House girds for second try on financial rescue (AP)
So now it goes down to the House of Commons, where all the principled right-wingers who voted against the first package, can now explain their desire to see a way more bloated, ridiculous bill pass. Yeah, that should be real fun. No doubt the Republican leadership Boehner and the other guy and Cantor are going to have one hell of a time whipping their base on this one. We're not convinced it passes.
Futures pull back after Senate bailout plan vote (AP)
Ingrates.
2008 Presidential Election Winner (Intrade)
Now this is starting to hold fairly steady -- McCain has stayed at around .35 on the dollar for awhile, as his chances slip away every day the Iraq War is not the central issue of the election. That being said, we've totally bought into the "Palin can't lose" notion for tonight's debate. You know, cause of lowered expectations. It also signals what media wonks we are. As soon as we're done with this, flippin' over to some MSNBC.
UBS Has `Small' Profit, Reduces Mortgage Holdings (Bloomberg)
We wish we could say this felt like an "end of the tunnel" moment. But unfortunately it feels more like a "cracks in the tunnel" moment, and the light is shining in where it shouldn't be. Anyway, UBS (UBS!) actually reported a profit. Not a profit once you factor out the losses, but a small, sliverish profit. Ostensibly that means they ended the quarter with more money than they started with. The company said it's reduced its exposure to the US mortgage market. It was UBS' first profitable quarter in over a year. Sidenote: despite all of this, more layoffs are still coming.
US Prime Auto Loan ABS Losses Reach Record High (Research Recap)
Here's some good news? It looks like? We don't have to worry as much about securitized auto loans as we do home loans. Even though losses have piled up, they're performing steady and not as leveraged. We think?
Why a War on Virtual Gold Sellers Makes No Sense (GigaOM)
We agree. Although we'll take it one step further and just say "war makes no sense". Sacrificing human lives for some result that could be achieved through less coercive. It's just no good. And we certainly don't advocate war for gold, let alone virtual gold, let alone virtual gold sellers. And in all serious, we buy into the economic arguments that a virtual world, such as World of Warcraft, need not worry about gold harvesters and traders.
Tough Task Lies Ahead (Poker Journal)
Daniel Negreanu has made the final table of the World Series of Poker Europe.
Google Blog Search Business
Check it out -- Google Blog Search has remade its home page to make it a bit more Google Newsish. What that means is that now top stories on blogs are prominently displayed, along with the other blogs that linked to it. Should be interesting. Maybe. Anyway, the above link is to the business sub-section, so that's cool. The top story there is: "Fat Cat Buffett Invests $3 Billion In General Electric".
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 6:59AM
christ, I was wondering when the 1st post would come in...
FIRSTY!
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 7:38AM
Credit markets are even worse than earlier this week, if you can believe that. TED is 350 already.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aBxs213UjqjA&refer=home
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/cbuilder?ticker1=.TEDSP%3AIND
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 8:28AM
why do you assume its intrade that's seedy when, when there're is voter fraud, voter suppression, and polling error, and media bias. It seems like its the election process that's seedy and intrade is just pricing that in.
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 8:45AM
Re: your first story
Welcome back to the Empire! Of course, we won't hold a grudge, but you might consider giving us that tea back. We can offer to teach you some proper sport in return.
Posted by MarshallStack , Oct 02, 2008 9:04AM
What diameter shafts were approved?
Posted by AJ , Oct 02, 2008 9:10AM
@3 You forgot the black helicopters
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 9:12AM
What do you have against a Boehner?
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 9:14AM
No one should need Republican votes. Since Nancy and Harry tell us it is vitally important to the country that taxpayers bail out the "smartest guys in the room" (wealthy Wall Street types), we'll have plenty of Democrats, just like the last time.
No one will have to whip them (like no one did the last time). Last vote Nan delivered a whopping 59% of her people - on a vote she said was vital to the country's financial well being. It was so very vital, she couldn't be bother trying to sell it to members of her own leadership team. Pardon me if I fail to think that this is any kind of a necessary bill.
Hey, BTW, what % of the CBC did Bambi deliver last vote? Oh, that's right - he couldn't even deliver the vote of his campaign co-chair, Jesse Jackson, Jr.
Hey, guys, how come you Wall St. fat cats can't keep your own financial house in order? You have some nerve making fun of anyone for being stupid.
I'm predicting that this bailout won't make much of a difference in the long run. Obama, the Democrats and the MSM (sorry, I'm being redundant), have been busy shorting the entire economy for so long, any optimism generated by this huge example of corporate welfare, will disappear quickly enough.
Perhaps we can hold on until the annointing of Our Saviour, then the whole house of cards collapses -- but who will bail out Joe Six Pack?
Posted by MarshallStack , Oct 02, 2008 9:19AM
Joe Six Pack is a moron who is getting what he deserves for being an anit-elitist, disengaged puppet.
Idiocracy - it's a documentary.
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 9:23AM
Instead of furthering the inevitable liquidation of the maladjustments brought about by the boom during the last three years, all conceivable means have been used to prevent that readjustment from taking place; and one of these means, which has been repeatedly tried though without success, from the earliest to the most recent stages of depression, has been this deliberate policy of credit expansion.
