Oh, the shame...

Clouded waters clear with time...

Ellen Schloemer, executive vice president of the Center for
Responsible
Lending Self-Help Credit Union in North Carolina, disputed two reasons
many people are blaming for the subprime mortgage mess.
   One is the Community Reinvestment Act, a 1977 law that encourages
borrower
activity in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.
   "How people can think that a law that's been on the books for 30
years
somehow precipitated or caused the subprime crisis is frankly just
beyond
me," she said. "I think it is a smokescreen. CRA did not apply to most
subprime lenders."
   Also being scapegoated, she said, are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Although
the two institutions did buy too many risky home loans, their volume
was
dwarfed by those in the private market, she said. "I think it's
political
nonsense to blame things not at fault."

 

 

Wall Street investors experienced a sudden surge in optimism Tuesday

NEW YORK—Wall Street investors experienced a sudden surge in optimism Tuesday when, after six tumultuous weeks that saw record drops in the Dow Jones industrial average, a $1 bill was spotted on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

The dollar bill was discovered in the northwest corner of the trading floor at approximately 12:05 p.m., and its condition was reported as "crinkled, but real." Word of the tangible denomination of U.S. currency spread quickly across the NYSE, sending traders into a frenzied rush of shouting, arm-flailing, hooting, hollering, and, according to eyewitnesses, at least one dog pile.

"With credit frozen and the commercial paper market poised on the brink of collapse, this is the most promising development I've seen on Wall Street in months," said floor trader Tim Formato, one of hundreds who gathered around the $1 bill and excitedly called their clients to inform them that they were looking at actual U.S. tender. "I think I touched it."

According to witnesses, the trading floor was soon abuzz with energy, as traders pointed at the dollar and repeatedly shouted "Look!" and "Money!" A proposal to divide the $1 note into 1,300 equal pieces and distribute them amongst investors was considered, but ultimately rejected. Early reports estimate the dollar may have passed through as many as 65 hands before disappearing in the late afternoon.

The bill's absence, however, did not deter the growing enthusiasm from those on the trading floor. By 2:15 p.m., more than 60,000 shares had been purchased in the new publicly traded asset, DLR, after brokers placed a flurry of calls advising their investors to buy into the booming single-dollar market.

By the close of day, economists were estimating the dollar bill's net worth at just under $270 million.

"We couldn't be in a better situation right now," trader Patrick Kady said. "Unless of course it had been a euro."

However, some financial advisers are warning against the rampant speculation the dollar has caused on Wall Street. Many have cautioned investors not to make rash decisions, such as liquidating all their low-risk government bonds in order to sniff the green paper bill for just a minute.

"I bet it smells like rose petals," mutual funds specialist Ken Stoute said. "My friend's friend Tim Formato? He's on the board at Westminster Securities and he says he touched it. He said it was warm and soft and wonderful. He said he knows where it is now, and I can put in an option on seeing it tomorrow for only $85."

Since the appearance of the dollar, the Dow has spiked an impressive 993 points—its largest gain ever. Initial numbers are showing the most sizable rises in technology stocks, a trend some are attributing to Microsoft's CFO Chris Liddell, who toured the trading floor Tuesday morning with the bill stuck to his left shoe.

The overall projection for the market following the incident has been positive, with many analysts claiming that the $1 bill may be an indication of other spare change lying around. This, coupled with reports out of Europe that there is a German college student who has not yet hit her credit card limit this month, could be enough to stabilize the Dow and jump-start the global economy once again.

"This is just another sign that the U.S. economy is as strong and resilient as it has ever been," said Richard Fuld Jr., former CEO of Lehman Brothers. "I'm just glad we finally have these credit and subprime mortgage loan crises behind us. This $1 bill will carry us through another 10 years of reckless, unregulated borrowing."

For the second time this year...

Vice President Dick Chaney was rushed to the hospital after his 24 hour medical team detected a heart beat...the VP was quickly rushed into the ICU where an electrical charge was applied that quickly ceased the pesky muscles' ominous rythem...the last time this happened 20,000 people died instantly and three small towns were completely oblitereated...

Precocious Youngster Sells Cookies To Buy Attack Ad

Precocious Youngster Sells Cookies To Buy Attack Ad

The quintessential McCain supporter...

not just another McCain girl...a McCaniac...

