Best of the Week

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

GHAP- Geithner's Heist America Plan / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Mike_Shedlock

The Wall Street Journal has more details on Geithner's Heist America Plan (GHAP). Please consider Treasury's Very Private Asset Fund .
The Obama Administration insists it wants to "partner" with private investors for its new toxic-asset purchase plan. But the more details that emerge, the more it seems Treasury wants to work with only a select few companies. This is no way to conduct a bank clean-up.

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Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Defending Capitalism from Old Europe's G20 Guillotine / Politics / Economic Stimulus

By: Nadeem_Walayat

Germany and especially France have fought long and hard against the anglo-saxon model of unfettered and weakly regulated free market capitalism for the past 30 years, and as a consequence of which have seen their economic power diminish in relative terms as the anglo-saxon capitalism model was adopted world-wide following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Bank Bailouts Financial Terrorism and You / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Money_and_Markets

Sean Brodrick writes: Can we just drop the pretense and start calling the bank bailout what it is: Financial terrorism. Terrorism can be defined as achieving one's aims through fear. And it sure seems to me that bankers and their friends in government are extorting money from the taxpayers (you and me) with a threatening “or else” that goes something like this: “Give us the money or the entire financial system will implode.”

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Wednesday, April 01, 2009

G20 New World Disorder and Sell the S&P 500 Index / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009

By: LewRockwell

Gary North writes: The article was all over the web within minutes. It was first published on Bloomberg's site.

"We cannot see large upside for the S&P 500 above the 825–850 level," Morgan Stanley U.S. equity strategist Jason Todd wrote in a report yesterday. "In the rush to buy a cyclical recovery, it seems earnings or valuation no longer matters. We would be comfortable with this view if the earnings trough was closer, but it is not."

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

New Credit Card Rules; FDIC Borrowing Limit Upped / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Mike_Shedlock

With stiff objections coming from Republicans, a Senate Panel Approves Bill Limiting Credit-Card Rates .
A Senate panel approved new restrictions on credit-card interest rates that are broader than those adopted by the Federal Reserve in December, brushing aside objections from Republicans and the banking industry.

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Liquid Toxic Assets as Government Finances and Guarantees Purchasers / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Paul_L_Kasriel

Does Kramer Finally Get to Be a Banker and Does There Have to Be Skin in the Game for CDS? - Cosmo Kramer of Seinfeld fame always wanted to be a banker. Will Treasury Secretary Geithner's Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP) finally allow him to fulfill his dream? PPIP should have no shortage of private investors signing up to buy financial institutions' toxic assets - sorry, "legacy" assets. After all, the purchasers will obtain government-guaranteed financing, government-guaranteed default-risk protection and plenty of leverage to boost returns. The question is how eager will financial institutions be to sell their legacy assets.

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

When Will the FBI Open an Investigation into Geithner's Racketeering Plan? / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Andrew_Butter

The best thing about the Geithner Plan is it probably won't happen. Yes all the talk will buy time and allow a period of "forebearance", which is what saved the banks (that were left standing) in the Great Depression, and the financial system after the South American fiasco the S&L and the Asian Crisis.

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Bailout Economics: The Politics of Self Destruction / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: Axel_Merk

The patchwork of attempts to prop up the financial system has taken on a life of its own – we call it bailout economics. At every step, Adam Smith's “invisible hand” to guide the economy has become less evident. Back in the 18th century, the economist coined the term as a metaphor for the self-regulating nature of free markets. Economic booms and busts are as old as mankind, but each time a crisis occurs, policy makers want to ensure that the same disaster will never happen again.

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The Cost of Running a Global Empire / Politics / US Economy

By: James_Quinn

Generals gathered in their masses
Just like witches at black masses
Evil minds that plot destruction
Sorcerers of deaths construction

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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

G20, United States and Germany's Diverging Economic Interests / Politics / GeoPolitics

By: STRATFOR

Three major meetings will take place in Europe over the next nine days: a meeting of the G-20, a NATO summit and a meeting of the European Union with U.S. President Barack Obama. The week will define the relationship between the United States and Europe and reveal some intra-European relationships. If not a defining moment, the week will certainly be a critical moment in dealing with economic, political and military questions. To be more precise, the meeting will be about U.S.-German relations. Not only is Germany the engine of continental Europe, its policies diverge the most sharply from those of the United States. In some ways, U.S.-German relations have been the core of the U.S.-European relationship, so this marathon of summits will focus on the United States and Germany.