To combat the depression by a forced credit expansion is to attempt to cure the evil by the very means which brought it about; because we are suffering from a misdirection of production, we want to create further misdirection - a procedure that can only lead to a much more severe crisis as soon as the credit expansion comes to an end... It is probably to this experiment, together with the attempts to prevent liquidation once the crisis had come, that we owe the exceptional severity and duration of the depression.”
F.A. Hayek, 1932
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 9:23AM
WTF is the House of Commons being mentioned? This isn't GB. I dont get it?
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 9:23AM
Google's $4.4 Trillion energy plan? WTF? You should "stick to the knitting" google assholes. Try putting that money in yourselves, right up front where your loud mouths are. Maybe then you'll go out of business sooner, and do us all a favor. Ask.com is a much, much better search engine anyway.
google revenues will drop shortly. WhyTF would a client pay advertising fees to you for hits on your shit site when he can't make payroll? Why not short google into a hole?
BTW, WhyTF should anyone give a damn about what those two google clowns think about energy?
The Guy from Delaware
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/google-unveils-44-trillion-energy/story.aspx?guid=%7BC355C4A6%2D3A53%2D4F17%2D9B5A%2D2AAC5AF74C0F%7D&tool=1&dist=bigcharts&
p.s. Does anyone think there is a future in equities??
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 9:35AM
8 = nut job. The clue is his obsession with the evil and tainted MSM.
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 9:58AM
TGFD - Maybe you should be commenting on the Marketwatch boards. You and your comments would fit in much better there.
Posted by diablo , Oct 02, 2008 10:12AM
@8 = wingnut
We fat cats don't like you #8, go back to where you came from.
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 10:21AM
Few if any Repub votes change - if they were afraid of what their constituents thought about it before, now that it's loaded with pork it'll be that much more ammo for their opponents. The voters they worried about didn't care about the market then and they don't care now.
Dem votes change IF Pelosi can get them to spin it as a rescue for Union pension funds and museum endowments (which are among many non fat-cat victims) and so forth.
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 10:52AM
guest @16 said: "Few if any Repub votes change - if they were afraid of what their constituents thought about it before, now that it's loaded with pork it'll be that much more ammo for their opponents. The voters they worried about didn't care about the market then and they don't care now."
Representative Hank Johnson (D, Ga)commented that he had no qualms about voting against the first bailout bill. When asked about the 777 point drop in the Dow after the bill failed to pass, he said,
"The stock market goes up, the stock market goes down, that's not something that I am particularly concerned with," he said. "I believe that the market will get over this initial shock that the corporate bailout plan did not go through, and that it will recover."
It's not just Republicans who think this bill's unnecessary and "don't care about the market".
A Campaign for America's Future (a left wing group) release quotes Bob Borosage saying:
The bail out will take place simply to avoid that depression. But depressions have some salutary effects - the scoundrels go belly up, the weakest get purged. And, in the wake of the disaster, people demand strict regulation of the money lenders to keep their greed in check, and government spends money on the real economy to put people back to work.”
Hear that? Depressions aren't necessarily all that bad as long as they teach the proper folks (people like you who are all assumed to be Republicans anyway, so who cares) the right lessons.
So, tell me again, who doesn't "care"?
and yes, most of America thinks you're a bunch of greedy "fat cats" who don't give a sh*t about anyone but yourselves; and now, as the man in the paragraph above said: "people demand strict regulation of the money lenders to keep their greed in check."
I hope that if the Dems regain control of congress and get the presidency, they regulate you out of your high salaries and profits. Having made disproportionately huge campaign contributions to them will have no mitigating effect once the show trials start.
Here's a hint: apply to law school -- there will be more money to be had sueing people like you than there will be from screwing the little guy by running our financial system into the ground.
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 11:12AM
17: 16 here. Don't put words in my mouth, if you please. I hate the bailout and think that not only is a bad idea logically, it's a bad ideal politically because IT WILL NOT WORK. I was just giving my opinion as to how the HoR will have to be spun to pass the bill this time. Arguing to the Repubs will not work.
And I already went to law school.
Posted by KevinB , Oct 02, 2008 12:01PM
@13, @15 - How can you call 8 a wingnut and obsessed with the MSM, when that very MSM appoints a woman who has just written a hagiography of Barack Obama as moderator? Do you seriously think Ifill will be impartial and fair? I'm willing to bet she puts puffball questions to Biden, and drills into Palin (which Biden can't do, 'cause he can't look like a "bully"). Think she's going to bear down on Biden about his plagiarism and resume-padding? Doubt it.
BTW, we are also having an election here in Canada, and after last night's "debate" between the Conservative PM and the four left-wing wannabes, who does the media turn to for analysis? Why, an ex-MP for the Liberal party, who insisted - surprise, surprise, surprise - that the Liberal leader won the debate. It's this type of constant bias that makes many of us doubt the impartiality of the MSM. Thank god for blogs.
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 12:03PM
19 You're a wingnut too. Otherwise you would have waited till you saw it before criticizing.
Posted by guest , Oct 02, 2008 2:16PM
20: I just happen to have several very large lag screws out on my workbench. What say we insert several of them in your nose and see if you like it? I mean, until you've seen the results, I don't know how you can criticize my plan.