Charlie Rose

sock puppet  10/15/2008 05:55 PM Report

Marilyn - you have a way with words, ". . . leeching, lying, paint by numbers, boring, uninspiring wannabees." Can't improve on that!

Marilyn  10/15/2008 03:04 PM Report

sock puppet....Re: Nader on Newshour and video clip at his website whereby he's muscled out of the debate...infuriating! Here's someone who's brilliant, offering sooooo much more than boobus and bumpkis. Can't wait for tonight's debate, might as well watch them play badminton. Two parasitic parties having at it with a rhetorical dance. I'm sick of both leeching, lying, paint by numbers, boring, uninspiring wannabees. Can you tell I hate to see COPS overuse their "authority"?

sock puppet  10/15/2008 02:00 PM Report

BRAVO TO RALPH NADER on PBS Newshour. He's too logical for our species. -----------------------------> http://www.votenader.org/

sock puppet  10/14/2008 07:33 PM Report

Rewarding the corrupters has just begun. We taxpayers are only getting 5% vs 10% for Buffett re our investment in banks. Can't believe bloodsuckers a la Citigroup et al are getting $25 billion or more each. These thieves need to be punished or they'll repeat.

sock puppet  10/14/2008 07:18 PM Report

Bob - A damn pertinent question. If you steal billions you're exalted and interviewed on TV, if you steal a donut, you're thrown in the slammer. Makes one hope there indeed is a hell.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________

Marilyn - Just when I thought there was no room for other bad news you remind us we need to hug trees even tighter. Reduced available water (reduced cloud volume) supply could be the next 'peak' (a la oil) the world will have to contend with.

Walter Antoniotti  10/14/2008 01:14 PM Report

Federal Reserve economist Jeremy Nalewaik has several research papers ([1\, [2\) arguing that GDI may be a more helpful series for recognizing recessions than is GDP. It is interesting that while GDP indicates sluggish growth over the last 3 quarters, GDI looks much more like a recession, with 2007:Q4-2008:Q1 satisfying the traditional rule of thumb of two quarters of falling real output. This was in Econbrowser.

E-mail me for the link.

Ted  10/14/2008 12:00 PM Report

I'm amazed at the inability of bloggers who propose these bailout distributions to american citizens. They're always off by several decimal points. $15.25 billion dollars divided by 300,000,000 citizens provides everyone with only $50.83 - not much by any standard.

mayo  10/14/2008 04:37 AM Report

Ok charly,I re-vamped the calculations.------

let's inject 15.25billion dollars into the economy as a stimulous package.that's giving every american who lives in america $500,000.

wow.that is going to lift the automobile industry,people will start investing more,retail will pick up and bankers might suffer a little but very short term.---------

Now we need do it before bush leaves,because if anyone can do it,it's bushy.

Bob  10/14/2008 01:59 AM Report

With all this high level discussions about the problems we are facing, I think one thing is being lost. The people who took unreasonable risks with other people's money are getting away with their accumulated salaries and bonuses. Why are they not in jail? They manipulated the financial system to take risks and reward themselves to steal money from the unsuspecting. In our town, we just put some folks who stole pizza from a delivery van, in jail. Why are people who essentially "stole" billions getting away? Note, we just learned that AIG spent $440,000 on a spa junket. How can this be? We put a guy who stole under $100 in jail. I don't think the elite understand the degree of frustration being felt by the public. We have completely lost confidence in the powers (both Republican and Democratic). If the rich get away with this, the politicians and regulators in this country will never regain their credibility.

irishsheesh  10/13/2008 09:47 PM Report

slightly off topic........I am not a big fan of Maria's simply because I dont watch her kind of show, but I was disgusted recently to see a magazine article comparing her to another female finacial broadcaster as though the fact that there are TWO female financial broadcasters was something that MUST cause some kind of sick competition because goodness knows there couldnt possibly be room for TWO!....... When was the last time you saw an article about Charlie and Tavis that made it a media event to have two handsome well spoken charmers interviewing people on teevee? Did I miss the cat fight Charlie and Bill had 10 years ago? Musta been a doozy since they keep it hush hush...........God I am so glad I am letting subscriptions expire.

