Daily FINANCIAL Crisis CAPSULE: Market Drops As Debt Fears Grow: Will Euro Collapse?

February 9th, 2010 - by: danny

“The short memories of American voters is what keeps our politicians in office.” — Will Rogers

• PBS: Bill Moyers and Thomas Frank Discuss Obama As The “Villian” and The Instant Forgetting of Politics

[snip]

THOMAS FRANK: I’ll give you an example what I mean. So, I was on a radio show the other day with a tea party leader, you know, one of these protest leaders. And he seemed like a good guy. But what he did say that struck me was he said he was really against monopoly, you know? And we’re laboring under all these monopolies, all these concentrated powers here in America. And what we need to do is get back to free markets. And then we can do away with that. And it was mind-blowing.

Because if you look back any further than the Obama Administration, since, I mean, 1980 in this country, we have been in the grip of, you know, of this pursuit of ever-purer free markets. That’s what American politics has been about. That’s what has delivered this, you know, the awful circumstances that we find ourselves in today. And to think that that’s what’s missing, that’s what we need to get back to, is–

BILL MOYERS: That’s more than nostalgia. What is that?

THOMAS FRANK: Well, that’s the disease of our time. You know, that sort of instant forgetting.

[snip]

BILL MOYERS: But what does it do to our politics when the very spokesmen for what some people have called a decade of conservative failure. I mean, remember before Obama, they turned a budget surplus into a deficit. They took us to war on fraudulent pretenses. They borrowed money to fight it. They presided over a stalemate in Afghanistan. They trashed the Constitution. They presided over the weakest economy in decades–

THOMAS FRANK: Not weak for everybody.

BILL MOYERS: No, no. [Transcript]

*******

Big Downturn in the Market On Monday: Panic seems To be Spreading

• NYT: Dow Industrials Post First Close Below 10,000 Since Nov. 4

Stocks fell broadly on Wall Street on Monday on concerns about government debt in Europe, and the Dow Jones industrial average closed below the 10,000 mark for the first time since Nov. 4. The Dow industrials were down 103.69 points, or 1 percent, at 9,908.54 at the closing bell. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index and the Nasdaq were also lower for the day.

Shares of financial firms posted the largest losses amid worries that they could be hurt by huge deficits in countries like Greece, Spain, and Portugal. [More here Ã¢â€ â€™]

The Dow Jones industrial average closed below 10,000 yesterday for the first time since mid-May and the Nasdaq composite index dropped to its lowest level since October as earnings disappointments and concerns about the economy undermined investor confidence.

It is not clear what will stop what is now a five-week slide, with the overall market down about 4 percent. Earnings growth is expected to be robust, but slower, in the second half of the year and the market received no boost from the optimistic economic outlook laid out this week by Alan Greenspan, the Federal Reserve chairman. [More here Ã¢â€ â€™]

• BaselineScenario.com: Be Very Afraid: Euro Falling, US Recovery Under Threat

Intensified fears over government debt in the eurozone are pushing the euro weaker against the dollar. The G7 achieved nothing over the weekend, the IMF is stuck on the sidelines, and the Europeans are sitting on their hands at least until a summit on Thursday. There is a lot of trading time between now and then — and most of it is likely to be spent weakening the euro further.

The UK also faces serious pressure, and there is no telling where this goes next around the world — or how it gets there. [More here Ã¢â€ â€™]

• FT: Speculators make 8bn bet against euro

Traders and hedge funds have bet nearly $8bn against the euro, amassing the biggest ever short position in the single currency on fears of a eurozone debt crisis.

• OurFuture.org: Wall Street Whores by Isaiah J. Poole

I don’t like to use the term “whore” lightly. But what else, in our current economic environment, would you call this?

Republicans are rushing to capitalize on what they call Wall Street’s “buyer’s remorse” with the Democrats. And industry executives and lobbyists are warning Democrats that if Mr. Obama keeps attacking Wall Street “fat cats,” they may fight back by withholding their cash. [More here Ã¢â€ â€™]

POLITRICKS

• CNN: Where does the Tea Party go from here?By John Avlon

“Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business and eventually degenerates into a racket.” — Eric Hoffer

“Oddly enough, this group embraced the tactics of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and applied them to the conservative cause, with angry confrontation and street theater protests. They ascribe to Obama every sinister characteristic imaginable — often a secret plot to undermine our constitutional republic and put in a socialist, one-world government in its place.

“This is the crowd that carries the signs comparing Obama to Hitler and communists, while proclaiming themselves patriots. Their extremism will ultimately lead the movement to self-destruct unless it is clearly repudiated.” [More here Ã¢â€ â€™]

• Birtherism, Homophobia, Racial Paranoia Rise To Surface At Tea Party Confab

The News Dissector