Dr J0622

Being an old retired Army man and Mailman, who paid attention in Government class way back in high school, you can see how things can get messed up.

People think Obama can make things better, in my mind that won't happen.  Damn, he wants to increase the taxes on small business to over 50%, that will close a bunch and put people out of work.  But I guess they can apply for welefare.  That will happen if his party controls both houses.  I still say we need 3 parties, one right in the middle.

And the one where the beer's at!!!!!

Obe for you, Ken and me!

Doc....gotta run, kidz!

still no edit!

That's me! Underclassed ALL THE WAY!!!!

and luvvin' it!

the Doc

The one thing I don't see being discussed here is rejuvenating productivity through manufacturing... creating goods that have real value (not figures on the NYSE without solid capital behind them), thus creating employment, domestic spending power and boosting the GDP against imports of good that could be made equally as well or better locally...

When you have local imanufacturing ndustries, others catering and service industries pop up to provides essentials, thus creating a network of employment based on tangible products that provide better economic stability than electronic trading industries that play with fluctuating stocks, bonds and bad investments in the highly volatile financial sector.  OK, stock exchanges are essential to people wanting to invest in corporate entities, but first you have to get back to basics and actually have something of real substance by way of goods, services and a healthy workforce to sustain it.. and with that comes a domestic market that perpetuates the buying and selling which drives manufacturing and thus the economy/supply and demand upwards.  Naturally, a fair day's pay for a fair days work would would help re-envigorate the economy through propenisty to pay.

Also financial institutions need to be regulated, so that when they lose investors money and get themselves in the shit, they can't hike up fees, interest rates or renegotiate for higher loan/mortgage rates  and inflic further finacial pain on the already suffering just to save their own bacon.  That's it, you see, so long as their own positions/finances are strong, it's just other peoples money... well stuff that, make them responsible for peoples life savings, superannuatio/retirement fundsn and insurance policies, etc.

I certainly agree with that! NAFTA didn't bring many blessings our way, and if it was so good for Mexico, how come they're coming here?

Absolutely! This started way back with the law that gave the markets free rein without regulation.

Anybody wanna shift to a happier note....?

Well now, things get more interesting...

WASHINGTON —  The FBI is investigating four major U.S. financial institutions whose collapse helped trigger a $700 billion bailout plan by the Bush administration, The Associated Press has learned.

Two law enforcement officials said Tuesday the FBI is looking at potential fraud by mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and insurer American International Group Inc. Additionally, a senior law enforcement official said Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. also is under investigation.

The inquiries will focus on the financial institutions and the individuals that ran them, the senior law enforcement official said.

The law enforcement officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigations are ongoing and are in the very early stages.

Officials said the new inquiries bring to 26 the number of corporate lenders under investigation over the past year.

Spokesmen for AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac did not immediately return calls for comment Tuesday evening. A Lehman spokesman did not have an immediate comment.

Just last week, FBI Director Robert Mueller put the number of large financial firms under investigation at 24. He did not name any of the companies under investigation but said the FBI also was looking at whether any of them have misrepresented their assets.

The investigations revealed Tuesday come as lawmakers began considering whether to approve emergency legislation that would give the government broad power to buy up devalued assets from troubled financial firms.

The bailout proposed by the Bush administration is aimed at helping unlock credit and stabilize badly shaken markets in the United States and around the globe.

In the past two weeks, the government has taken over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the country's two biggest mortgage companies, with a bailout plan that could require the Treasury Department to put up as much as $100 billion for each of them over time if needed to keep them afloat as mortgage losses mount.

Last week, the Federal Reserve provided an emergency $85 billion loan to AIG, which teetered on the brink of bankruptcy. Lehman Brothers was forced to file for bankruptcy after attempts to engineer a private rescue fell apart. All the companies were laid low from bad bets on complex mortgage-related securities.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke made the joint decision last week that the only way to stop the carnage was to deal with the root cause of all the troubles, billions of dollars of bad mortgage debt sitting on the books of major financial companies. This debt has triggered the worst credit crisis in decades, causing credit markets to essentially freeze up despite the fact that the Fed joined with major central banks around the world to pump billions of dollars of reserves into the financial system.

Additionally, the FBI is investigating failed bank IndyMac Bancorp Inc. for possible fraud. Countrywide Financial Corp., formerly the nation's largest mortgage lender and now owned by Bank of America Corp., is also under scrutiny.

Yup, I just read that Sarah Palin has an economic rescue package through boosting exports...

