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President Bush addressed the nation and presented an elementary and basic recitation of the history of the financial crisis to the remnant of the “Dancing With The Stars” audience which had not switched to a baseball game or a cable movie.

For those who hung around, he described a dangerous outcome if the crisis is not addressed.

He agrees that there should be an oversight panel and restrictions on executive compensation at institutions which avail themselves of federal largesse.

Tomorrow there will be a meeting of the power brokers and potentates at the White House to hammer out an agreement. The two Presidential contenders will be in attendance. (As an aside, that will probably make it difficult for Senator Obama to lambast the proposal, as he will have been involved in the negotiations.)

The markets will be in suspended animation tomorrow as participants struggle for information about the progress or lack thereof at the meeting.

Stay tuned. And the Mets trail the Cubs 6-5 in the 7th inning as the Mets bullpen fails once again to contain the opposition.

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  •  
    There was not a single word about bankruptcy protections for the people. I've read that there's been a 'compromise'.....it's a scandal of its own there was ever an issue.

    Imagine...panhandling from the homeless, and opposing any relief for their needs. What soulless people running PA Ave and Wall St.
    2008 Sep 24 11:13 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Hoover tried this after the 1932 election and before FDR was installed. FDR responded by saying he was on a boat cruise around Florida, thereby forestalling any blame from any concerted action. The economy couldn't stand the suspense and the banks tanked. FDR, what a guy. Never let a little thing like human misery interfere with your drive for more political power. Part of the fallout for this was to move the inauguration from March up to January. Later, of course, FDR was to be President until he died, at the start of his fourth term. Part of the fallout from that was to limit the President to two terms.
    2008 Sep 24 11:23 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Mr. Jansen,

    Our President spoke about an economic (not financial) crisis significant enough for him to command the presence of our nation of people. He is telling us that the well-being of present and future generations are in jeopardy, asking both the people and their elected representatives to act responsibily and with alacrity.

    Your article is worse than a waste of time, rather it is an insert of nonsense to an otherwise worthy website. It is a demonstration of insensibility and foolishness in a time of national need. People who act like you have done here, in these times, need to go away, and make way for persons whose opinoins and thoughts will help all of us make the best decisions we can, given the time and information we have been given. I suspect it is the influence of fools like you that have helped bring us to the predicate we now face.

    Shame on you - we have had enough. There is a saying, that among a crowd, the one to speak first and loudest is the one who knows least.
    2008 Sep 24 11:28 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    If the Mets pull it out will that be good for the market or not?
    2008 Sep 24 11:33 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Dear Flamorte,

    I think Mr. Jensen speaks for more people than you may realise. He is speaking to those who, I believe see what is truly happening.

    Our "betters" are putting on a display, it is all an act, and they are going to do, what they are going to do, and we as the "people" are going to take it on the chin, as always. The curtain is peeling back, the inner workings of the real government are coming to the forefront. They are showing us what we want to see, the truth is our government is a charade and not what it once was (or what we thought it is), and the average guy is seeing it for the first time. Then, they are flicking the channel over and getting back to watching the stories on the wall. How long till firemen stop putting out fires?

    So the President speaks to the people and says, "we need to do what we need to do or it's (insert catastrophe)". Same thing they always say and same result too.

    Once upon a time, some people got together and said, "ENOUGH". They put together for the first time ever a government that holds the people sovereign, not the government (this is important). This was the first time individuals held the power, the property and granted privileges to the government, and not the other way around. This is gone.

    Now, our power to say no is gone, some are trying, they'll be ignored. They are saying, "this is our money why should we be punished for their stupidity?" The answer: You just live here, and we make the rules, now shut up and get back to work.

    Flamorte, I think you are starting to see it, and you don't want to believe it. You're angry, and you should be, but point your anger in the right direction. It isn't fun to be conned.

    2008 Sep 25 12:40 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    If this doesn't go through you and your 401K are toast, finished, done for. Imagine banks with no lending, for a long time. No business loans, no business growth, no hiring, just firing, no home loans, no auto loans, no consumer spending, and the spiral goes much deeper than any naysayers can possibly imagine.

