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 [...]

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 [...]

We are at a critical juncture in our country’s history.  Congress is being pressured to pass a bailout package that will cost the taxpayers trillions of dollars and create runaway inflation.  We can’t afford it, and the people asking for the money know it.
It is important to recognize that the Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson is [...]

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 [...]

Here’s the text of what I’ve been mailing and faxing to my Senators and Representatives in Congress.  Feel free to co-opt all or part of this message for yourselves.
OPPOSE THE BAILOUT
America can literally NOT AFFORD the cost of the Bush Administration’s proposed bailout. The unfortunate reality is that residential real estate prices are still too [...]

Ok, gentle readers, this is THE moment we have to stop the largest fraud our Government has ever attempted to perpetrate on the taxpayers. I have many thoughts on the Treasury Secretary’s power grab, but I can’t say it any better that Yves Smith has over at Naked Capitalism, so I will direct you [...]

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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