he is an expert at reading the prompter.It is amazing that a person can be so optimistic in the face of the crisis we are in. I haven’t decided if he is putting on an act or if he is so totally out of touch that he and Congress verge on insanity.He/they propose to spend unbelievable sums of money that has to be borrowed against future incomes and then says he is a deficit hawk and wants to reign in government spending. He must have never taken a class on compounding interest or balancing a checkbook. There seems to be a disconnect between spending and income. The President and Congress seem to have a similar attitude as that which got us into this mess. Borrow and spend with out consideration of ability to pay or income. It is all about a credit rating. If you have one, you spend until either someone yanks the HELOC or you default.As for AIG, well, IMO it is all about counter party risk and how the big banks account for losses. With AIG guaranteeing the toxic waste, the banks can legitimately keep these losses on the books at full value. Even though AIG can’t really back them. It is all about appearances and there is cover saying that this security or that derivative is insured. With out AIG, they are beyond insolvent and will be forced into receivership.

If you’re talking about capitalization, then you are probably right. There’s not a lot of money left in the banks and financials. However, the $BKX and $SPF indices are still helpful as an indicator of the health of this sector of the economy. The point would be this … the Fed/Treasury are desperately trying to reinflate the process of credit creation that used to be the engine driving the US economy. So long as $BKX and $SPF are plunging, their efforts are not working. There is no vision in the US Government for what a “new economy” would look like in America if the financial industry is gutted. That’s one reason why all the stimulus programs are failing right now. And we’re headed downwards.PeteCA

And the king brought in his soothsayers, magicians, and astrologers alike for council, but the king would not hear or acknowledge the profit Roubini. Even though he has written the prophecy in a clear and insightful way for all to see, his prophetic truths will only be recognized after the calamity is irreversibly unveiled.

In fact, thinking about it – what we’re really seeing is the collapse of the US economy right now. Two significant declines on the Dow since Jan 1 2009 would (in effect) mark a very steep drop, perhaps not even having a parallel on the 1929-1932 chart. In effect, we are seeing the serious contraction of all types of credit within the US economy. There is no way that we can avoid further sharp reductions in US payrolls as this occurs – business credit is evaporating fast. This collapse is consistent with rumors that leaked out of the Bush admin (before GW left office). Namely that US economists were forecasting a collapse in the US economy if something didn’t turn around very quickly.PeteCA

If you have a spare 3 hours, this will provide greatfodder for discussion!BBC Adam Curtis “The Trap”Magnificent piece of work, every american must see!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAluyt5_kicYou will understand the underpinnings of the eventsof today!

Not only are there no jobs but simultaneously we’re being looted! I see no hope going forward as these needs and facets are being completely ignored by our leaders.

Baring a significant advancement in US technology – cold fusion, antigravity, universal flu vaccine, cure to cancer, some kind of science fiction that can only be produced and serviced in the US, we are on a long and steep downward path. That is a long shot.Cliente may be right – the USA may be the first ‘de-developed’ nation.Civil disorder and balkinization of the US? I hope he is wrong.

Heavy volume on the downside and light volume on the up in the dow is an established pattern. Bad sign.We might test 742 on the SP500 a few more times, but it will fall by the summer.

With all due respect, you do not understand how the casino operates. if the numbers are worse than expected and very bad and the casino operators take it up we are going to rally plain and simple. i am short and the LAST thing i want to see is numbers come out worse than expected and the market not caring and going up… it is not the numbers it is the move that occurs based on the numbers…i can not stand to see numbers worse than expected and the market move up on them. at this moment as usual i remain short based on the technical picture…there is no technical possibility in my mind for MCD to put in a low in the near term of 53.69 based on the last month or so chart. however, this would not be the first time they manipulate their way out of a technical mess…

Pull it out to where?If they trash this country, dollars will be toilet paper. What good will dollars be to them? And what could they buy with TP dollars in some other country? You think that Europe will be better or do you think they will be welcomed in China or will the all just retire to Dubai?The dollar is worth something only if the US is a healthy prosperous country.

Ultimately numbers will reflect fundamentals reality can only be disguised for so long.

Hopium Is Addictive……and the ObamaNation has been on it all their lives.There is the saying,

The PAST is the best predictor of the FUTURE & the longer the PAST has been in place the more enduring the FUTURE on which it is based.

Bend over and kiss you know what goodbye.

These banks that are the banks “too-big-to-fail” grew by mergers that were approved by the government, i.e., your “representatives.” Take a Wikipedia look at the merger history of JP Morgan Chase. And the beat goes on.

I think you are right but it may not be after a while but already. His words and concepts do not add up to reality. His math is fuzzy at best. His desire to protect those who are responsible will take him and his administration down. They have the next two years and after that, the majority in Congress will be changed again. Not necessarily to something good or right but changed because we will be furious with those currently in power who refused to prosecute the guilty and instead supported them with the taxpayer’s future incomes.

