BUSH BOOED President Bush met with a mixed response as he threw the 2008 inaugural pitch at the new Nationals Park, built for the Washington Nationals baseball team….The boos reignited as Bush waves once more and exits.

GRASPING AT STRAWS? MARKET UP THANKS TO UPBEAT TALK
OPPOSITION IN ZIM DENIES TALKS WITH MUGABE
WAS I WRONG ABOUT CNBC

Leave it to market psychology. The world may be falling apart but if it seems like hope is on the horizon, investors buy. The NY Times reported: Stocks Surge as Wall St. Hopes Financial Woes May Be Easing.

Easing?

WP: PLAN TO GIVE FED POWER WOULD STRIP IT OF POWER

From a Washington Post report on how the new Paulson Plan allegedly to regulate Wall Street will do the opposite:

“To that end, he would replace a sprawling set of regulators aiming to ensure the soundness of the nation’s financial institutions — including the bank-supervision arm of the Fed, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration — with a single Prudential Financial Regulatory Agency.

The Fed has indicated neither explicit support nor opposition to the Treasury plan. But leaders of the central bank have in the recent past vigorously opposed stripping their institution of its role supervising bank holding companies.

“The Fed’s ability to deal with diverse and hard-to-predict threats to financial stability depends critically on the information, expertise and powers that it holds by virtue of being both a bank supervisor and a central bank,” Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in a January 2007 speech.

In the Treasury Department’s plan, the Fed would lose the responsibility for day-to-day monitoring of banks’ financial stability. It would gain a more loosely defined ability to monitor and correct risks to the entire financial system, whether they come from banks, investment firms or hedge funds.

The NY Times reported that Wall Street welcomed the plan, The story was headed “Plan Gives Wall Street What it Wants”’

MIKE WHITNEY’s ANALYSIS OF PAULSON’S PLAN TO FIX WALL ST.

WHY HANK PAULSON IS IN CAHOOTS WITH SATAN

HOW THE CANDIDATES REACTED TO THE PAULSON PLAN

Reuters assembled their comments:

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

“There is still a very serious gap between what the administration is proposing and the immediate crisis that we face,” Clinton told Reuters.

“Although I appreciate and agree with some of the recommendations, the blueprint is simply too short on action.”

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

“George Bush finally figured out that we need to maybe have some oversight of the financial markets. So he’s putting out a plan and it turns out that he is introducing some consolidation and streamlining of the regulatory system on Wall Street. But he’s not making the regulations any tougher. He’s not preventing the predatory lending that is responsible for a lot of these problems.”

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE

“It is very clear that this long overdue regulatory reform is necessary to regain the trust of the American investor. Our current system was designed over 70 years ago and times and markets have changed dramatically.”

JP MORGAN EXEC GETS A RAISE

The CEO of JP Morgan Chase, the man behind the acquisition of Bear Stearns has been given a raise.

Investment News: Dimon mines $28.86 million package

That’s a 5% increase from 2006, when JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon was awarded $27.49 million

FROM HOUSTON: ANOTHER MAN GETS AN EVICTION NOTICE

Jim Halbert drained his savings to make his house payments. Now his lender can’t help him because payments are current.

Zogby: Just 28% Believe Rebate Checks Will Boost U.S. Economy

Interactive survey finds majorities oppose U. S. Government help for struggling investment companies and those facing foreclosure

SWISS CHEESE: UBS will write down 36,19 billion

FT: ANOTHER GERMAN BANK WRITE DOWN: Deutsche Bank reveals 2.5bn writedown

Deutsche Bank DB highlighted the deterioration of financial markets in recent weeks by revealing it would make writedowns of 2.5bn ($3.9bn) in the first quarter.
ONE IMPACT OF THE CRISIS

The credit crisis is rapidly becoming a reality, as new research from MoneyExpert.com reveals that 26.3 million Britons intend to tighten the reins on their spending.

The study shows that as many as 57 per cent of UK adults will cut back over the next 12 months. Recent hikes in the cost of living such as the price of food and energy bills mean that many Britons intend to curb their spending on the bare necessities, not just luxury items.

IHT: PREDATORY BANKS IMPOSE PREDATORY FEES

Nobody wins when a home enters foreclosure - neither the borrower, who is evicted, nor the lender, who takes a loss when the home is resold. These little-known firms assess legal fees and a host of other charges, calculate what the borrowers owe and draw up the documents required to remove them from their homes.Court documents say that some of the largest firms in the industry have repeatedly submitted erroneous affidavits when moving to seize homes and levied improper fees that make it harder for homeowners to get back on track with payments.

WILL TRUCK DRIVERS STRIKE?

SHARON ASTYK: THIS MAY BE WORSE THAN THE GREAT DEPRESSION