AndrewBaker

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

It's unlikely CIT will be allowed to fail now as it would do far too much damage to very fragile sentiment. We're getting more small bank closures, and hearing more about non-performing loans little by little. They're out there, they've not been accounted for yet, and we all know that until these bad debts have been fully factored in, we won't have a recovery; so perhaps the hope is that by slow disclosure the full effect won't be as big as otherwise, and that in the meantime other good news can keep sentiment up. That's what we have now: a market moved by sentiment as much as or even more than by hard fact and numbers.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

You are Right in San Francisco - the politicians are just dressing up what they would do anyway in the clothes of a supposed financial rescue plan. Obama reminds me of a British politician called Tony Blair who came to power in 1997 claiming to have a great new deal, was a good orator, and he and his pals proceeded to rip off the British economy for years because the good times allowed it without showing a deficit. Now look at what's happening there. Their financial boss Gordon Brown has moved up, unelected, to Prime Minister, and the country is almost bankrupt. I hope the US doesn't go the same way. We need clear policies and plans that we can see will work. Let's have them now.

Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News

Regardless of politics - though all the politicians must share the blame along with the bankers - we need to see something worthwhile being done. And I don't see it. Much of the plans outlined are just political dogma wrapped in a bail-out guise. Sure, we need good education, good road, bridges and the like, more jobs, and less people thrown out of their homes, and companies surviving not going into bankrupcy; but what's been presented so far doesn't show anything to me anyway that it's going to happen, that anything proposed will lead to the desired result. No wonder financials are in meltdown. If the government does not very soon put up something that shows they are really on the case, then we'll all know that much sooner that it's gonna get a lot worse before it gets any better.