Just when was it that the Rebumblican party was taken over by Nazis...

even as McCain attempts to calm the near facist hysteria that his running mate Sarah "Goebles" Palin is attempting to spread, he is booed by his lemmings when he tries to bring this contest back into the realm of reality...

Sarah Palin in 4 Minutes

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

If there are any Rebumblicans...

who are watching John McCain talk and still don't see that he is a bumbling old fool, who is out of touch with reality they are as lost as he is...especially when he seems to be stuck  almost alsheimersly on the mantra that the surge worked in total disregard for what is now the circumstances on the ground in Iraq...his rambling responses and imbecilic train of thought make Rain-man seem like the greates orator of our time....

SARAH PALIN DEBATES BLOG MONKEY! WINK!

somehow this made sense to McCain....

apparantly the new rebumblican paradigm is...

if you can't argue the facts, use sleazy attacks...Sarah has rubbed off the lipstick and revealed the inner pig...by trying to swift breast Obama with his supposed association with a domestic terrorist...who is presently a tenured professor at an accredited univeristy...apparantly the only youthfull indescretions that can be overlooked are on those of the uberright...Bush was never pressed on his cocain use or alcoholic frolics not to mention that he was a C student in school...or McCains drunken wench chasing days that deposited him at the bottom of his academic class...besides McCain was known to have hung out with a bunch of communists when they honored him with a room in a prestigeous hotel in Hanoi...anybody can distort the facts to their own means...just because you're a MILF doesn't get you a pass in my book...

 

Joe Biden should have an easy time of it until...

the bathing suit competition...

Boo Hoo...

Nancy Pelosi hurt all the little rebumblicans feelings and they started crying...they grabbed their little balls and ran home...handing W a personal loss so great that his adiministration may go down as the worst in the history of the U.S.  My portfolio will surely recover, probably better than ever once the Democrats take control of the country from the incompetant...

Dangerous Forces of Nature...

Voting is Sexy

bonanza...

WaMu operations sold to J.P. Morgan after regulators seize control of Seattle bank

South Florida Business Journal - by Eric Engleman and Brian Bandell

J.P. Morgan Chase bought the bulk of Washington Mutual's banking operations Thursday in a deal orchestrated by federal regulators who had seized control of the troubled thrift.

If J.P. Morgan Chase keeps WaMu's South Florida branches, it will emerge as a major new competitor in the region. WaMu had 125 branches and $8.8 billion in deposits in the three-county South Florida market on June 30, 2007, according to the FDIC. That placed it third in South Florida in both categories, behind Charlotte, N.C.-based rivals Wachovia and Bank of America.

In a sign of the WaMu's worsening condition, regulators said it had lost $16.7 billion in deposits since Sept. 15. Saying WaMu had insufficient liquidity to meet its obligations and was "in an unsafe and unsound condition to transact business," the federal Office of Thrift Supervision closed the bank and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as receiver. The FDIC held a bidding process that ended in the sale to J.P. Morgan.

WaMu had a 6.13 percent nonaccrual rate in its $52.9 billion option adjustable rate mortgage portfolio in the second quarter. In a list of metropolitan areas in the portfolio, South Florida's three counties had the highest delinquency rates with Miami-Dade performing the worst, at 12.84 percent. These are loans were borrowers can pay less than the monthly accrued interest for a period of time.

WaMu's shares plunged to 45 cents in after-hours trading Thursday as reports of the company's acquisition began circulating through the media. The stock was worth $1.69 at the close of trading Thursday. The 52-week high for WaMu shares was $36.47.

The FDIC said that people with WaMu loans should continue making their payments, as their agreements are still in force. As for interest rates, JPMorgan Chase will review those rates for WaMu customers starting Friday.

While all details of the deal weren't clear, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) said it will pay $1.9 billion to the FDIC to acquire WaMu's deposits, branches and a loan portfolio valued at $176 billion. J.P. Morgan anticipates write-downs of about $30 billion on the loans. The acquisition doesn't include some assets and liabilities, which would remain in the holding company,

Is there any question...

about just how big and opportunist John McCain really is when after being contacted by Obama about a joint statement concerning the financial crises he then runs off and pre-empts everything to be the first to declare his decision to drop everything and concentrate on this dilemma...and then challenging Obama to do the same...to call off the debate, costing the people of Mississippi millions of dollars...I worry about a candidate who can't handle more than one thing at a time...gawd even Bush managed to screw up a half a dozen items every day he was in office...

 

Deja Vu all over again...