Ramesh  10/13/2008 06:53 PM Report

Interesting discussion about more engineers and less finance MBA. Well, as an engineer, I will make less money in my lifetime career than a Wall Street finance MBA will make in one year in bonuses. While finance MBAs are now facing a downturn and layoffs, engineers face this all the time as their companies changes products and weather the ups and downs of industries. Remember how GE believed in laying off 10% of their workfoce through "rank and yank". Many engineers got their careers terminated for one slow year in the economy or an illness in the family which compromised their productivity.

I don't expect any of this to change. With the purse strings held by the finance function, I would never suggest anyone go into engineering if they want income or stability. This will all blow over and we will continue to trash engineers, as we always have in this society.

Marilyn  10/13/2008 05:08 PM Report

From the BBC News 10/10/2008: The global economy is losing more money from the disappearance of forests than through the current banking crisis, according to an EU-commissioned study. It puts the annual cost of forest loss at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion. The figure comes from adding the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide.

The study, headed by a Deutsche Bank economist, parallels the Stern Review into the economics of climate change. It has been discussed during many sessions here at the World Conservation Congress.

Some conservationists see it as a new way of persuading policymakers to fund nature protection rather than allowing the decline in ecosystems and species, highlighted in the release on Monday of the Red List of Threatened Species, to continue.

Capital losses: Speaking to BBC News on the fringes of the congress, study leader Pavan Sukhdev emphasised that the cost of natural decline dwarfs losses on the financial markets. "It's not only greater but it's also continuous, it's been happening every year, year after year," he told BBC News.

"So whereas Wall Street by various calculations has to date lost, within the financial sector, $1-$1.5 trillion, the reality is that at today's rate we are losing natural capital at least between $2-$5 trillion every year."

The first phase of this study concluded in May when the team released its finding that forest decline could be costing about 7% of global GDP. The second phase will expand the scope to other natural systems.

Key to understanding his conclusions is that as forests decline, nature stops providing services which it used to provide essentially for free.

So the human economy either has to provide them instead, perhaps through building reservoirs, building facilities to sequester carbon dioxide, or farming foods that were once naturally available.

Or we have to do without them; either way, there is a financial cost.

The Teeb calculations show that the cost falls disproportionately on the poor, because a greater part of their livelihood depends directly on the forest, especially in tropical regions.

The greatest cost to western nations would initially come through losing a natural absorber of the most important greenhouse gas.

Just as the Stern Review brought the economics of climate change into the political arena and helped politicians see the consequences of their policy choices, many in the conservation community believe the Teeb review will lay open the economic consequences of halting or not halting the slide in biodiversity.

"The numbers in the Stern Review enabled politicians to wake up to reality," said Andrew Mitchell, director of the Global Canopy Programme, an organisation concerned with directing financial resources into forest preservation.

"Teeb will do the same for the value of nature, and show the risks we run by not valuing it adequately."

A number of nations, businesses and global organisations are beginning to direct funds into forest conservation, and there are signs of a trade in natural ecosystems developing, analogous to the carbon trade, although it is clearly very early days.

Some have ethical concerns over the valuing of nature purely in terms of the services it provides humanity; but the counter-argument is that decades of trying to halt biodiversity decline by arguing for the intrinsic worth of nature have not worked, so something different must be tried.

Whether Mr Sukhdev's arguments will find political traction in an era of financial constraint is an open question, even though many of the governments that would presumably be called on to fund forest protection are the ones directly or indirectly paying for the review. But, he said, governments and businesses are getting the point.

"Times have changed. Almost three years ago, even two years ago, their eyes would glaze over. Today, when I say this, they listen. In fact I get questions asked - so how do you calculate this, how can we monetize it, what can we do about it, why don't you speak with so and so politician or such and such business."

The aim is to complete the Teeb review by the middle of 2010, the date by which governments are committed under the Convention of Biological Diversity to have begun slowing the rate of biodiversity loss.

Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk

that's my contribution today...........