    As much as we want to point fingers, this MUST happen. Get a clue people!
    2008 Sep 25 12:40 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    johndough110....

    you think a federal bailout of walll street is going to save us. how naieve. this problem goes a lot deeper than falling housing prices and bad loans. we have an overleveraged economy and they are trying to prop it up using the same snake oil of low interest rates and excess leverage that pushed it over the edge.

    lenders have been forced to wise up and recognize that capital is a precious resource and can't be squandered on people whose net worth has fallen like a stone...which, by the way, includes about 80% of the population of the u.s.

    if you look at the yield on short term treasury bills you will discover that you receive virtually nothing in nominal terms to hold them. in real terms you pay for the privelege. this is stuff straight out of the 1930s. what does it mean? it means the credit markets have no faith in this proposed program. the credit markets think it is irrelevant. equity investors, ever hopeful, will dump stocks like they're poison if these spreads don't normalize soon. it isn't a good sign.

    you've been warned.
    2008 Sep 25 01:16 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Bush didn't sell it.

    The Paulson Buddies Bailout isn't happening.
    2008 Sep 25 02:05 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    icandoitdon has it exactly right.

    This bill will not solve the problem, it likely won't help at all.

    The economy isn't tanking because the banks stopped lending. The banks stopped lending because the economy is tanking.

    In a collapsing economy the prudent thing to do is hoard cash and that is exactly what the banks are doing. They will take our $700,000,000,000, say "thank you very much" and hoard that cash as well.
    2008 Sep 25 02:47 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Cramer, whose career arc now looks like what will soon happen to the markets, recently spoke of 'financial terrorism'. In fact the railroading of this bill is the 'financial terrorism'. It isn't enough, they know it but they want to save themselves before Main St.
    2008 Sep 25 03:28 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Unfortunately can only second what azcaballer and icandoitdon wrote. Spot on.

    As a foreigner, residing abroad, but with longstanding ties to the US and admiration for the American people and the core values of this great country, taking advantage of the recent Dollar blip, I have sold my Tips. I am holding the cash equivalent in Euros, for the time being.

    Why? I ve completely lost faith in anything coming out of Washington at the moment, to the point of instilling fear for the safety of what used to be part of my untouchable nest egg portfolio, Treasury Tips. And President Bush' speech yesterday made it even worse. 700 Billion or not, it does not really matter. For simpletons like me, he can utter anything he wants, trust is gone, I just do not believe this man.

    Have a good day
    2008 Sep 25 05:12 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    If main street liquidity is the problem, then whynot give each of us the $26,000 per man/woman/child and let us go open our own banks? We know deadbeats when we see them. :-) Let the Big firms fail, then put the CEOs in jail.
    2008 Sep 25 07:53 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    The Mets lost the game in extra innings.
    2008 Sep 25 08:15 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    The Republicrats and Democans will have their way. Thomas Jefferson warned us.......

    "Warring against [the principles] of the people,... there is no length to which [the delusion of the people] may not be pushed by a party in possession of the revenues and the legal authorities of the United States, for a short time indeed, but yet long enough to admit much particular mischief. There is no event, therefore, however atrocious which may not be expected." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Smith, 1798.
    2008 Sep 25 09:56 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    It's not the mortgages, it's the 61Trillion in CDOs that we have to deal with. Can we have a do over on that?

    2008 Sep 25 11:14 AM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Was it just me, or did he sound like we was reading from a BusinessWeek from last August that he just accidentally picked up?
    2008 Sep 25 02:15 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    Weren't you guys listening to our dear leader? Didn't you hear him describe the basics of the importance of the bailout?

    You must have been tuned into the Cubs-Mets game when he laid it out pure and simple for all the idiots who voted TWICE for him. Quote:

    Suppose your on the pot and too late you noticed that you were out of toilet paper. Then I come running to the bathroom with a fresh roll. That's a bailout. Now do you see how important it is, that $700 Billion roll of TP is? What's the alternative? Your hands?

    How much more clear could our dear leader be?
    2008 Sep 25 02:22 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    And, oh yes... poster flamorte, hope that you're not on the pot without the paper when the $3 Trillion bill comes in for the last event that Bush railroaded through. Or don't you remember the little Mission Accomplished?
    2008 Sep 25 02:27 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    icandoitdon: dead right. Equities are operating in a false market rigged for the election. It's the credit markets we have to watch.

    2008 Sep 25 02:56 PM | Link | Reply
  •  
    johndough110-
    sorry, I don't believe this fear mongering. I think you're over-wrought.
    chill. same for twitchy Paulson & Bernanke.
    Even Buffett believes the Feds will bail GS out.
    Let it collapse. Let the market sort it out. Your fear is the collapse will take years to recover from. Doubt it. Let the Feds step in then.
    Flush the bankers.
    2008 Sep 25 06:44 PM | Link | Reply
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