Hi friends.  I’ve decided to take much of the financial and political commentary out of my personal blog and move it to a new venue, TheGreatUnwind.com. I hope to make TGU a venue for a wider audience to participate in a sharing of knowledge to counter the disinformation society.
Anyhow, please pick up the feed [...]

Please call/write/fax your senators now!  A consensus of academic economists have arrived at a workable plan, but Congress is ignoring them and the will of the people.  Our representative democracy is fighting for its life because entrenched special interests are now dictating public policy.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
OPPOSE PAULSON BAILOUT
Dear Senator,
As an Oregonian and a concerned citizen, I am [...]

Wow, just wow!  Hopefully they will stay in Washington and implement a plan that has a chance in hell of working.
This is a rare victory for democracy, folks!  Now they need to get it together, consult real economists who aren’t owned by Wall Street, and come up with a plan that makes sense.

So far, very bad. Suspends mark-to-market pricing (not surprising, as it would BK many banks), allows banks to maintain ZERO percent reserves as of Oct. 1 (are they encouraging a bank run? From the comments of another blog: “Can it still be called Fractional Reserve Banking if there’s a zero in the numerator?” - [...]

It is getting difficult to find this picture anymore:

From a press conference held on June 3, 2003 — Pictured are Bush Administration officials from four of the five government agencies responsible for financial supervision using tree shears (the fifth representative, James Gilleran of the Office of Thrift Supervision is wielding a chainsaw), to symbolically [...]

Please read this, Petition: Economists against the Paulson Bailout Plan.

This outrageous but true statement was made by John McCain in the Sept./Oct. 2008 (PDF) issue of Contingencies, the magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries.
Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened [...]

“How can we bailout Lehman without the public knowing about it?”  That’s about the gist of the current thinking behind Bernanke & Paulson’s latest scheming to rescue the next investment bank on the chopping block, Lehman Brothers.
Paulson is publicly making comment that ‘no Federal monies’ will be involved as the Treasury is seeking to orchestrate [...]

Bush administration officials involved in a new sex & drugs scandal, who would believe it?  That it also involves drilling for oil on U.S. public lands invokes that unique feeling of irony that only the morally smug republican party can deliver.
This breaking story gives a whole new (and considerably more lurid) meaning to the cry [...]

Here’s a great historical chart showing the DOW movements against the FED and Treasury interventions over the course of this crisis, good read (PDF):

1. August 17, 2007: The Federal Reserve Board announced a reduction in the primary credit discount rate from 6.25% to 5.75%. DJIA rallies 1,680 points over 9 weeks
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