TABS  10/13/2008 03:11 PM Report

There is one big thing the ANTI Taxcutters fail to take into account. That is that the US Tax code has for DECADES been anti-saving and PRO CONSUMPTION. It was JFK (D)who made Interest made on Bank Savings Accounts TAXABLE AS INCOME. So when the Republicans want to decrease the Capital Gains Tax it is to help promote SAVINGS. Perhaps the idea should be that income earners under 100K should have A ZERO Capital Gains Tax Rate. Would the Democrat Social engineers who promote DEPENDANCY on government go for such an idea? The BURDEN IS ON THE DEMOCRATS to PROVE that they are truly for the LITTLE GUY? If they don't then we know what we can call em!

Jonathan  10/13/2008 02:56 PM Report

Ron, that's really a great way to take the blame, which belongs on the American citizenry as a whole, and place it on a small segment of the citizenry. Americans have a negative savings rate. Americans have elected politicians who cut taxes and increase spending. Americans have blindly bought into a self-regulating market. The only conspiracy at work here is the conspiracy of the ignorant, and it is killing this country.

sock puppet  10/13/2008 11:23 AM Report

TABS - a reverse head and shoulders? However, nothing can be taken at face value. In Kevin Phillips, "Bad Money" he talks of a Fed PPT (plunge protection team), that operates to influence the markets. So the once-again laissez faire self correcting marketeers corrupt their own choir. Big swings in the market may be you and I buying stocks as unwitting taxpayers, seeding the market to induce a trend (or to prevent a plunge). More opaque transparency, or transparent opacity?

RON  10/13/2008 02:09 AM Report

mr. shalom

that is the truth and your people can't continue lying, cheating, and stealing...... people are fed up and soon they will revolt.....

RON  10/13/2008 02:08 AM Report

Mr. Shalom, as i mentioned before the antisemetic rhetoric doesn't fly because most people know by now what semetism is. as we all know wall street the center of power is run by jewish bankers aka loan Sharks. your people are everywhere and doing what they have been doing for ages. Good that you mentioned bernake and greenspan and for Mr. Pualson he worked for Goldman Sachs before one of the oldest and most powerful jewish firms...

Preston  10/12/2008 08:23 PM Report

Have you heard?! Thanks to Nixon and mass hysteria, Energy will be the new Gold!... Standard.... Tuh-Duhh!

TABS  10/12/2008 08:07 PM Report

Now Gold did NOT go to $1500 or $2000 an OZ. If people believed the end is near for the US government or financail system people would hav paniced and Gold would have gone to $1500 ro $2000 an OZ. That did NOT happen, Gold closed DOWN on Friday. At the lower end of the weeks trading range

..................................................................................................... ...........................................................

Also while the major averages on the US Stocks Markets were down on Friday. It was notable that a number of sectors were significantily up on Fridays close. Health Care, Pharmactuels, Entertainment, Retailers, Clothing (NIKE), Tech (Apple, MSFT) and even Big Oil. It does look like the panic selling is running its course and a snap back rally is in the offing. A lot of cash is sitting on the sidelines waiting to be deployed at the right moment, Fridays market was a stealth move? Something is afoot?

TABS  10/12/2008 07:54 PM Report

When Lehman went BK it signaled the failure of the financial system. People then looked to the US government eg (a parent) to help right the failure. Yet the Congress failed to act, prefering t argue with each other while the house was burning down. That failure of the House to act, signaled that the US government was dysfunctional and is a failed government. So we have both a failure of the financial and governmental systems. Events at that point became larger than any person or institution could effect. Events have taken on a life of their own.