Well they’re trying their darnedest right now, hopefully they get what’s coming to them.

<sigh>Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday that the embattled housing market has crippled the economy, and at-risk homeowners need a bailout – even if they knew they couldn’t afford their home in the first place.”Some borrowers presumably knew what they were getting into,” Bernanke said before the House Financial Services Committee. “But from a public policy point of view, the large amount of foreclosures are detrimental not just to the borrower and lender but to the broader system.”"In many of these situations we have to trade off the moral hazard issue against the greater good,” he added.

Critics of President Obama’s speech admit it was a good speech, well delivered, and apparently well received by his audience. But, because of the disconnect between the promises and Obama’s actions so far, they are extremely critical. Say the critics: the words are fine, but, of course, they are “not to be taken literally.”The reference to “a few fine words” reminds one of the famous R. W. Emerson quote:“I laid my bones to, and drudged for the good I possess; it was not got by fraud, nor by luck, but by work, and you must show me a warrant like these stubborn facts in your own fidelity and labor before I suffer you, on the faith of a few fine words, to ride into my estate, and claim to scatter it as your own.” (“The Conservative,” 1841)

The US housing bust underlies the international economic crisis, and the oversupply of homes underlies that bust. Thus, the obvious and immediate solution is reducing the inventory of homes, not nationalizing banks or purchasing risky paper. Here is a strategy for doing that; http://twomillionhomes.net

I would check out “The Power of Nioghtmares” and “The Century of the Self” – also both by Adam Curtis, both on youtube, both 3-4 hours long. The guy is good – depressing, but good!

why doesn’t it ever occur to these people that the greater good is best served by not “trading off” when it comes to issues of moral hazard?

US support for housing has a long history dating back to at least the 1930’s. The idea is that if people own houses, they will be less attracted to radical political movements, and is a major reason why the US has never had a strong Socialist Party. Until the late 1970’s, the US enforced low interest rates on deposits so that low loans would be available to homeowners, and Fannie and Freddie was the result of the collapse of that system in the early 1980’s.College radicals that support overthrowing the government get much less radical when they end up owning a house, which they will lose if there is some fundamental social revolution.

As painful as it is, and as much as I don’t really agree with how things are going, it is nonetheless important for Obama not to completely absolve the people of blame.Western culture has lost its way. We’ve become obsessed with material and paper gain and have not fought back against a media that pokes and prods us into consuming as if on cue; a selfish obsession with “celebrity” and “glamour” while our children’s future is mortgaged before our very eyes; financial engineering, marketing and real estate speculation == glamorous, while engineers, scientists == nerds.If people were more grounded, critical and engaged, this whole elaborate ponzi scheme would never have even gotten off the ground. While Canada is not perfect, it has had its financial system survive mostly because people are highly suspicious of the banks due to the perception that they gouge through high fees. Bank deregulation and consolidation is a third rail issue in Canada as a result, and this is what has spared Canada the pain other countries are experiencing — a (relatively) engaged, informed populace with their eyes on the bankers and their motives.If you ask a random American what they thought of Rihanna’s beating at the hands of the vile Chris Brown — expletives!If you asked random Canadian what they thought of their banks in 2005 — expletives!(shameless plug) i wrote about this on my blog and consider it the final bubble, a “cultural” bubble that will inevitably collapse:http://thedemarketeer.org/2009/02/24/demand-generation-imagery-and-the-cultural-bubble/

the corruption is disgusting, these people make me sick but that is the way of the world and unfortunately there is little on the horizon to implement on a global scale (except gov/”economic” policy which is controlled by these jackasses)Growth is a tough question. I like to think that the current demand destruction was engineered by some intelligent int’l cabal but that is not the case – there is no one and the situation will spiral completely out of control in a few decades.yes, growth. very difficult problem. off the cuff perhaps some trick of bio engineering could save us of from ourselves but then what would we be – probably not a good idea although it is being done in a negative capacity w/ all he toxins, etc out there.post capitalistic theories may be another place to look – although I have reservations as to the intellectual capacity of many (not all!)of these folkshttp://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/http://bigotblog.wordpress.com/2008/10/24/will-capitalism-end-the-post-capitalist-world/there is another school of thought that I cannot recall right now but will advise of if and when my mind come back ) !

Look, Obama was a Law Professor at Harvard. Of course he is a gutless clone of the neo-cons. The actual issue is, the economy can fold up anyhow whatever he and Geithner fabricate (DOESN”T ANYONE REMEMBER THAT G. WAS AT THE NY FED AND PRESIDED OVER THE BIRTH OF THIS DISASTER!!!)And I thought George Bush was a bozo.George HarterBaghdadontheHudson, USA