Here’s an intriguing Halloween week mystery from my home state of Maine. While the coast of New England is well known for its haunted houses, this one is a bit more obscure; apparently the tides went bezerk earlier this week, with several dramatic back-and-forth shifts of more than eight feet. The National Weather Service could only describe it as “a mystery.” Weird enough for me. [h/t Jim].
Looks like - if the McCain-Palin ticket wins - that Senator Reid is in for a big surprise. Because Sarah Palin says the Vice President is “in charge” of the US Senate. Golly gee, won’t that be neat!! But shucks, this is probably just more “gotcha” journalism, tryin’ to find out what a candidate knows and thinks n’ stuff…
Welcome Blog Action Day listeners. Thanks Eric, Dawn, and Easton for having me on the show.
Now, let’s back up our talk with action:
Breadlines and Battlecries - a call for you all to get involved in your society today.
A way to fight poverty in Los Angeles.
A way to prevent future poverty everywhere.
A way you might not have thought of to help fight urban poverty and despair: change our nation’s drug policies.
More on my agitate page.
Senator McCain somewhat gracefully trying to fight a fire he and Palin started:
“I expected John McCain to be the first person on his campaign to lose patience with the character attack strategy… you can see him doing that. He did not expect to be ending his campaign in front of audiences where he had to explain - as we just saw him do - that his opponent, the Democratic nominee, is actually a citizen of the United States and not an Arab. This is not where John McCain wants to be…”
- Lawrence O’Donnell, on MSNBC tonight
For a moment there, I saw a glimpse of the guy who ran for Prez in 2000…
Tonight’s reading:
Princeton Economist Krugman: Bailout 2.0 by this weekend or else:
“… it will be very alarming if this weekend rolls by without a credible announcement of a new financial rescue plan, involving not just the United States but all the major players.…the only things anyone wants to buy right now are Treasury bills and bottled water… You may think that things can’t get any worse — but they can, and if nothing is done in the next few days, they will.“
NYU Economics Prof Nouriel Roubini presents a grim assessment on his blog tonight:
“The US and advanced economies’ financial system is now headed towards a near-term systemic financial meltdown .. [this] crisis was caused by the largest leveraged asset bubble and credit bubble in the history of humanity..”
Even with aggressive coordination we could see near-term bank or market closures and otherwise fitful times. I reiterate my advice that you each seriously consider a personal or family contingency plan for a potential four-alarm banking emergency. This may seem unlikely - but it’s no longer out of bounds in pleasant conversation. We discussed this very delicate issue in a bit more length here, and I’m hoping to write a little more about it in the next couple of days.
Sorry it’s been a little bleak around here lately.
Conservatives are furious. Here’s a good Politico piece on McCain’s latest plan to bail out homegamblers with our money. Excerpt:
“Last night, he took that position on the housing issue of buying up everybody’s mortgage,” former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said on Fox News. “Conservatives are scratching their heads today and saying, ‘What happened?’”
“What on earth is that about?” Huckabee asked. “Then you got to ask, which houses? The condos in southern Florida, where people bought $500,000 homes as a second home and now can’t pay for them? Are we buying those, too?”
And in perhaps the only time in history I wanted to echo the words of Michelle Malkin:
It’s interesting to watch Europe grapple with the global finance fiasco. Until today I had not given a lot of thought to the much more complex policy environment they face with regard to the Euro. They have a single currency, yet no single government body nor bank to manage associated monetary policy. So, “internally” coordinated responses are nearly impossible. Milton Friedman once said the Euro was unlikely to survive its first recession. This will be another interesting dynamic to watch.
Related articles:
Great 60 Minutes segment from today helping explain this mess…
Cozy weekend reading.
Seeking Alpha: Corporate Bond Market Grinding to a Halt
“The market in my opinion is on the verge of ceasing to function… it is nearing the time when my next post will be an obituary for the fixed income market.”
Don’t miss this trader’s comment: Read the rest of this entry »