MonaL  10/12/2008 06:45 PM Report

As Wall Street giants tumble and blue-chips plan massive lay-offs you have to ask...WHAT’S NEXT FOR AMERICA?____According to British author, futurist and international lecturer Benjamin Creme, we are now experiencing the death throes of an economic system that for decades has benefited relatively few rich and powerful men at the expense of billions of the human family who do not have even the basic necessities of life._____Not only does this commercialization of life and excessive speculation prevent a just distribution of the world's resources, it also fuels endless wars, which further devastate the innocent and could ultimately end all life on this planet._____Creme, who for over 40 years has been associated with one of humanity's Elder Brothers--a Master of Wisdom--observes that America's unwise embrace of unfettered capitalism, based on greed, has led that great country to the point of financial and economic collapse, thereby negatively impacting the entire world. The good news is that, upon the awakening of America's soul qualities, we will move into a new era of unimaginable social, scientific and spiritual achievement. This is our destiny — if we choose to fulfill it._____Even with a new administration and a real change of heart, it is hard to imagine how we can get from where we are today to that remarkable future. In fact, says Creme, it would be impossible without the help of our Elder Brothers, who have guided us for millennia from behind the scenes and are ready to work openly among us once again._____Within a very short time, the head of this group — the World Teacher, Maitreya — will appear on national television and talk about the imperative for humanity to see itself as one family and share the resources of the world, so the needs of ALL may be met. And further, he will leave no doubt about the critical state of our planetary home, the dangers of global warming, and the effects of pollution on the health of humanity._____Following a series of interviews in many countries, in which at first, he will not reveal his true status, Maitreya will be invited by the world's media to speak to all humanity via linked satellites. On this Day of Declaration, he will be recognized as the Expected One of the world's many religions and spiritual traditions. It is said of this unprecedented day:_____"Never before will men have heard the call to their divinity, the challenge to their presence here on Earth. Each, singly and solemnly alone, will know for that time the purpose and meaning of their lives, will experience anew the grace of childhood, the purity of aspiration cleansed of self. For these precious minutes, men will know afresh the joy of full participation in the realities of Life, will feel connected one to another, like the memory of a distant past." www.Share-International.org 888-242-8272 (toll-free USA)

Shalom Freedman  10/12/2008 05:20 PM Report

The failure to monitor in some way comments posted on Websites like this one leads to their often being dominated by the remarks of ignorant, obsessive, haters who rarely post their full names. If the aim of having a comments section on this site is to encourage civil, and intelligent discourse it is by and large not being realized.

Preston  10/12/2008 08:54 AM Report

Instead of killing the lawyers first, I think this time we should kill the BANKERS first. Then the lawyers. Then the car salesmen.------- The BANKERS did this BULLSHIT to US. I say identify the shitheaded schemers and then drag them out into the streets and kick them to death... I'm sorry, but that's just how I feel.

dickers  10/12/2008 07:33 AM Report

Can the intel agents please wait until AFTER the video has been posted before they submit their comments to influence the gullible publics' minds. It helps with the credibility you know.

Shalom Freedman  10/12/2008 05:49 AM Report

This comment is for the anti- Semitic jerk who accuses the Jews of being responsible for the present crisis.

So far as I know not one single major world - leader is Jewish. President Bush is not Jewish nor is Treasury Secretary Paulson. The vast majority of the members of the House and Senate , and the Supreme Court are not Jewish.

The heads of the major U.S. corporations are overwhelmingly not Jewish.

There are individual Jews involved, the most important being former Federal Reserve head Alan Greenspan who are Jewish. However what this has to do with his free- market non- regulating philosophy and his personal grounding in the works of Ayn Rand I do not know. The present Fed chief Bernanke is Jewish. I do not know what his conspiratorial thoughts are but I somehow do not believe he is leading Mr. Paulson by the tail.

My own feeling is that at the heart of the crisis is a change in the American ethic. It is from a 'work and save' ethic to one which focused excessively on satisfying desires immediately. But I do not wish to preach morality to anyone. I am a not very successful writer whose quite small pension has been so downsized by the crisis that I am desperately trying to think of how to write the pretty- good seller which may put a few more bucks in the account.

Shalom Freedman  10/12/2008 05:29 AM Report

Nouriel Roubini whose gloom has been justified believes the effort has to be to avoid a Major Depression. He thinks that the Treasury must save certain potentially solvent banks, and let the other 'rotten apples' fail. He also believes that coordinated international action necessary. His best- case scenario is for a serious Recession but he warns we may be in for what he calls a L - depression of the type Japan suffered in the eighties i.e. one that goes on for several years.

