Tony Soprano

Milli Vanilli Government: Latest Casualties - Bear and VISA

Two of America's greatest friends and allies are Israel and Britain.

I believe we should do everything necessary to support Israel.

I'm not a Yahoo board spammer!

Big Banks: Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Bail

Since there is so much angst directed toward the Fed and the US Government, I decided to listed some events, not all of them, that had dramatic ramifications on lives, cost and the psychology of our country. I started in 1906 because it’s just a little over a hundred years. As I compiled the list, I could not help but feel the great sacrifices that many American’s have made and what a resilient country, economy and government we have in American.

The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and fire, registered 8.25 on the Richter scale; estimates range from 700 to 3,000 dead or missing, approximately 225,000 injuries and $400,000,000 in 1906 dollars.

Recession, May 1907-June 1908, 13 mo

Recession Jan. 1910-Jan. 1912, 24 months

Completion of the Panama Canal, 1914 – 27,500 workers are estimated to have died

Recession Jan. 1913-Dec. 1914 23 months

World War I -- 116,708 killed – 33 billion

Spanish influenza, 1918, killed over 500,000 people in the worst single U.S. epidemic.

Recession Aug. 1918-March 1919 7 months

Recession Jan. 1920-July 1921, 18 months

Recession May 1923-July 1924 14 months

Recession Oct. 1926-Nov. 1927 13 months

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, flooded 27,000 square miles, 246 killed

The Great Depression, Black Tuesday, crop prices fell by 40 to 60 percent, after the panic of 1929, and during the first 10 months of 1930, 744 US banks failed. (In all, 9,000 banks failed during the 1930s). By 1933, depositors had lost $140 billion in deposits.

The Dirty Thirties, longest drought of 20th century. Peak periods were 1930, 1934, 1936, 1939, and 1940. The "dust bowl" covered 50 million acres in the south-central plains during the winter of 1935-1936.

Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, 400 killed

Recession May 1937-June 1938 13 months

World War II – 408,306 killed – 360 billion

Wartime Controls: 1941-1945 rationed consumer items ranging from sugar to gasoline

Recession Feb. 1945-Oct. 1945 8 months

The Marshall Plan, July 1947 – 13 billion in economic and technical assistance were given to help the recovery of the European countries

Recession Nov. 1948-Oct. 1949 11 months

Korean War, July 1951 - July 1953 – 33,000 killed in action

Recession July 1953-May 1954 10 months

Recession Aug. 1957-April 1958 8 months

Recession April 1960-Feb. 1961 10 months

The Cold War, some estimates shows $8 trillion was spent, worldwide, on nuclear and other weapons between 1945 and 1996

The Cuban Missile Crisis, Oct. 1962

Good Friday Earthquake (1964) In Alaska, it was the fourth biggest earthquake recorded

Vietnam War, 1963 – 47,378 killed in action

The murder of JFK, 1963 Nov

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident, Aug 1964

The murder of Dr King, April 1968 and Bobby Kennedy, June 1968

The city riots of April, 1968 – 30 cities affected

Hurricane Camille, Aug 1969, 259 killed

Recession Dec. 1969-Nov. 1970 11 months

Stagflation of the 1970s began

Nixon first imposed wage and price controls on August 15, 1971

Oil Embargo, Oct 1973 long gas lines

Recession Nov. 1973-March 1975 16 months

Articles of Impeachment of Nixon started
(Approved by a vote of 27-11 by the House Judiciary Committee on Saturday, July 27, 1974.)

Deregulation: 1974-1992 this era began when Nixon left office

Three Mile Island nuclear power plant crisis, March 1979

Mount St. Helens eruption 1980

Recession Jan. 1980-July 1980 6 months

Prime reached unbelievable 20% in January 1981,

AIDS was first reported June 5, 1981 by the government – It is thought that more than one million people are living with HIV in the USA and that more than half a million have died after developing AIDS.

