Nikola

While Financials Drag Markets Down, Five Ways to Stay in Play

Yo, MarvinMBA, it's CAPITAL not CAPITOL.

Though, I would agree with you if you think about it in another way: the thing about it now is not the return on the CAPITOL (as in Democrats returning to the Capitol), but the return of CAPITOL, as in, we need to take it back.

Let AIG Go Bankrupt, Not America

Is it really different this time? New York / America will be destroyed one day, there is no doubt. They can't go on forever. But is this it? Is it really different this time? Or is this just a regression to the mean that just seems so terrible.

If America is not going to be the world's most powerful country than who is? China? Sorry, but China still has ways to go, and that's being sympathetic. It has a political system that is not particularly stable (50 years, failed in other places), and does not go well with capitalism, a recent bubble (fueled by excess in the US) notwithstanding. China is too overpopulated, lacks too many natural resources, and is culturally and historically too xenophobic to run the world. They will remain an "important international player," which is not bad for a country that was a total wreck for the entirety of 20th century.

Russia? Corruption and depends too much on price of oil.

EU? Please. I believe more that Germany by itself could rise again, than EU collectively.

Japan? Not in our lifetime again.

So, while America is certainly losing some of its goodwill and capital, and while it certainly lost a lot of its "soft power" during the Bush years, there simply isn't anyone to take over. We could disintegrate into a multi-polar world, with no one super power running the world. That's possible, though America will remain the leader of the Western world, at least one pole.

It's bad these days. America will pay the price for its excesses. But, unfortunately when it's bad some people tend to panic. "We are all gonna die," is not helpful at this point, nor is it true.

Jim Rogers: It's Better To Let Financials Fail

I assume there's supposed to be a video embedded here but it's missing...

Could AIG Kill GM's Chances for a Bailout?

I think some year-end bonuses are in place for Wall St. folks. And GM CEO. AIG could also have its Christmas party for its execs in the Bahamas. After all, if the Lehman CEO walked away with all that money and his company went bankrupt, what about the rest of them.

Boy, $350 B's?! That's a lot of yachts.

Why Patriotism and Your Portfilio Don’t Mix

OK, I think we are done now. This is capitulation. Blaming the market crash on the Cold War.

I think we hit the bottom. Now let's go buy some stocks.

AIG: America's Insurance Giant

Would someone be kind enough to tell us how come EUR/USD has not moved a penny overnight. A SINGLE PENNY. The night that US Fed decides to spend $85B. And nothing. I get the same number from Yahoo Finance, Oanda, etc. all night. Not a penny difference.

What's going on with the dollar. You figger there might be some... er... volatility.

Has currency trading of the dollar been halted?

America Buys AIG

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Federal Reserve Buys AIG

Let me start with: "Workers of the world unite!"

While it's true the Fed does not trade on NYSE, so its stock can't go to $0.39, the "stock" of the Fed is the USD.

The fact that USD has not collapsed just yet is very, very, very, very, very... very, very, very, very, very interesting. Can we get some analysis here? What the f is going on? And exactly WHEN does the $ go down like LEH stock?

Oh, and BTW, all you whiners who say this is communism, that the government is bailing out the rich at the expense of the taxpayer, shall I remind you that the Fed is a private company. Don't feel so important. This is the rich guys bailing out the rich guys. We are just the spectators.

And while at that, I say, who needs reality TV anymore...... I am just amazed that Hollywood hadn't made a show about "all the major banks failing" before. This is so much fun.

In all seriousness, it's very simple folks. This is a very simple case of "run to the bank" (or selling the stock or calling your loans as it may be in 2008). Things are NOT THAT BAD in the economy that all these investment banks need to fail. But people are scared and lost confidence. And the Fed's job is to restore confidence. Yeah, the bailout is bull. But it's a way to restore the confidence. In fact, the Fed should have bailed out LEH as well. And Ben and Paulson need to come out and say: we will bail out each and every bank/company with more than $10B market cap. We will bail all of them out. Each and every one. Now and in the future. So don't even try running to the bank.

Now get back to work.