tdog

NYU Professor Nouriel Roubini, an economist who has been in the news of late because he has been freaking right with just about all of his doom and gloom projections, and for the right reasons, tells us that the world is facing, in the short term not merely an inevitable and deep recession, but a possible global meltdown of the financial system and market crashes and severe global recession, following days of market panic including yesterday’s over 650 point plunge in the Dow and overnight collapses of over 10% in European and Asian markets. Every day, it seems, more and...

We’ll start with an issue that’s been buried by other events today: a federal judge, U.S. District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina of the district court in Washington, DC, ordered 17 Chinese Uighur Guantanamo detainees (detainees that the U.S. government has asserted are innocent) brought to his courtroom by Friday and released within the United States. The government, of course, is working on an emergency appeal, but God bless Judge Urbina for, after nearly 7 years, finally acting to enforce our laws… the most basic right of us all against the might of our government, that habeas corpus be afforded in...

Sure, the financial markets are in wild gyrations, and after being down precipitously (800 points in the Dow), ended the day at a merely very bad day down 350 in the Dow and 3-4% drops in other major markets, amidst wide fears that we are seeing what amounts to the end of days in our financial system. And… these guys are at it again… rearing their heads into our, you know… precious bodily fluids sacred air space. Who will save us? Fear not, citizens…he’s back, with all of his dangeralness.

Forget the polls and the media obsession with “momentum.” Forget his [inconceivably stupid] mishandling of the economic crisis. Forget his choice of a running-mate whose experience makes Barack Obama’s look like Al Gore’s. Forget it all. The American people will come to their senses, and John McCain will close the gap and go on to win. Hugh Hewitt, ladies and gentlemen. He’ll be here all week. In all seriousness, when parsed of its charming left-bashing, Hewitt’s point is that if, somehow, the election gets turned around to “war on terror” issues, as happened in ’02 and ’04, rather than “we’re...

The “historic,” “massive”… pick whatever adjective you want… to describe the over $850 billion “financial bailout” package safely passed the House of Representatives and the President signed it almost immediately. As it is, on high job loss numbers and other economic fears, the stock markets declined (the Dow down around 150 points). For good measure, it seems, Californians who have long believed in the Tax Cut Fairy now get their appropriate comeuppance as Gov. Schwarzennegger prepares to ask the Fed for $7 billion in loans to keep the Golden State operating. Deep sighs. Meanwhile, noted NYU economist Nouriel Roubini notes...

21:40: We’re up to foreign policy, now… Palin continues the incoherence on Iraq… Biden, by contrast, makes sense… I have never seen anything quite like Palin’s incoherence at this level. This is truly remarkable. Palin calls Dems “you’re surrendering! you’re surrendering!” Biden looks so damned reasonable by comparison… I know this will be spun as a Palin win… but really… NUCULAR? That should disqualify her as it is. Honestly. Nothing else. And now… Ahmadididjad… this is right out of McCain’s last bit… does this s*** play? Biden correctly reports that Ahmadididjad is not in control of Iran’s security apparatus… come...

Watching Vice-Presidential debate… Gwen Ifill… train wreck. Sarah Palin… train wreck… Joe Biden… ok, but could be better… 21:08 : Palin says folks just need to get together and never get taken advantage of again… train wreck. 21:12: I just didn’t get that tax exchange (“Barack voted to raise taxes 94 times…”) 21:17: Redistribution of wealth… “millions of small businesses.” Government is the problem… Barack will raise taxes (and he’s BLACK!) I’ll take a break… Palin’s incoherence… hurts… hurts…

And so, as we enter this Jewish New Year, (5769) which commenced last evening (when it was also Mrs. TD’s and my 17th wedding anniversary), and as of now (around 13 30 on 30 September 2008), I see the stock markets have rallied a bit to recover around 300 points of the nearly 800 point drop in the Dow yesterday, though inter-bank interest rates have risen somewhat alarmingly… it’s time to take a bit of “stock” (perhaps a poor choice of words!) BTW… via Bruce the Veep, here is a Gallup poll showing most Americans favor a different bailout plan–...

Call it a political self-fulfilling prophesy, or economic reality, or call it macaroni, but today, after the bailout bill failed in the House the major financial markets expressed their concern by promptly collapsing: down 777 points in the Dow, down nearly 9% in the S&P 500, a mainstay of most retirement portfolios (including my own), and over 9% in the NASDAQ index. The problems that led directly to this financial market meltdown were caused by years of shortsightedness by a group of cartoon villains ideologues known as the Republican Party. Today, that party’s House GOP Caucus had little or no...

Somehow, “legend” isn’t enough of a superlative for Newman, who succumbed to cancer at age 83. Perhaps it can best be summarized as that he proved that a great man… can also be a good man.