This is not the first financial scandal that has wracked the U.S. while under the steward ship of the Bush family...after what happened the last time a Bush was in the whithouse should be what is being talked about but that is not the case...it's like history starts each time a Rebumblican takes office...how many times do we let them take the wealth of the country and give it to their freinds...and they say Obama wants to redistribute wealth...all these companies getting  bailed out are sending their CEO's off with massive parachutes that are being funded by the taxpayer...

fanny and freddie

AIG

Not only should these and the other deals be scrutinized heavily in the future the entire Bush clan and Cheney as well should be investigated at least as thoroughly as Clinton was for merely getting a blow job in the oval office...

At this point in his presidency...

they were making fun of Jimmy Carter for "hiding out in the Rose Garden" instead of facing the crises of the Iranian hostage situation...

White House alters defense of economy's strength
By BEN FELLER
WASHINGTON – The White House throttled back its description of the U.S. economy on Wednesday, labeling it resilient enough to withstand some shocks to the system but refusing to say it is fundamentally sound — the phrase that has jolted the race for the presidency.
In defending the latest corporate rescue by the government, the White House put the country's economic state in a much more measured perspective.
Press secretary Dana Perino said "it's not clear-cut," but rather a mixed package of up-and-down economic measures, sometimes even on the same day.
"Our economy has the strength to be able to deal with these shocks," Perino said as financial markets were still reeling from corporate meltdowns.
The economic language that emerges from the White House is always important. It sends messages to the markets and to the masses. And it is designed to find a balance of boosting consumer confidence while also being candid enough to prevent President Bush from appearing out of touch.
When Republican presidential candidate John McCain declared Monday that "the fundamentals of our economy are strong," it drew ridicule from Democratic opponent Barack Obama and his surrogates. McCain later said he meant that the fundamental strength of the American worker remained strong.
In fact, the phrase and variations of it long have been a favorite of Bush's. "I believe the foundations of this economy are strong," he said on July 31.
Given the political atmosphere, Perino declined to say whether the White House still stood by the statement.
"I recognize that this issue of `strength' has come into the 2008 election," she said. "I'm not going to try to get involved in it."
Even when reporters asked for the president's view of the economy regardless of the McCain-Obama race, Perino would not bite. "I know as soon as I say something you're going to turn it around and it will be a part of the 2008 campaign," she said. "I'm not going to play the game."
The last few weeks have seen enough Wall Street turmoil and corporate collapses to prompt a blitz of federal interventions under Bush's watch. It is the kind of taxpayer-supported help for the private sector that might seem at odds with Bush's conservative, free-market economic philosophy.
But Bush and his economic advisers say the government has stepped in to keep taxpayers from facing the potential of even worse problems.
The White House on Wednesday defended the latest action, an $85 billion emergency loan for insurance giant American International Group Inc. The government gets almost an 80 percent stake in the company, the most far-reaching intervention into the private sector ever for the Federal Reserve.
AIG teetered on the edge of failure because of stresses caused by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market and the credit crunch that ensued.
"While no one would have liked to have ended up in this situation, you have a government that is willing to lead," Perino said.
Bush however, was not willing to talk about it.
He has not fielded questions about the economic upheaval this week and even canceled a statement Tuesday. Reporters have tried each day. When one tried to press Bush in the Oval Office on Wednesday, he said he could not hear the question, and then made light of the moment by saying, "I'm old."
The president has not held a news conference since July.
There again, Perino said, Bush is reluctant to put himself in a position to face questions about the 2008 campaign. But given all the economic developments, she allowed, "I grant you that it's been a while, and I understand that people want to hear from the president during this time."
In the meantime, the president's chief spokeswoman was the one challenged about where all the government bailouts will end.
"I would be misleading you if I knew," she said. "What we are doing is taking this on a case-by-case basis, evaluating each one carefully."
Among those pleading for Washington's help, for instance, is the struggling U.S. auto industry, which has suffered massive losses but remains a backbone of the economy. A bill before Congress would give the companies $25 billion in federal loans.
As for AIG, Bush agreed with the loan on Tuesday after being presented with a recommendation from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke during a meeting of economic advisers. Perino said Bush's role was more consultative on the matter.
Because of AIG's size and scope, the possible failure of the company appeared to pose a greater risk than the $85 billion loan, she said. But while Perino said the terms require taxpayers to be paid back first, when asked whether taxpayers may not get their money back at all, she said, "That is true."