Manic Melon

Total Borrowings of Depository Institutions from the Federal Reserve

National Debt as a % of GDP

National Debt Update

The Gross National Debt

Learn more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Us_debt

1 year DOW Range: 14280 - 8579

October 7, 2008: S&P500 closes below the phsycological level of 1000 for the first time since August 2003.

Confirmed by the DOW:

For those of us that are following this...
Cheer up, the worst is yet to come

Watch it: http://www.c-spanarchives.org/flash/player-time.html?start=2008-10-02%2020:06:57&stop=2008-10-02%2020:21:57&net=1

Update: Link above seems to no longer work. Read the text:

The only way they can pass this bill, is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. That atmosphere is not justified. Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday, that the sky would fall, the market would drop 2000-3000 points the first day, and couple thousand the 2nd day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no………..

……We’ve got a week…we’ve got 2 weeks to write a good bill……..

……….What has the Senate done to this bill? First, they added pork to it in the hope that that would buy off some votes. Second, they created a double-hostage situation. We already know that the first bill was a hostage situation. When Paulson announced the crisis and basically sent a ransom note. And that ransom note read, “We’ve got your 401k, and you’ll never see it alive again unless you send us $700 billion in unmarked bills."

Now there is the AMT (Alternative Minimum Tax) patch. A necessary tax provision that Congress passes every year. Without this patch, the AMT tax, which is designed to fall only on the wealthy, will hit another 20 million American households. Everyone knows we have to pass this. We sent it to the Senate for them to pass. Instead of passing it, they created a hostage situation. The refused to pass it—they put it on this bill, and so now we are being told if you don’t send $700B to Wall St, we’re gonna tax 20 million American families in a way that no one in Congress wants to do. That is totally phony. If we vote down this bill, the Senate will [still] pass the AMT patch bill that we sent them, just like they do, every year.

Now there was some attempt to tell the American people that this bill is not going to cost them anything permanently, because in 2013 we’re gonna get the money back from the Financial Services industry. Nothing could be further from the truth………..

[Explains in detail how the recovery mechanism will not work]

Now as I said, hundreds of billions of dollars are going to be used to bail out foreign investors. That is why my amendment, which easily fixes that problem, has been rejected. Because the White House demands that we bail out these foreign investors. That’s what they want to do. That’s what they promised the Saudi Royal Family. That’s what they promised the Bank of China. Those promises will be honored with this tax money, squeezed out of the American people.

[Explains in detail how the executive compensation loophole will be exploited]

Now we are told that there is gonna be oversight in this bill. There is a good, Democratic-dominated, board that is created. It is a CRITIQUE board. It is NOT a control board. It is a board that will issue press releases and reports, but it cannot halt, it cannot reverse, it cannot delay, any decision made by the Sec of the Treasury.

[Explains in detail how the bill gives too much power to Paulson]

[Explains in detail how the 2009 Reform Legislation will not work]

We are going to see a very large percentage of this money going to buy securities, bad paper, toxic assets, currently in safes in Beijing, Shanghai, London and Riyadh. And we are going to see all the power in the hands of the Bush Admin and a part-time, temporary administrator, namely the Sec of the Treasury. Under this bill, if it passes, we don’t really know what is going to happen to the economy. No one knows. The only thing that is certain, are 2 things:
- Wall St Executives are gonna get huge amounts of money, and
- Our children and grandchildren are going to get stuck with hundreds of billions of dollars of additional Federal debt.

And, we as a country, having just done a bad $700 billion program, will not be able to do anything to help homeowners, because we won’t have the money. We won’t be able to bail out local governments, because we won’t have the money. We won’t be able to deal effectively with the REAL commercial banking lending crisis, because we will have shot our entire wad on a bill that is guaranteed to only do one thing, and that is to help the truly wealthy on Wall Street.

The Senate thinks they know better

As if the public outcry against the bailout wasn't important, the Senate passed the bailout with strong 75 - 24 vote. They voted for a bailout which is meant to fix a problem that they themselves helped to create. I don't trust our government to fix the problem. Kansas Senators Brownback and Roberts, thanks for voting against it. I'll now consider voting to keep you in office.

Senate attempts to buy votes with lipstick and pork

Check out the following pork added to the over 400 page bailout bill:

• Oregon (2) - 6,000,000 for making arrows for children's toys
• California (2) - 10,000,000 for small and medium sized film and tv productions
• Alaska - 223,000,000 for Exxon Valdez settlement recipients
• Minnesota - 3,800,000,000 Billion for a Mental Health care provision
• 192,000,000 - Puerto Rico & Virgin Island Rum Producers
• 33,000,000 - American Samoa Corporations
• 128,000,000 - Auto Race Tracks

Oh ya, don't forget the 700,000,000,000 we're going to give to banks. When spending this 704.4 Billion dollars, keep in mind that I've yet to see anyone with credibility who really expects this to WORK. The bailout's purpose is simple: they're literally BUYING time in order to get to the election before the crash.

Only 36 hours of waste

I think the government should come out with this statement:
"Don't worry folks, the $4,392,000,000 we're spending on pork is equal to what the government spends on average in just 36 hours."
And then this Disclaimer: not counting the war, not counting bailouts of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, not counting cash infusions in the markets, not counting stimulus packages, not counting medicare deficits, not counting medicaid deficits, not counting social security deficits, not counting FDIC deficits, and of course not counting the mother of all bailouts we're talking about now... but yes of course you should continue to accept the numbers we publish without quesiton.

PS - John McCain, you just lost the election. This issue was your opportunity to be a "maverick" and offer a real solution, but you wanted this bailout so bad you thought the Treasury should act even without legislation to approve it. You could have rallied conservatives behind you with a plan, even those who dislike you for the neocon you are.