It's The End Of The World As We Know It

Three more horsemen of the economic apocalypse?

In the "if it plays out properly, and that is a big if, this should be eventually good in the tear-down-a-structurally-compromised-M. C. Escher-of-a-high-rise-to-erect-practical-home" department: The End of Banking as We Know It

In the meantime, we foot the banks' bill. So if you were seething with bailout rage before, your head will now explode: Bailout Is a No-Strings Windfall to Banks, if Not to Borrowers

I don't pretend understand the financially rarified air of the hedge fund manager. But I'd love it if stories like this would do away with the practice of short selling: Hedge Funds, Unhinged

By my count this brings the horsemen of the economic apocalypse running total up to about 27.

-AF

Stunning

I was well off the mark. CNBC tracks the bail out toll to date: $3,800,000,000,000+.

"Oversight" looms. The American people are impatient and growing more pissed. The piggies go to full feeding frenzy mode hoping to score pieces of that sweet bail out pie before it and their bonuses are reduced to crumbs.

-AF
(HT: ThinkProgress)

They Said It. I Repeat It.

Volatility frequently occurs when everyone suddenly realizes that the stock market is just a consensual mass-delusion based on fictitious valuing of abstract assets. You know, it’s like finding out Santa Claus is real because you catch him robbing your house.

-Wyatt Cenac
The Daily Show - 10/13/08

Frank Rich Rips "Angry Old Ironsides McCain" McCain A New One

Rich has no patience for John "Drama Queen" McCain's antics. McCain’s Suspension Bridge to Nowhere:

What we learned last week is that the man who always puts his “country first” will take the country down with him if that’s what it takes to get to the White House.

For all the focus on Friday night’s deadlocked debate, it still can’t obscure what preceded it: When John McCain gratuitously parachuted into Washington on Thursday, he didn’t care if his grandstanding might precipitate an even deeper economic collapse. All he cared about was whether he might save his campaign. George Bush put more deliberation into invading Iraq than McCain did into his own reckless invasion of the delicate Congressional negotiations on the bailout plan.
(Emphasis added)

I couldn't have said it better myself.

-AF

McCain Surprise Sabotages Bail Out

John McCain:
Pretty pleased with himself tonite.








Since early yesterday, we been told that a "fundamental agreement" had been reached on the big bail out bill. That is sooo yesterday. That was before John McCain rode into DC and, this time with his House GOP henchmen at his side, tossed a surprise bail out bomb on America. McCain did this just before the bi-partisan Congressional bail out confab with President Bush. (musta delighted our panicked Preznit). The very meeting Johnny planned as his big photo op.

Think Progress has the deets. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D) describes the drama:

All of a sudden there was some new core agreement floating around, which no one had heard of before, until we sort of got to the White House...

...we’re told it came out of the Republican House. We were even told at one point that this was, maybe, John McCain was floating the idea. That Hank Paulson was considering it. And of course Barney Frank and I, along with Republicans from the House and the Senate, of course, had spent three hours this morning working on a different core. We were told for the last seven days this was the core issue that would give the secretary the authority to move, to deal with the crisis.

As Johnny has confessed to know jack-all about economics, it's a sure bet that this "new core agreement" was whipped up by key McCain advisors. A CBS News report that this new plan features more, not less, deregulation seems to confirms my theory.

Obviously, the plan his top lobbyists advisors, didn’t pass the sniff test.

This could be a win-win-win-win-win-win move by Johnny.

McCain gets to say:

1. “As promised, I rushed to America’s rescue.”“The reckless Obama-led Dems want America to continue suffering."
2. “Instead of debating tomorrow, I’m crawling into the corner w/my blankie & my top lobbyists advisors.”
3. “Delay my debate & we hafta delay the VP debate too.” Johnny wants this baaad.
   
4. This one's huge: the McCain camp gets the chance to craft a brand new "core agreement" in which any “compromises” will still be incredibly advantageous to McCain’s Wall St. donors.
   
5. There will be less time and greater pressure on the "do nothing" Dems to make new McCain plan law.

Gee, I thought John McCain was desperate before when he sold his soul to the evangelical nuts the first time. Then crazy Johnny went all drastic pushing himself deeper in bed with these Jesus freaks going so far as to let them pick his running mate. But this shit takes the cake.

Will the media and the voters fall for it?

Stay tuned...

-AF
*Update: McCain sabotage central@HuffPo.
**Update: The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder sez:

Republicans like John Boehner brought up the concerns of House GOPers and McCain acknowledged hearing about their concerns. McCain, and staffers, did seek to gauge the level of support of the GOP working group's white paper. The Democrats were left with the impression that McCain endorsed the GOP efforts, but they concede that he did not raise them directly.

Smartly, McCain's well insulated on this one.
***Update: That completely contradicts Ambinder's report one hour earlier:

During the White House meeting, it appears that Sen. John McCain had an agenda. He brought up alternative proposals, surprising and angering Democrats. He did not, according to someone briefed on the meeting, provide specifics.

Armbinder needs to get his stories straight.
(HT:TPM)

Fun Facts To Know And Tell

The Sunlight Foundation sheds light on how Wall Street has been spending what is now essentially our money to buy their best possible bail out deal:

If you haven’t been under a rock lately, you know that the Bush Administration is proposing a $700 billion bailout for Wall Street. What you might not know is that there have been 258 parties this year alone for members of the House Financial Services Committee-the very folks who are making crucial decisions about this legislation-a number of them hosted by lobbyists for the finance, insurance, and real estate industries.

For example, last week, on September 16, lobbyists were invited to a “financial services” luncheon for Rep. Dean Heller at the Capitol Hill Club. The cost for entry was $500 for individuals, $1,000 for PACs. Heller has collected $190,252 from the financial sector for his congressional elections out of a total of $1,242,583, or 15.3 percent.

Then there was the invitation from the Real Estate Roundtable PAC on September 14 for folks to join Rep. Gregory Meeks to watch the New Orleans Saints play the Washington Redskins play at FedEx Field. The cost: $1,000. Meeks has taken $1,015,432 from the financial sector over his congressional career, 27.8 percent of his fundraising total-$3,657,984.
(All emphasis mine).

Heller is a Republican and Meeks is a Dem.

This is craziness.

-AF
(HT: Harper's Ken Silverstein)