Jason Romero  10/12/2008 03:56 AM Report

paper money was created to establish control...of everyday life. why must there be a value applied to necessary existence???

Ricardo C. Amaral  10/12/2008 12:49 AM Report

I posted the following on various places including the Elite Trader Economics Forum.

October 11, 2008 - SouthAmerica: Tonight I did watch the Lou Dobbs Tonight program on CNN. He was discussing the current stock market crash in the United States with some economists and they were suggesting that the US government close the banks and the US stock market for a couple of days in an effort to stop the continued decline in the US financial market.

These guys think that they can stop deleveraging by closing the stock market for a few days.

If they do that you can bet it is a last resort strategy designed more to stop a complete PANIC and a complete stock market meltdown than anything else. That is equivalent to a Hell Mary Pass in football – it is a desperate strategy because you know that this will send a signal to the rest of the world that the US financial market is not as liquid as Americans led the rest the world to believe.

________________________________________________________________________

Maybe this coming week if the US government closes the banks and the stock market to prevent from a further decline – that will send a strong signal to the rest of the world that it is time to sell all kinds of foreign assets in the United States and get as much as you can before the herd leave you with assets worth nothing in US dollars.

That also will send a signal that it is time to get out of the US dollar and buy gold, and at this point I don’t know what else.

If the US closes its banks and stock market I would suggest that they do the same in Brazil, otherwise the hot money find a way to destabilize and also to destroy the Brazilian economy. The hot money operators are experts in destroying countries economies and they have all kinds of strategies designed to make a fast killing when they are trying to make money for their high stake gambling investors.

________________________________________________________________________

The other stock exchanges and banks in South America also would be foolish if they let their financial system open for business and to be LOOTED by these fast operators.

One more illusion about the US financial system is going up in smoke: the illusion of high liquidity.

I am also posting this information on various websites where people would be able to be alerted to what is happening in the US financial markets – and possibly the last stand before the final meltdown.

I can’t pin point the reason why? But Americans love to have their stock market crashes during the month of October – October is a very special month for financial meltdowns - They had one in 1929, another in 1987, and finally the mother of all stock market crashes in October 2008.

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Americans are addicted to October stock market crashes – maybe there is something to do with Halloween that spooks the U.S. stock market.

Halloween it is a time when Americans commemorate their beliefs in ghosts, witches, and magic – and in the magical month of October Americans watch their money disappear just like in a magical stock market crash event.

Maybe the US government can blame the current stock market crash on Halloween – the ghosts are making it happen.

________________________________________________________________________

.

sock puppet  10/11/2008 09:30 PM Report

Plagiarized from the Warren Buffett discussion. Totally agree. Credit Default Swaps are speculative derivatives that should not be bankrolled, rewarded by taxpayers if can be avoided.

_______________________________

Comment by Robert C on Saturday, Oct 11 at 07:57 PM

________

WARREN BUFFET has called the $55 Trillion in outstanding credit default swaps (CDS) “financial weapons of mass destruction.” These agreements among banks and companies were intended to shield them from the risks created by mortgage-backed securities, corporate bond defaults and other financial disasters. The CDS instruments with Lehman Bros. as a counterparty became virtually worthless when Lehman filed bankruptcy. Same issue came up in the AIG nationalization. This threw the world banks into a lockdown where no bank would trust anyone to repay money loaned. They are waiting to see which of their other counterparties (banks, brokers, companies or insurers) defaults or files bankruptcy. HERE’S THE CORRECT WAY TO HANDLE CDS SYSTEMIC RISK, from a former bankruptcy attorney as well as former General Counsel to a Mortgage-Backed Securities Issuer: Markets will not resume rational behavior until the nuclear threat of credit default swaps has been rendered harmless. There are $55 Trillion of these private, non-regulated insurance agreements outstanding involving every major money center bank, investment house and major insurer worldwide. There are two ways to take away counterparty risk. One is to guaranty their performance. The other is to render them unenforceable or of only limited enforceability. Systemic confidence in world banks is so low that a government guaranty of counterparty obligations is totally worthless. Once everything has been guaranteed, nothing is guaranteed. As a matter of public policy, the risk of enforcement of credit default swaps would be much more destructive to world economies than would be the risk of their unenforcement. These instruments were an unregulated, and unsanctioned, form of insurance. These instruments must be taken out of the equation in order to return the world banking system to the status quo ante. The G7 meeting should result in a unified announcement that none of the currently outstanding credit default swaps will be enforceable in any of the G7 nations’ courts for at least five years as a matter of public policy. A G20 announcement could follow. A Derivatives Court of Claims could then be set up at the Hague to review such instruments, submitted by the parties and counterparties. The Court of Claims could then act as a Court in equity to determine the putative obligations and cross-obligations of the parties, with a decision as to what percentage of the obligations should be enforceable, if any. This would be, in effect, a bankruptcy court for an entire shadow insurance system, if you please. Remove the CDS Sword of Damocles by declaration of unenforceability. Then, banks could begin lending to one another again without worthless guarantees from each other or from governments who are already on the hook for systemic risk.

