Haggling Over US Bailout Plan Rattles Markets
23/09/2008 12:44
World markets slid Tuesday amid mounting concerns over a massive bailout for the US financial system, as haggling over the fine print sparked investor impatience and a spike in oil and gold. With US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson due to testify before the Senate banking committee, global markets were impatient for quick results to throw a government lifeline to struggling financial institutions. The uncertainty -- with wrangling ... Details
Top Democrats Skeptical of Bush Bailout Package
21/09/2008 10:24
Two powerful Democrats in the US Congress expressed skepticism Saturday over the 700-billion-dollar plan President George W. Bush has proposed to rescue the country's beleaguered financial sector. The top Senate Democrat, Majority Leader Harry Reid, blamed the crisis on Bush's laissez-faire policies, and then called on the president to better explain why such a sweeping program was needed as the country prepared for a presidential vote in less ... Details
US Administration Proposes 700 bln, 2-yr Rescue Plan
20/09/2008 17:32
US President George W. Bush's administration has proposed a 700-billion-dollar bailout of the troubled financial sector over a two-year period, CNN reported, citing a three-page draft sent to Congress. The plan would give Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson sweeping authority to buy up to 700 billion dollars of tainted mortgage-related assets to stem a grave financial crisis, US media reported. Bush said earlier on Saturday a ... Details
Judge Approves Lehman, Barclays Pact
20/09/2008 15:33
A U.S. bankruptcy judge approved a revised version of British bank Barclays Plc's deal to purchase the core U.S. business of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. In a Manhattan court hearing that started on Friday and lasted past midnight, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge James Peck approved the sale, saying he had found no better alternative for the assets Lehman sought to sell. "This week more than any other week since I was appointed to the bench ... Details
McCain, Obama Tangle over Wall Street Crisis
20/09/2008 15:30
Republican nominee John McCain, seeking a lift in the U.S. presidential race, proposed stricter Wall Street regulation on Friday and assailed Democrat Barack Obama for not offering a plan to deal with the financial crisis. While McCain outlined a package of proposals, Obama took a more cautious approach as they both jockeyed for position in the November 4 election. Obama, who regained a slight lead over McCain in public opinion polls this ... Details
U.S. Launches All-Out Attack on Credit Crisis
20/09/2008 15:01
The United States surged into action on Friday to launch an all-out attack against the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, readying a plan to tap hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer funds to buy up toxic mortgage-related debt. Capping a week that has reshaped Wall Street, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urged Congress to quickly agree on a program for huge purchases of bad debts held by banks and other financial ... Details
US Announces Debt Plan to Ease Financial Crisis
19/09/2008 8:31
The United States said it was putting together a rescue plan to clear away the mountains of debt that have weighed down banks and caused the worst financial crisis in decades. The announcement came as leading central banks moved to flood markets with cash while British and US regulators put the brakes on short-selling shares, as nations banded together to try to end the turmoil on global markets. US stocks staged a dramatic rally ... Details
Bush Vows He Will Meet Challenges of Financial Crisis
18/09/2008 18:46
US President George W. Bush vowed Thursday that his administration would meet the serious challenges facing markets amid a fast-deepening global financial crisis. "The American people are concerned about the situation in our financial markets and our economy. And I share their concerns," Bush said at the White House. "The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial ... Details
Organization (WTO) is now in question. "And so too is ... Details
Obama, McCain War over Deepening Financial Crisis
18/09/2008 10:51
Democrat Barack Obama ridiculed his White House rival John McCain Wednesday as a lifelong member of the "old boys' network" that the Republican said had driven the US economy into crisis. McCain vowed to take on Wall Street's "casino culture" after the US government's 85-billion-dollar bailout of giant insurer American International Group, the latest shock of a horrific fortnight for the financial industry. Both candidates indicated the ... Details
Bush Cancels Trips to Address Financial Crisis
18/09/2008 9:58
US President George W. Bush has canceled two domestic trips to stay in Washington Thursday and consult with top economic advisers on the struggling US economy, the White House said. Bush was scheduled to attend political fundraising events in Florida and Alabama, but "will instead remain in Washington to continue to work with his economic advisers on the serious challenges confronting our financial markets," White House spokesman Tony Fratto ... Details
The Bush Administration's Banking Rescue Plan
by Rodrigue Tremblay
(professor emeritus of economics at the University of Montreal)
Global Research,
September 23, 2008"
.....If I may simplify somewhat the situation, (but only slightly) we can say that over the last quarter of century, Wall Street firms bought out Congress and the White House (and paid at wholesale prices). Now, they want the U.S. government to buy them back (and they want to sell at retail prices).....There is something surreal and profoundly immoral that the individuals who were front and center in creating the subprime financial meltdown are also those who have been entrusted by the government to solve the mess they have created. Are there not independent economic and financial experts in the United States who could have been assigned this task?......" Details
By Robert Scheer"Does it really matter which party is in charge when it comes to bailing out the Wall Street hustlers whose shenanigans have bankrupted so many ordinary folks? Not if the Democrats roll over and cede power to the former head of Goldman Sachs, the investment bank at the center of our economic meltdown....." DetailsDecline and Fall
It's the autumn of our old republic
By Justin Raimondo".....Power breeds arrogance and quickly becomes an overweening pride.
In Washington, they imagine they can legislate their way out of the crisis and once again conjure up a convenient reality: this, they believe, is their prerogative as history's actors. The rest of us, you see, are only acted upon.Their failure is inevitable, but there's a way out for them, if they can manage to pull it off. Yes, you guessed it: another war, another foreign "enemy," a heretofore undetected threat to the Homeland that will divert us – and keep the engines of the economy running.Of course, it will be a different sort of economy.
You can forget all that rhetoric about the "free market" and the joys of "globalization." In the global division of labor, America has chosen the niche of the world's policeman: the undeveloped world provides agricultural and unfinished goods, the East is the world's factory, and the U.S. "protects" the whole arrangement, putting down insurgencies when they erupt and toppling "rogue" regimes that don't go along with the program. Any nation that defies the will of the "benevolent global hegemon" faces an American military colossus, which feeds upon a budget equal to the combined defense budgets of all the other nations on earth, by some measures more than equal.
The problem with this arrangement is that an empire, far from being a benefit, is nothing but a burden. Our $3 trillion war with Iraq is ample testimony to that. And the bill will only get larger. It is a cliché that America no longer produces anything. Yet we do produce something, in these latter days of our perishing republic – wars, and plenty of them......."
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