First off, she plans to export moose meat to the UK, given its history with mad cow disease and the shortage of consumable meat products.... and to ensure a perpetual moose meat market, she plans to visit the UK and pull faces at a herd or three of cows to be certain mad cow disease continues to pose a threat to UK domestic meat markets.

Further, knowing that the Japanese are really into novelty items, she plans to make hundreds of thousands of duplicates of her 'bridge to nowhere' and flood the Japanese market with something novel but totally useless.

Another product she has destined for the Japanese and other World markets is lipstick wearing stuffed pigs.  She believes they will become as popular as the teddy bear, if not moreso, because each stuffed pig will have a birth certificate personally signed by Sarah herself... and will come with a choice of her personal brands of lipstick.

Ms Palin also believes she has a solution to the mortgage and housing crisis... Igloos across the length and breadth of America.  Although it is an ambitious project and she feels global warming may pose some difficulties, particularly in the warmer States, she has seen the Eskimos of her home State of Alaska cope very well with this aspect and believes that all Americans could build and quite comfortably live in their own igloos, thus saving themselves huge amounts of money on builders, mortgages and bank fees. 

Ms Palin believes that by strategically placing huge airconditioning units across the country, she can turn the US into a giant frozen wasteland from which citizens can cut the ice to build their igloos.  She states, however, that the ice would not be free, due to the high cost of refrigeration, but igloos owners would still be minimally better off, saving around 0.5% on what they would otherwise make in mortgage repayments.

In news just to hand: John McCain has weighed in on the 'bridge to nowhere' export idea and plans to sell replicas to Mexico... the idea being that once he's erected the electrified fence, thousands of Mexicans will be clamoring to buy these bridges, which incidentally are just the right height to go over the fence.

Again, it is another case of selling false hope... but I guess that's what politicians do best.  Given that the bridges actually go to nowhere, some Democrats are denouncing the idea as inhumane, because Mexicans hoping to make US soil will actually end up somewhere... er, nowhere else and become indefinitely separated from their families, etc.

While some Republicans have also denounced McCain's scheme, Sarah Palin has backed to move and believes the bridges should come with a free moose suit.  Apparently Ms Palin is dissatisfied with the shortened moose hunting season in Alaska (due to shortened daylight hours during Winter) and feels the suits would assist in honing her aim for the Summer months.

When I never hear Palin's name again, I will start to belive in progress. She should be treated like someone that shot up a school to gain fame. Their names should never be mentioned. Good press, bad press, no difference. The dumb people only hear her name and that makes her more popular.

Women that jumped ship just because she is a woman should be ashamed of themselves.

For the record... I believe in a matriarcal society. Women should run things and Men should build things just like most households.

Wonder if this will work...but Campbell Brown said it best.

Damnit, embed fail.

Campbell Brown Rips McCain Camp's "Sexist" Treatment Of Palin

NT and Starkers have my vote. That would be a better ticket. If Starkers wasn't from Oz....ahh what's the use.

News about the FBI is interesting, but I have a funny feeling that they'll find some sacrificial goat and not really get the big guys. I really want, however to believe in them and their ability to get major miscreants like Martha Stewart.

I wanted to purchase a "Road to nowhere" and a "Bridge to nowhere". Called Starker's "Shameless Commerce Division" but they told me,"Thanks, but no thanks."

My first course of action would be to outlaw minivans from traveling in any lane but the slow lane. If it is a 1 lane road, minivans would be required to pull over and let others pass.

My second course of action would be to outlaw remakes of old movies.

My 3rd course of action would be to add another day to the week. Golfday.

My 4th would be that bikinis are now to be considered business suits.

^

I dunno about that...there's a lot of people that would make it tempting to pass a law that wearing a bikini would be a crime.

The rage is palpable.  WHy do you hate her so?  WHy does she scare you?  WHy do you wish her harm?  That she scares the left is no secret.  WHy is something Freud would be very interested in.  Apparently the Misogynist campaign that Obamam ran tainted his desciples.  I dont think most of them were misogynists before, but it is clear they are now.

Strange indeed.  A day ago, Biden in all seriousness was talikng about the current financial crisis in the US and said that in 1929 when we had another great crisis on Wall Street, FDR got on TV and taliked to the American people and calmed them down.  Unfortunately, FDR was not President then and there were no TVs!!  The press reaction was 'oh well, that's Joe!  Can you imagine the outroar if Palin had said the same thing!  There would have been all kinds of demands to rtemove her from the ticket and how stupid she was.  If Mc Cain had said it , it would have been "proof" that he was too old.  I can't imageine there is anyone out there who does not realize  this is pure media bias.