Author: Matthew G. Saroff

Economics Update

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Let’s start with the fact that this has been a TEOTWAWKI week.

That being said, we are seeing a huge increase in borrowing from the Fed Discount window, as a part of the Fed’s sh^%pile for cash program.

OTOH, jobless claims did fall a bit, to 475,000 though they were at 7 year highs to begin with, and job creation is lagging.

Also, Oil fell to $82/bbl, the lowest in a year and gasoline is heading down too.

Also, the dollar continues to climb, as is the Yen.

In real estate, we are seeing mall vacancies skyrocket.

A Partial Resolution on the Citi-Wells-Wachovia Menage à Bank

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Well, it appears that Citi has concluded that it will not get Wachovia, though it’s still looking to get some sort of payment for its time and effort.

My guess is that the revalations taht the FDIC was threatening to seize Wachovia if it did not cut a deal with Citi had something to do with their decision to abandon their quest to take over Wachovia:

Early on the morning of Monday, Sept. 29, FDIC officials contacted Wachovia executives and said the bank would not be able to open for business on Monday because of liquidity problems. The FDIC instructed Wachovia to negotiate with Citi, which was the only remaining bidder for Wachovia.

That morning Bob Steel told the company’s board that it had two options: Place Wachovia into bankruptcy or seek a government-assisted deal with Citi and the FDIC. The board voted in favor of seeking a deal.

The deal could be considered coerced, and courts look very dimly on these sorts of shenanigans….Particularly when the competing offer is 7 times more.

Note that even though Wells-Fargo’s offer was much larger, it was still less than 1/10 of what its assets were supposed to be just a year of so back.

Iceland® a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Russia

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Well, it looks as if as bad as the US has been hit, tiny Iceland has been absolutely destroyed by the financial crisis.

Despite regulatory actions intended to shore up Icelandic banks, Icelandic banks have all failed, and they are in talks with the Russians about a €4 billion loan…..For a country with just over 300,000 people….That’s a bit under $20,000 per resident.

It also looks like there may be some action from the IMF, which raises an interesting question, how will Europeans feel when one of their own is told to gut labor protections, reduce union rights, end free health care, and make payments for primary education mandatory?

That is, after all what the IMF demands of dark skinned folks.

Of course, no crisis is complete without one complete pratt making things worse, and (not surprisingly) this role is assumed by British PM Gordon Brown, who is upset that the Icelandic guarantees only apply to domestic account holders, so he, “has used powers granted under anti-terrorism laws to freeze British assets of Landsbanki until the standoff is resolved.”

I think that once the Icelanders find out what the IMF is demanding, and if they are true to form, it will be the complete dismantling of their social safety net, they will run to Russia for their loan, which will come with its own strings, probably a naval base, and possibly an air base.

Put a Fork in Him, Ted “Hulk” Stevens is Done

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Even though the judge excluded some evidence and will notify the jury that the prosecutors were untruthful, I think that he’s done.

He will be convicted.

This because they have “Uncle Ted” on tape saying that they might go to jail for what they had done:

In the three conversations between Mr. Stevens and Mr. Allen played for a federal jury on Monday, Mr. Stevens repeatedly says he believes they did nothing wrong, but also raises the possibility they could go to jail if they are not careful.

“They’re not going to shoot us,” Mr. Stevens reassured Mr. Allen on Oct. 18, 2006. “It’s not Iraq.” At worst, he said, “we might have to pay a fine and serve a little time in jail.”

Mr. Stevens added, “I hope to Christ it never gets to that, but I don’t think it will.”

It doesn’t matter how stupid the prosecution is, Stevens admitted that he was doing something illegal on tape.

It doesn’t matter how many character witnesses there are, and the list includes Hawaii Senator Daniel Inouye, and champion dog mushers, and “Hobo Bob.”

The man has been a cancer on good governance for a very long time, and while his exit may not serve the Alaskan people, it will serve the American people.

On Zimbabwe, Mbeki, and South Africa

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First, we have Robert Mugabe’s statement that Thabo Mbeki’s resignation as South Africa’s president is, “devastating”.

While it’s clear that there is a large amount of personal affection between the two leaders, I think that it is also that there is a class issue behind this statement, which I will get to, that has served to protect Robert Mugabe to the disadvantage of the Zimbabwean people.

We now have reports of Mbeki knowingly pressuring the MDC’s Tsvangerai to sign a an ambiguous deal, to the advantage of Mugabe, and now it’s clear that Mugabe’s ZANU-PF is completely disinterested in forming a meaningful unity government.

At the same time, we have elements of the ANC threatening to leave the party, and I think that both of these have to do with the class issues within that part of the world.

When you look at Robert Mugabe, Thabo Mbeki, and head of the splinter MDC Faction Arthur Mutambara are all western educated, and wear clothes made in Saville Row, and they look upon the idea of an African born and educated trade unionist (Morgan Tsvangerai) or strong union sympathiser (Jacob Zuma) with no small amount of alarm and disdain.

At the core of Mbeki’s support for Mugabe was, I think, a sort of noblesse oblige where he does not believe that Tsvangerai, or people “like” has the wherewithal to lead.

