YOU CAN’T SAY THAT!

BREAKING…. BALTIMORE – AP: A grieving father won a nearly $11 million verdict Wednesday against a fundamentalist Kansas church that pickets military funerals out of a belief that the war in Iraq is a punishment for the nation’s tolerance of homosexuality.

FED CUTS RATE BUT WHAT WILL THAT DO FOR CREDIT CRUNCH?
CUBA SI, BUSH NO
NOAM CHOMSKY HAS HIS OWN “9ll TRUTH”

CNN: Fed cuts rates to 4.5%

Citing turmoil in the housing market, Bernanke and Co. lower a key short-term rate by a quarter of a point to keep the economy on track. But the central bank also said it’s worried about inflation - news that spooked the markets.

Bloomberg News noted:

“The second reduction in as many months should help the U.S. economy withstand the fallout from August’s credit collapse, the Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement after meeting today in Washington. “After this action, the upside risks to inflation roughly balance the downside risks to growth.'’

The language “has all the sublety of a sledgehammer,'’ said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital in Greenwich, Connecticut. “The FOMC has just stated unequivocally that `we think we are done easing.’ Whether they are or not remains to be seen, but the message is loud and clear.'’

Hours earlier, the Commerce Department reported that economic growth accelerated to an annual pace of 3.9 percent in the third quarter, the fastest in more than a year. The Fed statement also warned that higher energy and commodity prices may spur faster inflation.”

INFLATION, YOU BET—OIL IS UP, UP AND AWAY

The excerpts below from an article in the WSJ summarizes the supply issues for crude oil. Assuming no severe economic downturn that would reduce the demand for oil, supply will continue to be the primary constraint in the market. This coupled with a falling dollar basically means that prices in excess of $100/barrel will be in the norm in the near future. People have done all sorts of predictions about what “Peak Oil” looks like, well this is what if looks like….. Several leading oil experts, gathered here yesterday for an annual energy conference, sketched a near-term future in which mounting global demand and shrinking supplies push oil prices well past the $100-a-barrel mark.

GREENSPAN WARNS AGAINST FEAR

And that’s because fear is pervasive on Wall Street. The former Fed chairman is worried because you may be worried, really worried.

Closing his discussion, Mr. Greenspan added that the markets are subject to emotion, not rationale, so exuberance can give way to “primordial” fear.

“Will we have another crash? Yes. Will we have another credit crisis? Yes. Can we do anything about it? No,” he said.

UNDERNEWS: GIULIANI STILL WORKING AT FIRM HE PROMISED TO LEAVE

JOHN SOLOMON, WASHINGTON POST - Ten months into his presidential bid, Rudolph W. Giuliani continues to work part time at the security consulting firm he promised to leave this past spring to focus on his pursuit of the Republican nomination.

Giuliani’s continuing involvement with a firm catering to corporate clients makes him unique among Republican contenders. It also complicates the task of separating his firm’s assets from his campaign spending.

Rudolph W. Giuliani said in April that he would leave his consulting firm to concentrate on his campaign. Several of the firm’s employees do volunteer work for his campaign. And Giuliani did not decide until mid-June, six months after he entered the race, to bill his campaign for the cost of the security detail traveling with him on campaign trips; before then, the firm paid the expense. . . Last year, Giuliani earned about $4.1 million.

CUBA RESPONDS TO LATEST BUSH THREAT: THE SOVEREIGNTY OF CUBA MUST BE RESPECTED

In the face of President George W. Bush’s escalation of threats against the sovereignty of Cuba only days before the UN General Assembly’s vote for the sixteenth consecutive year against the inhuman and unjustifiable 47-year-old US economic blockade of Cuba, and in the world context of Bush’s recent threats of a nuclear “World War III,” we issue this call to US intellectuals and artists to join us in calling for a permanent dialogue and cultural exchange between the peoples of the United States and Cuba.

We also call for making public the secret annex to the latest declaration of the “Commission for Assistance to a free Cuba,” presided over by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Ominously, the Department of State has emphasized that the plan includes measures that will remain secret “for reasons of national security” and to assure its “effective implementation”. It is not difficult to imagine the character of such measures if one considers the militarization of the foreign policy of the Bush administration and its performance in Iraq.

Because of this increasing threat against the integrity of a nation and the peace and security of Latin America and the world, demand that the government of the United States respect the sovereignty of Cuba. We must prevent a new aggression at all costs.

THE $915 BILLION CREDIT CARD BOMB IN CONSUMERS’ WALLETS

MANY PARTS OF U.S. ECONOMY ARE IN A WORSE STATE THAN RECESSION

“The US economy is undoubtedly in recession,” he said. “Many parts of industry are actually in a state worse than recession. If it were not for Bernanke putting huge amounts of money into the market, the stock market would probably be down much more than it is.”