Wildebeest  10/11/2008 05:26 PM Report

Charlie please have a panel on to tell us how long we can reasonably expect it to take for our investments to recover the 1 year losses of > 40% and growing. There are 2 parts to this crisis – 1. Avoid Great Depression II, and 2. Get America’s retirement money back up to the 10/2007 level. I am only hearing about part 1; I want to hear something about part 2. My previous comment below:

________________________________________________________________________

The average rate of decline of the Dow and S&P over the past year is ~ 12bps/day. This far outstrips the rate of decline during the depression or the .com crash. In fact, indices have dropped nearly the same % in ½ the time it took during the .com crash. Considering it took the equity market 22 and 5 years to reach previous highs after the depression and .com crash respectively, can we get some experts to tell us the likelihood that Americans will not recover their equity nest eggs for at least 5 years? And what is it on the outside ? Is it a function of the total % we eventually decline. i.e. drop 47% and it takes 5 years, drop 89% and it takes 22 years. Note: With my 5 & 22 year figures I am not factoring in for significant inflation during those periods.

DanP  10/11/2008 12:18 PM Report

the washington post guy (pearlstein) was way

better than the rest of the talking heads.

He was the only one to even consider the possibility that no amount of further lending

(even if all the liquidity is restored)

can rev the economy back up

to the levels it was operating at,

because that "high" was a not-sustainable

state.

Charlie, can you please invite nassim taleb

to get his reactions on this crisis ????

Preston  10/11/2008 12:13 PM Report

OR DID!

Preston  10/11/2008 12:11 PM Report

Race has nothing to with it. It's all about WHAT YOU DO.

Chris Roberts  10/11/2008 09:19 AM Report

"What is the right question?" Charlie's question points to the level of turmoil inherent in our current circumstance. We need a radical rethink but are we capable?

In the early 70s a number of box girder bridges collapsed overseas and a book of reports was published. In the same volume some people were insisting that fabrication tolerances needed to be improved and others, written by the fabricators, stated the best achievable. Of course the requirements beat the achievable hands down and, despite these papers being published in the same volume, there was no attempt at reconciliation. In 2007 I attended an IPCC meeting at the UN. A couple of scientists told us what was needed to stem global warming and a politician told us what was achievable - again no contest. Now we are going to have more experts telling us what needs to be done with the economy and more politicians telling us what is achievable so again we'll put our heads in the sand.

What other issues are out there? This week I read a report about the forest destruction but nothing about depletion of the oceans or atmospheric pollution. Meanwhile our society increases in complexity and fragility as I write. Is there any hope for our species? Is there any chance we can become a little less arrogant and a bit more avuncular? Is there a way, per Surowiecki's book The Wisdom of Crowds, we can all be involved? If most of us were part of the various solutions, most of us would feel a vested interest in having things work out.

The best framework I have found for such a discussion is High Noon by J.F. Rischard. He suggests Global Issue Networks involving lots of interested people + a few experts + a few politicians assembled around each of the issues we face. The key lies in the word "assembled". We do not need to assemble physically. We can participate from our basements.