Small minded bigotry knows no color, and I hope that Mbeki is feeling bad right now because someone else got the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Dow Fell Below….

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I had this ready yesterday, but I never thought that I would have to use it today.

It’s an obscure Dragonball-Z reference, which has been remixed over 1000 times on Youtube, here’s one video:

BTW, I’m done with Yom Kippur for the next year, but I’m still plowing through my oft-delayed taxes, so posting will be light for a while.

2nd Debate Live Blogging

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Town hall formats, and questions are lame.

So far, it’s clear that McCain is doing a pretty good impression of Bob Dole in 1976.

Not sure if this is good or bad….It’s clear that Barack Obama cannot be the “angry black man”, so he’s basically ignoring the attacks.

McCain saying that Obama’s tax policy is, “Like nailing jello to the wall,” false.

Obama says that McCain wants to cut taxes on Wall Street CEOs, True.

….
McCain says, “Lets have a commission,” on Social Security…That’s kicking it down the road…Obama should say that McCain wanted to put Social Security money in the hands of those Wall Street CEOs, which is true, but my money is on him not doing this.
……..
Now, McCain is invoking Lieberman as a part of his bipartisan cred….Yeah, right…

Mentioning how nuclear will fix everything….Says that it’s clean, but won’t mention nuclear waste, and won’t mention that it takes about 15 years to build a new nuke plant…

Obama brings up McCain’s record voting against alternative energy over the past 23 years.

……

Brokaw is a clueless MoFo, asked if funding for alternative energy should be like a “Manhattan Project”, or “In a thousand garages, like Silicon Valley.”

Silicon Valley was created by military spending.

…….
Obama on health care, mentions that McCain will tax your health benefit, good. Not calling it a tax increase on working Americans, not so great.

Ohhh….Mr. “I don’t use email” McCain is talking about how putting records online will save costs….snork.

He is now accusing that Obama will be fining struggling parents who can’t afford insurance, and raises myth of, “gold plated” insurance…Like you have as a senator?
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Obama talks about his dying mother spending the last months of her life fighting with insurance. Nails McCain about voting against MHIP.

Mentions McCain’s idea of eliminating state regulations is like banks moving to Delaware.
…..

Foreign policy: McCain does love that Iraq war, don’t he.
….
Final analysis: Obama in a decision.

McCain spent too much time saying, “Hey you kids, get off of my lawn.”

So NOW Republicans Want an Aggressive FEC

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We all know about Obama’s small donors.

He’s collected hundreds of millions of dollars that way, and the Republicans won’t stand for it:

The Republican National Committee plans to file a complaint on Monday against Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign raising questions about the legitimacy of its small contributions and donations from overseas.

….

But such donations do not have to be itemized in reporting to the election commission unless the donor’s total contributions exceed $200. The lack of information on such donors has been highlighted by watchdog groups as potentially troublesome. The groups have also praised the campaign of Senator John McCain for offering on its Web site a tool that allows a search of all of its donors, including those who gave less than $200.

So Barack Obama is following the law, and the ‘Phants don’t like it, because he raises too much money.

Rolling Stone on McCain

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John Sidney McCain III must be walking funny (funnier?) after Rolling Stone got through with him, because they just cut him a new asshole, and from reading the article, it’s clear that if they were using the Jarvis Bung Dropper* (see picture), then they must have used the jumbo extra large model.

This article looks in detail at every aspect of John McCain’s life, and finds that the truth is much less than heroic.

They absolutely eviscerate his claims of service and heroism, and they don’t even have to go into the rumor that he caused the Forrestal fire.

*Full disclosure, I actually worked for Jarvis Products Corporation in the early 1990s, and actually worked on issues with the blade for the larger models of the bung dropper, which goes from chickens all the way up to bulls.†
†Yes, I have worked everywhere. Maybe I can’t hold down a job, but more likely this has been my role as “technical hit man”, where you are parachuted in to take care of a specific need.

GMAC Unable to Resell $2.7 Billion In Loans

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This situation is not getting better:

GMAC $2.7bn loan sale failure

GMAC yesterday failed to sell a $2.7bn portfolio of loans as conditions across the credit markets continued to deteriorate.

It put the loans, which are part of GMAC’s commercial finance business, on the block as part of previously announced plans to shed non-core assets, said a spokeswoman. It withdrew the sale due to “market conditions”.

GMAC is majority owned by investors led by private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management. General Motors holds a 49 per cent stake

U.S. Senate Votes to Make Nonproliferation a Joke

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To quote Crooks and Liars on the U.S. Senate voting 86 to 13 to approve the nuclear arms deal with India.

Needless to say, this is one of the few diplomatic accomplishments of this administration, wiping their ass on the non-proliferation regime studiously created over the past 40 years so that US nuclear companies can make a few bucks.

This makes the single most dangerous issue in the world, fully militarized nuclear warheads on delivery systems in Pakistan and India even worse.

I’d say “mission accomplished”, but Condoleeza “The Worst Secretary of State Ever” Rice has managed to screw up even this. She visited India after the Senate’s approval, and could not sign it because of unspecified bureaucratic issues.

I guess someone forgot to pay the service contract on the State Department copying machines.