Recession July 1981-Nov. 1982 16 months

California earthquake 1983

The 87 market crash - Black Monday

California earthquake, 1989

Recession July 1990-March 1991 8 months

Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990

The Persian Gulf War, 1991 or Desert Storm Jan 1991

Hurricane Andrew 1992 very destructive United States hurricane

The Great USA Flood of 1993

Intervention in the Former Yugoslavia,

Dot Com Bubble, climaxed on March 10th, 2000 with the NASDAQ peaking at 5132.52

9/11 Attack, 2,974 people died

Recession March 2001-Nov. 2001 8 months, Airline Industry Collapsed

Enron bankruptcy in late 2001, employed 22,000

WorldCom, July 21, 2002, filed for Chapter 11

Iraq War, March 19, 2003 – 4,000 dead

Hurricane Katrina, late August 2005, 1,836 people lost their lives

Start of the Great Housing Recession or Sub-prime Recession 2006 or 07, 08? Date to be determined.

Two Dollars per Share, or an "Orderly Liquidation"?

When you read history and each time our government intervened it worked. It did not work in a day or month but over time it worked.

Jimmy Rogers is very angry now because the Fed intervened. Why? He complains that the bosses at Bear will still get their bonuses. Well Okay. But what is he really mad about? Hmm, let me think, viola, our system works.

China does not have a system like ours. The dollar is falling and Americans will be buy less from China. Demand for commodities will decease. Inflation in China will and cannot continue and their government is managed to the maximum. The bubble will burst or deflate and Jim will lose a lot of money. Remember and he said this himself that he was going to move and live in China but decided not to because of pollution. American is the best place to live and invest. Jim can go to China if wants to.

Two Dollars per Share, or an "Orderly Liquidation"?

I did not say to buy last August, last September, or even last October. Not even in January but I did start to nibble some then and I am doing just fine.

The sentiment now is so negative. Some are saying that the fix we are in is not fixable. To me that's really good news.

Other shorts are just piling on . . . well you can pile on only so much and the news like above, even though its very true, becomes redundant.

LEH may go next. But we know what will happen. The Fed will be there. The shorts are now going to have to compete with the government. By govt. I mean the Fed, the Treasury, and Congress and even other world economies.

Two Dollars per Share, or an "Orderly Liquidation"?

Heap it on and pile it on, doom and gloom, its time to start buying and stay long.

Milli Vanilli Government: Latest Casualties - Bear and VISA

BUY TODAY!!! AND STAY LONG!!!

IT’S NOW THE FED AGAINST THE SHORTS. THE FED WILL WIN.

THE FED WILL KEEP THE ISLAND AFLOAT.

THIS IS CAPITULATION!!!

DON'T BUY INTO ALL THAT NEGATIVE THOUGHT ABOVE!

Subprime Write-Downs More Than 50% Done? Write-Ups Coming Next?

Good read -- thanks for doing it Vikram.

This site is heavily skewed to the negative. That's a buy signal.

What is most troubling about the negative bloggers it that they provide no counter points or potential solutions. They don't want to do this because they are padding there own and their clients positions.

Short Covering Helps Boost Stocks

Never ever under estimate America, its people, its government, its ideas and its place in the world.

Short Covering Helps Boost Stocks

Mr Whidbey

You don't understand. What the Fed did today its NOT inflationary. That was the beauty of it. In this action or swap what they are offering is not the printing of more money. They are using Treasuries (securities already in the market and owned by the gov.) to swap the bad debt. In addition, this was a world coordinated effort and you will see more of these type of tools being used. The Fed did not cut rates today and the Dow was up 416 points. Finally, what will happen when the ECB cuts and it will look differently at the dollar now that we have the swap auction by the Fed?

Short Covering Helps Boost Stocks

We're having Carmela's lasagne with basil leaves and peaches in red wine for dessert tonight. I told her we got some good news today and we need to celebrate a little.

All kidding aside, I like what Rich Santelli said this early morining: "This is huge."

This is not the absolute end to this crisis but its a big step in the right direction.

What fantastic timing by the Fed. Just when, from a technical point, the Fed unleashed their time bomb. What happened to the crasendo to the down side? Will it still happen?