08
Sep
THE GOVERNMENT’S BILLION DOLLAR TAKEOVER OF F & F: GOOD, BAD AND UGLY
I was on Santita Jackson’s VOICE OF CHICAGO radio show yesterday on WVON–she is now the “talk Queen” of the city’s radio airwaves, and deservedly so….She is very professional and engaging but yesterday also very worried…”What should you do, she kept asking, if your bank collapses?”….Thats the new fear on the streets that could easily turn into a panic….I explained about the FDIC insuring accounts up toe $100,000 but that wasn’t all that comforting because apparently the checks that INDY MAC gave to depositors were not honored immediately by every other bank…This is a sign of falling confidence in the banking system…I even read that some wealthy investors are taking their funds out of banks….mmmmm…what to do????
THE TAKE OVER OF FANNIE AND FREDDIE
With the nation puzzling over a government takeover of two mortgage giants that could cost taxpayers over $200 BILLION dollars, millions of homeowners are unclear about what it will mean for them as foreclosures mount in city after city.
In August alone, more than one hundred thousand families lost their homes according to Business Wire, with the year’s foreclosure total expected to hit one million. Forbes reports that the rate is rising along with unsold home inventories. In San Diego California, the City Council is debating declaring a state of emergency. In Governor Sarah Palin’s Alaska, foreclosures of single fanily homes are at their highest levels in five years. The International Herald Tribune in Paris reports that despite the government’s action, foreclosures are spreading. The New York Times carried a big spread on Sunday showing they are now pervasive in affluent areas in Manhattan……
TAKEOVER GOOD SAYS THE FINANCIAL TIMES:
The rescue of Fannie Mae FNM and Freddie Mac amounts to more than a stabilization plan - it is a bold policy intervention that aims to brighten the outlook for housing, credit and the US economy.
TAKEOVER BAD SAYS THE FINANCIAL TIMES
US move triggers CDS default
One of the largest defaults in the history of the $62,000bn credit derivatives market has been triggered by the US government’s seizure of Fannie Mae FNM and Freddie Mac, raising questions about how dealers will unwind billions of dollars worth of contracts.
THE AUSTRALIAN: HEDGE FUNDS IN TROUBLE
DEBT-GORGED hedge funds are the next ticking bomb in the global credit crisis as
they liquidate their positions in equities and commodities ahead of an expected
spike in quarterly redemptions by investors throughout September.
Investment News: banks In Trouble: Heads roll as Lehman shuffles execs; WaMu chief out after 18 years
“Modern Debt Peonage”? Economic Democracy Is Turning Into a Financial Oligarchy
Mike Whitney: An Interview With Michael Hudson
The best that this weekend’s bailout can do is to postpone the losses on bad mortgage debts. But this is a far cry from actually restoring the ability of debtors to pay.
Why The Fannie-Freddie Bailout Will Fail
By Martin D. Weiss, Ph.D.
With yesterday’s announcement of the most massive federal bailout of all time, it’s now official: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two largest mortgage lenders on Earth, are bankrupt.
(Reuters) - The old saying holds true: The rich do get richer.
Even as world financial markets broke down last year,
personal wealth around the world grew 5 percent to
$109.5 trillion, according to a global wealth report
released on Thursday by Boston Consulting Group.
It was the sixth consecutive year of expanding wealth.
The fastest growth was among households in developing
regions, such as China and the Gulf States and among
families who were already rich. (SEE MY COMMENTARY ON THE GULF STATES ON MEDIACHANNEL.ORG)
That wealth also is increasingly concentrated among the
richest.
ARE YOU EXPERIENCED?
HOW IMPORTANT IS “EXPERIENCE” IN CANDIDATES?
Senior Fellow Ivan Eland on the value of executive experience in the presidential race:
“…[P]undits always refer to experience as if it were an end in itself. The assumption seems to be that experience improves future judgment when crisis arises. But what if you don’t learn much from your experiences or learn the wrong things?…. Observers of the elections should remain undistracted by the superficial debate on “experience” and should focus directly on the candidates’ judgment.”
Robert Kuttner’s post on Huffpost made a point that needs to be mentioned again and again, namely ” Fannie Mae, nee the Federal National Mortgage Association, (FNMA) began life as a government invention. It was born “nationalized”–and it worked beautifully until it was privatized.”
September 9th, 2008 at 3:00 pmAND “Then in 1968, as part of a general budget reform, government technocrats decided to get FNMA off the government’s books.”
The ongoing ‘privatization’ of the ‘public commons’ is the ruin of this country and that point needs to be screamed at the top of our collective lungs.
Republicans are touting to the world that they have in McCain the experience necessary to the nation.
Bush, Cheney and McCain do have a lot of experience, the experience of running up our national debt to ten trillion dollars, the experience of letting 3 million manufacturing jobs leave the country, oh, they are experienced.
They’re experienced in privatize our social security into a slot machine, oh they are experienced.
They’re experienced in supporting NAFTA which tuned a trade surplus into a 70 billion dollar trade deficit.
They’re experienced in getting into a war without plans to get us out.
They’re experienced in keeping us there at the cost of $11 billion a month.
They’re experienced in paying with our taxpayers dollar to reconstruct Iraq, while the Iraqi government has over $80 billion surplus from their oil revenues.
And McCain says that no one, has supported George Bush’s Iraq strategy more than he did.
After eight years of that experience, we can’t afford another four more years.
In their convention on Minnesota, Republicans finally realized that our country is hungry for change; here, at home and abroad.
The same people, including Carl Rowe, who brought George Bush and Cheney to the white house, are now trying to persuading the American people that McCain is the agent of change. The same people, including McCain, who supported Bush-Cheney policies that lead to high unemployment, opened conflict in Iraq, record debt, lowered tax to the richest and corporations, economic stagnation and decline, the same people!
And what the republicans are offering Americans is more bowls of the sup that made us sick from the first time that we tasted it.
John McCain made the promise that change is coming to Washington, and I hope that in November we all help John McCain to make good on his promise and elect Barak Obama President. For a change!
Well said Senator Levin’s: http://www.carllevin.com/MDPconvention/
September 9th, 2008 at 3:23 pm