by Jack Lee
When the stock market falls almost 800 points in one day would you call it a market crash? Since it was the worst point drop ever…. I would. The S&P 500 fell 8.7%, and the NASDAQ also tumbled. Gold surged. Today was Wall Street’s way of telling Congress and the American people you have elected terrible leaders and the ship of state is about to flounder on the rocks of a great financial disaster!
It was a bloody awful day on Wall Street!
As you might expect House Republicans were quick to blame it all on Nancy Pelosi. However, the votes tell a different story, the Republicans killed the bailout and they had nothing else to offer. This is sure to damage McCain’s race and once voters are feeling the hurt they will be in a lynching mood for everyone that caused this debacle.
In a rare move, Congressman Wally Herger-R of Chico, voted aye and departed from the majority of his colleagues (135 to be exact) who voted nay to kill the bailout.
President Bush urged the bill to be passed or extremely dire consequences would ensue almost immediately. He has warned us that the cash flow between banks is going to freeze up, money markets will be at risk, more banks will fail, (they are lined up ready to tumble) layoffs will follow, the dollar will drop sharply, gold will rise and every American citizen will feel the effects in some way.
Needless to say, the banking industry was the hardest hit sector today, but then every sector is tied to the banking sector. That means there is no safe haven and no escape. The problems that besiege the financial industry are your problems. We’re all in it. like it or not and it doesn’t matter, you are involved and you have a lot to lose.
The final hour the DOW just collapsed!
Did you really think the $700 billion dollars was all we were looking at? I’ve got news for you, the government is, and has been, quietly moving hundreds of billions of dollars around the world to prop up the dollar. Just last week it was $290 billion, but by the end of today I believe that amount will exceed 600 billion and that’s not counting the proposed $700 billion bailout by secretary Paulson.
Everyone is feeling the pain! And one of the biggest worries that has everyone running scared is the uncertainty of how many major problems have been hidden by banks and by brokerages. Because right now, despite all the bad news and everything that has happened, nobody really knows the full extent of the toxic loans that are out here! To that end, Wall Street hired mathematicians and economists to come up with ways to calculate the value of things like CDO’s and derivatives, but even they can’t figure it out.
Wall Street has recently seen AAA companies suddenly go bankrupt! That’s not theoretically possible, and this took everyone by surprise. So if the very people who make the ratings don’t know – who does? This is uncertainty personified!
Now what? Are retirement accounts at risk?
I’ve yelled about the excesses of corporate America, about all the corruption, about the lack of oversight, about the watch dogs (board of directors) who were asleep or corrupt, about the failures of government regulators, about all our CEO’s making princely salaries and for over two years I’ve complained quite loudly about all the people that jumped on the housing boom so irrationally! My concerns were generally met with skepticism and resistance. Now it’s all happening just as I feared.
Unless Congress acts quickly and decisively, in a rational, logical manner, we’re headed into a deep and protracted recession. It’s not enough to block the bailout, they needed a Plan B. Where is Plan B???
We could easily see the DOW drop 2000 points in the next week IF the financial problems before Congress are not handled correctly and quickly.
Patrick Yoest reports from Washington on Congress.
House Republicans blamed the failure of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue plan Monday on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), saying that Pelosi had been too partisan in a floor speech prior to the vote.
House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) said that Pelosis speech poisoned the Republican caucus and caused a number of members we thought we could get to go south.
I do believe that we could have gotten there today, had it not been for the partisan speech that the Speaker gave on the floor of the House, Boehner said. We put everything we had into getting the vote to get there today. Boehner added, however, that lawmakers have no choice but to work together and would have to find a middle ground to bring enough votes to avert a crisis.
The final hour the DOW just collapsed!
Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R., Mo.) said he had 12 Republicans who would have voted for the bill but changed their minds, while Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.) holding up a copy of what he said was Pelosis floor remarks – said the speaker frankly struck the tone of partisanship. A senior aide to Pelosi rejected the Republican claims against the speaker, saying the suggestion that her speech motivated House Republicans to vote against the bailout plan was absurd.
You dont vote on the speech, you vote on the bill, said the aide.
Frank, speaking at a press conference, mocked the suggestion. Give me those twelve peoples names and I will talk uncharacteristically nicely to them, Frank said.
Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R., Mo.) said he had 12 Republicans who would have voted for the bill but changed their minds, while Rep. Eric Cantor (R., Va.) holding up a copy of what he said was Pelosis floor remarks – said the speaker frankly struck the tone of partisanship. A senior aide to Pelosi rejected the Republican claims against the speaker, saying the suggestion that her speech motivated House Republicans to vote against the bailout plan was absurd.
You dont vote on the speech, you vote on the bill, said the aide.
Frank, speaking at a press conference, mocked the suggestion. Give me those twelve peoples names and I will talk uncharacteristically nicely to them, Frank said.