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Monday, March 30, 2009

Obama's Attack on the Middle Class / Politics / US Politics

By: Paul_Craig_Roberts

Obama and his public relations team have made it appear that his trillion dollars in higher taxes will fall only on "the rich." Obama stresses that his tax increase is only for the richest 5 percent of Americans while the other 95 percent receive a tax cut.

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Monday, March 30, 2009

Noam Chomsky on Geithner the U.S. Economy and Democracy / Politics / US Economy

By: Submissions

Video & Transcript - Chomsky: Plan is recycled Bush/Paulson. We need nationalization and steps towards democratization.

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Monday, March 30, 2009

Rescuing the United States from the Gigantic Derivatives Fraud / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009

By: Mike_Whitney

It's a bird...It's a plane...No, it's Spitzer to the Rescue - If Obama is serious about restoring confidence in the markets, he should replace current SEC chief Mary Schapiro with Eliot Spitzer. That would send a message to the world that the president is through messing around. Schapiro is another Wall Street toady who believes that the markets can regulate themselves. As the head of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or Finra, she stood by while the financial giants increased their leverage to unsustainable levels and spread their derivatives-contagion to every part of the system.

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Monday, March 30, 2009

Geithner's Plan Can Succeed in Stabilising Financial System / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009

By: Mike_Shedlock

I am changing my tune. Geithner's plan can succeed. Before anyone collapses on the floor or starts screaming that I have lost my mind, it's important to define what success means and what the plan is.

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Monday, March 30, 2009

Geithner's ‘Dirty Little Secret' Transfer Trillions to Bankrupt Mega Banks / Politics / Credit Crisis Bailouts

By: F_William_Engdahl

US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has unveiled his long-awaited plan to put the US banking system back in order. In doing so, he has refused to tell the ‘dirty little secret' of the present financial crisis. By refusing to do so, he is trying to save de facto bankrupt US banks that threaten to bring the entire global system down in a new more devastating phase of wealth destruction.

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Monday, March 30, 2009

Ukraine Runs to Japan for Emergency $5 Billion Loan / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010

By: Pravda

Japan is considering the possibility of granting 5-billion- dollar loan to Ukraine. According to Bogdan Danilishin, the Minister of Economics of Ukraine, this issue was discussed during the talks between Ukraine's Prime Minister, Japan's Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano and Japan's Prime Minister Taro Aso.

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Sunday, March 29, 2009

European Union About to Collapse? / Politics / Euro-Zone

By: Pravda

The resignation of the government of the Czech Republic has shocked the whole European Union because the nation currently presides over the organization. Nevertheless, the political changes in the chairing state are not going to be a disaster for the European Union. When Denmark was a chairing EU state in 1993, Social Democrat Paul Rasmussen replaced Conservative Prime Minister Paul Schluter and became the EU chairman. The political change did not have any influence on the work of the European Union. Another incident took place in 1996 in Italy, during the country's EU chairmanship too, and had no consequences either.

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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Governor Schwarzenegger finish what your wife started and Get Urban Farming Started in California / Politics / Recession 2008 - 2010

By: Robert_Singer

I am recommending Senator Fran Pavley, Member Senate Food & Agriculture committee, to head a new commission formed to promote Urban farming in California. Please contact her District Office (310) 314-5214 as soon as you have time to review the following so she can meet with to discuss the details of its implementation.

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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Credit as a Public Utility: The Solution to the Economic Crisis / Politics / Credit Crisis 2009

By: Richard_C_Cook

A Video in Six Parts Written and Produced by Richard C. Cook

Part One of Six Parts: Credit As A Public Utility: The Solution to the Economic Crisis

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Sunday, March 29, 2009

Daniel Hannan Blasts Gordon Brown on handing of the Economic Crisis / Politics / UK Politics

By: Mike_Shedlock

I commend Daniel Hannan who had the courage to blast Prime Minister Gordon Brown on his handing of the economic crisis. The Mail Online picks up the story in the Tory who told Brown to his face that he's a disaster .


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