Ricardo C. Amaral  10/11/2008 04:26 AM Report

I posted the following on the Elite Trader Economics Forum and you can read the entire article at: Stock Market Crash in 2007 or 2009

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=106795&perpage=6&pagenumber=8

________________________________________________________________________

October 10, 2008 - SouthAmerica: It is too late to save the global financial system right now, and the meetings in Washington D.C. of the G7, IMF, or any other type of meeting designed for damage control is not going to work, because the nuclear explosion on the derivatives market is already in an advanced stage and it is contaminating everything on its path.

Not even the US government and other Central Banks interventions are going to be able to stop this complete financial market meltdown.

Watching the news on CNBC, or on CNN news, or in any other mainstream media for that matter I realized that not a single person, maybe with the exception of Noriel Roubini has the understanding of the financial nuclear chain reaction that is already underway.

________________________________________________________________________

I have no idea why the economists, financial analysts, central bankers, and other financial authorities can’t understand what is at the core of this financial nuclear explosion?

… What the financial markets have not grasped as yet is the severity of what already has happened and the impact that is having in the entire financial system and it is spreading just like a nuclear chain reaction. There were many companies involved in this mess, but let give you an example and put the spotlight in the impact that only one company is having in the entire financial system then you multiply that by thousands of times and you can see why the entire system is spinning completely out of control, and will result into a massive implosion of the global financial system.

________________________________________________________________________

.

DancesWithFascists  10/11/2008 04:09 AM Report

Charlie you didn't do your homework on this one. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA Sherman Oaks) recently speaking on the House floor said that the White House conveyed the threat through some members of Congress that if they didn't pass the bailout bill (oops proper Newspeak should be 'rescue') then Bush would be forced to declare martial law to avert disaster ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaG9d_4zij8 ). Quite a threat: America only gets to remain free if you pass my 700 billion bill. Next week. Apparently it was an offer Congress couldn't refuse. It makes me wonder if this threat could explain why Nancy Pelosi has never exercised her responsibility to impeach Beach, but that's a different subject.

Martial law is not an idle threat. All the necessary Executive Orders are in place along with hundreds of still-empty FEMA camps that have been built in the last few years ( http://www.freedomfiles.org/war/fema.htm ), and we already know Bush considers our Constitution 'a goddamn piece of paper' so there's just one missing ingredient: another 'New Pearl Harbor' event to breed sufficient fear and hate to either swing the election to McCain or justify Bush's declaration of martial law. My personal feeling is we're not going to be safe until Inauguration Day comes in January and Obama is sworn in, but the world could change completely between now and then.

Charlie, no intelligent discussion of the financial crisis we've suddenly found ourself in can take place without taking Bush's threat of martial law into consideration. For the threat to be issued has to mean that the Bush administration is considering it, has contingency plans about it, and we can hope he was just bluffing but maybe that's what Saddam Hussein thought at some point too. There are literally hundreds of billions of dollars in war profits dependent upon the continuation of the Bush Doctrine and Congress has just promised $700 billion dollars to who, exactly? But it didn't work, the market is in freefall. Maybe we should print another $700 billion to give to the richest corporations in America and see if that's enough for them? Who knows how far they will go? My main concern is how far they will go in robbing us of our freedoms.

Instead of treating the threat of Bush declaring martial law as an elephant in our national living room that we're not supposed to talk about, this issue should be front and center along with all of our fundamental freedoms that have been threatened if not already lost. I would like to suggest that you invite John McCain and Barack Obama or at the very least their designated representatives to your show ASAP within the next week at least to discuss how Americans should deal with this imminent threat to our fundamental freedoms. Should Congress immediately pass a law stripping the Executive of any legitimacy if martial law is declared? Should Bush be immediately impeached, arrested for any number of his crimes, and frogmarched out of the White House? Or do you think we should all keep quiet about it and pretend the threat isn't real and imminent?

