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In a brief reaction to a "sobering" jobs report, President Obama said he's examining new measures to spur growth and ran off a list of five: road/bridge investment, energy retrofitting, additional tax cuts for businesses to create jobs, boosting credit to small businesses and support for exporters.

How about "abandoning socialist ambitions"?

More from Geithner - no more AIGs: "Any firm that puts itself in a position where it cannot survive without special assistance from the government must face the consequences of failure. The proposed resolution authority would not authorize the government to provide open-bank assistance to any failing firm."

The large banks need broken up similar to the way the oil industry was decades ago

Lagging Segments of the Market Tell a Good Deal About the Economy

It seems to me that the market in general has merely become another commodity play on the US Dollar, much like the rest of commodities. When the Dollar weakens, we rally; and vice versa.

Allan Meltzer in today's WSJ: "History gives many examples of countries with high actual and expected money growth, unsustainable budget deficits, and a currency expected to depreciate. Unless these countries made massive policy changes, they ended in crisis. We will escape only if we act forcefully and soon."

Obamanomics seems to embrace protectionism and higher taxes-both major causes of the 1930s great depression

Commodity Futures Trading Commission chief Gary Gensler wants derivatives bills to be improved by pushing more transactions through clearinghouses - not regulating capital or business conduct. "If a large swap dealer gets into trouble, it’s not pulling and tugging at thousands of others in the system, that’s the benefit."

Seems to me that is it common sense to have transactions done through clearinghouses since a lack of such was a contributor to the financial crises. This would also increase transparency.

It's not entirely clear why Roubini's comments in Istanbul are getting so much play this morning, but here goes: "I see the risk of a correction, especially when the markets now realize that the recovery is not rapid and V-shaped, but more like U- shaped."

Seems more like an "L" to me - consumers aren't going to be able to use homes as ATMs. A new normal is forming, imo.

"Floor traffic was lousy all month. Every brand, every region of the country - it was a real post-clunker hangover. It was disappointing. I expected the month to be a bit stronger, but it just wasn't." - Mark LaNeve, GM's VP of U.S. sales, after yesterday's weak September sales data

He sounds like an idiot!

Who was left to buy after C4C? Duh!

NAPM Chicago Business Barometer: Business activity in the U.S. Midwest failed to return to growth in September, with ISM's business barometer dropping unexpectedly to 46.1 vs. consensus of 52 after an even 50 (above 50 indicates growth) in August. New orders dipped to 46.3 from 52.5.

"Recession over" is gonna be the punchline to quite a few jokes in the future, I'm afraid

A 22-year-old man has received 15 months in prison and must pay back $200,073 after trying to open more than 58,000 accounts with E-Trade (ETFC), Charles Schwab (SCHW) and Google (GOOG) in the names of characters from the King of the Hill TV show (among others). The scheme was to steal the "micro-deposits," from 1 cent to $2, that firms make to test account functionality.

Reminds me of what Richard Pryor's character did in Superman III.

And Wall Street layoffs drive New York City's unemployment rate to 10.3%, vs. the national rate of 9.7%. State Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith: "Our economists don’t see the financial-services sector ever coming back as strong as it was."

There are plenty of ways for Wall Street to make money without collateralizing crap and selling it to widows and orphans. Those who cannot do so deserve to go out of business.

"We decorated it in the style that Merrill Lynch offices were, which was very, very nice ... That was a mistake, and I’m sorry that I did that. If I had that to do over again, I’d furnish it in Ikea." - John Thain, former Merrill Lynch (BAC) CEO, who spent $1.2M in office redecorations in the midst of the crisis. (He says he has reimbursed the company.)

$1.2M for Thain is what, 2-3 hours of work considering what he used to "earn"?

Some are taking the Lehman collapse anniversary as a time to go super-bullish. The Dow returning to 14,000, Jon Markman? "In three years? Not a problem. The signs are abundant, if you know where to look: in the corporate credit markets, in employment trends, in consumer credit trends, in government statements and in corporate revenue trends."

For now, the trend is up.....

until it isn't

Alex Berenson in The New York Times sees little has changed for Wall Street in a year - minor restructuring, pay rising again - and hears from people who think lessons weren't learned, like Simon Johnson: "They will run up big risks, they will fail again, they will hit us for a big check."

Wash, rinse, repeat.

FOMC minutes: Fed more confident that the downturn is ending - but the board was uncertain over the pace of a recovery that is vulnerable to shocks or reversal. Expects inflation to be subdued, and slowed its debt purchases to promote smooth market transition.

"slowed its debt purchases to promote market transition"?

No, it slowed its debt purchases because they were no longer NEEDED now that there are finally other bidders!

Southwest Airlines (LUV -0.75%) takes its first step toward ancillary fees, offering passengers who cough up $10 first dibs at seats, which Southwest doesn't assign. Unlike its rivals, LUV has eschewed fees as part of CEO Gary Kelly's policy to avoid 'nickel-and-diming' customers.

First line in any airline business model is "treat your customers like crap."

Second line is "hire lobbyists to make sure a 'passengers bill of rights' is never passed."