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Is Tonight The Night? **OPEN THREAD** Updated »

You know, the night the Yankees clinch the American League Championship? They lead the series 3 - 1 over the Angels, and HOPEFULLY, will win again tonight to meet the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. The Phillies, in case you missed it, closed out the National League Championship over the LA Dodgers [...]

A Not So Happy Anniversary for Involuntary Investors »

Remember last October when Congress approved the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act and confiscated $700 billion of our tax dollars for a financial bailout? Back when many of us first became involuntary investors in Wall Street’s “too big to fail” financial institutions. Well, the Congressional Oversight Panel of the Senate Banking Committee, chaired by [...]

Another Kool-Aid Drinker Bites The Dust »

Ted Van Dyk’s article in today’s WSJ, Obama Needs to ‘Reset’ His Presidency cautions that Obama must take a time out and find “a reset button for domestic policy.” Interesting that he uses the words “time out” – something one would tell a misbehaving child. Surely, the President’s reckless spending and use of [...]

The TARP Has a $159 Billion Loss!! »

The American taxpayer was going to make money on the investments in assets related to Bear Stearns, AIG, Citigroup, Bank of America, ad nauseum, correct?
Is it even possible to track the massive government outlays across the entire economic landscape? Is it further possible to measure the actual cost of the outlays as a percentage of [...]

Elliot Spitzer versus Jim Cramer »

I got bored with fast-forwarding through Hannity last night who devoted an unbelievable 45 minutes (!) to the Miss California non-news story, so I checked out Rachel Maddow. Her guest? The always compelling Eliot Spitzer, whose recent remarks to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria were covered at No Quarter in two posts, the last of [...]

Nancy: The Hits Keep Comin’ [UPDATE: Boehner Ups The Ante] »

(bumped up and updated extensively)
HOT UPDATE: John Boehner is taking it right to Nancy, proving that “what goes around comes around,” and that Obama just did NOT think through the torture memo “blowback.”
Politico’s Glenn Thrush reports that Rep. Boehner is “asking the Obama administration to release CIA notes taken during a 2002 briefing session [...]

Repaying TARP Funds: Playing Ball With Uncle Sam »

Last evening on NQR’s Sense on Cents with LD, I proposed that the Obama administration would not release individual results of the Bank Stress Tests. I further added that I thought the administration may encourage stronger banking institutions to channel funds to weaker institutions. In so doing, these stronger banks - such as JP Morgan [...]

No TARP for You!! »

Who can ever forget the Seinfeld episode featuring the Soup Nazi? Well, in that same vein, the insurance company Genworth Financial was just summarily thrown out of the Treasury “line” to receive TARP funds. The WSJ reports, Genworth Financial Shares Slump on TARP Ineligibility:
Shares of Genworth Financial Inc. fell as much as 31% Monday [...]

That’s Where the Money Is »

On the heels of the fraud known as Enron, Congress passed legislation requiring CEOs to validate the integrity of their financial reporting. This legislation, Sarbanes-Oxley, and its effectiveness are still hotly contested. Is it universally accepted? Does it truly promote best practices within companies and across industries? Does it produce results? Well, the fact of [...]

GOP R.I.P. »

Originally published today at The Daily Beast, which wrote, “Conservative radio host John Batchelor says it’s obvious: His Republican Party is a corpse. And its response to the financial crisis reveals how and when it died.”
The Republican Party is dead like Lehman Brothers and Robert E. Lee, not to be revived by [...]

Batchelor & Constable: Through the Looking Glass »

Batchelor & Constable: Through the Looking Glass.
     Simon Constable and I make no sense of the senseless news from the worldwide financial crisis — the Great Depression in Denial.  From banks buying each other’s junk competitively to a bullish call by hedgies and funds guys meeting in a super secret location west [...]

Big Brother »

(Editor’s Note: Don’t miss Larry Doyle’s exceptional radio show tonight, and every Sunday night, at 8:00 p.m. ET.)
Long-term financial health and well being is predicated on fiscal discipline, core values, and strong management. These principles are necessary for major corporations and also individual family units. The market has a means of rewarding corporate units that [...]

How America passed the most costly bill ever totally blind »

In Uppity’s earlier piece on “You’ve Been Stimulated” she presents John Boehner’s video about the indecent speed with which the “stimulus package” was passed.
No doubt I will have the Obots screaming again about being partisan in siding with a Republican spokesman about the “stimulus package”, but GOP Congressional leader John Boehner raises [...]

Charles Krauthammer Says It All On Fox’s “Special Report with Bret Baier” »

Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy recently wrote about Krauthammer’s wry, skeptical observations in her must-read recent article, “‘The Fierce Urgency of Pork’”
BELOW, you’ll find a link to the full text of the humungous bill (that not a single member of Congress read, let alone any of their staffers — especially since the bill [...]

One MASSIVE Margin Call »

In light of the serious economic crisis facing our country and the world today, there is understandably heightened interest and anticipation towards both the proposed Stimulus Plan and the newly designated Financial Stability Plan. Clearly every individual in our country is impacted by this turmoil and we are hopeful that our leaders in both the [...]

“Savior-Based Economy”? »

So says my governor, Mark Sanford, of SC in this interview with John King on CNN (MAJOR H/T to SusanUnPC at No Quarter for this story):
Embedded video from CNN Video
A “Savior-based” economy. Well, Heaven knows, Obama has certainly been set up as The Messiah, so it makes sense that this would be the kind [...]

Do We Need Yet Another Tax Loan? »

Sam Copeland on political strategy
I was struck by the paradox of two poll questions asked by CBS News during the first week of February:
In your opinion which will do more to get the U.S. out of the current recession: increasing government spending, or reducing taxes?
16% Increasing government spending
62% Reducing taxes
Would you approve or disapprove of [...]

[Updates] Lindsey Graham Goes at It Again on MSNBC »

THE LATEST as of 8:54 p.m. ET: The Senate will continue voting on amendments tonight. An off-floor bipartisan group of senators is working to trim $50-100 billion off the bill. More debate starts at 10 a.m. ET Friday. Then there will be House/Senate negotiations. (This all comes from C-Span’s “crawl.”) [...]

Who Did They Think They Were Kidding? »

(bumped up by Susan || Larry’s latest radio show will be available via BlogTalkRadio and through subscription to iTunes [see our instructions in the right column, down about a screen], which you can download to your iPod.)
It was only a matter of time before the losses embedded in our banking system caught up and surpassed [...]

“When Big Ben Speaks….” »

(bumped up from early today by Susan)
Against the backdrop of the frozen tundra, numerous members of the storied Pittsburgh Steelers franchise have reached legendary status. Included in this family are such greats as Jack Lambert, Mean Joe Greene, Terry Bradshaw, Rocky Bleier, Franco Harris, John Stallworth, Lynn Swann, Chuck Noll, and the longtime owner Art [...]