Unfortunately the threat of martial law is real and is imminent, Rep. Brad Sherman read it into the Congressional Record and if it wasn't true you'd sure as hell would have heard the Rush Limbaugh types screaming about it by now. The nature of elephants in living rooms is that they are not to be discussed, but in mental health circles it is recognized that the elephants must be discussed for people to be living in reality and interacting effectively with the world, alcoholism being a classic example. If you're going with the game and refusing to talk about it yourself, you are a codependent and part of the problem. So what about you Charlie? Since you cannot un-know Rep. Sherman's testimony, you cannot ethically discuss this issue on your show again without acknowledging it and bringing it into the discussion. Unless you choose to be part of the problem.

I've watched you for a lot of years Charlie, and I've always felt you had a lot of integrity. Please don't let me down.

Anton Grambihler  10/11/2008 02:56 AM Report

How can Hank Plunder Paulson remain Secretary of the Treasury when he has $700 Billions to bail out the company he mismanaged? In addition to that, he has hired an employee of his mismanaged company to distribute this $700 Billion.

What is conflict of Interest if this isn’t?

Wildebeest  10/11/2008 01:25 AM Report

The average rate of decline of the Dow and S&P over the past year is ~ 12bps/day. This far outstrips the rate of decline during the depression or the .com crash. In fact, we have just about matched the total % decline of the .com crash in 1/2 the time. Considering it took the indices(and hence 'the market') 25 and 6 years to recover after the depression and .com crash respectively, why are no experts talking about the likelihood that Americans likely will not recover their nest eggs for at least 6 years, without any interest accrual, and that is not counting further decline, or inflation.

Alice  10/11/2008 01:01 AM Report

Sock Puppet, the CDS's are smack in the center of the crisis and the cause of the current market gyrations. Read this:

http://www.forbes.com/business/2008/10/10/lehman-bonds-banking-biz-wall-cx_lm_1010auction.html

Alice  10/11/2008 12:45 AM Report

The ignorance of these talking heads is truly amazing.--------- Maria B., so knowingly associates the drop in Oil to "direct reflection of slowdown in Economy". It doesn't occur to her that there is MASSIVE FORCED SELLING which was the reason for today's Gold drop as well. --------- Steven P., another airhead, thinks the solution lies in Government, aka taxpayer, guaranteeing all bank transactions. Yeah, let's replace the sub-prime lending problem with sub-prime loans bubble in general. After all, why would the banks worry about who they are funding if the taxpayer is backing every loan? -------- Peter was the only person who had a REAL contribution. The smarter show to watch tonight was Soros on Bill Moyer's Journal.

RE Mant  10/10/2008 11:42 PM Report

This was, I thought, despite its indeterminacy and being already a little out-of-date, a much better discussion than most. Stephen should be hired as economic spokesman-in-chief, tho I don't suppose the neo-cons will like everything he says. I think the biggest thing that could be done compromise-wise would be for the mortgage lenders to agree to a restructuring the mortgages at more affordable prices so the Feldstein plan has a chance. I am astonished that they don't seem to have budged on this. If they think things will get better without this, or that they will be protected by the Constitution, I think they are mistaken. If the taxpayers have to foot the entire bill for this, I'm sure they will find a way to get it out of them one way or the other.

sock puppet  10/10/2008 05:26 PM Report

From Business Week and the AP 10/08/08 10:48 ET: "The roughly $60 trillion market for credit default swaps lacks transparency, is unregulated and creates an environment for market manipulation, Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox said. The market's size exceeds the gross domestic product of every country in the world combined, he noted." ____ With a 6 billion world population that's $10,000 per head. And $200,000 per capita US ____ Are CDSs a part of the BAILOUT? If not do many more financial institutions belly up - as they deserve - or do they get coddled like AIG et al? ____ If CDSs are included then we're finished. That will debauch and debase our currency to wallpaper. They couldn't print it fast enough. All western currencies might collapse in tandem (dollar, pound, euro) while eastern's (China, Russia? oil producers et al) would appreciate. We have some Pyrrhic choices to make (as in damned if we do and damned if we don't). ____ My choice: no CDS bailout and let the financial institutions that indulged collapse (as they may anyway a la Lehman, Bear-Stearns) and as they should. Then inject preferred stock into banks that request assistance - and ONLY if they request. In the interim think gold. Again, I hope CDSs will be a (major?) part of the conversation. But I'm not holding my breath.